CLEVELAND — In the six days between the Cleveland Browns' 24-19 loss to the Denver Broncos and Week 10 matchup against the Buffalo Bills, an undeniable narrative emerged regarding the team's offense: After eight weeks of inconsistency, the Browns needed to get Odell Beckham Jr. more involved.
"We have to find ways to format things to get him the ball and force-feed him early on to where he can make an impact before we can have the perfect look to have a shot play," Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield said last week. "That is something we have learned the hard way."
So how did the Browns fare?
A cursory look at the box score of their 19-16 victory over the Bills would tell you "not well."
Catching 5 passes for 57 yards, Beckham put up a solid, albeit unspectacular stat line -- as has been the case for most of his first season with the Browns. In nine games, the 3-time Pro Bowl selection has now totaled 44 receptions for 632 yards and 1 touchdown, which puts him on pace for one of the less impressive seasons of his six-year career.
But while Beckham's raw stat line may not be as eye-popping as some would have preferred, a deeper dive paints the picture of a more encouraging trend in his involvement.
Although he only caught five passes on Sunday -- the same number of receptions he totaled in each of the Browns' previous two games -- Mayfield targeted the 2014 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year a season-high 12 times vs. the Bills. That marked the first time Beckham had reached double-digit targets since Cleveland's Week 6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and just the fourth time it's happened all season.
"There is so much we can look forward to on the film," Beckham said after the game. "For Baker and I just to see, what can I clean up? What can I do to get better? To have those opportunities now to know exactly what it’s like and be able to hit them for the rest of the season.”
It didn't take long for the Browns to try to get Beckham involved, as their first offensive play of the game saw Mayfield target his star wide receiver for an incomplete pass deep down the field. And after not targeting him in the red zone in either of its previous two games, Cleveland threw the ball toward Beckham on three plays at the goal line on Sunday, with two of the passes resulting in defensive pass interference penalties.
"Now we can understand where we can go from here," Beckham said of his missed opportunities. "It's a building point."
While targets obviously don't have the same impact as actual receptions, it's worth noting that the extra attention the Bills defense was forced to pay to Beckham seemed to help open up opportunities for Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. And while it may not have happened on Sunday, the 2-time All-Pro selection knows that if he keeps taking enough swings, it will only be a matter of time before he connects on a home run.
"We're close," Beckham said. "It's kind of like a long foul ball or something like where if you foul one straight back. It means you're right on it, but you just missed a little bit."
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