CLEVELAND — After possessing one of the NFL’s best offenses last year and bringing back all of its weapons this season, the Browns were expected to light up the scoreboard.
Through two games and two losses, Cleveland has hardly needed to turn on the electricity at Cleveland Browns Stadium, totaling 16 points with two touchdowns.
“We’re not as efficient as we need to be (on offense),” said Browns coach Romeo Crennel, whose team generated only six points and 208 yards in a 10-6 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday night.
That’s an understatement.
Cleveland has sputtered on both offensive fronts, failing to run the ball effectively or connect sufficiently in the passing game. It’s added up to two lackluster and low-scoring defeats to begin what was expected to be a promising year for the Browns.
Running back Jamal Lewis appeared poised for another big season after rushing for 1,304 yards and nine touchdowns in 2007. Through the first two games, he has gained only 100 yards without a TD on 32 carries
— 38 yards on 19 attempts against Pittsburgh.
The passing game has been harpooned by bad reads and errant throws from quarterback Derek Anderson, and dropped balls from his two main targets, Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow.
Both big-play receivers dropped first-down passes Sunday night. Edwards dropped two of them, giving him six drops on the year — one more than his reception total. Winslow has been more reliable, but still hasn’t gotten loose for the big plays that he made on a regular basis last season.    
“We on offense, we’ve got to pick it up a little bit,” Winslow said. “We’re not doing the little things we need to do.”
“I’ve got to throw it better and we’ve got to catch it better,” said Anderson, who completed 18 of 32 attempts for 166 yards and no touchdowns against the Steelers, floundering his way to a 44.5 passer rating.
Anderson, who threw 29 touchdown passes last year, has thrown only one this season — to Winslow in a 28-10 loss to Dallas in Week 1. He tossed two interceptions Sunday night, one that cost the Browns a chance to score at the end of the opening half.
Trailing 7-0 in the waning moments of the second quarter, Anderson made an ill-fated decision to go to Syndric Steptoe on a slant instead of the primary receiver, Winslow. All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu didn’t follow Winslow to the middle of the end zone, staying with Steptoe and intercepting Anderson’s low attempt.
“He has a lot of choices and reads on that,” Crennel said of his quarterback. “The choice he made wasn’t the best one for us.”
That’s been the case a number of times this season. Still, Anderson sees a silver lining to his team’s offensive woes that sounds more like a reason for them.
“We’ve played two pretty damn good teams,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with us. We’re still the same team we were last year.”
They just aren’t scoring like it.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. 

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