Written by Jerry Roche

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As much as we hometown fans try to remain optimistic from 4-12 season to 5-11 season to 4-12 season, it’s pretty obvious that teams competing in the playoffs are head and shoulders above our Brownies.

As colleague Brian McPeek observed in his “Weekend Wrap” column Sunday night: “You simply can’t help but believe these playoff teams are playing a different sport than the team we watch and support.”

This column is not about how badly the Browns stack up against Super Bowl contenders, though. It’s about lessons to be learned from what we saw over the weekend. Tom Heckert, Mike Holmgren and Pat Shurmur, take heed. Here are four areas of need:

LESSON #1: IT PAYS TO HAVE BACKS AND RECEIVERS THAT CAN MAKE CIRCUS CATCHES.

>> Baltimore’s Lee Evans made a one-handed grab that went for 37 yards to the Houston 3.

>> San Francisco’s Arian Foster made a one-handed catch that set up a touchdown.

>> New England’s Rob Gronkowski, laying himself out, made a mid-air TD catch in the corner of the end zone from Tom Brady.

>> Hakeem Nicks of New York out-jumped the entire Green Bay defensive backfield to haul in a “Hail Mary” pass for a first-half-ending touchdown.

>> Jimmy Graham of New England twisted his body around in mid-air to haul in a long back-shoulder TD pass from Brady.

>> San Francisco’s Vernon Davis took a huge hit at the goalline but held onto the ball to win the game for the 49ers.

>> Marques Colston made a 25-yard over-the-shoulder TD catch while perfectly defended on a perfect pass from Drew Brees — playoff football at its best.

>> Baltimore’s Anquan Bouldin made a fantastical 21-yard reception from Joe Flacco on the sideline and dove to the Houston three-yard line.

Now Hear This, Browns: When was the last time you saw a Cleveland receiver make a circus catch? The most recent that comes to mind is a one-handed grab by running back Peyton Hillis in 2010.

On the other hand, it should be noted that Green Bay backs and receivers dropped eight of Aaron Rodgers’ passes, including a muff in the end zone by Greg Jennings. This has long been an affectation of Cleveland receivers, who led the league in dropped passes with 34 to 36, depending on your source. As Green Bay learned, dropped passes just don’t get it.

LESSON #2: IT PAYS TO HAVE RECEIVERS WHO CAN RUN AFTER THEIR CATCHES.

>> Hakeem Nicks of New York scored on a 66-yard completion when Green Bay’s defensive backs failed to wrap him up.

>> Vernon Davis of San Francisco not only had a 49-yard reception for a TD, but in the fourth quarter took a 16-yard pass from Alex Smith and turned it into a 47-yard gain down to the 20.

>> Graham caught a 26-yard pass from Brady, then ran the last 40 yards to the end zone as Denver DBs whiffed on their interception attempt.

Now Hear This, Browns: The only Browns receiver this past season who was fairly effective at running after the catch was Josh Cribbs. He averaged 12.6 yards per catch and grabbed four TDs. Rookie Greg Little shows some promise—but the other receivers? Meh.

LESSON #3: YOU NEED TO PRESSURE THE QUARTERBACK.

>> Eli Manning had all day to throw against the inept Packers’ defensive line and ended up with 21 completions for 330 yards—10.0 yards per pass play—and three TD tosses.

>> New England registered five sacks of Denver’s Tim Tebow, who only completed nine passes for 136 yards.

>> Tebow, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and San Francisco’s Alex Smith each lost fumbles under intense defensive pressure.

>> The NFL’s top-rated passer, Rodgers was sacked by the underdog Giants four times and held well under his usual average.

Now Hear This, Browns: This is an area in which the Browns are showing steady improvement. With a big, young, active defensive line, the team’s pass rush will only improve, especially if Heckert can find another defensive end or pass-rushing outside linebacker.

LESSON #4: IT’S A PASSING GAME NOW, SO EMBRACE IT.

>> Quarterbacks, in four games, passed for 2,214 yards, an average of 277 yards per team.

>> 177 passes were completed out of 306 attempts— a not quite 60 percent completion rate against some of the best pass defenses in the league.

>> Average gain per pass attempt: 7.24 yards.

>> On the other hand, the teams rushed for just 930 total yards in 315 total tries, which calculates to just 2.95 yards per rushing attempt.

Now Hear This, Browns: What was evident in all four games was that playoff quarterbacks have total confidence in their receivers. Passes were thrown into coverages and in situations where you never see Browns quarterbacks pull the trigger. In most instances, the QBs were rewarded with positive gains, but even Brady was intercepted once when, under pressure, he tried to fit a pass into a zone where it wouldn’t fit.

When competent receivers are running patterns, the reward of trying to complete a pass into even tight coverage far exceeds the risk. And there were numerous simply-perfect passes thrown this past weekend from the arms of all eight QBs, most notably Brady, Brees and Flacco (yes, that Flacco).

Only once in the 12 years that the Browns have been back has the team had a successful vertical passing game. It’s no coincidence that in that one season, they made the playoffs.

What they need most, then, is a passer who can zing the ball into tight coverages in the middle of the field and drop the ball over sideline coverage. They need receivers who know how to use their body to screen off defenders; who can find dead spots in zone coverages; who can come back to the ball when necessary; who are more athletic, bigger and taller than defensive backs; and who can elude would-be tacklers after they make the catch.

(And a pass-rushing defensive end or outside linebacker wouldn’t hurt, either.)

Now Hear This, Browns: Much work to do, Heckgren; much work to do.