Monday leftovers

The big question now for the Browns concerns the emotional toll Sunday's 38-7 lashing in Pittsburgh had on a team entering the game with supreme confidence. 

The Steelers took the Browns down so many pegs psychologically, it will interesting to see how they rebound Sunday against the Bengals in Cincinnati. As Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said following the game, "That was varsity ball today." 

What Tomlin didn't say but most likely thought was his "varsity" pounded the Jayvees (Browns) unmercifully for 60 minutes. There was no way the Browns would come even close to winning the game. That they scored seven points was somewhat of an achievement.

The schedule follows a familiar pattern. The Bengals felt the Browns' wrath in week two after the Baltimore Ravens rudely welcomed them to the 2020 season with a walloping that caused some fans to wonder if this was going to be yet another one of those seasons. 

A four-game unbeaten streak during which they scored at least 30 points in every game took care of that, but it establishes a pattern of extreme highs and lows. Now here the Bengals are again in the Browns' crosshairs after a big loss.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski probably will follow the same tact when approaching the second Bengals game. Watch the game tape, guys. Then think about what you saw and develop a good memory. Yesterday is not in the future. The Bengals are.

What Stefanski has to watch out for are those in the locker room who wonder just what kind of a team the Browns are this season. Winning four straight National Football League games is not easy regardless of the opposition. 

"You've got to make sure one (loss) doesn't turns into two," he said Sunday following the game. Well, the opening-game loss turned into four victories, so he's got that one covered. At least until the outcome of this Sunday's game.

A head coach has to be part-time philosopher as well as the guy drawing the Xs and Os. The game itself is emotional to begin with. Making certain the highs are not too high and the lows not too low, a.k.a. keeping an even keel, is important in preparing teams for a game.

If the coach has the right attitude and approach and believes strongly in the trickle down theory, last Sunday's 'loss will have no effect whatsoever on what unfolds in Cincinnati. Starting a season 5-2 was not what many pundits envisioned when they initially looked at the Browns' schedule. And now it's right there to be accomplished.

It will take at least one full season to determine just what kind of a coach the Browns brought on board after the ugly 2019 season. Stefanski is off to good start as he embarks on his goal of eventually coaching a team as good as, if not better than, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The template has been set.

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There will not be a quarterback controversy with the Browns. At least not right now. And it won't be a controversy if and when he decides to make a change. Sunday's removal of Baker Mayfield late in the third quarter had  more to do with the battering he was absorbing.

Stefanski made that abundantly clear after the game. "Baker will start (in Cincinnati) as long as he is healthy and I think he will be," he declared. He does not appear to be a knee-jerk kind of a coach. He is level-headed, gives the impression he knows exactly what he's doing and is firmly in charge. Mayfield is his quarterback until the kid's body says otherwise.

Case Keenum didn't look any better on his three series in the fourth quarter, turning the ball over on downs twice along with a three-and-out. That's a little unfair, though, since Keenum, who is more familiar with the Stefanski offense than Mayfield, did not practice with the first team.

The fault on offense, at least in the two blowouts, lies almost entirely with the line. They got beat up in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, but played very well during the four-game winning streak. A reminder that the old saying goes like this: Football games are won and lost in the trenches.

The Browns' defensive line put scant pressure on Ben Roethlisberger Sunday because the Steelers' offensive line made certain their 38-year-old quarterback would stay relatively clean when dropping back to throw. Mayfield conversely was abused on almost every dropback.

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Stefanski was very honest with regard to the kind of game he called against the Steelers. "We need to point fingers at ourselves starting with me," he said. "There are a bunch of things we can do schematically to make sure we don't put ourselves in that spot."

The spot he was referring to was Mayfield's nasty habit of throwing footballs that wind up in the hands of the opposition. After going two straight games without a pick, he fell back into bad habits and has thrown four in the last two outings.

"We've got to learn from this and move on," the coach said. "Were not built to turn (the football) over. He knows that. Again, I'm going to figure out what I can do better and help him out because I did not help him out today."

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If there is one startling difference between the Browns and Steelers now, aside from the fact the Steelers have a more talented roster top to bottom, it is this: The Steelers attack on both sides of the football. The defense is always bellicose. That's the Steeler Way. But the offense, even with a graybeard at quarterback, is always in attack mode in many different ways. And it all starts with the offensive line. 

If you saved the tape from the game, play it again and watch how that line moved the Cleveland defensive line backward on just about every run play. Penetration took the day off along the softer Cleveland front. And the Steelers' defensive line, with occasional blitz help, got way too close to Mayfield way too often.

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Finally . . . Interesting stats from the game: Mayfield stuck around long enough in the third quarter to run seven plays in two possessions that resulted in a net total yardage of -8. His lone pass (to Jarvis Landry) covered three yards. Landry was targeted just twice and caught one in the first half for 13 yards. He rebounded in the second half with two more receptions for 27 yards.  . . Odell Beckham Jr. was targeted four times -- just once in the second half -- catching two balls for 24 yards. . . . The Steelers owned the football for a shade more than 20 minutes in the second half, limiting the Browns to three first downs and 70 net yards. . . . Rashard Higgins, who caught Mayfield's lone touchdown pass late in the first half, was not thrown to in the second half. . . . Austin Hooper, who grabbed three passes for 50 yards in the first half, caught two more for two whole yards in the second half. . . . Want more? . . . Okay. That's enough punishment..