Duke Johnson

This halfback pass from Duke Johnson didn't end the way Hue Jackson had hoped.

(John Kuntz, cleveland.com)

BEREA, Ohio -- Hue Jackson's call of a halfback pass by running back Duke Johnson in the first quarter of Sunday's game wasn't an act of desperation in a winless season.

"Oh no, I have always had those," Jackson said the day after the Browns' loss to the Giants. "I haven't even opened the bag of tricks yet."

Jackson laughed when the play was brought up during his Monday press conference. He playfully referred to Johnson's throw as "the one that went the other way?"

It came on a first-and-10 play from the Browns' 34-yard line. Johnson took a handoff from quarterback Josh McCown and ran to the right. He stopped and tried to deliver the ball to wide receiver Terrelle Pryor. He missed. Badly.

"It did not look like it looked in practice, I can promise you guys that," Jackson said.

Jackson's offense has stalled of late. Since scoring ten points in the first half against Dallas, the Browns have managed just 29 points in their last 14 quarters. In three of their last four games, the Browns have been held to 222 yards or fewer.

"I keep saying, we have not really played offensive football the way I like to play," Jackson said. "Our guys are, they know it, and I think they are looking for the day we can unleash some of the things that we like to do."

Jackson's most recent stint prior to joining the Browns, of course, was as the offensive coordinator of the Bengals. His offense in 2015 used presnap motion, quick passes, end arounds and generally found multiple ways to get the football into the hands of players like wide receivers A.J. Green, Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu, tight end Tyler Eifert and running backs Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard.

Many of those same presnap motions and formations -- the most prominent including splitting offensive linemen out wide in front of wide receivers -- have come north with Jackson. Oftentimes, he will show that formation then motion into a more traditional setup. He's also brought with him a formation he used with the Bengals which lined up multiple tight ends with a running back in the backfield before motioning them into more traditional spots. Jackson said it's all designed to make the defense think.

"You make a defense line up, cover it and then they have to check and re-check again," he said. "Normally, some guys do not get to check. It is an advantage for us."

That advantage though, has been negated by the fact that the Browns simply aren't executing at a quick enough pace.

"It could definitely go faster," Jackson said. "Yeah, there are a lot of things that we could do faster and better, and I think we will over these next four weeks."

All of this is one of the advantages Jackson has in a season that, if we're to take the front office at their word, won't be judged on wins and losses. It allows him to run the offense he wants to run, even if all the pieces aren't in place yet.

That doesn't make the struggles any less difficult to bear, though. Rookie wide receiver Corey Coleman said that he's been winning his whole life and that he never would have believed back in training camp this offense would struggle like it has, calling it "tough for me."

"The tables are going to turn," Coleman said. "It can't get any worse."

Jackson, though, said he's not holding anything back in trying to get his offense rolling.

"I do not want anybody to think we are holding this magical offense in a bag or something -- we are not because if we did we would unleash it," Jackson said, "but there are a lot of things that we do like to do as an offensive football team that we have not even scratched the surface at so we just have to keep going and keep growing."

One thing that might not be part of that growth?

"(Duke) is 0 for 1 so he might not get a chance to throw it ever again," Jackson said with a laugh.

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