BEREA -- Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel made his first NFL start and Kevin Stefanski said he thinks Gabriel played well in his first start in the NFL.
"A lot of positives," Stefanski said on Monday after looking at the tape. "Obviously, can always be better and certainly we as an offense have to be better and score more to help this football team, but for a young player in that environment versus that defense to take care of the ball, make the plays he made, I thought was a lot of positives with plenty to clean up and that's what he will do and that's the mentality he has is certainly to be a player that continues to get better week in and week out."
Gabriel was 19-of-33 for 190 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked twice and had a QB rating of 94.3.
However, Gabriel did not throw the ball down the field very often, until the very end of the game. His longest completion were 22-yard completions to wide receivers Isaiah Bond and Jamari Thrash.
Stefanski said some of the reasons that Gabriel did not throw the ball down the field very much was due to the game plan.
"I would say it's very game specific, in terms of the opponent and who you're facing and what they do and how they do it," Stefanski said. "Obviously, the week last week was unique. I thought that Dillon and the guys handled that fine. I don't think that had anything to do with the plan and those type of things. They were very prepared, but I think it is very specific to your opponent is probably the biggest thing."
One area that the offense and Gabriel struggled in was third down as the Browns was just 3-of-15 on third down. Gabriel was very efficient on third down in the preseason.