CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson looks at the regular-season schedule as if it were a four-quarter game.
After the first quarter of the 2018 regular season, the Browns find themselves two games in back of the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens in the win column. However, the Browns have a chance to make up ground when they host the Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium Sunday.
“We have to catch up now,” Jackson said after Wednesday’s practice. “We dug a little hole. We have had some chances, some opportunities to win some games that we did not.
“There are some other plays we felt we should have made that we did not, so we feel like our backs are against the wall a little bit. We need the second quarter. We have to get going and play better football and get some wins.”
From penalties and missed kicks on special teams to the failure to pick up late-game first downs or the defense not coming up with a critical stop, the Browns have been plagued by mistakes, but none of that matters now to Jackson.
“Have to move onto the next quarter, absolutely,” Jackson said. “I think that is important. I think you’ve got to go take this thing, and that is the way I have done it. I think it is important for the players to be able to not look too far ahead or too far behind.
“Look at right now. This is the next quarter of the season. We have four games starting with Baltimore this week. The most important thing we have is the Baltimore Ravens this week, and after that, we will worry about the next game in the quarter the next week. That is how we go about it.”
Jackson and the Browns are very much looking forward to moving on to the next quarter, especially when it comes to special-teams play.
Early in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s 45-42 loss to the Oakland Raiders at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, the Browns’ offense went three-and-out and punted from the Cleveland 25-yard line. Britton Colquitt’s 53-yard punt was returned 49 yards by wide receiver Dwayne Harris, which helped set up a 44-yard field goal from rookie kicker Matt McCrane.
McCrane’s field goal gave the Raiders a 34-28 lead at the time, and the Browns’ final two punts of the game were returned for gains of 12 and 14 yards respectively.
Over the first four games of the season, the Browns have been outgained on punt returns by an average of 7.8 yards per attempt.
“I am going to dig in everywhere,” Jackson said. “I just am. As the head coach, I have that opportunity to do that, so that is what I am going to do.
“That is my job. I have been in every meeting from special teams to defense to offense. My focus is on cleaning up the things that we need to clean up and get better at. It starts with me, down to our assistant coaches, and that is what we are going to do. We are going to get it better.
“We have to get better. Do not have to talk about it more than that. We have to get better.”
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