Another Exhausting Sunday For Browns’ Fans

The Cleveland Browns are exhausting to watch because over the past two seasons every game seems like the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day.

It’s the same crummy game plans, the same dumb mistakes, it’s a complete rerun every stinking, single week.

We may not speak for all Browns fans, but here is a list of things we are tired of seeing, and we aren’t even talking about losing.

Oh, by the way, the Browns are now 0-14 after today’s 27-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in what was mercifully, the last home game of the season. Hue Jackson’s record as coach of Cleveland falls to 1-29.

We are tired of the abandonment of the running game. What if we told you that one team averaged 6.8 yards per run, and the other 3.1. And one team had 31 running plays, the other just 19.

You would obviously think the team that averaged almost seven yards per carry probably used 31 running plays.

You would of course be wrong.

The lunacy is after a drive which gave Cleveland a 7-3 lead in the second quarter and consisted of five running plays netting 96 yards, the brown and orange ran 10 consecutive passing plays.

There was one play where QB DeShone Kizer scrambled after dropping back to throw, and ran with the ball, so there was a rushing attempt, but it was not a running play.

Isaiah Crowell had a 59 yard run on the touchdown drive, then carried it just one more time the rest of the game.

We are tired of illegal formation penalties, there seems to be at least one each and every week. This is the 14th game of the season, shouldn’t players know where to line up by now?

We are tired of Kizer’s red zone turnovers. The rookie threw an interception from the Ravens’ 6 yard line, throwing to Crowell when he was covered by not one, not two, not three, but four Raven defenders.

What exactly is Kizer being taught by the so-called “quarterback whisperer”? It is definitely not take care of the football.

We are tired of not seeing the coaching staff use weapons like rookie TE David Njoku and WR Corey Coleman. The two combined for one more catch than we had today.

We are tired of seeing tight ends dominate the Cleveland defense. Gregg Williams’ group had problems covering them in game one, and once again, here on game 14, they still cannot cover them.

Former Brown Benjamin Watson, now 36 years old, caught four passes for 74 yards, including a 33 yard touchdown.

We are tired of the resignation this coaching staff has towards defeat. Myles Garrett gets held often, but it doesn’t seem like an issue for the coaches. Joe Flacco obviously intentionally grounded the ball in the second half, and no one complained boisterously.

We are tired of Kizer’s inaccuracy. He was 20 of 37 on the day, a tick just over 50%, when in today’s NFL, the benchmark is 60%.

That inaccuracy goes with his seemingly terrible pocket presence. He ran himself into a sack once again today.

And we are tired on seeing the Browns on defense for vast amounts of the game every week.

Today, the Ravens had the ball for 37 minutes, compared to 23 for Cleveland. Is the defensive scheme perfect? No. However, that unit is on the field for long periods every game, due to the team’s lack of a commitment to the running game.

Browns’ fans deserve better. This team won one game a year ago, and added a number of good players: Garrett, Kevin Zeitler, JC Tretter, Jason McCourty, Njoku, etc., yet they are somehow worse.

The next installment of this horror film occurs next week in Chicago. A very Merry Christmas Eve indeed.

Browns Don’t Need Help Losing, But Officials Lent A Hand Anyway.

With their record dropping to 0-11 after a 30-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals today, it is pretty clear the Cleveland Browns do not need any help losing football games.

But they received it today from a group of people we have been saying for years does their jobs horribly: The NFL officials.

Whether the Browns would have tied the game at 23 had they got the ball back after Jabrill Peppers was called for a personal foul in the fourth quarter, we will never know, but we do know they were deprived of the chance.

Cleveland had just crept to within a touchdown at 23-16 when Peppers hit Bengals’ WR Josh Malone as he attempted to catch a pass. It was certainly a vicious hit, but it appeared Peppers led with his shoulder and the hit lowered the receiver’s facemask into the safety’s helmet.

Cincinnati went on to put the game away with a touchdown that provided the final margin of victory.

Couple that with a very questionable pass interference penalty against Jason McCourty earlier in the game, and the zebras handed Cincy 11 points.

And to be fair, the same crew called Bengals’ LB Vontez Burfict for an unnecessary roughness penalty in the first quarter, which we rolled our eyes at.

Let the players play.

It is interesting that the box score on the NFL’s website, doesn’t mention the officiating crew. The referee today was John Hussey, which we found on a site, http://www.footballzebras.com.

Our opinion, as it always has been, is that these are the type of plays that should be reviewable, and not by the crew at the game. It should be a system similar to the NBA set up, where someone in the league headquarters reviews it.

The Browns outgained the Bengals, 405 yards to 361, the time of possession was pretty much even, neither team turned the ball over, but still Hue Jackson’s crew came up short.

They ran the ball well, with Isaiah Crowell getting 95 yards in 16 carries, but they seemed tentative in the red zone, understandably so, since DeShone Kizer has had turnover issues there all season long.

Jackson says his team has to play perfect to win, and although we disagree with him, you can’t have a wide receiver drop a pass in the end zone (Corey Coleman), a kicker miss a field goal (Zane Gonzalez’ fifth miss of the year), and you can’t take a sack on 3rd down and 1 in a game decided in the fourth quarter.

Add to that a 16 yard punt by Gonzalez when Britton Colquitt was being checked for a concussion.

Kizer’s pocket awareness continues to be an issue (sacked four times today), but he did make two wonderful touch throws, a 44 yarder to Coleman off his back foot, and a 24 yard toss to TE Seth DeValve late in the first half.

However, there were still issues that linger. Kizer connected on less than 60% of his throws (58%), Duke Johnson had just 10 touches (for 67 yards), and the defense couldn’t force a turnover, with Briean Boddy-Calhoun dropping two possible picks, and Joe Schobert not coming up with a throw that hit him in the stomach in the end zone.

That made the turnover battle even again, with the Browns being 0-8-3 in terms of that this season.

Perhaps winning that category would help the team come up with that elusive first win.

So, it’s on to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers and Kizer will add another weapon with the return of Josh Gordon.

As for the officiating, it’s becoming another reason why the league is losing popularity. Too many needless flags interrupting the flow of play.

Browns Need To Decide What Kind Of Team They Are During Break

The Cleveland Browns played a solid game for three quarters, but ultimately ran out of gas in London, dropping to 0-8 on the season, with a 33-16 loss to Minnesota.

Today, the Browns led after the first quarter, and actually led at the half, 13-12, and were getting the ball to start the second half.

It looked like today might be the day the Browns could get their first win of the season! And the Minnesota Vikings are a solid football team, coming into the game at 5-2 on the season.

But Isaiah Crowell fumbled on the first play of the second half, the Vikings recovered, kicked a field goal three plays later to take the lead.

Hue Jackson’s team regained the lead after a Zane Gonzalez field goal a few minutes later, but after that it was all Minnesota.

Despite leading late, the Browns’ defense was getting tired. The offense only controlled the ball only 22 minutes, and with Myles Garrett, Jason McCourty, Larry Ogunjobi, and Jabrill Peppers all inactive today, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams didn’t have enough bodies to keep his troops fresh.

And although DeShone Kizer played his first NFL game without a turnover, there were plenty of other mistakes to go around in this game.

On special teams, Gonzalez missed an extra point following the first Browns’ TD, and then missed a 35 yarder in the second half. That’s four misses in the last three games for the rookie, two of them inside the 40. You can’t miss those kicks in the pros.

It wouldn’t be a shock if there was a kicking audition during the time off.

Also, Bryce Treggs muffed a punt in the first quarter, leading to a Vikings field goal.

On offense, the use of the running game, or lack of use, we should say, continues to baffle.

The Browns averaged 5.2 yards per carry today, but Crowell and Duke Johnson had just 17 attempts. That accounts for the 22 minutes of possession, and a very tired defense in the second half.

The defense was plagued by horrible officiating. The last Vikings’ touchdown was a result of a series of penalties, and really, only one was obvious. The others could have went either way, and the first Minnesota TD after the half was also created by an interference call on a pass that Vikings’ QB Case Keenum was obviously throwing away.

Joe Schobert has an outstanding game with 11 tackles, an interception, and a forced fumble. Emmanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib deflected several passes as well.

The defense held Minnesota to 2.6 yards per carry, and that is becoming a regular occurrence.

Another questionable decision was having WR Kenny Britt active and then not playing him. If that was the plan, then why have him active? The rules say you can have 53 active players, but the Browns chose to play with 52.

This situation needs to be resolved, and the proper move is to release the veteran wideout.

And where was Kasen Williams again today?

With the bye week to follow, hopefully the front office and coaching staff can get together and determine what kind of team this should be (hint: run the ball and play defense), and who should be getting the bulk of the playing time.

Regardless of what media people think in Cleveland, the Browns have more talent than they did a year ago. However, the record is the same, and that is cause for concern going forward.

Decisions In Red Zone Cost Browns.

We are sure most of the focus of today’s 17-14 loss by the Cleveland Browns to the New York Jets will be on Hue Jackson’s decision to remove DeShone Kizer at halftime.

However, that shouldn’t mask the terrible coaching decisions made during the game. Although the smile on fans’ faces after watching Myles Garrett, who recorded two sacks in his debut, shouldn’t be discounted.

Quite frankly, the Browns dominated this football game, particularly in the first half, which ended with Cleveland trailing 3-0.

In total, the Browns gained 419 yards offensively, compared to 212 by the Jets. And they still lost.

With this one-sided statistical edge, Jackson should have to answer for a case of trying to be too cute offensively when his team got into the red zone.

The first time the brown and orange got inside the Jets’ 20, Cleveland ran an option pitch on third down, the first time the play has been used all year.

The pitch went off of Isaiah Crowell’s hands and was recovered by New York, so instead of at least three points (more on that later), the Browns were kept off the scoreboard.

Later, on the Browns’ next possession, rookie kicker Zane Gonzalez missed a 52-yard field goal. More to come on that front.

The next time Cleveland got the ball close, on a 3rd down and three from the Jets’ four, Kizer threw an interception when it looked as if had he floated the ball over the safety, it would have been a TD pass to TE Seth DeValve.

Before the half ended, Gonzalez missed another field goal, this one much more makeable, from 39 yards. It’s tough to keep missing opportunities to score points.

So, instead of 20 points possible in the first half. Jackson’s team emerged with zero, a combination of crazy play calling, execution by the rookie QB, and poor special teams play, mostly by the kicker.

In the second half, Kevin Hogan, who completed 16 of his 19 throws for 194 yards and two touchdowns, seemed to have more rhythm with the attack, and also looked more amenable to getting the ball to the teams’ best offensive players: Crowell, Duke Johnson, and tight ends David Njoku and DeValve.

But another curious decision came in to play. Down 10-7 in the fourth quarter, the Browns had a 4th and 2 from the Jets’ three. A field goal ties the score, and even with Gonzalez’ issues, he has to be counted on to make a 20 yard attempt, right?

Instead, the coach wasted a timeout, and ran Crowell up the middle, and he wasn’t even close.

That the defense, who was dominant for most of the day allowed a 97 yard drive didn’t help matters, but why not keep the momentum and tie the contest?

Cleveland ran 33 times today, but a closer look at the numbers shows than 10 of those attempts were by the quarterbacks.

Johnson had just nine touches, and produced 83 yards, including a 41 yard run after catching a screen pass.

Njoku scored his third touchdown in five games. Why aren’t the Browns using him more?

Removing Kizer was the right decision in our opinion. He was hurting the team’s chances at a victory. He holds the ball to long and the inaccuracy he was plagued with in college is rearing its’ ugly head.

It’s time for the rookie to watch for awhile, and we would definitely start Hogan next week against the Texans.

He’s earned the gig.

Besides stubbornness, trying to show people how smart you are is our least favorite attribute in coaches. Sometimes the obvious move is the right one.

Jackson has showed each of those things in the last two weeks.

Browns’ Offense Needs To Use Playmakers

Nobody with any common sense figured the Cleveland Browns would be a playoff team, but they did expect some kind of improvement.

We would feel satisfied with four or five wins this year.

However, after a promising beginning at home against the Steelers, confidence for that improvement is beginning to wane for even the staunchest supporters of the organization.

The Browns fell behind one of the teams they should be able to compete with, the Indianapolis Colts without Andrew Luck, 28-7 before rallying but falling short 31-28, and dropping their record to 0-3 on the season.

Offensively, Hue Jackson seems to have a couple of problems.

First, he seems to have a hard time committing to the run. Isaiah Crowell ran the ball four times for 16 yards in the first five offense plays for Cleveland.

That was followed up by seven consecutive passing plays, of which one was completed.

On the Browns’ first touchdown drive, in which they tied the game at seven, Cleveland ran the ball four times for 37 yards, the other 38 came on a pass completion to Kenny Britt

At that point in the game, Crowell had seven carries for 34 yards. He carried the ball just five times the rest of the game, which still had 43 minutes to go.

When the Browns got the ball back down by a touchdown on their next possession, they ran six plays, four of them passes.

Enough of that train of thought, the other problem the offense has right now is they don’t get the ball to the guys who can make plays.

Crowell ran 12 times and caught two passes. Duke Johnson ran the ball twice, yes twice, and caught six passes, accounting for 104 yards, many of them coming in the fourth quarter, although he did score the first TD on a 19 yard run.

We may be in the minority, but Seth DeValve can make big plays. Yet, he caught only two balls for 29 yards. For the season, he has 8 catches, averaging over 16 yards per catch.

Rookie David Njoku, who will frustrate you with drops, has found the end zone twice in three games.

Instead the Browns targeted these three players 22 times in the passing game: Britt, Rashard Higgins, and Ricardo Louis. The trio caught six passes.

Our criticism is that instead of forcing the ball to a mediocre wide receiver group, Jackson needs to get his playmakers involved.

Defensively, the inability to stop WR T.Y. Hilton plagued the Browns. Hilton caught seven passes for 153 yards and a 61 yard touchdown hookup.

Gregg Williams crew held the Colts under 100 yards rushing and a 2.6 average per rush.

But Indianapolis converted 8 of 17 third downs and that allowed them to win the time of possession statistic.

To be fair, the failure to use the running game doesn’t help keep the defense off the field.

Neither does losing the turnover battle, 3 to 1, although one of DeShone Kizer’s interceptions came on the last play of the game.

Joe Schobert continues to impress with eight tackles and a half a sack, and Nate Orchard had a sack as did Emmanuel Ogbah.

There were adjustments made at halftime, and the Colts got just a field goal in the second half, and that score was the result of an offside penalty on 4th and 2 from the Browns’ 40.

That’s something we would like to see from the offense. Adjustments. Use the players who can make plays, and stop getting away from the ground game so early.

Take some pressure off of your 21-year-old rookie quarterback. We thought that was the plan when Kizer was given the job. Unfortunately, as of right now, that’s not the case.

Puzzling Decisions By Browns In Loss

The young Cleveland Browns went on the road for the first time this season, and their inexperienced showed in a 24-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium.

Cleveland is now 0-2 on the season.

If a team turns the ball over five times in a game, lose the turnover battle 5-2, get outgained on the ground, and lose the time of possession battle, that’s a pretty good recipe to come out on the short end of the scoreboard, and that’s what Hue Jackson’s team did today.

Considering all the turnovers, the defense didn’t perform terribly. Joe Flacco completed 25 passes, but only gained 217 yards on those throws, and most of those yards came on tosses to the running backs and tight ends.

The only negative was just two sacks of Flacco (one each by Christian Kirksey and James Burgess). That’s just three on the year, and we would guess that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams longs for the return of rookie Myles Garrett.

Offensively, there are a lot of question marks.

Going into the season, we believed Jackson needed to take pressure off his rookie QB DeShone Kizer, and today, he did just the opposite.

Kizer missed much of the first half with a migraine, but he and Kevin Hogan put the ball in the air 42 times, and it seemed like the coach abandoned the ground game with ten minutes to go in the third quarter, down two touchdowns.

At that point, there was plenty of time to keep running more.

Outside of Kizer’s scrambles, the Browns ran two running plays after that point, one a draw by Duke Johnson (that gained 16 yards) and the other being an ill advised option play on 1st and goal at the Baltimore 2 yard line.

Instead of giving the ball at least twice to Isaiah Crowell, they ran the play by Kizer, which lost yardage, and then threw two passes, the second of which resulted in an interception.

Crowell ran just 10 times today for 37 yards with a long of 17. We still feel Crowell should get the majority of his carries between the tackles.

We also think the Browns have some players who can make plays on offense, but to date, they have had problems identifying them.

Johnson had just seven touches, gaining 80 yards. Why isn’t he getting the ball more often? TE Seth DeValve caught two balls today for 61 yards, he has six catches in the two games.

We don’t believe Crowell was targeted on any throws out of the backfield, so he had just ten touches.

Unbelievably, the leading receiver today was WR Rashard Higgins, who was on the practice squad until yesterday. He caught seven passes for 95 yards.

Meanwhile, Corey Coleman caught one pass.

Look, we aren’t saying Jackson is a bad coach, and needs to be fired. Frankly, that’s the last thing this organization needs.

But, he does need to protect his rookie quarterback better, and he needs to identify who should his feature guys and get them the ball.

Crowell fell just short of 1000 yards a year ago, and still seems to be an afterthought in this offense.

Special teams continue to be a problem as well. Penalties seem to be a norm with this unit, and twice Jabril Peppers downed kickoffs in the end zone, when he was only about two or three yards deep in the end zone.

He can be a playmaker too, and it seems like he is reluctant to try to take a chance.

There was simply a lot of things to shake your head in wonderment in today’s loss.

Plenty Of Good Coming Out Of Browns’ Loss

Although we are encouraged about what the Cleveland Browns are doing, we would have been pleasantly surprised had Hue Jackson’s squad won the season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Our expectations were reinforced with today’s 21-18 loss to Pittsburgh at First Energy Stadium.

The young Browns (and yes, that will be a theme for this season) acquitted themselves quite nicely for the most part, and it appears that there will be plenty for the coaching staff to build on throughout the 2017 season.

Offensively, rookie QB DeShone Kizer played well, completing 20 of 30 throws for 222 yards and his first NFL touchdown and his first NFL TD pass, a three yarder to second year wide out Corey Coleman.

The Browns didn’t force Kizer to throw 40 times, although he was sacked seven times, many of those as a result of the rook not knowing to throw the ball away.

Isaiah Crowell ran 17 times for only 33 yards and another rookie, Matthew Dayes carried three times, so Jackson did try to stay with the run.

Coleman, last year’s first round pick, caught five balls for 53 yards and another second year guy, TE Seth DeValve caught four passes.

Our criticism on the offense was too many empty backfield sets for Kizer, thus the Steelers knowing he was going to pass. And those sets didn’t have much success either.

Also, it appeared Cleveland had success running the ball up the middle with Crowell, but they didn’t seem to stick with that.

Veteran free agent Kenny Britt also dropped a wide open throw for Cleveland.

Defensively, stopping the run wasn’t a problem for Gregg Williams in his debut as defensive coordinator here, Pittsburgh got just 35 yards on the ground.

The problem was stopping WR Antonio Brown, who caught 11 passes for 182 yards, and was the recipient of a pass interference call which set up the Steelers last touchdown.

Carl Nassib (2nd year pro) had a sack, and another player picked in the ’16 Draft, Derrick Kindred had an interception.

And another second year player, LB Joe Schobert, had four tackles, five assists, and deflected a pass.

It did seem Williams decided that without first overall pick, Myles Garrett, he decided to play coverage against Ben Roethlisberger, instead of trying to put pressure on him.

We are anxious to see if he changes next week.

The thing that stuck with us was the swarming nature of the Cleveland defense. It seemed that whenever a Steeler was tackled, there were five or six other Browns around the play.

Now, about special teams. We have wondered why coach Chris Tabor has survived several regimes, and we continue today. The first punt of the year was blocked for a touchdown.

There have been many special teams breakdowns over the past few seasons, and the first one in 2017 was costly.

On the positive side, Jabrill Peppers had a 25 yard punt return, and P Britton Colquitt pinned Pittsburgh inside the 20 for most of the first half.

The officiating was bad today as well. There were several questionable calls against the Steelers today (notably a pass interference called on David Njoku) and the league needs to change the penalty for that violation.

On the PI call which benefited Pittsburgh, Brown was grabbing Jamar Taylor as much as Taylor was grabbing him. To give a team 30+ yards due to something like this is ridiculous.

Next week, Cleveland travels to Baltimore, who shutout the Bengals today. We will see if the progress shown today is something to be very encouraged about.

Browns On The Clock, But Showed Some Good Things

If you were one of the fans who wanted the Cleveland Browns to have the first overall pick in next spring’s NFL Draft, you couldn’t have written a better script than today’s 27-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Include us in that group. We are a fan of the team, but since they are building from the ground up, and have suffered through a painful 1-15 season, why not be all in about having the first selection in the draft.

We understood the Steelers were rested their three most important offensive weapons in QB Ben Roethlisburger, RB Le’Veon Bell, and WR Antonio Brown, so we certainly didn’t want Hue Jackson’s crew to get buried.

But the four turnovers cost Cleveland, who really played better today, that is, outside of giving the ball away.

The Browns took a 14-0 lead in the first half, moving the ball with ease, and defensively applying pressure to Steelers’ back up QB Landry Jones.

Pittsburgh crept to within a touchdown by halftime, and it the second half, the Browns treated the ball like it was a greased pigskin.

We wanted the Browns to show they haven’t quit on Jackson, and that some of the young players have made progress, and they did just that, but still managed to lose, thereby securing the first pick in the draft.

Cleveland outgained the black and gold, 437 yards to 312, and several players had good performances, outside, of course, of turning the ball over.

Isaiah Crowell had his fourth 100 yard rushing game of the year, gaining 152 yards on 19 attempts, but his critical fourth quarter fumble, with the Browns staring a chip shot go ahead field goal in the face, allowed the game to go into overtime.

Briean Boddy-Calhoun, returned an intercepted pass 67 yards, but fumbled on the two yard line, so instead of a point blank touchdown, the Steelers regained the ball on a touchback.

The rookie was also the victim on the game winning TD throw to Cobi Hamilton.

Robert Griffin III showed flashes, completing 29 of 40 throws for 232 yards and his first two TD throws as a Brown, but he threw a critical interception at the end of the first half, and fumbled in the second half.

Griffin led the Browns to eight third down conversions in 15 tries, one of their better marks of the season.

Terrelle Pryor caught seven passes for 94 yards, getting 1,000 yards receiving in his first full season as a wide receiver.

Rookie TE Seth DeValve scored on a 12 yard pass from Griffin, and his play over the last four or five weeks, should have the organization wanting to see more.

LB Christian Kirksey had 11 tackles, including a sack, closing out a very good season.

Another rookie Carl Nassib had a sack (when Jones tripped over a lineman’s foot), and yet another first year player, Emmanuel Ogbah sniffed out a reverse and dropped the ball carrier for a 12 yard loss.

The Browns looked like an NFL team every where except on the right end of the scoreboard, and for the good of the franchise going forward, that’s probably the best thing, right?

In overtime, Cleveland had a first and goal at the Steelers’ 2, but couldn’t get in the end zone. The curious thing was they didn’t try to run, despite averaging seven yards a carry.

With the Steelers playing a lot of substitutes, there wasn’t really anything to be gained by a win today. So, although we mentioned all these good things, how do we know what would have happened had Pittsburgh been playing their regulars.

The downside is having to hear four months of who should/will the Browns take with the first overall pick. To be sure, the players will appear and disappear as the flavor of the month.

The consensus best player is Texas A& M pass rusher Myles Garrett. Hopefully, the Browns do their homework, don’t trade down, and don’t out think themselves.

Speeding up the building process depends on getting impact players, which the first overall pick should be.

Browns Get Win, Keep First Pick.

The very definition of win/win occurred Saturday afternoon at First Energy Stadium.

The Cleveland Browns avoided a winless season due to a 20-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers. It was Hue Jackson’s first win as coach of the brown and orange, and the first time the squad won all year, including pre-season games.

The victory seemed to take the Browns out of their position to get the first pick in next spring’s NFL Draft, something many fans, including us want for the organization.

But later in the day, Cleveland got their cake and was able to eat it as well, as the 49ers, who took over as frontrunner to have the first overall pick, defeated Los Angeles.

So, the Browns got a win, and if they lose to the Steelers on New Year’s Day, they will have their choice of all the eligible college players next April.

A perfect scenario for Hue Jackson, Sashi Brown, and Paul DePodesta.

As for the game, the Browns seemed to do things differently on Saturday. They seemed to stay with the running game more, as Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson carried 23 times combined for the game.

They ran some crossing routes, which have been absent lately. And Robert Griffin III was efficient, although not spectacular (17 of 25, 164 yards) before leaving with a concussion in the fourth quarter.

They even controlled the ball, winning the time of possession battle on the day.

Defensively, the Browns even forced a turnover, their first in weeks, on an interception by Jamar Taylor.

There were still some warts, as you would expect on a 1-14 team.

Cleveland quarterbacks were sacked eight times, mostly because of their awful habit on holding on to the ball forever. On the other hand, even though Chargers’ QB Philip Rivers threw 46 times, the Browns’ defense did not record a sack.

That is why many people think Cleveland should target Texas A & M defensive end Myles Garrett, the best pass rusher available in the draft.

And for those not seeing progress with the rookie class (at least two media members pan the entire draft on a weekly basis), several players stood out.

Emmanuel Ogbah had four more tackles, as did Briean Boddy-Calhoun. Corey Coleman had two catches for nine yards, including a key third down reception for another rook, Cody Kessler, who replaced Griffin, to keep possession in the fourth quarter.

TE Seth DeValve also made a key 21 yard reception on the Browns’ second touchdown drive.

Remember, many rookies don’t hit their stride until they go through a season and an off-season conditioning program, because they don’t know how to prepare and survive an NFL season. Our guess is we will see a lot more in 2017 from most of these young players.

We also like what we’ve seen from Mario Alford, the Browns’ new kick returner. Alford doesn’t seem hesitant and gets good yardage when he decides to bring the ball out of the end zone. Too often, the Browns were starting inside their own 20 yard line.

A little luck went the Browns’ way too. Jamie Meder blocked a field goal in the fourth quarter, and San Diego’s Josh Lambo missed a 45 yarder as time expired as well.

Meder’s block wasn’t lucky, but how often do you see a field goal get blocked?

It’s likely we will see Kessler in the season finale against Pittsburgh, in what is really a meaningless game for both teams. The Steelers are locked in an the #3 seed in the AFC playoff picture.

Hopefully, Jackson will play the game that way too. It is better for the franchise to have the first overall pick in the spring, which the Browns will have by losing on Sunday.

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.