Mistakes, Turnovers, And Other Assorted Errors Lead To Yet Another Loss

When you lose the turnover margin 6-0 in an NFL game, we would guess the odds are monumental against winning the game, so perhaps the best thing we can say about the Cleveland Browns is they only lost 21-7 to the defending Super Bowl champs despite that turnover margin.

The game started well with the defense forcing a three and out, but unbelievably, James Proche fumbled the punt and Kansas City recovered and quickly scored a touchdown.

It was the first of several special teams’ errors, mostly penalties, although Proche also caught a punt inside the five-yard line, and fair caught a few more because we assume he was cautious about fumbling another one.

Jameis Winston was benched after throwing three interceptions for the second game in the last three games and has now thrown eight the last three contests. Who starts next week? Our guess would be Dorian Thompson-Robinson, although on a postgame show, both Josh Cribbs (can he come back and return kicks) and Eric Metcalf both thought Winston still is the best option.

Before the game, it was reported that the team could bring back Deshaun Watson next year. We understand Watson is still under contract, but why would anyone in the organization leak that news, especially now? If asked about him, just say “no comment”.

Whether or not the Browns stay with Winston, there is simply no way you can bring Watson into training camp next summer, salary cap hit or not. Seeing his name infuriates most fans, so what is the point of having discussions about him?

Back to the game, another downer was the injury to Nick Chubb, lost for the season with a broken foot. Chubb did lose a rare fumble, but also had 41 yards on nine carries, and seems to be getting some of his explosiveness back. The last two games he has 20 carries for 89 yards, more like traditional Chubb numbers.

The Browns need to bring him back next year.

Also, kudos to Jerry Jeudy who caught 11 passes for 108 yards, his third 100+ game in the last five and we went over the 1000-yard mark on receptions, the first time he accomplished this.

We were concerned about him early in the year, but he has found a rhythm with Winston, so at least there is that.

As happens on losing teams, players seem to play their way off the roster. Last week, we mentioned Kadarious Toney and Dustin Hopkins. This week, we became tired of Germain Ifedi, who can’t seem to get lined up correctly (and picked a dumb unsportsmanlike conduct penalty last week).

Geron Christian started last season for the Browns at left tackle and did a decent job, and he’s with the team. Why not start him for the rest of the year?

We already discussed Proche, but let us add Elijah Moore, who kind of has no role with the team. Moore was supposed to be kind of an all-purpose player who can make big plays, but he’s averaging 8.7 yards per reception on his 55 catches.

Let’s just say, we’d like to see more of Michael Woods II and Jamari Thrash going forward.

Three games left in this dreadful season. Who takes the snaps next week at Cincinnati? The guess would be Thompson-Robinson, but who knows, perhaps it’s Bailey Zappe.

It feels like the season can’t be over soon enough.

The Creative Browns Find Another Way To Lose

There are years where teams are destined to do well. They get every break. Players come out of nowhere to make positive contributions.

Conversely, there are years when everything goes wrong for a team. And that’s the only way we think you can explain the Cleveland Browns right now.

Some of it was self-fabricated, no doubt. When you finish 11-6 and make the playoffs and then replace most of your offensive coaching staff, you kind of deserve what happens to you.

It is utterly amazing to have a starting quarterback throw for 395 yards, two touchdowns, and not turn the ball over and still score just 14 points. It should have been 20 points if not for two missed field goals by Dustin Hopkins, who was 18 of 21 from beyond 40 yards a year ago, and this season has missed six kicks.

Hopkins missed a 32-yard attempt which was nullified by penalty and then missed a 27 yarder right before halftime.

There have been too many games this season where the defense played well enough to win for Cleveland, but yesterday wasn’t one of them. They were atrocious. They allowed 200 rushing yards for the second time this season, and a season high of 473 yards.

If you can’t stop the run, you can’t win. And the Browns’ defense has held opponents under 100 just twice all year.

Taysom Hill, a 34-year-old QB/TE/RB looked like someone bound for Canton. When he’s in the game, you have to figure the ball is going to him, yet Cleveland allowed him to rush for 138 yards and three touchdowns, catch eight passes for 50 yards and complete a pass for 18 more.

And he turned it over twice!

Don’t forget, besides the two missed field goals, the special teams allowed a 53-yard punt return and returned three kickoffs for an average of 18.5 yards. Cleveland hasn’t had a viable kick returner since Josh Cribbs and it shouldn’t be that difficult to find a decent one, let alone someone as dynamic as Cribbs.

The one thing we feared was a seeming lack of effort from some of the players, which could cost Kevin Stefanski his job. The optics weren’t good in New Orleans where it appeared players were going through the motions at times.

What can be done at this point in the season?

Perhaps some accountability is in order. It will be tough because of the short week before Thursday’s game vs. Pittsburgh, but the Browns will then have some time off before a Monday night game at Denver.

If players aren’t putting forth maximum effort, then they should lose playing time or a roster spot. After all, with the playoffs out of the question, shouldn’t the coaching staff and front office be looking towards next season and who can help then?

Hopefully, the players themselves will get together and put up more of a fight at home in a rivalry game in a couple of days. The thought of getting embarrassed in front of a national audience should be enough for some players.

As for the organization? It’s hard to trust them to make the correct decision heading into next season based on their actions surrounding the coaching staff and casting their lot with Deshaun Watson.

It’s a shame for the long time Browns such as Joel Bitonio, Myles Garrett, Nick Chubb, David Njoku, and Denzel Ward that what should have been a promising season has turned to garbage.

What Can You Say About The Browns Right Now?

Sometimes, there is just nothing more to say. That’s how we felt Sunday when the Cleveland Browns lost their fourth consecutive game, this one 23-20 to the Baltimore Ravens.

The loss dropped Kevin Stefanski’s squad to 2-5, with four of the five losses being by three points or less. If there was a gold star for being close, it would go to the Browns.

As former Browns’ star Josh Cribbs once said, the Browns almost always almost win.

Our biggest thought during the game was when Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah forced the fumble in the fourth quarter, the best bet for the team was to move the ball while using the clock, and then make a field goal to tie or a touchdown to win, leaving little time remaining.

Then on a 3rd and 2, Cleveland threw a long pass which Amari Cooper caught, but was called for offensive pass interference. So, the Browns were in a 3rd and 12, and were forced to try a 60-yard field goal after a false start penalty.

Why not either give the ball to Nick Chubb or throw a short pass on 3rd and 2, getting a first down and keeping the ball. It sounds ludicrous to turn down a TD, but they didn’t get the six points anyway.

Jacoby Brissett played well again, but did have a turnover, fumbling in his own territory, but went 22 of 27 for 258 yards. We get it’s a quarterback league, but the Browns are a rare team where the QB isn’t the best player on offense. Stefanski’s insistence on having Brissett make key plays is “frustrating” to use his word.

However, on a weekly basis, the special teams and the defense don’t provide any help in winning games.

The defense played better on Sunday and held Lamar Jackson to just 120 yards passing and 59 yards rushing. The passing total was low because he didn’t need to throw. Baltimore hammered out 160 yards on the ground, making it the third time in the last four games Cleveland has allowed at least 150 yards rushing.

It’s still a fundamental. If you can’t stop the run, you most likely will have a problem winning football games.

Defensive coordinator Joe Woods showed more blitzes against the Ravens and put pressure on Jackson in the pocket. We would like to see more of that. But again, they forced just one turnover. They haven’t forced more than one in a game this year.

The special teams gave up a 46-yard punt return and had a penalty on a kickoff return that pinned the offense back.

Even when both units play error free, they rarely do anything that contributes to a win. And occasionally that’s needed for teams to win in the NFL.

There still seems to be a lack of accountability in the organization though, and we aren’t talking about the coaching staff. It appears there are players who give up on plays and/or just aren’t very good at doing their jobs. Yet, there aren’t any lineup changes except for the ones caused by injuries.

The defense is still ranked very low in most categories, so someone isn’t doing a good job, right?

Next week’s game against Cincinnati is basically must win. Falling to 2-6 makes Deshaun Watson’s return moot. Can they do enough to get a victory?

Our eyes tell us they will do just enough to take another defeat.

Browns Play Inferior Foe and Dominate

Bet everyone was nervous after the first play of today’s Browns game?

In a game the Browns were supposed to win, their fans and players received a cold slap in the face when Kansas City RB Jamaal Charles ran 80 yards for a touchdown on the game’s first snap.

Whatever momentum the Chiefs had ended on their second possession when Ryan Succop hit the upright on a 26-yard field goal attempt.

From there on, it was a Cleveland rout as the Browns won their third straight, beating Kansas City 30-7 at Cleveland Browns’ Stadium. It was a game against an inferior opponent, and Pat Shurmur’s team did what they were supposed to do. They won.

After the Charles’ run, Dick Jauron’s defense allowed just 230 total yards, 100 of them rushing, sacked Brady Quinn five times and held Kansas City scoreless in what turned into a blowout victory.

It gave Shurmur the rare opportunity to take QB Brandon Weeden and RB Trent Richardson off the field in the team’s last series.

After the missed field goal, the Browns moved the football down the field until they got to the Chiefs’ 20, when they went into conservative mode once again and settled for the Phil Dawson field goal, the 300th of his illustrious career.

After another defensive stop, Cleveland took the lead for good when they shifted punt returns from Josh Cribbs to Travis Benjamin taking the latter off the KC gunner. The resulting confusion resulted in a club record 93 yard return by Benjamin, which undoubtedly will start debate as to who should return punts from now on.

Such is life as a Browns’ fan. Even in victory, there will be second guessing.

Of course, we are no exception.

It was curious that Shurmur and his coaching staff used so many gimmick plays against the Chiefs, arguably one of the NFL’s worst teams. Perhaps he was giving the last three opponents something to think about.

Besides the punt return, the Browns dusted off the “wildcat” portion of their playbook, running Josh Cribbs twice for 15 yards, using a double reverse to Benjamin for 15 more yards, and running WR Greg Little out of the backfield for 17 yards.

Isn’t the purpose of these plays to trick your opponents? And if so, why the need to fool a poor football team.

Why didn’t Shurmur use these types of plays against the Ravens, Cowboys, or Giants? Wouldn’t they have served more of the purpose in those games?

Anyway, enough nit-picking.

Here are some other thoughts from a victory that gave Cleveland more wins than they had all of last season.

RB Montario Hardesty led the Browns in rushing with 52 yards in 10 attempts. However, he showed fans why he is best used as a change of pace back, as we dropped another wide open pass (after a nice run), and fumbled near the goal line.

Those are the problems, besides injuries, that have plagued Hardesty throughout his time with the Browns.

Josh Gordon continues to look more and more like a legitimate #1 receiver with eight catches for 86 yards. Gordon and Little, who continues to impress, were unstoppable on slants all day long. The Browns looked for a lot of deep routes in the first half for some reason, because the slant at anytime.

And Weeden is developing a chemistry with both. He completed 17 passes on the day, but to only five different receivers. You can tell that the quarterback wants to get the ball to Gordon whenever possible.

Another positive about this football team is its growing depth, particularly on defense. The five sacks on the day were by six different players. Rookie free agent S Tashaun Gipson had his first interception.

This is big because in the past, the Browns season ended as soon as injuries took a toll on the roster. Granted, Cleveland is relatively healthy, but they also have some talent in reserve.

Next week is the last home game of the season with Robert Griffin III and the Redskins coming in (although Griffin left today’s game with an injured knee). A win would give the Browns a 5-3 home record, four wins in a row, a 6-3 mark after losing their first five contests, and two victories more than in 2011.

At last, it is progress that shows in the win column.

Browns Dominated 1st Half Except for Scoreboard.

Another game, another loss today for the Cleveland Browns who fell to 2-8 with a 23-20 loss in overtime to the Dallas Cowboys in Jerry Jones’ football palace.

Yes, the Browns played well once again. Heck, they dominated the first half leading 13-0 going into the intermission.

Actually, that’s where the game was lost, because Cleveland should have led 21-0 at that point in the game, but they missed opportunities once again.

Defensively, the Cowboys offensive line couldn’t handle the Browns front seven, and they forced Tony Romo into bad throw after bad throw.

In the second half, the Dallas QB got into a rhythm, and the Cleveland secondary, minus starting cornerback Joe Haden couldn’t stop the Cowboy passing attack.

Still, after a Josh Cribbs punt return and a resulting horse collar tackle penalty, the Browns took the lead 20-17 with a little over a minute to play on Benjamin Watson’s second TD of the day, a 17 yard strike from Brandon Weeden.

But Romo drove the Cowboys right down the field, aided by two big penalties, an unsportsmanlike conduct call on S T.J. Ward and a pass interference call on CB Sheldon Brown for 35 yards.

One change the NFL needs to make is making pass interference a 15 yard maximum call. There shouldn’t be any penalty, especially a judgment call that results in that much yardage.

Dallas had the ball inside the Browns’ 10, but had to settle for a game tying field goal by Dan Bailey.

In overtime, Dallas ran 14 plays with just three runs, as they obviously decided they couldn’t run the ball against Dick Jauron’s defense. The Browns ran three play too…total.

That was kind of the story of the game, especially in the second half.

After the Browns first drive after halftime in which they ran 11 plays, moving 41 yards, their next two drives were three and outs, the one following that lasted just four snaps after a Weeden fumble. Dallas had the football pretty much all the time from 10 minutes left in the third quarter until five minutes remaining in the game.

The offense didn’t do its part to give the defense some valuable rest.

In the first half, Weeden, who would up 20 for 35 and 210 yards was erratic with his accuracy. He missed a wide open Josh Cooper on the drive that led to Phil Dawson’s first field goal, and was high and wide

A Watson dropped pass led to another field goal instead of a touchdown in the first half.

Trent Richardson didn’t break any long gains, but he and Montario Hardesty did total 118 yards on the ground, and Richardson added 49 more catching the ball.

Josh Gordon was productive again with five catches for 53 yards and Greg Little did well too, making three grabs.

Despite some predictions of Weeden having difficulty with the Cowboys pressure, he had plenty of time to throw for the most part, getting sacked just twice.

On the other side, Cleveland got to Romo seven times, with eight different players accounting for the plays. However, the absence of Haden once again hurt the Browns as WRs Dez Bryant and Miles Austin combined for 18 receptions and several pass interference or holding penalties.

It seems trite to say the Browns are the best 2-8 team in the NFL, mostly because there aren’t many teams with just two wins.

Still, it is disappointing that Pat Shurmur can’t put more games in the win column, especially because other teams with similar records last year and won more games.

For whatever reason, the play calling for the Browns gets very conservative when they get near the red zone. Why? That’s a question for the coaching staff.

Unfortunately, that lack of aggressiveness will likely cost the staff their jobs at the end of the season.

This season will likely be dubbed, “Close, but no wins”.

Too Many Mistakes Kill Browns, Including on the Sidelines

Sometimes the obvious thing is the right thing to do.

That’s something coach Pat Shurmur needs to learn, but unfortunately, his learning experience cost his football team a game they should have won, as they lost to the Indianapolis Colts, 17-13, and dropped to 1-6 on the season.

The Colts came into the game not being able to stop the run, getting gashed each of the last two weeks. So, what did the Browns do?

The passed on 41 of their 58 plays from scrimmage, despite not trailing by more than one score for the entire game.

On the flip side, Indy came in to the contest not being able to run the football at all, but they ran it 37 times for 148 yards, an average of 4.0 yards per attempt.

Can’t run the ball, can’t stop the run. Where have we heard that before?

Pretty much every week since 1999. That’s the biggest reason the Cleveland Browns cannot win football games.

Otherwise, this was a game where mistake after mistake cost the Browns a victory in a game where they had numerous opportunities to claim their second straight victory. They showed today why they are a bad football team.

The most obvious mistake was the dropped touchdown pass by Josh Gordon late in the fourth quarter which would have given Cleveland a 20-17 lead. But another error followed on the next play.

If you are going to throw the ball deep on 3rd and 1 at that point in the game, the thought process has to be that you have another play to get the first down.

That would be the thought unless you are Shurmur and you decide to punt the ball away to the Colts.

You also have three special teams penalties that nullified good returns by Josh Cribbs and took away good field position.

You have an unnecessary roughness penalty on D”Qwell Jackson which gave Indianapolis three additional plays early in the fourth quarter.

You have a missed tackle on an obvious running play by CB Sheldon Brown, which led to a 26 yard run by the Colts’ RB Vick Ballard when they were basically trying to just run time off the clock.

You have a missed extra point on the Browns’ first touchdown because Reggie Hodges dropped the snap and hold.

That’s too many mistakes to make in a close game, even if that contest is against a team who had the first pick in the NFL draft a year ago.

However, the biggest problem was the lack of effort in trying to exploit the Colts’ inability to stop the run coming into the game. In the second half, Shurmur treated the game plan like the Browns were behind by three touchdowns, not eight points, running the ball just two times in the third quarter and just six times in the second half.

By the way, those six runs netted 21 yards.

Trent Richardson had eight carries for eight yards, and only caught two passes for 11 yards. He appeared tentative hitting the hole for the second straight week, but he did gain nine yards on his first catch on a pass to the flat, which the Browns didn’t use the rest of the game.

Montario Hardesty did hit the hole quick, and gained 28 yards on seven attempts, but the Browns biggest rushing play of the game was a scramble by Brandon Weeden of 13 yards.

Weeden did hit 25 of 41 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns, one of 14 yards to Greg Little, and the other a 33-yard strike to Gordon, his fourth TD reception in the last three games.

Defensively, Cleveland couldn’t stop the Colts in the first half, but Dick Jauron made adjustments in the second half and held Indy to just a field goal. Brown was picked on quite a bit, but did cause the only turnover of the game when he sacked Andrew Luck and recovered the resulting fumble.

It was a very disappointing loss for the Browns, because they came into the game probably with the better team. That won’t happen too much this season.

Once again, the propensity of this team to ignore the run killed the Browns. New team CEO Joe Banner has seen this movie before, in Philadelphia with Andy Reid as the pass happy coach.

Turnovers A Killer for Browns in New York

The Cleveland Browns were looking good Sunday afternoon against the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants as they were ahead 17-10 and driving with 4 minutes to play in the first half.

The game suddenly turned on them in a hurry.

Coach Pat Shurmur called a pass play on 3rd and 1 at the NY 25 yard line. Trent Richardson was not on the field for the play. The Giants knew the Browns were going to throw the ball at that point and Stevie Brown picked off the pass and returned it to the Cleveland 40. Two plays later, the Browns advantage was erased and the score was tied.

After six more plays were run, the Giants were on top 24-17 following a fumbled kickoff return by Josh Cribbs.

At the very least, Shurmur’s crew could have extended the lead to 10 points. Instead, they trailed by seven heading into the locker room.

It was a strange play call to say the least. If you are taking your best offensive player out of the game (while he was having a great deal of success, mind you), then surprise New York by running Chris Ogbonnaya. As said before, when the rookie from Alabama came out of the game, the Giants knew a pass was coming.

Even so, you can blame the play calling all you want, and judging by talk shows after the game, that was the focus of fans’ discontent, but the real culprit was a terrible defensive showing by Dick Jauron’s crew.

You simply cannot win in the NFL giving up 502 yards of total offense, especially with 243 of it coming on the ground.

For all the hand wringing done about defending Eli Manning, more focus should have been given to stopping Ahmad Bradshaw, who carried 30 times (note that Browns!) for 200 yards.

This enabled the Giants to win the time of possession battle by over 10 minutes.

Remember our familiar refrain about the Browns? Can’t stop the run. It was never more evident than today.

That’s not to say the secondary is blameless. Manning looked at times like he was running a 7 on 7 drill in practice, just sitting in the pocket and picking out open receivers.

The Cleveland defense could not put pressure on Manning, as he wasn’t sacked at all on the day. With the Browns’ defensive backs being either very young or very old, they couldn’t stop the aerial assault either.

New York had a whopping 30 first downs for the game, and they only had to punt twice.

It’s tough to say any Cleveland defensive player stood out, but rookie DT Billy Winn continues to impress and S Usama Young had an interception. That’s about it.

Offensively, the coaching staff seems to resist the temptation to give the ball to the rookie from Alabama more often. Richardson had just 17 carries and caught five passes, far short of the at least 30 touches he should get. He averaged almost five yards per carry.

QB Brandon Weeden came up just short of his second straight 300 yard passing performance, throwing for 291 on 22 of 35 completions. He threw two TD passes to rookie WR Josh Gordon, but threw two interceptions as well, the ill-fated pass mentioned earlier and another was picked off in the end zone with the Browns trailing by 14 early in the fourth quarter.

WR Greg Little took a goose egg on the day, but Jordan Norwood responded with nine catches for 81 yards, and Ogbonnaya caught three balls for 54 yards, including a 38 yard gain.

And besides the fumbled kickoff return, Cribbs returned six kicks for an average of 36.8 yards.

So now the Browns come back home at 0-5 and a return date with Cincinnati, who is coming off a disappointing loss to the Dolphins.

At this point, you have to wonder when a victory will come, because it is becoming obvious that this group has forgotten how to put one in the win column.