Monday leftovers

There was something absent from the Browns Sunday in suburban Boston, something that enabled them to beat up on the Cincinnati Bengals seven days earlier.

That something was aggression. They, for some unknown reason, played back on their heels all afternoon against the New England Patriots and paid a dear price in the form of a 45-7 drubbing. 

The aggressive offense and defense that helped create the overwhelming Cincinnati victory must have been jettisoned on the flight somewhere between Cleveland and Boston Saturday because the Browns played not to lose against the Patriots.

Football teams are coached to win, of course. If they are coached defensively or timidly to avoid losing, or play not to lose, the probability factor is they'll lose. Playing like that automatically removes the aggressive factor from a sport that demands it if winning is the main objective.

The Browns played like that Sunday. With one big exception, when they opened the scoring on their first possession, the Pats manhandled them. They took it to them in every aspect. They were at least two or three steps ahead of everything the Browns did on both sides of the football.

It look so ridiculously easy, one would have thought the Patriots had gotten ahold of the Cleveland playbooks. Kevin Stefanski said he was outcoached by Bill Belichick. He didn't have to say it. It was that obvious.

It has reached a point now where talk like that by the Cleveland coach it is becoming repetitious. For those who haven't been paying attention, the Browns have lost four of the last six games after a 3-1 start and fallen back into the AFC North cellar. Only seven games remain, four against division opponents.

It's absolutely true that championships are won in November and December. With that in mind, Stefanski has the monumental task of trying to put this Jekyll/Hyde football team back together because right now, it is broken. It isn't even good. It's mediocre.

Post-game remarks by a couple of leaders on defense put out a warning signal. "We didn't counter like we were supposed to," griped defensive end Myles Garrett. "We didn't stop the bleeding and they kept on attacking where we weren't efficient."

Safety John Johnson III piled on. "They (the Patriots) went back to a bunch of plays where we got hit all year and we just couldn't stop the bleeding," he said, Interesting how each player independently used the word "bleeding" in their assessments.

The problem? Lack of aggression. On both sides of the football. The Browns displayed the aggressive nature of a sloth against the Pats.

For example, the Patriots' secondary plays mostly man coverage, sometimes press coverage. The Browns, on the other hand, play mostly zone. That's one of the reasons Baker Mayfield had trouble finding open receivers. His lone interception of the day was the result of trying to force a pass to tight end David Njoku deep in Cleveland territory in the first quarter with the score 7-7.

Problem was Njoku was bracketed by safeties Kyle Dugger and Adrian Phillips and never had a chance. Dugger grabbed the pick and returned it to the Browns' six. One play later, the Patriots untied it and the rout was on.

Tight coverage was the major factor that enabled the Pats to hold Mayfield to a career-low 73 passing yards, The tepid Cleveland defense, meanwhile, made New England rookie quarterback Mac Jones look like a baby-faced Tom Brady.

Why the Browns don't play more man coverage baffles. If it's because their secondary isn't talented enough to play that aggressively in pass coverage, then draft players who can. 

In the Cincinnati game, Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods unveiled several different blitz packages, beating the daylights out of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. None of that showed up against a rookie quarterback Sunday. 

The Browns have the talent. The results, however, don't match that talent. If the talent does not at least play to its ability, the Browns cease to be a good team, They have descended into mediocrity. If they don't -- or cannot -- ratchet up the intensity on offense and defense in those remaining seven games, the disappointment will intensify.

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It seems as though Stefanski is always talking about correcting mistakes. The Browns have played 10 games and one would think the number of mistakes by now would lessen, not multiply. Pre-snap penalties -- there were five against the Patriots -- are inexcusable. Too many players are not paying attention.

It's like the Browns are in a perpetual correcting protocol. Self-inflicting wounds have become an epidemic with no end in sight.  "We are way, way too inconsistent as a team right now," said Stefanski. That's one too many "ways," which shows at least he's paying attention.

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Whatever happened to that "smart, tough, accountable" mantra the club adopted in the Stefanski-Andrew Berry era? Here's an update as seen through these eyes.

Tough? Not the way they played Sunday. They were anything but. What about smart? Not unless you redefine the word. Accountable? In what way? Again, Sunday was a prime example of what the Browns weren't. Tough, smart and accountable.

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Finally . . . The way Mayfield is getting beat up this season, he is going to be an old man physically by the time he's 35. Torn labrum, broken shoulder, sore foot, banged-up knee. Stefanski would be wise to rest him and use Case Keenum against the 0-8-1 Detroit Lions Sunday at home,  . . . The Browns have scored 17 or fewer points in four of the last five games. . . . Running back D'Ernest Johnson ran for 58 yards on four carries in the opening drive. He booked only 41 more in 15 other attempts. . . . The Pats' offense compiled 452 total yards and 30 first downs; the Browns checked in at 217 and 17.  . . . Rookie defensive tackle Tommy Togiai made his season debut against the Pats. A healthy scratch in the first nine games,  the former Ohio State standout had two tackles (one solo) in 22 snaps.