It has been a rough two weeks for the Cleveland Browns. They lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers and lost the lead in the AFC North division race, and then they dropped a game to the New Orleans Saints, who only had two wins entering Sunday’s game. 

A part of their struggles has been with the penalties these last two weeks. They have more than twice as many penalties as their opponents in the last two weeks and lead the NFL in committed penalties accepted. 

Part of that are pre-snap penalties such as false starts, which the Browns committed the 6th most in the NFL. These are particularly frustrating because they are 100% preventable mental errors. Browns offensive lineman Zion Johnson had this to say about cleaning them up. 

The bottom line is that the Browns aren’t talented enough to get away with so many penalties. It’s one thing to lack talent, but it is a very different problem to lack discipline. That is something this team needs to clean up in the second half of the season if they want to stay in playoff conversations.