After a blowout loss to the Chargers, the Browns are searching for answers in a wide receivers room that's been ravaged by injuries and inexperience.
A good start, they said, is to create more opportunities for Jarvis Landry.
"We just have to find a way. Have to find a way," coach Hue Jackson said after Landry had two catches for 11 yards in that 38-14 defeat. "Obviously, that's not good enough. I would like to see how they were covering Jarvis, but we have to find ways that he can catch it."
That is, after all, why Cleveland traded for Landry, a three-time Pro Bowler with the Miami Dolphins, this past spring. While he's gone over the 100-yard mark twice this season, Landry's production has been relatively limited recently, totaling 11 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown in the last three weeks. For context, Landry had seven catches for 106 yards in the season opener and eight for 103 in a win over the Jets.
"Am I frustrated? After a loss? Yeah, a little bit," Landry said, "trying to forget about it as quickly as possible. Move on to Tampa. We're on the road. Get the W, and that'll be behind us."
Sunday's loss to Los Angeles was Landry's statistically-worst game this year because of a confluence of factors, Jackson said. He'd like to see rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield and the team's star wideout connect more but understands there's a host of circumstances that sometimes dictate otherwise.
"Sometimes the ball has gone over his head. I think sometimes we just haven't made the connection," Jackson said.
"Do they need to connect more? Yes, they do. We have to find a way to do that better. At the same time, yesterday wasn't really good in that area between those two. I don't think that it was anything to do with Baker. I know that people maybe feel that Baker needed more time with Jarvis — that was not the case when we played the Jets. Nobody felt like that then when they made plays. They have to make those plays when those plays present themselves, and I'm sure that they will."
Mayfield, who was named the Browns' starter after leading that comeback victory over New York, had already taken it upon himself to get Landry more involved.
"He's the best receiver in the league in my opinion. I have to put the ball in better range for him," he said postgame. "I have to give him a chance to catch that ball. I left it behind him. The others, I have to be more accurate. That was one of my strong suits, and today, it wasn't. I will get my stuff fixed. None of that is on Jarvis. He is doing his job. I have to find ways get him the ball more."
Landry sees an on-field relationship still coming together each and every week.
"We're still growing. We did not really get a lot of reps or a lot of opportunities together so we have to take advantage of practice reps, we have to take advantage of the film that we watch and getting on the same page with each other," he said. "I think that that is the biggest thing."
