3 Things We Learned In Browns' Win Over Vikings

The Cleveland Browns pulled off a nail biter in Week 4 over the Minnesota Vikings.

The final score was 14-7.

With the win, the Browns go to 3-1 on the season, and the Vikings fall to 1-3.

Here are three things we learned in the Browns’ victory over the Vikings.

1. A Win Is A Win

This game was not pretty especially on the offensive side of the ball.

No matter how frustrating it was to watch and how long the Browns let the Vikings hang in this game (until the end), the most important stat is that the Browns put one in the W column.

Prior to this game, the least amount of points the Vikings scored was 24.

In the other games, they scored 30 and 33 points.

2. The Defense Did Its Job

This man is 6’6 310 Ibs. Myles Garrett simply does not care. #Browns pic.twitter.com/vwj85IE6jK

— MoreForYouCleveland (@MoreForYou_CLE) October 3, 2021

For all of the hoopla about how good Cousins is and has been this season, the Browns defense held him to 7 points.

Those points came after an opening drive that burned off half of the time in the first quarter.

They held Cousins to 203 yards passing, and they kept the running game at bay also.

Dalvin Cook was the Vikings leading rusher with 34 yards; the team only had 65 total rushing yards.

Takk McKinley had his first sack as a Brown.

Myles Garett and Denzel Ward each contributed to the other sack of Cousins.

The #Browns finished with 22 QB pressures. 16 of those came when only rushing 4. That’s a winning blueprint

— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) October 3, 2021

And how about Greedy Williams starting for the injured Greg Newsome II intercepting Cousins?

That was awesome.

#Browns Greedy Williams interception on Kirk Cousins today marked Greedy's first career pick and Cousins' first INT in his last 226 pass attempts.

— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) October 3, 2021

3. The Browns Offense Has Regressed

This may not be something we learned this week.

However, the performance this week solidified the point.

The running game was good today; Chubb had 100 yards and Hunt had 69.

The holes were there, and some longer run plays happened.

The regression is in the passing game.

Mayfield had a bad day; there is no doubt about it.

He completed 15 passes for 155 yards.

No touchdown passes and no interceptions were thrown.

It is really hard to pinpoint where the problems are.

It is not just with Mayfield; the offensive line is not as iron clad as it was.

Jedrick Wills is being a soldier trying to play through the ankle injury, but at some point and it may be now, it looks like he needs to heal properly without trying to play at less than 100%.

Mayfield definitely does not have the time he had last year.

And he is errant.

The zip and accuracy are not really there.

There are no excuses being offered, but it makes me wonder if that left shoulder is an issue.

Lots of questions heading into Chargers week. The most important one: Is Baker Mayfield 100% healthy? #Browns

— Brad Stainbrook (@StainbrookNFL) October 3, 2021

Hopefully, the problems are either addressed or worked around.

In the meantime, let’s kick field goals on 4th down.

While our kicker has a hot leg, let’s put points on the board.

Converting 3rd downs has been difficult; we are tempting fate these days trying to convert 4th downs when in field goal range.