The other side of the coin

Remember Cade York? He's the young man the Browns selected in the fourth round of the last college football draft to solve the seemingly never-ending placekicking woes that have hounded them ever since Phil Dawson left town 10 years ago..

He became semi-legendary right out of the chute when his unthinkable 58-yard field goal with eight seconds left produced the first club's first opening-game victory in two decades. A new hero was immediately born. Time to be celebrated.

Problem solved, enthused Browns fans. What's next? 

Hold on just a minute. Talk about being quick to judge. One game, one kick does not foretell the future in the National Football League. Get the motion out of your mind that York walks on water. He is fallible. Two failed extra points, one of which was the difference in an earlier loss, is more than ample proof.

After Sunday's difficult -- can't call it heartbreaking because I'd be repeating myself -- 30-28 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in front of the home folks, he is learning to live with how it feels on the other side of the coin. 

He nailed his four extra points Sunday, but missed two field goals, the latter from 54 yards out with eight seconds left for yet another one of those games where winning becomes losing when you least suspect it. For whatever reason, the Browns just do not know how to close out games, let alone win them.

It looked extremely hopeful when Chargers head coach Brandon Staley inexplicably gambled on fourth and short and lost in Los Angeles territory near midfield instead of punting to give the Browns poor field position with 78 seconds left in regulation.

It gave them a second chance to win after blowing the first opportunity moments earlier when Jacoby Brissett, who had room to run on a third down play from the Chargers nine, chose instead to hit Amari Cooper in the end zone but was picked off with York warming up on the sideline for what would have been a chip-shot field goal and the sixth lead change of the game.

After getting the ball back and the Browns now out of timeouts, clutch football was mandatory. They still needed only a field goal for the victory. But with a very average quarterback in charge, that rarely comes to fruition.

And Brissett proved it with only one completion, a 10-yarder to Cooper that moved the football to the 36, in four opportunities, coming not even close on throws to Anthony Schwartz and Donovan Peoples-Jones twice. On this day, 54 yards was a bridge not wide enough. The ball sailed wide of right upright by a yard.

York missed a 45-yarder wide right by at least three yards in the waning seconds of the first half that would have given the Browns a 24-17 lead. It was his first miss this season after nailing the first eight. 

How the two teams got to this point is somewhat extraordinary because it unfolded quite differently than a normal Chargers game. They entered the game riding the arm talents of quarterback Justin Herbert, who averages more than 300 passing yards a game. 

This was supposed to be a battle between the dangerous Chargers passing game against the relentless Browns ground game with the defenses absorbing most of the punishment. The Browns shot out to a 14-0 lead on the first two possessions, mostly on the ground, Nick Chubb bolting 41 yards for the first score and Brissett hooking up with Cooper on an 11-yard touchdown.

Then something very unusual happened. The Chargers, who had entered the game averaging a league-low (by far) 64.5 yards a game on the ground, matched that total the second time Austin Ekeler carried the football. Cleveland cornerback Greg Newsome II saved a touchdown, catching Ekeler after a 72-yard romp.

The defense, which played well in the red zone all day, held the Chargers to a field goal, but a trend was taking shape. The run defense, which was battered last Sunday in Atlanta, was battered even more Sunday. It was 202 yards in Atlanta, 238 Sunday with no answers to the problem in sight unless you factor  sloppy -- no, make that poor -- tackling in the equation. 

The Chargers entered the game with an offense that produced 80% of the yards through the air. Sunday, it was only 49%. Ekeler checked in with 173 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. Joshua Kelley added 49 more yards and a score. Herbert threw for a pedestrian (for him) 228 yards and a touch, quite content to spend most of his afternoon handing off to Exeler and Kelley.

All the Browns starters along the defensive line with various ailments who sat out last week were back. But Myles Garrett, Jadeveon Clowney and Taven Bryan were non-factors. The Los Angeles offensive line owned the line of scrimmage. So did Cleveland's offensive line, which had to deal with the frustration that came with this loss. All that hard work for what?

Until now, and rightly so, the Browns' secondary has taken the brunt of the criticism. Can't blame this one on them. Time to shift the blame. When one leak is plugged, another shows up. The new motto on defense: It's always something.

It might be just a coincidence, but the maulings the last two weeks occurred after Jordan Phillips replaced the injured (for the season) A. J. Walker Jr. at middle linebacker. Phillips was tied for the lead in tackles with 10, many of them well beyond the line of scrimmage. He was also generously awarded the game's only sack when he shoved Herbert out of bounds on a scramble a yard shy of the line of scrimmage.

The Cleveland offense, meanwhile, hummed along smartly as it has for the large majority of the season, reeling off time-consuming, chains-moving, defense-resting drives of 75 yards (five plays), 72 (9), 75 (6), 45 (8), 75 (11) and 73 (12). Chubb and Kareem Hunt gouged out 181 more yards and three scores.

With stats like that, one normally would assume a victory is the end result. But when you factor in a defense that plays soft against the run and a kicker who fails twice to do what he was drafted to do, that's how you wind up on the wrong side of the final score.