Well, At Least The Browns Had a Good First Half.

Today may have been the most overlooked game in the history of the Cleveland Browns. Even though they were honoring the 30th anniversary of the AFC Central Division champions, with the Indians playing for a championship tonight, it seems like the football game today was an afterthought.

Flying under the radar, Hue Jackson’s team started very well, leading 20-7 at the half, but the second half was all Jets, and Cleveland fell to 0-8 with a 31-28 loss.

It was a case of lack of complementary football in the second half, as the defense couldn’t stop New York while the offense couldn’t put together a significant drive to keep the defense off the field.

This should end any more talk to Josh McCown being the Browns best chance to win football games.

First, in his two starts, the Browns did virtually nothing offensively after halftime, and once again, he made a critical mistake to eliminate a possible comeback attempt.

Here are the positives, negatives, and officiating critique from another Browns loss.

Positives. Terrelle Pryor abused Jets’ CB Darrelle Revis in the first half. We understand Revis isn’t the same player he was two to three years ago, but Pryor had 101 yards on six catches before the intermission.

In the second half, New York gave Revis help and McCown couldn’t get the ball to the big wideout.

Duke Johnson had several big plays, catching six balls for 87 yards and rushing for 29 more on four carries.

ILB Christian Kirksey was in on 12 tackles, and continues to impress every week.

Rookie Carl Nassib got his hand on at least three Ryan Fitzpatrick throws.

The run defense did a good job on the Jets’ Matt Forte, holding him to 82 yards on 25 carries, an average of a little over three yards.

Demario Davis and Emmanuel Ogbah showed very well too.

Negatives. McCown is by all accounts a great guy, excellent teammate, exudes toughness, etc. However, he is not an average NFL quarterback by a long shot.

Yes, he will make some plays, and can play well in spurts, but he will make a critical mistake at a crucial time.

Today, there were two. After New York scored to close the gap to 20-14, the Browns did start to move the ball. But a backwards pass lost four yards on first down, and Cleveland couldn’t recover on that drive.

Later, in the fourth quarter, on a second and six from deep in Browns’ territory, McCown decided to force a deep throw into double coverage and was picked off.

We would rather see Cody Kessler, Kevin Hogan, or even Robert Griffin III behind center the rest of this season. There is no reason to put McCown out there again.

While the defense played well against Forte, they couldn’t stop Bilal Powell, who ran for 76 yards on six carries including a 35 yard TD run.

Hue Jackson only tried 18 running plays. Yes, the Jets have one of the NFL’s best run defenses, but that’s woefully low, especially when they gained almost four yards a crack.

Safety play continues to be a huge problem for Cleveland as Quincy Enunwa caught a 57 yard throw from Fitzpatick. Jamal Taylor had pretty good coverage, but there was no safety within 15 yards of the play.

Taylor was lucky to make a touchdown saving tackle.

Officiating. No glaring poor calls, but referee Pete Morelli had problems calling out the correct number for infractions.

Next week, the Dallas Cowboys come to Cleveland, so Browns fans’ will get a look at a player they could’ve taken with the second overall pick, former Ohio State running back Ezequiel Elliott.

Hopefully, Kessler will be cleared to play next week, so it will be a battle of rookie signal callers.

Another Week, More Big Plays Killed The Browns

When the NFL season began this year, we talked about not judging the Cleveland Browns based on wins and losses, but rather, on the progress being shown weekly by the team.

One thing Hue Jackson’s crew is not improving on is giving up the big play on defense. Three of Cincinnati’s four touchdowns today came via this method in a 31-17 loss in the Queen City to drop Cleveland to 0-7 on the season.

Last week, Tennessee had four plays of forty yards or more, today the Bengals scored on plays of 44, 48, and 74 yards. If the Browns want to get in the win column at some point this season, Ray Horton’s defense has to prevent big plays.

To be fair, without Joe Haden out there (groin injury), there aren’t any solid experienced plays on that side of the ball. We can’t believe there is no one better than Tramon Williams on the waiver wire.

At least on offense, Jackson has Joe Thomas, John Greco, and Gary Barnidge on the field to help the youngsters.

And yes, we know we said we go young after last season.

So, here are the positives, negatives, and officiating gaffes from this week’s game.

Positives. The Browns have had problems the last two weeks running the ball, but they accumulated 180 yards on the ground today, led by an unlikely source.

Jackson must have found something in the Cincy defensive scheme showing they were susceptible to the read option, because the Browns unleashed reserve QB Kevin Hogan with it, and he ran for 104 yards on seven attempts, including a 28-yard touchdown run.

Isaiah Crowell also had a solid day with 63 yards on 12 carries.

Barnidge had a solid day as the outlet receiver, making 6 catches for 66 yards.

Before he left with a concussion, Cody Kessler played like we’ve come to expect him to play, hitting 9 of 11 throws for 82 yards.

On defense, Emmanuel Ogbah had his best game as a pro, recording two sacks. Christian Kirksey and Carl Nassib combined for a third sack of Andy Dalton.

The Browns were also penalized just five times today.

Negatives. Giving up 559 yards in an NFL game may be the biggest negative you can come up with. The defense gave up big play after big play.

Ibraheim Campbell took a horrific angle on Jeremy Hill’s 74 yard TD run, turning an 8 or 9 yard game into a touchdown.

And those two aren’t even the worst of it.

With 0:05 left on the clock in the first half, the Browns trailed 14-10 and were poised to get the second half kickoff.

That’s when Dalton hit A.J. Green for a 48 yard “Hail Mary” pass and suddenly the Browns were down 11.

There had to be five or six Browns around Green, yet no one could knock the pass down. Green tipped it to himself for the score.

Officiating. Ed Hochuli’s crew appeared to miss an offsides by Cincinnati with the play clock running down, calling a delay of game instead, when it appeared the Bengal defender was in the neutral zone when the play clock hit zero.

They also missed what appeared to be a helmet to helmet hit on Kessler on the play he suffered a concussion.

At least the schedule starts to see some home games for Jackson and his team, and it starts next week with a contest with the Jets, which should be a game the Browns can win.

But who will be the quarterback? Can Kessler recover enough to play next week? Or will it be Hogan in his first NFL start? Or will veteran Josh McCown go back out there?

It’s always a QB question in Cleveland.

Allowing The Big Play Kills Browns Today

It is very difficult to maintain optimism regarding an 0-6 NFL team.

Going into the season, we preached that the Cleveland Browns were not going to be good this season, in fact, we figured a 2-14 or 3-13 record would be about what the final record would be.

That doesn’t mean it’s fun to watch the games and see the young players make mistakes that cost the Browns every week. Hue Jackson will tell us that it is his job to coach them up, but we all know he’s got to be shaking his head when watching the film.

Today, the final score wasn’t indicative of the closeness of the game. The defense allowed too many big play, including the very first one, a 41-yard run by Titans’ QB Marcus Mariota. But the young Browns kept fighting to the end, but still wound up on the short end of a 28-26 score.

Here are the positives, negatives, and officiating comments from today’s contest.

Positives. Much was made of Tennessee’s ground game coming into the week, but outside of that first run by Mariota, the Browns controlled DeMarco Murray, who averaged just over 3 yards a carry.

After the initial play, Cleveland allowed just 96 rushing yards on 30 attempts.

Cody Kessler played well too, completing 26 of 41 passes for his first NFL 300 yard passing day (336 yards) and two touchdown throws, both to Terrelle Pryor.

Pryor was productive too, grabbing nine receptions for 75 yards. Kessler has yet to hit him on a deep throw though.

And after being belittled on a pre-game show earlier in the day for no reason, Danny Shelton had his first NFL sack and five tackles. The nose tackle’s play is a big reason for the success against the run for the Browns for most of this season.

Negatives. If we were Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta, we would be scouring the waiver wire for cornerbacks.

Without Joe Haden today, Titans’ WR Kendall Wright blistered the secondary for eight catches and 133 yards. All in all, Tennessee had three plays of over 40 yards.

The offensive line continues to struggle. The Browns couldn’t run the ball (15 attempts, 40 yards) and Kessler was sacked six times.

Austin Pasztor is not a tackle, and should be playing guard, and Alvin Bailey shouldn’t be playing at all. Perhaps Jackson should try newcomer Jonathan Cooper and rookie Shon Coleman starting next week, because the Browns need to run the football much better than they have the last two weeks.

Ricardo Louis had five grabs for 65 yards, but dropped at least two passes that we could count. The rookie’s hands were questionable on draft day, and he needed to help out his QB by making some plays today.

Cleveland was just 3 for 14 on third down conversions and seemed to be equally bad on first down, shooting themselves in the foot with negative plays and/or penalties on first down, putting Kessler in a lot of bad positions.

That’s not helping the kid’s progress.

Officiating. Nothing stands out here. The worst call might have gone the Browns’ way as they flagged the Titans for pass interference on a long pass to Duke Johnson, where we though the contact was minimal.

Now the road show for the Browns take them to Cincinnati to play the struggling Bengals, the team Jackson was offensive coordinator for a year ago.

The points of emphasis this week should be the offensive line/running back and the secondary. Those positions were the biggest disappointments we can take away from this week six loss.

Not Much Good To Take Away From Browns’ Beating Today.

What were you expecting?

The New England Patriots are one of the NFL’s best teams and their quarterback, future Hall of Famer Tom Brady was just returning from a four game suspension that at best was questionable, and in reality was probably unjust.

As plucky as the young Browns have been this season, this didn’t appear to be a game they would be able to stay in throughout the contest.

They didn’t disappoint, as Hue Jackson’s squad was rolled by the Patriots, 33-13 at First Energy Stadium.

On the injury front, the news wasn’t much better as QB Cody Kessler suffered a rib/chest injury in the second quarter and his backup, Charlie Whitehurst, left with a knee problem in the fourth quarter.

So the question is, who will be behind center next Sunday against Tennessee?

Here are the positives, negatives, and officiating notes from this game.

Positives. The only good thing that came from this game was the continuing good job the Cleveland defense did against the run. New England gained just 98 yards on 35 carries, an average of 2.8 per attempt.

After last week’s game vs. Washington where the opponent had great success on the ground, it was good to see the Browns’ revert back to the way they’ve played the rest of the year.

Also, before he left the game, Kessler did hit 5 of 8 throws (one drop, one throw away) for 62 yards, and did get the offense in the end zone with an 11 yard TD toss to Andrew Hawkins.

Hopefully, he can go again next week.

Rookie TE Connor Hamlett caught his first NFL TD pass in the fourth quarter.

Negatives. For all the success Ray Horton’s defense has had against the running game, they are getting killed through the air, particularly covering tight ends.

Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett combined for 11 receptions and 176 yards, and the latter caught three TD passes.

Jordan Reed had similar success against Cleveland a week ago.

Without any pressure being put on opposing quarterbacks, the secondary is going to have issues, and the Browns had just one sack again today.

After dominating the league during the first four weeks of the season running the ball, Isaiah Crowell couldn’t get anything going today. He gained just 22 yards on 13 carries.

In total, the Browns had just 27 yards rushing on 22 attempts.

Whitehurst struggled until the fourth quarter, and if you thought Kessler never threw downfield, he looked like Daryle Lamonica (look it up) compared to Whitehurst’s dinking and dunking.

If he is going to play that way, is there any downside to playing Kevin Hogan if Kessler is unable to play next week?

The offensive line had a dreadful day. The Browns couldn’t run and the passers ran for their lives all day.

Officiating. Again, not much to complain about when you lose by 20 points, but the officials called forward progress on a play involving Julian Edelman in the first half when Joe Haden’s hit caused a fumble.

And there was a suspicious pass interference call on Christian Kirksey in the third quarter when he batted away a pass. By the way, Kirksey had 16 tackles on the day.

So, it’s back on the road next Sunday, this time against Tennessee.

Who will play quarterback for the Browns? Hopefully, Kessler is able to go, but if not, we are sure it will be debated ad nauseum this week on talk radio.

Late Mistakes Cost Young Browns

Young football teams tend to make mistakes. This was never more evident than the Cleveland Browns’ 31-20 loss to Washington this afternoon.

Hue Jackson’s crew got off to a poor start, trailing 14-0 early, before rallying and actually carried a 20-17 lead into the fourth quarter.

However, the young Browns turned the ball over three times at the end of the game, two on fumbles and an interception by Cody Kessler, and Cleveland fell to 0-4 on the season.

One reminder. They’ve played three of those four games on the road.

One of the dangers of having so many young players is there are no veterans to teach the younger guys how to close out games. The Browns have had a chance to win the last three contests, but are still winless.

It will be up to the coaching staff to get these guys to eliminate the errors costing them in the win column.

Here are this week’s positives and negatives, with a new category–bad officiating.

Positives. The Browns came into the game in the top five in rushing and showed why today. They had 163 yards on the ground, with another 100 yard game by Isaiah Crowell (15 rushes, 112 yards). They probably should have had more than 28 attempts.

Cody Parkey rebounded from his debut and made two field goals including a 51-yarder.

Another Cody, Kessler, played well too. He completed 28 of 40 throws for 223 yards, and helped the offense convert 8 of 12 third downs. As long as he plays like this, there is no reason to play either Josh McCown or even Robert Griffin III for that matter.

And the offensive line did a good job with John Greco going back to guard and using Austin Reiter at center.

Defensively, Jamar Taylor continued to show well, getting an interception for the second straight week. And the newest Brown, Cam Johnson had two sacks.

Negatives. For the first time this season, the defense couldn’t stop the run, allowing 145 yards, at an average of 5.6 per rush.

The defensive line had a poor game and Danny Shelton took a step back with just three assists.

And even though Cleveland had three sacks, for most of the game they couldn’t put pressure on Washington QB Kirk Cousins. Of course, they didn’t have a lot of good pass rushing situations.

Ray Horton’s unit also had no answer for TE Jordan Reed, which isn’t good news considering New England’s Rob Gronkowski is up next week.

Today’s horrible officiating. The NFL needs to change the pass interference call.

First, they should be no call on any under thrown ball, because the bad throw is causing the contact. That was the case on the 50 YARD PENALTY against Jordan Poyer in the first quarter.

Another bad PI call came against Joe Haden in the fourth quarter. Both Haden and the receiver were bumping each other, but Haden drew the flag. A no call would have been correct there.

And lastly, Duke Johnson’s fumble in the fourth quarter appeared to be recovered by…Duke Johnson. The official ruled Washington football.

Of course, Jeff Triplette’s crew is one of the leagues worst, so what can you expect.

Our point is the Browns are inexperienced as it is, and can’t afford to have bad calls go against them as well.

So, the Browns come home next week to take on the mighty New England Patriots. It should be another good measuring stick for the young Browns.

Yes, they are 0-4. However, many teams at 1-3 and stagnant would love to trade places with Hue Jackson’s group.

Why Don’t People Understand Browns’ Plan?

It happens every fall. The national media and some of the local media reach for the lowest of the low hanging fruit in regards to the National Football League.

They take turns hitting the speed bag that is the Cleveland Browns.

Look, the Browns deserve it. Since they returned to the NFL in 1999, they have been a joke of a franchise. Two winning seasons, one playoff appearance. The teams slogan should be “At least 10 losses every year”.

They’ve changed coaches like people change underwear. They’ve gone through multiple front office executives, general managers, and directors of football operations.

In essence, they deserve exactly what they get.

So, now the Cleveland Browns are trying something else. They blew up their roster, getting rid of most of the veterans on last year’s team and we trying to build a winning team by getting a whole bunch of young players and letting them develop together.

That actually sound logical.

Will it work? Well, that remains to be seen, but nothing else they’ve tried has worked in the last 17 years, so really, why not try it?

Of course, many people in the media don’t know what to make of it, so they fall back on what has worked for them in the past, and that is, hammering what goes on in Berea.

In a way, it’s lazy reporting.

For example, based on Carson Wentz’ two very good starts (against the mediocre Browns and Chicago Bears), people are questioning the organization’s decision to go with Robert Griffin III at quarterback.

It’s not that complicated. They weren’t convinced that Wentz was a top tier starter and Griffin was an experienced alternative to playing the 37-year-old Josh McCown.

A national writer wondered why the Browns would bother to start the former Heisman Trophy winner when McCown is clearly better?

Really? You can’t figure that out? Griffin is 26-years-old. Maybe you can salvage something out of his career, maybe not. The Browns know McCown doesn’t have much left. If you know you aren’t contending for a playoff spot, why not see what a guy who is younger can do?

A local station is running through the statistics and reporting on what the players who the Browns have unloaded in recent years are doing. Did we miss something and the Browns were actually a playoff team the last four or five years?

You will never be able to convince us that getting rid of aging players from a 3-13 team is a bad idea. Players over 30 generally aren’t going to get better as they age. So, why Karlos Dansby can still play, he’s not a good fit for what the Browns are doing.

The point is many people still have the mistaken notion that the Browns want to go 6-10 this year and they should have kept and played veterans to achieve that record.

However, that’s kind of like being the 8th seed in the NBA playoffs. You aren’t going to get a high lottery pick, and you don’t have a chance at a title.

Again, whether it works or not, the Cleveland Browns are trying to build around a lot of young, drafted players who will grow together. They will draft their franchise QB at some point, perhaps next year, a player who they love.

In the meantime, the media shouldn’t look at this football team the same as they normally do. They can’t acknowledge trying something new.

Did Browns Improve From Week One? Yes

After last week, we told everyone you cannot evaluate the Cleveland Browns are wins and losses, but rather on how the team progresses throughout the season.

Based on that, we would give Hue Jackson and his team a passing grade for week 2, despite a 25-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at First Energy Stadium.

The Browns jumped out to a 20-0 first quarter lead, and the Josh McCown mafia was probably busy telling everyone who would listen, “I told you so”. But after that quarter, the brown and orange looked a lot like last week’s squad.

They couldn’t put up any more points, and continually shot themselves in the foot on both sides of the ball.

Positives. The running game improved, getting 145 yards, but 85 of those were on one play, Isaiah Crowell’s touchdown scamper in the first quarter.

The Ravens ran the ball more often (26-23) despite trailing for most of the game.

Corey Coleman played like a first round pick, scoring two touchdowns and making five catches for 104 yards.

Duke Johnson continues to show he needs the football more often, with four receptions for 44 yards. However, he carried just three times from scrimmage.

Defensively, Derrick Kindred continues to impress, and ILB Chris Kirksey played well too. He’s one of the guys we felt was minimized by the previous coaching staff.

Danny Shelton continued to show he is not a bust with two tackles and six assists. He’s a big reason why the defense once again held the opponents to under four yards per carry. Baltimore averaged just 3.1 per attempt.

And Joe Haden improved from a week ago with two interceptions. Haden still had plays where improvement is needed, but perhaps he is shaking some rust off.

Also, kudos to the front office. They traded Andy Lee for a fourth round pick, and then picked up a solid punter on the waiver wire. Britton Colquitt averaged 40.8 yards per punt, and put two inside the 20.

Negatives. McCown’s interception at the end of the first half is a reminder as to why he is a below average NFL quarterback despite the Cleveland media’s love for him.

It gave the Ravens three points they shouldn’t have scored. You cannot, repeat CANNOT turn the ball over in that spot.

We keep hearing about special teams’ coach Chris Tabor being one of the best in the league. Why?

A blocked extra point and a long return on first kickoff say maybe the Browns can do better.

Cleveland has had a lot of kicks blocked in the second half of last season and another one today. And it cost the team three points, meaning a field goal could’ve won it at the end.

Lastly (and it won’t be the last time this year we say this), the NFL officiating is horrific. The taunting penalty against Terrelle Pryor in the last minute, negating a play that would have put the Browns in a first and goal situation, ranks as one of the worst calls we’ve ever seen.

Pryor was simply flipping the ball to the official. He didn’t jam it into the defender’s face, he was giving it to the official, and Ladarius Webb just got in the way.

The NFL officials are THE WORST in professional sports. They make ridiculously bad calls every week.

Next week, it’s on to Miami to take on the Dolphins. Will McCown, who was banged up, be able to play?

Will the run defense continue to do its job? Will more special teams’ gaffes occur?

Stay tuned for how the Browns’ progress turned out next week.

Fans, Media Need New Way To Evaluate Browns

Not even the most optimistic fan of the Cleveland Browns is predicting a successful season.

Before the first game last Sunday, we think the highest win total we heard for the brown and orange was eight, and those folks must wake up every morning thinking today’s the day the pot of gold will appear at their doorstep.

If Hue Jackson’s crew went 3-13 or 4-12 in 2016, it wouldn’t be shocking.

That’s why we were surprised at the vitriol which followed the 29-10 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener.

What exactly were fans and the media expecting?

On Monday, we actually heard people putting Jackson’s job in jeopardy and calling the Robert Griffin III experiment a failure. AFTER ONE GAME!

Perhaps it is the frustration of all the losing this franchise has endured since 1999, or maybe it was optimism that the Browns could win game one because they were facing a rookie quarterback, but it is difficult to see why fans and media alike were extremely hot and bothered by Cleveland losing its opener once again.

We wrote this before the season started and we certainly aren’t changing our mind after one regular season game.

We understand the Browns aren’t going to be very good this year, in fact, we would guess they aren’t going to win more than three games this season.

The difference is they will be doing it with a whole bunch of young players who figure to get better every week with the experience they gain during every contest.

If that’s not happening, then everybody needs to worry about Hue Jackson and his coaching staff.

The goal should be for this group of players to be better on January 1st against the Steelers than they were last Sunday.

It’s not that difficult to understand.

The Browns have a few players from the previous regime that they need to decide on, guys like Danny Shelton, Cam Erving, Nate Orchard, Xavier Cooper, and Ibraheim Campbell come to mind.

If they can get six solid starters, one or two being Pro Bowl players, out of this year’s draft class, then the 2016 can be considered a success. The best bets among those draftees are Corey Coleman, Carl Nassib, Emmanuel Ogbah, Derrick Kindred, and Joe Schobert.

Then since you have 14 picks in the 2017 draft, you get more six more solid starters at least. That would give you 12 starters, young starters, that you can build a foundation on.

And we are being conservative. You might wind up with 15 or 16 players with a solid future ahead of them.

Maybe it doesn’t work, but the Browns haven’t gone down this road before, and you cannot hold the sins of past regimes on Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Hue Jackson.

The great dynasties of the NFL were built through the draft. This isn’t to say every team who tries to build through the draft develops into a consistent Super Bowl threat, but the Steelers of the 70’s, the Cowboys of the 90’s came about by smart drafting.

Time will tell if Brown and Jackson have drafted the right people. However, we can tell you that one week isn’t enough time to make the decision that they didn’t.

In the meantime, the new management should be judged on how the young players progress throughout the season. Forget the wins and losses. We understand that is different from how we have all been trained, but if you don’t adopt this philosophy, you will have a very unhappy football season.

Also, stop putting Carson Wentz in Canton based on one game against a totally rebuilding team.

That is all.

Browns Lose, But What Will They Learn?

We have been saying all along not to expect too much from the Cleveland Browns in 2016. They shed most of the veterans from a squad that went 3-13 a year ago, so this is a year to lay a foundation for future success.

Therefore, we are not going to judge today’s 29-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that harshly. The best chance Cleveland had for a win today was poor play by the home team’s rookie quarterback, but Carson Wentz made enough plays to bring home a winner.

That doesn’t mean the Browns blew it by passing on Wentz either. A year ago, the Titan’s Marcus Mariota was fantastic in the season opener, and in week two, the Browns, yes the team that won only three games, handed the rookie his lunch.

Our point is that it is way too early to judge Wentz.

Here are some of our observations for Game 1:

Positives. Many of the rookies looked good, particularly Emmanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib. The latter seemed to be in the Eagles’ backfield a lot, batted down two passes and had a sack.

Derrick Kindred was another rookie who stood out, with five tackles.

Corey Coleman caught two passes for 69 yards, including a 58-yard play. Coleman was also open on Robert Griffin III’s interception, but the ball was way behind him. If the throw was on target, it would have been a big game.

The run defense was solid, allowing the Eagles just 3.9 yards per carry. Not great, but much better than we saw in the pre-season.

Last year’s first round picks, Cam Erving and Danny Shelton, looked better than a year ago, except for…

Negatives. …the Browns ran 50 offensive plays today and Erving had 49 good snaps. However, the one bad snap kind of changed the momentum of the game, as it resulted in a safety.

Griffin missed a lot of plays with inaccuracy, one that resulted in his only interception. He also missed an open Andrew Hawkins for a touchdown, and an open Terrelle Pryor on a sideline pass. You can’t leave plays on the field consistently.

Joe Haden showed a lot of rust after missing a lot of time last season, giving up a long TD pass to Nelson Agholor, and Jordan Matthews had over 100 yards receiving.

The third down woes reared its ugly head again, as the Browns were just 2 for 10. The inability to stay on the field led to the Eagles having the ball twice as much as the Browns.

Also, the running game struggled early. Running the ball helps keep the defense on the sideline and also will help the passing game. Cleveland simply has to get better running the football. Perhaps Duke Johnson should carry the ball more.

We know Hue Jackson is trying to set a tone with his football team, but it seemed like he gambled a lot today and none of his gambles paid off. Going for it on 4th and 5 in your own territory in the first half is a tad reckless, and the last Eagles’ touchdown was because he went for it with less than three minutes to go.

None of the negatives should be picked apart until they see them raise up on a weekly basis. If the Browns learn from what they did wrong, that’s great. That’s really the purpose of this season.

Same with the things that went well, unless you can do these things every week, it’s can’t be considered a building block.

Those critical of today’s performance are missing the point. This isn’t a good football team. If they are a lot better by the end of the season, then Jackson and his staff are doing a good job. That’s what they should be judged on.

Browns Not Tanking, Just Using Common Sense

Last week, we started hearing it, the dreaded “T” word.

Tanking. Mostly, you hear about it in the NBA, when the prize for getting the first pick in the draft is a player like LeBron James or someone like that.

In basketball, having a superstar is a huge advantage because there are only five players on the court.

Both the local and national media alike are claiming that the Cleveland Browns are tanking, trying to lose purposefully to gain the first overall pick in next spring’s draft.

Our question is if the Browns are tanking this year, what have they been doing for most of the last 16 seasons since they returned to the NFL?

Face it, the Browns aren’t tanking.

What they have been doing to getting rid of veteran players who have no upside and played for a team that went 3-13 a year ago. And that just seems like common sense.

Have we fallen asleep and not realized Cleveland unloaded Tom Brady, J.J. Watt, and Jim Brown in the off-season?

No. They pared the roster of a lot of players over 30 years old who were on the downside of their careers, or rid themselves of players who didn’t produce much in the time they were here.

You could make a better case that Ray Farmer was tanking when he let Jabaal Sheard and T.J. Ward flee the team in free agency.

We have said it time and again, the only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team. Why not start playing a bunch of younger players, who may get better with experience, and see where the chips fall?

If you are tanking, the coaching staff tends to not play the best players. We don’t see any indication of that, unless you are a member of the media, and you still have a love affair with Josh McCown.

The Browns have tried a lot of different ways to improve their fortunes, but they haven’t tried going with a bunch of young players and let them develop, so why not give that a shot?

What’s the worst that can happen? In three years, they are still putting together 5-11 seasons? If that’s happening, then once again, Jimmy Haslam will be looking for a new coach and a new general manager.

The coaching staff and the players will want to win, and hopefully the young players will improve as the season progresses, and finally the Browns will have a foundation on which to build something.

If they were tanking, then Jackson would announce that Cody Kessler is the starting quarterback and they would have traded players like Joe Haden, and maybe even Joe Thomas.

Now, once the season starts and you are let’s say 2-10, you may not go out of your way to play veterans, so you can get an extensive look at more young players, the ones who haven’t been in there all year.

On the other hand, with all of the young players on the field, you hope to see improvement as the season goes on, and hopefully the Browns can be in a position to win those late season games.

The tanking issue is ridiculous. This was a bad football team a year ago, and they weren’t tanking then.

The Browns are trying to build something that will grow over the next few years, and doing it with young players is the way to do it.

When you really think about it, it’s just common sense.