(AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Myles Garrett earned AFC defensive player of the week in Week 3 and backed it up in Week 4 with another strong performance. But Garrett’s great day in Minnesota took a back seat to the man lining up on the other side of the defensive line, Jadeveon Clowney. He had his best game in years on Sunday.

On Minnesota’s second drive, Clowney effectively forced the 3-and-out on his own. He knifed past Vikings left tackle Rashod Hill before Hill could even get out of his stance and blew up a screen play that had the Browns secondary fooled.  On second down, he whipped Hill to the inside and forced the run to bounce one gap farther outside than designed. It led to a short gain as the Browns cavalry arrived. Then on third down, the Vikings paid extra blocking attention to Clowney (and Garrett) and it freed up an easy blitz lane for safety John Johnson, who forced a throwaway. Clowney’s quick success opened up that blitz.

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The Browns QB did not have a good day throwing the ball in Minnesota. Mayfield was uncharacteristically off-target on a bunch of throws, particularly longer ones to the outside of the field. And while he won’t admit it and coach Stefanski downplays it, Mayfield’s wounded left (non-throwing) shoulder is clearly bothering him.

It’s a subtle difference in his release, but in poring over the games of watching Mayfield throw, it’s clear. He just isn’t rotating the left shoulder as much on his release, and it costs him accuracy. It’s visible in the still photo above; normally Mayfield’s left shoulder would be back more and the left hand would be extended out, not tucked up. Here’s an example from Week 1:

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The follow-through on the rotation isn’t happening since he suffered the injury in the Week 2 win over the Texans. That lead arm is tighter and not as balanced and it throws off his ball placement. It was especially obvious on two missed throws: the third-down throw to Odell Beckham at the end of the Browns’ second possession of the third quarter (deep right, hit the DB in the back) and the very final throw, also to Beckham and also low and well behind where it needed to be. Those are easy throws to open receivers and Mayfield just missed them. A healthy Mayfield doesn’t miss those throws, period.

It doesn’t absolve the rest of Baker’s body from making some mistakes. The first drive of the second half saw Mayfield make two terrible decisions with the ball, ignoring uncovered receivers and attempting more difficult throws with less potential reward. It was not his best day and the lame non-throwing shoulder isn’t the only reason why.

The Vikings coverage does deserve some credit too. Minnesota’s pass coverage in its own end of the field, once the deep throw option was taken away by the back of the end zone, was really impressive.

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Starting cornerback Greg Newsome was inactive with a calf injury, and that could have been very bad news against an impressive Vikings passing offense with two great outside wide receivers in Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen and some solid complementary weapons. But the Browns secondary–and linebackers–persevered.

Greedy Williams got the start and his first extended action since 2019. He played very well, looking aware and not shying away from physicality. One of his best plays came on Minnesota’s final possession when he tackled Dalvin Cook on a cutback run with a lot of daylight in front of the Vikings RB. It wasn’t a great tackle but style points didn’t matter at that critical time. He only got beat in coverage once all day and that’s absolutely an acceptable outcome against Minnesota’s prolific passing attack.

Denzel Ward had one bad series but looked spry otherwise at the other outside CB spot. It was telling that the one play he sat out, Vikings QB Kirk Cousins instantly went after replacement A.J. Green.

But it wasn’t just about the corners. Safeties John Johnson and Grant Delpit looked more coordinated in coverage than they have all year. It was also a good game for veteran LB Malcolm Smith dropping into coverage and taking away easier throwing angles for Cousins. For my money, it was the best all-around game Smith has played in his two seasons in Cleveland.

Defensive coordinator Joe Woods deserves some credit for scheming against Cousins and the Vikings. Dropping the LBs a little deeper than regularly done really took away the easy completions to the intermediate middle of the field. On the flip side, those throws were there all day for the Browns offense, which uses the same basic passing and route concepts.

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Some quick-hit and random observations from the game…

–Rookie LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah might be the fastest player on the defense. My goodness can he fly from points A to B! Having said that, he did not anticipate blockers well in this one in the run game.

–Chase McLaughlin is earning trust as the kicker. There was no doubt on either of his field goals, from 48 and 53.

–Garrett had three separate pass rushes where he did not get touched because his first move was so quick. If Cousins doesn’t have such a quick release or sensitive panic gene, Garrett could have easily bagged three or four sacks in this one.

–Jedrick Wills probably should not have played with his injured leg, but there was still a visible dropoff when rookie James Hudson replaced him at left tackle during the game. Hudson’s ability to engage defenders was really lacking and more noticeable in the run game than pass protection.

–The 2-pt. conversion play to FB Andy Janovich was brilliant, and it will be there again too.

–The Vikings defense was very alert to rookie Demetric Felton in his limited snaps. It was clear they were focused on not letting Felton get the ball in space, and that might explain why he was barely in the game.

–Malik McDowell and Malik Jackson are completely different players in obvious passing downs than on plays where they have to respect the run. Jackson had a very strong game, including his heavy pressure on Cousins on 4th-and-3 on Minnesota’s penultimate drive.

–Jamie Gillan had two bad punts, his first and last ones. The other five were great. Alas, that’s not a good enough ratio.

–In real-time I thought the defensive pass interference call against CB Troy Hill on the Vikings’ final drive was a tick-tack call. Further review showed it was the correct call, even though it wiped out a Delpit tip-drill interception. Hill was more technically guilty of holding than DPI, though.

–I liked Stefanski calling the timeout before Minnesota’s last play. The clock was already stopped so that didn’t matter. He regrouped his players and it paid off. Clowney getting instant pressure on a 3-man rush helped a little, too…