Evaluating Rookie Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson's Day vs Steelers
Brendan Gulick and Anthony Moeglin breakdown DTR's performance against the Steelers in his first win as a starter in the NFL.
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00:08 Dorian Thompson Robinson, second career start,
00:11 much better than it was the first time.
00:15 But is it good enough for
00:16 the Cleveland Browns to continue relying on him?
00:18 They wanna keep winning moving forward.
00:19 That's part of the topic we're gonna cover here on Browns Digest.
00:22 I'm Brendan Gulick with Anthony Meglin.
00:24 After Cleveland just wrapped up a 13 to 10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers here on
00:28 Sunday afternoon to get to seven and three now on the season.
00:32 Megs, that was a huge, huge win, but
00:35 was certainly bolstered more by a defensive effort than it was on the offensive end.
00:39 I think there's a mixed bag of results.
00:42 And I would say the jury's still out on DTR, but
00:45 I certainly would say he did enough to warrant further opportunities.
00:48 What say you?
00:49 >> Yeah, so what we remember seeing against the Ravens,
00:54 would have been week four, was just a guy who was totally lost,
00:59 didn't feel like he even belonged in the NFL.
01:02 And today you saw a completely different DTR,
01:05 you saw a completely different game plan for DTR, which I totally love.
01:09 I love how protected he was.
01:10 Obviously for us as fans, it may have been more of a boring game plan where it's like,
01:15 hey, we're running it.
01:16 It's a lot of screens early, a lot of quick throws, but
01:18 everything was really protected.
01:20 And before the last drive of the game, they didn't really let him kind of get loose,
01:25 which was I thought very good.
01:28 Now, is that sustainable?
01:30 Honestly, I think that it is.
01:32 I think that what we saw today is something that the Browns can not only
01:36 implement going forward, but tweak and improve on.
01:39 Because what his performance was today, I think that if you use that kind of as
01:44 the floor, he's gonna continue to get better from it, so he'll be more accurate.
01:49 The Browns receivers will catch the football better.
01:51 Yeah, he had 20 incompletions or 19 incompletions.
01:55 I don't know, maybe six, seven, eight drops potentially.
01:58 So they'll be better for him.
01:59 But I think what we saw today from DTR was not only was an improvement from the last
02:04 time, but it's something that the Browns can stack and
02:07 it become a sustainable way to kind of run this offense.
02:10 >> Final numbers for Dorian, 24 completions in 43 attempts.
02:14 So you said 19 incompletions there.
02:16 165 yards, no passing touchdowns, he threw one interception.
02:21 The interception, I think you could argue, was maybe not a great throw, but
02:25 the ball bounced off of a player up into the air and fluttered to a defender.
02:29 So when you get a freebie like that, it is what it is.
02:32 I thought he made good decisions down toward the end of the first half there,
02:39 down at the goal line, where Kevin Stefansky called plays that took shots
02:44 that were either gonna be caught or thrown out of bounds, right?
02:46 Don't throw the ball over the middle and give him a chance to walk away with no
02:50 points, so I was fine with a field goal there, I thought that was good.
02:52 I guess just macro level criticism,
02:58 I did think that DTR probably gave up on things a little too quickly.
03:03 I don't know if that was a pocket problem.
03:05 He kind of felt like he was throwing off his back foot,
03:08 leaning back a good bit when he was doing it.
03:10 Maybe just needs to get a little more comfortable with things and
03:15 that will go away.
03:18 The times that he did stand in the pocket and deliver throws,
03:21 they were inaccurate.
03:21 And yes, there were as many as eight dropped passes.
03:26 It's not an official stat, obviously, in the NFL, but
03:28 a couple of beat reporters were tracking that and
03:31 said that they had counted as many as eight.
03:33 David Njoku in particular had just a bad day.
03:36 So look, I don't put all of that at the feet of Dorian.
03:41 In terms of running the operation, having the confidence at the end of the game
03:46 when things had gone so poorly for so long in the second half to just flush it and
03:50 go figure out, make a play and go win, he did.
03:53 And I give him credit for that for sure.
03:56 >> There's two points, there are two thoughts that I have.
03:58 The first is what you kind of had mentioned with maybe him getting off of
04:03 stuff too quickly or kind of moving through too quickly.
04:06 The two game records for the Steelers were Alex Highsmith and TJ Watt.
04:10 And the one thing that you can't do, and I wrote about this this morning,
04:14 is I called for no turnovers.
04:16 They had one, and thankfully the defense snuffed it out immediately.
04:19 They throw the pick and then the defense goes three and out right away and
04:22 didn't allow it to, and then they shank the punt.
04:25 So it actually kind of worked out in the Browns' favor.
04:27 So they didn't have no turnovers and
04:29 DTR I thought did a very nice job of protecting the football.
04:33 But think about like, hey, yes, he may have been getting the stuff too quickly,
04:37 but just didn't want TJ and Alex Highsmith to impact the game the way that they can.
04:42 My favorite part about DTR's performance is how he finished the first half and
04:46 how he finished the second half.
04:48 There's a lot in between there where it led to a lot of punts and a lot of stuff.
04:51 But this drive at the end of the first half, 17 plays, 77 yards, and
04:55 it's in a field goal, one drop, touchdown pass to David Njoku in the corner.
05:00 I thought that drive honestly was masterful.
05:03 It started at the Cleveland minus 17 yard line.
05:05 So had to go the length of the entire field, got help from one penalty up
05:09 the sidelines on the third of Omari Cooper.
05:11 But didn't matter, he was crisp and smooth and
05:14 made really good decisions throughout it.
05:15 And then the game winner, right, had kind of been stagnant all second half.
05:19 And then just comes out four for four, accurate, delivering the ball correctly,
05:24 right where it needs to be, gets the hop into a 34 yard field goal to win it.
05:29 I thought he was spectacular when he needed to be in in crunch time.
05:32 >> To your point that field goal drive in the first half was a 17 play drive,
05:38 72 yards of offense plus five yards worth of penalties.
05:42 So 77 total yards and seven first downs on the drive.
05:46 Was it frustrating they didn't punch it in given how long that drive lasted?
05:50 Of course, but to get points out of it and
05:53 to not turn it over at a critical juncture of the game,
05:56 I thought was really impressive.
05:57 I totally agree with you, closing the half.
06:00 So often you hear coaches talk about, you want to start fast,
06:03 you want to finish strong.
06:05 And you want to have that middle like ten minutes of game time,
06:09 eight to ten minutes of closing the second quarter, starting the third quarter.
06:13 Those chunks of time really matter.
06:15 And I thought the Browns in those situations today,
06:19 even though the rest of it might not have been great, those four chunks,
06:22 they were really good.
06:23 >> And think about it, that's the NFL.
06:25 When it comes down to kicks at the end or really close games,
06:29 the spread on this game was two and a half.
06:30 And what do we always say, you and I, good teams win, great teams cover.
06:34 It doesn't matter how it looks, right?
06:36 But honestly, I kind of say that kind of tongue in cheek.
06:39 But in the NFL, it's based on the final two minutes of a game,
06:44 whether that's the final two minutes of a half or
06:46 the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
06:48 You have to find points there.
06:49 And when you look back on it, how big was that field goal drive?
06:53 Because you feel great about it, then the Steelers come out and
06:56 immediately throw a sucker punch, 74-yard touchdown.
06:59 And you're like, it kind of took the wind out of the stadium.
07:01 But you're like, all right, we're still at 10-7.
07:02 We still have a little bit of room for error, and it really saved them.
07:06 It was just awesome, I thought.
07:07 In the critical junctures of the game, I thought DTR was at its best.
07:10 >> Dorian Thompson Robinson, the spotlight, I guess,
07:17 was on him all week long because the Browns are not gonna have DeSean Watson for
07:21 the rest of the season.
07:22 Andrew Berry did tell the media last week on Wednesday,
07:25 he's gonna add another quarterback.
07:26 But who and when is still to be determined.
07:30 It sounds like there's a decent chance that that could be Joe Flacco, but
07:34 some of Flacco's role on this team would have been determined by how DTR played
07:38 today.
07:39 We're gonna find out what the Browns thought of DTR when we have a chance to
07:42 talk with Kevin Stefanski on a Zoom call tomorrow.
07:45 In the meantime, Cleveland figured it out.
07:47 They are 7-3, any way you can.
07:49 And they have won ugly again, this time 13-10.
07:52 Dustin Hopkins delivers with just a couple seconds left.
07:55 And the Browns beat the Steelers, again, 7-3 with trips to Denver and
08:00 Los Angeles to play the Rams coming up the next couple weeks.
08:03 For Anthony Meglin, I'm Brendan Gulick.
08:05 All the latest news and info on the Cleveland Browns is over on Browns Digest.
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