This time, I’m not going to be quite as easy on Browns head coach Hue Jackson.

 

I gave him a pass – no pun intended – in my last post, saying it made sense in so many ways for Jackson to double as the team’s offensive coordinator. After all, what coach on this team knows more about offense and quarterbacks than he does? That’s right, no one.

 

Now it’s time to be critical of Jackson in his work with the offense and quarterbacks.

 

For starters – or, in this case, not starting – what’s the deal with the Browns having so much trouble getting their plays started on time? Why is it taking Jackson so long sending the plays in soon enough for that to happen?

 

This isn’t brain surgery. What this is, though, is Jackson’s offense. He’s the architect of it. He built it. He put it together. He knows it inside and out, upside and down, and sideways.

 

Understanding that, then, he should have another play ready to go almost as soon as the previous one ends. There should be no hesitation whatsoever in his decision-making. And in that Jackson is standing right there on the sideline, only about 20 yards away from his players, what’s so hard about him giving that play to DeShone Kizer through his microphone into the receiver in the quarterback’s helmet in a timely fashion?

 

The Browns should never, ever have a delay-of-game penalty or have to burn a timeout to avoid one.

 

Yet it keeps happening.

 

Also, Kizer continues to hold on to the ball too long, incurring sacks. Why can’t Jackson coach him out of that bad habit?

 

As former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano used to tell his quarterback, Brian Sipe, “If no one is open, just throw it to the blonde in the first row.” It’s no more complicated than that. Really.

 

A quarterback has to have an alarm clock ticking in his head, and when it rings, it means his time is up and he has to be releasing the ball to a place where either his receiver catches it or no one does – except perhaps for the blonde in the first row.

 

All of this has to improve, and it has to do so beginning on Sunday when the Browns visit the Indianapolis Colts.