Blown up

The Browns expected to play a football game against the New England Patriots Sunday in Foxboro, Mass. Little did they realize they were the unwitting special guests of the Pats conducting a clinic on how to dominate a game.

In the 60-minute clinic, the Patriots totally dismantled the game plans the Browns had prepared on both sides of the ball and surgically showed them exactly what total domination looks and feels like on the receiving end. It was as though the Pats' playbooks had came alive. Just about everything drawn up worked.

Students of football should take a look at the tape of this one and use it as instruction on how to play near-perfect football for an entire game. This is the kind of football Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski aspires to coach, or should if he doesn't. The execution was practically flawless. 

In short, what happened in those brutal -- if you're a Browns fan -- 60 minutes can be summed up simply: The offense could not stay on the field and the defense could not get off it. The 45-7 trouncing the Pats delivered gave them a pretty good idea of how the Cincinnati Bengals felt after destroying them last Sunday.

The Patriots converted seven of nine third downs from distances of 8, 6, 13, 1, 5, 9 and 3 yards. It was as though successfully converting was preordained. The Browns had 11 chances to convert on third down and succeeded just once -- with 2:35 remaining in regulation. For the record, it was an 18-yard flare pass to running back D'Ernest Johnson. More on him later.

The Pats' offense, led by a pair of rookies and a line that bullied the Browns from the start, scored on eight of their nine possessions, averaging a gaudy 7.3 yards a play. Very little went wrong as they marched up and down the field with relentless ease and little pushback.

Quarterback Mac Jones, looking like a seasoned pro and not playing his 10th National Football League game, completed 19 of 23 passes for 198 yards and three touchdown passes, two to tight end Hunter Henry and a third to wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, who also picked up 43 yards on three reverses.

Running back Rhamondre Stevenson, filling in for Damien Harris who is still in concussion protocol,  blasted out 100 yards and a couple of touchdowns on 20 carries. The six-foot, 240-pound battering ram, who had rushed for 136 yards and a score in limited play this season, picked up a good chunk of his yardage after contact.

The two rookies kept the chains moving all day long. The Cleveland defense, playing back on its heels most of the afternoon, made them look like stars, they were that impressive.

The New England defense, meanwhile, totally dismantled the Cleveland offense, which mustered only 217 total yards, by far the lowest total of the season. Ninety-seven of those yards were accumulated in the final quarter when the Pats backed off with the final verdict obvious.

Baker Mayfield experienced his worst day as a pro, completing only 11 of 21 passes for 73 yards. His previous low was a 100-yard game Oct. 7, 2019 in a 31-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on a Monday night. He was replaced by Case Keenum after a hard hit late in the third quarter.

Outside of the 11-play, 84-yard opening drive, culminated by a three-yard scoring pass to tight end Austin Hooper, everything failed spectacularly for the Cleveland offense. No matter what Stefanski called, the Patriots came up with the correct answer.

It was an afternoon that proved almost conclusively that the Browns are not contenders when it comes to thoughts of the postseason. They are much closer to pretenders. Playing well into January is merely a hope at this point. Playing .500 football after 10 games is not what most fans expected.

They were slapped around Sunday, looking more like a team struggling to find themselves than one with thoughts of playing football well into January.

As a result, the Browns from now on will almost have to run the table in the four remaining AFC North games in order to have a chance of winning the division at best, a wild card at worst. Considering how they played Sunday, that's a mighty tall order.

The only positive that emerged from this one was the play of Johnson, who played well in place of Nick Chubb, stuck back home with a positive COVID-19 result. And no, Chubb would not have made a difference. So purge that from your thoughts.

Johnson gained 99 yards on 19 carries -- he would have had 101, but lost two yards on his final touch -- and gained another 58 yards on seven pass receptions. Adds up 26 touches and 157 yards. He was the offense Sunday.

Fans were fooled and given false hope by what took place last week. That, as it turns out, was an aberration. The club that played then was not the same one that showed up Sunday in suburban Boston. They were embarrassed. The Pats toyed with them all afternoon. And they buckled.

The Patriots, who have now won four in a row and five of their last six games, rewarded Bill Belichick with his 250th victory as New England head coach and raised his record at home against Cleveland to 6-0. They were brilliantly prepared to do exactly what they did.

The way the Browns played last Sunday, some people suggested they were on their their way again to being scary the rest of the way after an unimpressive 2-3 October. You want scary? What we all saw unfold in Foxboro Sunday was scary -- scary good. 

What the Browns witnessed and were a part of Sunday is what they should covet most. Anything else would be falling short.