Were those impostors?

Okay, will the real Cleveland Browns please step forward? No, not you guys who dragged a four-game losing streak into Monday night's home game against the surging Cincinnati Bengals. 

I'm talking about the team that showed up in front of a national television audience and delivered a didn't-see-that-coming 32-13 beatdown of the Bengals, looking nothing like the highly disappointing and underachieving crew that struggled through their first seven games.

What the TV audience witnessed was a team that played upper echelon football for the first time this season on both sides of the football from the first snap to well into the fourth quarter. These Browns, not those other ones, took a 25-0 lead into the fourth quarter.

The offense was sharp with quarterback Jacoby Brissett unfurling without question his best performance of the season, directing four touchdown drives with exquisite precision. If he played anything like this in the first seven games, the Browns wouldn't be 3-5 now heading into the bye week.

As much as the offense manhandled the Cincinnati defense, scoring with relative ease in the second half after taking an 11-0 halftime lead on a first of Nick Chubb's two touchdowns and a 55-yard field goal by Cade York, it was the Browns' much-maligned defense that was the star of the evening.

Playing undoubtedly their most aggressive game of the season against the hottest offense in the league coming in, they made Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow look average rather than one of the bright young stars in the National Football League.

Burrow, now winless against the Browns in four tries, came into the game on the heels of a 481-yard, three-touchdown performance last Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. Even though he was without Ja'Marr Chase, out with hip problems, it was thought he would have few problems against a Cleveland secondary without Denzel Ward.

Instead, he was forced to throw mostly underneath with checkdown, swing, dump and flat passes that gained minimal yards and forced a trio of three-and-outs. He threw for only 232 yards and a pair of meaningless late touchdowns.

He faced a relentless pass rush that dropped him five times and narrowly missed him on at least two other occasions, while the run defense, gouged for nearly 700 yards in the previous four games, limited the Bengals to just 36 yards on the ground. Bengals running back Joe Mixon was a non-factor.

Leading the assault into the Cincinnati backfield behind a leaky Bengals offensive line were Myles Garrett, who had one sack and shared another with Taven Bryan, rookie Isaiah Thomas, newcomer Deon Jones and the ubiquitous linebacker Sione Takitaki in easily his best game as a pro.

Playing in place of the injured Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, No. 44 totaled 13 tackles (six solo) and was seemingly in the same area code of the football a major portion of the evening. He epitomized the aggressive nature of that side of the ball.

This team was stoked on defense. Rarely did runners break free. With few exceptions, receivers had close company when Burrow connected. The tackling was superb. Best all season. This team looked like impostors compared to those who showed up for the first seven games.

This was a beatdown in every sense of the word. The Bengals never threatened in the first half and the early stages of the second half. Their first seven possessions of the game netted just 97 yards in 37 plays. 

Coverage by the Cleveland secondary was sticky, forcing Burrow to throw into shuttered windows when he threw beyond the line of scrimmage. With Chase out, the Browns successfully shut down Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd until each scored meaningless touchdowns to make the final look more respectable.

Would Chase have made a difference? Maybe. But the way this defense played, it would have been extremely difficult for him. This group was determined to make this a statement game. The effort they put forth reflected that and was amply rewarded.

As for the Cleveland offense, remember that wonderful statistic the Bengals brought into the game? The one that pointed out their defense hadn't given up a second-half touchdown all season? Yeah, that one. It went bye-bye on the Browns' first possession of the second half.

In fact, it went bye-bye big-time with touchdowns on the next two possessions The offense's first three drives of the half required 27 plays, totaled 218 yards and took 19:06 off the game clock. Scoring honors went to Brissett on a scramble, Chubb and Amari Cooper on a beautiful connection from four yards out.

Seemingly inspired by the defense, the offense wore down the Cincinnati defense in the process and kept the offense tethered to the bench. The Bengals owned the football for only seven minutes and 25 seconds in the final 30 minutes.

Brissett was brilliant, throwing with rarely-seen accuracy for 278 yards while fashioning his second straight game without an interception. He connected with Cooper on bombs of 18, 27, 53 and 29 yards and Donovan Peoples-Jones on strikes of 37 and 25 yards.

Chubb busted a two-game drought without a 100-yard game with No. 5 on the season, a 101-yard effort that featured, as usual, about 70 of those yards after contact. It was an evening where just about everything Kevin Stefanski dialed up worked as it was drawn up in the playbook.

So does this stunning result signify a resuscitation has begun as the club teetered on the brink of playoff elimination and many similar replications await down the road, especially with the return of Deshaun Watson just four games away?

Stay tuned and find out whether the Browns who showed up Monday night will re-emerge after the week off.

Torpedo or resuscitate

There comes a time in a season when a football team arrives at a juncture during the schedule where the difference between winning and losing either torpedoes the entire season or resuscitates it.

The Browns are at that juncture Monday night at home with resuscitation in mind when they take on the red-hot Cincinnati Bengals in front of a national television audience. 

The Browns are the polar opposites of the 4-3 Bengals, entering the game with a four-game losing streak and 2-5 record. The last time the Browns lost five straight games in the same season was 2017, when they lost them all.

The history between these division rivals in the last four seasons is a bit deceiving, The Browns have won seven of eight, including the last four in a row, but that was before the emergence of quarterback Joe Burrow, who has transformed the Bengals into a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Putting this into perspective, getting to the Super Bowl is merely a pipe dream, a fervent hope for starved Browns fans. The much younger Bengals franchise has been there three times, Winless in three tries, but three times more than Cleveland.

The Browns not only need to win this one, they must win it or the season is flushed down the drain and welcoming Deshaun Watson back from the suspended list for game 12 in early December only means the early stages of putting together the 2023 Cleveland Browns offense commences.

Burrow, who led the Bengals to their third Super Bowl appearance last season in just his second National Football League season, has never beaten the Browns in three tries. He's thrown for 1,003 yards with six touchdown passes, but zero victories. He sat out last season's finale after clinching the AFC North title.

He comes into this one blazing -- six scoring passes, no interceptions and 885 yards in his last two games -- against a Cleveland defense that has been mistake-prone throughout the season. In the process, he has risen to the top tier of NFL quarterbacks along with Patrick Mahomes II, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert.

He comes in with one huge bullet removed from his arsenal. Ja'Marr Chase, his favorite receiver who caught 15 passes for 262 yards and four touchdowns in his last two games, is out with a hip injury, bumping Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd to the top of the wide receiver rotation. 

Chase's absence could possibly change Bengals head coach Zac Taylor's game plan against the Browns and concentrate on running the football. A quick glance at the stats reveals the Browns have surrendered 175 yards a game on the ground in their last four outings.

Numerous critics all season long have carped about the need for defensive tackles and the front office appears to have responded with almost disdainful inaction, basically saying, "We don't need no stinking defensive tackles." 

Yes you do. Take off your blinders, gentlemen.

That said, Taylor hasn't really unleashed running back Joe Mixon this season, riding Burrow's elite arm to the top of the division after an 0-2 start. Mixon, who has yet to record a 100-yard game this season, has three of them against Cleveland in eight games. 

Keeping him busier than usual is one way to take whatever heat the Cleveland pass rush can bring from the edge off Burrow, who tends to hold on to the ball longer than he should. His 24 sacks thus far is a little misleading, though, 13 coming in the first two games (both losses) and just 11 in the last five games (4-1).

The Bengals' defense has in a different way been just as big a story as the offense in becoming the NFL's best second-half team. As in the second half of every game this season. The next team that scores a touchdown against this defense in the final 30 minutes will be the first.

A big challenge for the Cleveland offense, which has scored 77 points in the second half this season, including at least one touchdown in each of the last six games. That will depend largely on whether head coach and playcaller Kevin Stefanski returns to the run-first stance that has been so successful.

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett will operate at a slight disadvantage with tight end David Njoku down with a high ankle sprain and right guard Wyatt Teller (calf) missing his second game in a row. That means Harrison Bryant moves up to TE1 for the game with Pharaoh Brown backing up.

Out for the defense is cornerback Denzel Ward, still in concussion protocol, while linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who had his best game last week against Baltimore, is listed as questionable and hasn't practiced all week with a knee.

Look for a lot of scoring with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, playing perhaps his last game as a Brown pending trade-deadline moves Tuesday, leading the way for the Browns on the ground, and Burrow sustaining his hot streak even with Chase on the sidelines as a spectator and throwing three more touchdown passes. The Bengals' second-half TD streak comes to an end and so, too, does the Browns' 2022 season, for all practical purposes, as the losing streak reaches five games. Make it:

Bengals 34, Browns 21

Mid-week thoughts

It wasn't long ago, late July in fact right around the beginning of training camp, that John Johnson III waxed poetically and practically bragged about the extremely positive vibe that enveloped the 2022 Cleveland Browns.

"It's a lot different," the veteran free safety said, "like the vibe is way better. I don't know if it's just me, but everyone feels that same vibe like we've got a lot of guys back (and) that continuity is huge, especially on defense. So it's fun and we're enjoying it and we can't wait to get it on the field."

It was a complete 180 of his exit interview following the highly disappointing 2021 season, Johnson's first with the Browns. He told the hierarchy there was a problem with the team chemistry, believing it was missing.

Part of the problem might have been the locker rooms of the offensive and defensive units were separate due mainly to COVID-19 protocols and restrictions. This season, everyone is back together in the same locker room.

Thus the brimming optimism, buoyed by the fact many of members of the 2021 team were back, including just about every member of the secondary. The entire defensive unit, which pretty much held the team together and avoided a total collapse, played top five football in the second half of the season.

"Now," Johnson said, "we're picking up where we left off  (last season). I'm not just saying that. We're picking up where we left off. We're mastering things. We're a whole lot better at just letting our bodies do what we're  supposed to do. I think it's definitely going to take off. We're going to be critical . . . I know what we can be . . . Consistency is what we need."

Remember now this was about three months ago. "Toward the end of last year," Johnson said, "we were really rolling. It was kind of natural. At the beginning of the year, we were kind of thinking a lot. We were trying to get adjusted. But now it feels natural. We don't have to say anything to each other, We just look. That's the definition of a good defense, a good secondary from what I've learned."

This was the same John Johnson who, perhaps not remembering embracing the vibe in training camp, complained publicly about a lack of commitment to the cause by teammates a few days before taking on the Ravens in Baltimore last Sunday.

Fast forward a few days to M&T Bank Stadium late Sunday afternoon, moments after a heartbreaking loss to the Ravens when screaming and ranting was loud enough to be heard by the media prior to post-game interviews in the adjacent media room.

It was like a lid on a bubbling cauldron that needed to be blown off to release the season-long mounting of frustration, anger and angst and release all the pent-up emotions and problems out into the open. 

Head coach Kevin Stefanski called it "normal. Normal football." He knows better.

Some people will believe him, though. I don't. I have been in enough locker rooms over the years to know behavior like that is very much out of the ordinary. 

Optimists will look on it as a good sign. The players really do care. Pessimists, on the other hand, will say it won't make any difference. That won't help them learn how to finish games that should be won but are not. For certain, though, you can bet it has gotten the attention of the front office.

And what about Johnson's vibe? Gone. Vanished. Smashed to smithereens in just seven games. 

As it has turned out, the vibe boast was nothing more than words that gave fans a false notion there was hope for this season. Turns out there wasn't. And it's not going to get any better.

So much for the vibe.

Monday leftovers

The situation arose last week when Browns free safety John Johnson III questioned the dedication  and leadership of the team. It exploded after they lost to the Baltimore Ravens in agonizing fashion Sunday.

"It's a commitment thing," Johnson said. "When practice is over and our day is done, you just can't run out of the building and forget your job. I think we need everyone in this building to be 100% in on the task at hand."

And then he dropped a bomb. "Right now, I think we're in a place where that's not the case,"he said, adding later that "the leaders on this team need to get together and figure it out and got to change something."

At the time, I thought Johnson went public to get his teammates' attention with a big intra-division game coming up. To let them know, the disappointing defense in particular, that commitment and dedication were primary ingredients in performing better.

Apparently, it was a lot more than that.  

The sound of ranting and raving players, loud enough to be heard in the post-game media room, pierced the air following the loss Sunday, catching the attention of said media. Such outbursts are rare and risk being blown out of proportion.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski tried to defuse the situation. "Yeah, that's normal," he said. "Normal football." Really?

The frustration of losing four straight games might have been too much for some of the players not used to this and with emotions generally ultra raw right after games, anyway, the result is not surprising. But few spill out like this. 

My first thought? Does Stefanski have a monstrous problem on his hands? Or is this just a one-time thing? It's best to allow players the opportunity to blow off steam, get a grip and then move on. Focusing on the next opponent cannot be stressed enough.

I thought Stefanski had a firm grip on his team from an emotional standpoint. Maybe that's still the case, but an incident like this was newsworthy enough to wonder if his hold might be showing signs of slippage.

Garrett mentioned the Leadership Council, which is usually made up of veterans. They are the off-the-field leaders. All well and good. The more important question is who are this team's leaders? The guys who say, "Follow me."

From a performance viewpoint, it used to be middle linebacker Dwight Walker Jr., but he's on injured reserve the rest of the season and no one has stepped up. On offense, guard Joel Bitonio doesn't seem like a take-charge guy. 

Sad to say the Browns traded someone during the offseason who epitomized leadership during his tenure in Cleveland. You can criticize his accomplishments, but you can't deny Baker Mayfield exhibited strong leadership qualities for four years with the Browns.

***

As a general rule, I am a big fan of officials in all sports and with rare exceptions will defend them. With that in mind, I believe the Browns were screwed out of a legitimate opportunity to at least tie the game Sunday. And I'm not talking about Amari Cooper's pass interference that took away a touchdown. That was the correct call. Cooper admitted it after the game.

I'm talking about the false start call on offensive lineman Michael Dunn of the field-goal kick team as Cade York awaited Charley Hughlett's snap on a 55-yard attempt on fourth and five at the Baltimore 37 with 2:09 left in regulation and the Ravens up, 23-20.

Before the snap was made, a flag flew. Before making the call, referee Shawn Smith conferred with other members of his crew before tagging Dunn with the misdeed. Except it wasn't a false start and it wasn't Dunn. Nevertheless, five more yards were tacked on, moving York back to midfield and a 60-yard attempt that eventually was partially blocked.

Something looked very wrong when the play unfolded in real time. It didn't look like anyone on the Cleveland line moved.The first movement was made by Baltimore veteran Calais Campbell, a 6-8 defender considered one of the best at blocking kicks,

So I went to the video tape and watched it again. Frame by frame. I can do that with my remote. 

I wondered who threw the flag? Was it the line judge or the down judge, who are the best positioned officials to detect and call any kind of line movement on either team? Turns out it was neither. 

It was umpire Bryan Neale (No. 92 in your program) who reached for the laundry as everyone waited for the snap. He lined up almost adjacent to York, slightly to the kicker's  right. He reached for his flag immediately after Campbell and then fellow defensive lineman Travis Jones, on the left side of the Baltimore formation, penetrated the line of scrimmage and stood Cleveland's Jedrick Wills Jr. straight up.

I then re-racked the tape, frame by frame, and honed in on where Dunn was at the time and looked for any kind of movement. I saw none. He was stock still in a three-point stance until relaxing after the whistle. I did see Cleveland defensive tackle Jordon Elliott on the left side of the Cleveland formation slightly twitch his right leg and then stop, but that was after the whistle..

I have no idea what Neale saw -- or thought he saw -- that prompted him to stop play. The line judge and down judge, meanwhile, kept their flags in their pockets. They saw nothing that would cause them to stop play. 

The only possibility is Campbell and Jones reacted to what appeared to be helmet movement by Hughlett. The long snapper began the play over the football, his head looking straight ahead. And when he dropped his helmet down to look back through his legs and make certain he was aligned with York and holder Corey Bojorquez, that's when Campbell and Jones jumped.

Lowering the helmet in that case is not illegal. 

Campbell and Jones were either clearly offsides or clearly in the neutral zone illegally, either of which should have drawn a flag from the line judge or down judge. Maybe both. But not the umpire, who had the worst view because he was directly behind the line of scrimmage. The correct call would have moved the sticks five yards closer to the Ravens' goal line and created a first down at the Baltimore 32.

Instead, what appears to be an official's mistake put the Browns out of decent field-goal range and into the loss column. They were screwed.

The National Football League is good when it comes to apologizing to teams that have been screwed by officials' mistakes. The Browns should be getting a letter of apology from the league any day now.

***

Finally . . . How much longer will Stefanski marginalize his best offensive weapon? Nick Chubb still leads the NFL in rushing with 740 yards, but Saquon Barkley of the NewYork Giants is rapidly closing the gap and now trails Chubb by just 14 yards. Chubb averages 18 carries a game, but often times is on the bench when the Browns are in the red zone. For someone who has a nose for the end zone, the bench is the last place you'd like to see him, , , , No that David Njoku is out for about a month with ankle problems according to reports, Harrison Bryant likely moves into the top tight end role with Pharaoh Brown getting more work in two tight end sets. . . . Jacob Phillips' season is over. The middle linebacker, who recently took over following Walker's injury, has a torn pectoral muscle. Newcomer Deon Jones, who made his Browns debut against the Ravens. . . . Question of the week: Can the Cleveland defense keep Joe Burrow & Co. under 35 points in Monday night's nationally televised home game with the Cincinnati Bengals?

Better is not good enough

At the end of Sunday's game between the Browns and Baltimore Ravens, it would not be incorrect to say the much maligned Cleveland defense finally burst through with easily its best performance of the season.

A quick glance at the post-game stats sheet revealed no blown coverages for the first time last season. Check. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, a twice-a-season nemesis, was held to just 120 yards passing and only 59 yards on the ground. Check. And tight end Mark Andrews with no receptions. Double check.

It sure looked as though the Baltimore game plan on offense centered on running the ball with Jackson pretty much a a facilitator. Andrews, who may have been limited by an injury, was not a factor at all from a receiving standpoint. 

Only one problem. The Browns couldn't stop the Baltimore ground game, which racked up 160 yards, as the Ravens rode two touchdowns by running back Gus Edwards and three field goals by the peerless Justin Tucker to a 23-20 victory.

It extended the Browns' losing streak to four games -- a first in the Andrew Berry/Kevin Stefanski era -- and dropped them into the AFC North basement at 2-5 with the hot Cincinnati Bengals on tap a week from Monday night in Cleveland. In those four losses, the Browns have been gouged for 698 infantry yards. 

A furious comeback by the Cleveland offense, which put 10 quick points on the board (a Nick Chubb touchdown and Cade York field goal) on their first two possessions of the game before snoozing for the better part of the next two quarters, made the final nine minutes interesting after Kareem Hunt scooted two yards to pull the Browns to within three at 23-20.

The Ravens, who controlled the football for 34 minutes, went back to the ground in an effort to take time off the clock and force the Browns to burn timeouts. The Browns needed a break and for one of the few times this season, they actually made a play when it mattered.

Just when it appeared the Ravens would be successful, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah punched the football out of the hands of running back Justice Hill and defensive end Isaiah Thomas recovered at the Cleveland 16 with 3:12 left in regulation. Plenty of time to at least pull into a tie.

A perfect 37-yard connection with Donovan Peoples-Jones by Jacoby Brissett down the right sideline on third down took the ball to the Ravens 42-yard line with 2:37 left. Still plenty of time. For what, though? A rare victory? Another disappointment? Don't forget, these are the luckless Browns

And yet here they were with victory -- or at least a tie -- well within grasp. And it sure looked like victory when Brissett connected on a 34-yard scoring pass with Amari Cooper on third down with 2:40 left. Remember to keep in mind these are the luckless Browns.

Too good to be true? Yep. The points came off the board when Cooper gained slight separation from Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters by using his arm, hoping officials wouldn't notice. They did. Offensive pass interference. Hall of Famer Michael Irvin got away with such a move for years. Cooper didn't. 

The penalty took Cade York, who earlier had kicked field goals of 41 and 37 yards, out of his comfort zone back to the Ravens' 44, making it a 62-yard attempt. Brissett got seven of those yards back on a scramble, giving York at least a good shot at the tie from 55 yards.

That's when something very Cleveland Browns-like struck. As York lined up for a 55-yard attempt, there was penetration from the left side of the Baltimore line before the snap. Whistles blew, a flag flew. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator, screamed repeatedly at his men to "watch the ball." In other words, don't move until the ball moves. He suspected the worst.

He didn't get it. Referee Shawn Smith consulted with other officials before surprisingly announcing Michael Dunn of the Browns on the line had committed a false start. Replays revealed Dunn moved only after contact was made by the Ravens, which ordinarily would draw a flag for either offsides or neutral-zone infraction. A case of Ravens luck trumping Browns luck.

With the ball now back at the 42 and a 60-yard attempt looming, York's only chance of evening the score was to start the ball low and gain height and distance as it traveled toward the goalpost. It never got there as former Ohio State star Malik Harrison got a hand on the ball with its low trajectory and steered it off course.

Had it not been for some terrible ball security by Brissett, this one might have had a different outcome. Brissett was strip-sacked twice, losing one deep in Browns territory early in the third quarter which led to a Ravens touchdown, and giving up valuable yardage to short-circuit drives.

While the Cleveland defense was effectively shutting down Jackson the passer and Jackson the runner, the Ravens defense created four sacks (they had five overall) in six consecutive dropbacks covering consecutive possessions spanning the second and third quarters.

Brissett, who is a different quarterback when he doesn't get rid of the football quickly, had trouble spotting open receivers, was slow to react and paid the price on the first possession of the second half when successfully strip-sacked by Calais Campbell at the Cleveland 25.

To give you some idea of how tough the defense was on this afternoon, it took the Ravens seven plays and slightly more than four minutes to move the 25 yards before Edwards, playing for the first time in nearly 20 months after major knee surgery, ran the the final yard to make it 20-10.

There are glimmers of hope in this loss whereas there were none before. Take away his mistakes while trying to avoid the Baltimore pass rush, Brissett actually had a decent afternoon with 22 completions in 27 attempts for 258 yards. 

He targeted David Njoku, Cooper and Peoples-Jones 17 times, hitting on all but one for 216 yards. He was perfect with Peoples-Jones and Njoku, who exited the game with an ankle problem late in the second half.

The ground game reawakened with 113 yards, Chubb leading the way with 91 yards on 16 carries. It's still not enough work for the league's top rusher, who keeps moving the needle on yards gained after contact. 

There was much more aggression on defense. Finally. Players were flying to the football. The tackling, comparatively speaking, was better. Pass coverage was tighter and the pass rush came alive. The one weakness, of course, was stopping the run.

You'd think the Ravens would be more vulnerable with their top guns on offense playing so, for them, relatively poorly. Therein lies the difference between these two teams. The Browns have more overall talent. The Ravens know what it takes to win games like this. The Browns do not.

Putting on a show

Lamar Jackson is having all sorts of problems this season plying his trade as a quarterback in the National Football League. 

His Baltimore Ravens sit atop the AFC North with the Cincinnati Bengals at 3-3 at this junction, and yet Jackson pronounced himself and his teammates "pissed off about losing." It's not just losing that bothers him. It's how they've been losing.

They became the first team in NFL history to own double-digit leads in the first six games of the season and not have a winning record. Week two's loss to Miami in the home opener was especially egregious, the Dolphins overcoming a 35-14 deficit after three quarters to win, 42-38, with a 28-point fourth quarter.

"Our fans are pissed and all of us are pissed off," Jackson said, "but at the same time, we can't dwell on it." And then he turned to what he sees as the panacea to those problems. This Sunday's opponent at home. 

"We've got to move on here and get focused on the Browns," he said. "Everybody is focusing up. We're ready to go out there and put on a show because we're just so mad." That's right, fans, your Cleveland Browns with targets on their backs.

As if they needed to hear that. It's bad enough hauling a three-game losing streak against one of their archrivals coming off their worst -- and most embarrassing -- performance of the season in all three phases of the game last Sunday against New England. Now this. 

Jackson is a load for the Browns when he's not angry and frustrated enough to go public. It's been four years now and the Browns still have difficulty trying to figure out how to defend against what amounts to a one-man gang for the Ravens' offense. Fact is, he is the Ravens' offense.

For the fourth straight season, he leads the Ravens on the ground with 451 yards -- the other seven ballcarriers have combined for 483 yards --  and accounts for 80% of the club's total yards from scrimmage this season.

He loves playing against the Browns, winning five of the eight confrontations thus far, including three of four at home. Along the way, he has piled up 511 yards and four touchdowns with his feet and another 1,284 yards with 11 scores and six interceptions with his arm. He has been sacked 15 times.

Jackson's scrambles after exiting the pocket are legendary. He has made escaping trouble successfully an art form. Just when you think you've got him, you don't. He is a running back playing quarterback and far less dangerous as a passer than he is as a runner.

Add his little anger management moment to the mix and just about anything is possible Sunday. Just when you think you've seen everything he is capable of doing while on the loose with a football in his hands, he adds something extraordinarily different -- and probably unorthodox -- to his amazing arsenal.

With the Browns failing all season to unlock the mystery of what in the hell has happened to the defense, seeing the Browns on the schedule had to relax more than a few with Ravens angst thinking the tough losses were becoming a trend. Not to worry with the mistake-prone Browns.

The former Browns have owned the current Browns since 2008, when John Harbaugh become head coach. Harbaugh is 23-5 against the Browns, 19-2 in Baltimore. They win sometimes when they don't deserve to like the last time they met late last season in Baltimore.

The Browns intercepted Jackson four times, sacked him twice, held him to 165 yards through the air and one throwing touchdowns, 68 yards on the ground and limited the offense to just 303 yards . . .  and lost, 16-10.

The Browns expect edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney to return for this one after a two-week absence due to ankle and knee miseries, a definite step in the right direction with Jackson controlling the Baltimore huddle. The key is keeping him in the pocket and making him throw. 

To that end, newly acquired Deion Jones will make his debut at middle linebacker for Cleveland, adding some toughness and speed to the mix. It'll be either Jones or outside backer Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah assigned to spy Jackson and prevent him from making game-altering plays. 

His favorite target remains tight end Mark Andrews, who has tortured the Cleveland secondary (who hasn't?) for 510 career yards and seven touchdowns. He has already rung up 455 yards and five scores this seasons. And considering the way the secondary has played this season, Andrews should have a field day.

The Cleveland offense, meanwhile, should resume its league-leading ground onslaught after being held back by their play-calling head coach in the Patriots loss. Anything to limit the number of times Jacoby Brissett is called on to throw a forward pass. The Ravens have picked off eight passes this season.

The Browns' offensive line will be without right guard Wyatt Teller, who suffered a calf injury early against the Pats. Chances are pretty good he won't be missed against a Ravens defense that gives up 372 yards a game, 268 of them through the air.

Kevin Stefanski would be wise to ignore the latter stat and make certain Nick Chubb, who still leads the NFL in rushing despite being seldom used last Sunday, and Kareem Hunt are kept busy even if they encounter trouble early. Stefanski's quick abandonment of the run in the second half last week was unwise tactically.

The Browns have not come even close to living up to their mantra this season: Tough (not really), smart (uh-uh) and accountable (still working on it). Put them together this season and whattaya have? A 2-4 record. Nice mantra, terrible execution. It will continue Sunday in Baltimore when Jackson almost singlehandedly will "put on a show." Make it:

Ravens 31, Browns 16

Mid-week thoughts

The Browns are now two games into the hellacious part of the 2022 schedule. That's the bad news. It gets even 3worse starting Sunday with a trip to Baltimore. Don't bother looking for the good news. It won't arrive until Dec. 4 when Deshaun Watson returns to face his old Houston teammates.

By then, the season will be so far over for the Browns from a competitive standpoint, plans for next season will be well under way. Last season's debacle with Baker Mayfield will seem much more uneventful by comparison.

The rest of this month and the entire month of November is a five-game journey through a mine-filled gauntlet that would engender fear for even the best teams in the National Football League, let alone the staggering Browns.

In those five games, the Cleveland defense will face the likes of Baltimore's Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow of Cincinnati, Miami's Tua Tagovailoa, Josh Allen of Buffalo and Tampa Bay's Tom Brady. 

That defense couldn't control Joe Flacco of the NewYork Jets, Marcus Mariota of Atlanta, Justin Herbert of the Angeles Chargers and Bailey Zappe of New England, all of whom own victories over the Browns. Zappe and Flacco are backups and Mariota is barely average.

No one -- OK maybe the staunchest and deeply devoted fans of this team -- honestly believes the Browns, currently riding a three-game losing streak, have much of a chance to win any of these games. Head coach Kevin Stefanski, who is plugging holes at a furious pace, will be exhausted by next Jan. 8 in Pittsburgh.

He maintains he is sticking with Jacoby Brissett as his quarterback, sort of snubbing his nose at what seems to be a mounting cry by those who think the journeyman needs to take a seat at least for one game and see what Joshua Dobbs can do.

Brissett reached rock bottom last Sunday against New England with three turnovers and a passing performance reminiscent of the litany of awful Cleveland quarterbacks the club has employed the last two decades.  

That was due, in large part, to the strange strategy Stefanski turned to when the Patriots had early success stopping the Browns' strong ground game. With the score remaining close -- no more than a two-possession game -- until midway through the fourth quarter, he nevertheless chose to turn Brissett loose. That's exactly what Patriots head coach Bill Belichick wanted.

Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, the very best running tandem in the NFL, combined to carry the football just five times in the second half. Five times!! Instead of continuing to run and try and wear down the Pats, Stefanski gave in. Gave up and put his trust in Brissett. That's bad coaching.

Brissett responded with 12 completions in 28 attempts for 175 yards and the lone touchdown of the afternoon. Twenty-eight forward passes by a mediocre at best quarterback and five runs in a game that was 24-15 with six minutes left.

And then Stefanski compounded the problem from a tactical standpoint by attempting a two-point conversion that failed badly, turning what would have been a one-possession difference (24-16) with a Cade York kick to two possessions. Stefanski might be book smart, but he is not a smart football coach.  

At the same time, no apparent breakthrough has been achieved by the highly disappointing play of the defense, which has consistently underachieved in every game. No matter what coordinator Joe Woods tries, it fails. He's puzzled, too.

"I thought we'd be further along obviously," he told the Cleveland media Thursday, referring to the strong finish that side of the ball had last season.  "There are a lot of things we're trying to clean up and we have to clean them up in a hurry.

"It's really hard to explain (what has gone wrong). We had a really good offseason, We had a really good training camp. . . . It was the best we've ever done since I've been here, but it didn't translate into the regular season."

One can only imagine the pain and damage Jackson, Burrow, Tagovailoa, Allen and Brady can inflict before Watson returns to clean up what figures to be one gigantic mess and attempt to keep his new team out of the AFC North cellar. That's a situation that probably never entered his mind.

Monday leftovers

Time to stop pretending the Browns are good enough to return to the postseason. That lofty goal is now a pipe dream.

Makes no difference when Deshaun Watson returns from his 11-game bad-boy suspension. This team is cooked just six games into the 2022 National Football League season.

It is falling apart one game at a time, one quarter at a time, one possession at a time, one play at a time. This is a good team from a talent standpoint playing bad football for a head coach who is coaching poorly.

Bill Belichick completely outcoached Kevin Stefanski Sunday. Strategically, tactically. preparedly. Hence the 38-15 beatdown. Beaten badly by a rookie quarterback making his third pro start. It's time for Stefanski to figure out why -- and how -- he has gone from coach of the year as a rookie in 2020 to this.

The Browns emerged from the league's softest early schedule with a 2-4 record that could easily be 1-5 if not for a miracle 58-yard field in the season opener. My original prediction of 7-10 was arrived at mainly because of my contrarian nature. Right now, it looks too optimistic.

The Cleveland offense for the first five games gave hope that maybe, just maybe, it will be a saving grace. After what happened Sunday against New England, that side of the football appears to have peaked. Many weaknesses were exposed and future opponents will take note.

It is hamstrung by a less-than-ordinary quarterback who is way out of his element. He is a game manager who seems to have lost his game-managing skills. He is not to be trusted to try and win games by throwing forward passes. And yet, that's what his playcaller is doing.

At the risk of sounding repetitious, Jacoby Brissett is not that good and has proven it over and over and over throughout his seven-year career. He is what his résumé says he is; mediocre at best, not the linchpin of an dangerous offense. Game managing is his thing. It seems as though Stefanski sees it differently.

It's time for him to seriously consider letting Brissett see the game from a different perspective for at least one game and let backup Joshua Dobbs have the huddle. Dobbs has never started an NFL game, you say. Neither did Bailey Zappe of the Patriots until recently and look what he did Sunday.

The defense, the unequivocally main reason the Browns are 2-4, has been an abject failure. The next clutch play it makes will be the first. There is not a solid playmaker in the bunch. Someone who takes charge, makes game-deciding plays on a regular basis; who inspires teammates to play follow the leader. These guys are a bunch of followers,

They need someone like Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, who has become the heartbeat of that unit, almost singlehandedly transforming it into one of the best in the NFL. He leads by example, making his teammates that much better by extension..

Who is the Browns' Micah Parsons? Easy. No one. Not Myles Garrett, not Jadeveon Clowney. And not sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who has been a disappointment. When he was drafted, I thought he had the best chance to be a difference maker. He played less than 50% of the snaps Sunday.

Not certain it's due to the defensive philosophy espoused by coordinator Joe Woods, whose job should be -- maybe it is, but we don't know it yet -- hanging by a slender thread. His passive approach could be the reason there are zilch difference makers on this club. Not one take-charge guy.

The seemingly never-ending onslaught of blown coverages continues. Maybe it's time Woods needs to severely dumb down the assignments in the back seven because the intelligence -- or lack of intelligence -- level back there is one of the causal factors. Linebackers lately have come into their fair share of blame.

Special teams, which produced a horror show Sunday against the Patriots, have been (fill in the blank). That's about all the space this unit deserves. 

After the Pats game, head coach Kevin Stefanski, probably embarrassed by the malodorous stink bomb that wafted over the stadium for three hours, all but promised his club would be better next Sunday in Baltimore against the Ravens. That's pretty much a given. It's frightening to think it can be worse.

***

It will be interesting to see how long it takes before Stefanski cedes the play-calling duties to Alex Van Pelt, whose job these days seems to be standing idly by as the offense, which he helps coordinate, slowly self destructs. Of course he won't.

How much harm would it do -- again for at least one game -- for Van Pelt to own the playlist and be a different voice in the quarterback's helmet while Stefanski manages the game with both coordinators on his headphones and experiences what it's like to concentrate on being just a head coach. 

What harm could it do? None at all. In fact, it might bring a different slant, a different look on how to move the football more effectively. Get more out of the personnel than Stefanski. Put them in a better place to succeed. Make it less difficult to execute properly.

Probably wasting my time here. But I know one thing for sure: The current playcaller on offense for the Browns is hurting his head coach with some unusual -- trying to be nice here -- playcalling. That head coach has to know the front office is not thrilled with what has unfolded thus far.

***

Still trying to figure out why Stefanski dialed up 13 passes to his three tight ends Sunday, including the second play of the game, which became an interception and tilted the early momentum to the Patriots, who never relinquished it.

Since when are tight ends the bellwether of this receiving corps? OK, David Njoku has been a pleasant surprise. Keep feeding him. But Harrison Bryant, who rarely sees more than a couple of passes a game? And Pharaoh Brown, the target of that first pass who just began his second stint with the club? Strange.

And then the playcaller made certain Amari Cooper had a busy afternoon, targeting him a dozen times (a hefty 27% of Brissett's 45 throws) that produced a measly four receptions for a whopping 44 yards and the lone touchdown for Cleveland. Not blaming Cooper. That blame goes to Brissett for eight of his 24 incompletions.

Donovan Peoples-Jones was far more productive with his four grabs (five targets) for 74 yards, including two that were strong candidates for highlight reels. Targeting DPJ more frequently might not be a bad idea.

***

Finally . . . Let's hear it for Charley Hughlett, who hasn't had a bad snap all season. Flawless on 48 snaps. So there is, indeed, perfection on the roster. The long snapper, in his seventh season with the Browns, is  unblemished on 20 Corey Bojorquez punts, 15 extra points and 13 Cade York field goals. Wasn't his fault York missed two field-goal attempts and two extra points. Give that man Hughlett a raise. . . . Anthony Schwartz played only 12 snaps and was targeted thrice with -- surprise! -- no receptions. Why is he still on the roster? . . . And why did Kareem Hunt get just four touches (for 12 yards) all afternoon against the Patriots? He is way too valuable to be forgotten so badly. Isn't that right, coach?

The Factory is back

If you want to know how to play a near-perfect football game, all you need to do is watch the tape of the New England Patriots deconstructing the Cleveland Browns, 38-15, Sunday in front of the (most likely disgusted) home folks.

It will reveal one team that was eminently prepared to play 60 minutes of football exquisitely in all three phases of the game. It is a tape Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski must force his sad football team to watch over and over and over until their eyes bleed in order to learn something.

The current losing streak has now reached three games (1-3 at home) with no relief in sight with games against division rivals Baltimore next Sunday and Cincinnati eight days later with the likelihood of a 2-6 record at the bye week more than just a possibility the way this team is playing.

Both teams entered with 2-3 records. Both wanted this game badly to pull even on the season. Needed this one to become relevant. It was a stern test. One team wanted and needed it a whole lot more than the other and played like it.

The Browns who showed up Sunday looked suspiciously like many of the awful, embarrassing iterations this tortured fan base has been subjected to since 1999. Many believed the corner was finally being turned with the arrival of Stefanski in 2020. No it wasn't.

It sure looks as though Stefanski is turning into a composite of Hue Jackson, Eric Mangini, Mike Pettine, Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski and Romeo Crennel  before our very eyes. In no way, shape or form was this team prepared to come even close to winning this one.

They were outclassed in every way as the Patriots came close to duplicating theier 45-7 thrashing of the Browns last season. The Cleveland offense played giveaway with a pair of Jacoby Brissett interceptions and two fumbles, one on special teams deep in Cleveland territory.

Those four turnovers resulted in 24 points by an offense led by a rookie quarterback who made his National Fotball League debut two weeks ago and was working without two of his best receivers. He made it look easy, hitting open receiver after open receiver in the befuddled Cleveland secondary.

Bailey Zappe, forced into this role after quarterbacks Mac Jones and Brian Hoyer went down with injuries, is no stranger to the forward pass, completing 24 of them for 309 yards and two touchdowns. He threw nearly 700 passes last season at Western Kentucky for nearly 7,000 yards and 62 touchdowns. 

He sure didn't look like a star-struck rookie. But Brissett did most of the long afternoon, often looking totally confused with the coverage. Stefanski, who seems to have a misplaced trust in the journeyman,  dialed up 45 passes. 

That's because the New England defense shut down the Cleveland ground game, making Nick Chubb, who led the league in rushing coming in, look human. He carried the ball only 12 times for 56 meaningless yards. Stefanski gave in and then did exactly what Patriots head coach Bill Belichick wanted him to do.

Brissett, who wound up with three of the turnovers, set the tone for the afternoon by heaving a floater that dropped into the arms of Patriots safety Kyle Dugger at his 36 on the second play of the game. The Cleveland defense held the Pats to a Nick Folk field goal after a stout goal-line stand, which in retrospect was the one Browns highlight of the afternoon.

The Patriots clung to a 10-6 halftime lead on a Rhamondre Stevenson 31-yard scoring blast on a quick opener on a third-and-10 with the Browns expecting a pass. A couple of Cade York field goals kept the score close, but it could have been closer after the Browns failed to take advantage of a Myles Garrett strip sack at the New England 38 when a Brissett sneak failed on fourth down.

And then they played the second half. The Browns should have stayed in the dressing room. It sure looked as though they did from a preparation standpoint. 

The Patriots had eight opportunities to score and put four touchdowns on the board in a variety of ways with Zappe and fellow rookie Tyquan Thornton playing key roles. Zappe was 13-of-17 for 168 yards and scoring tosses to Thornton on the opening drive and tight end Hunter Henry after Brissett's second pick.

The Browns closed to within 24-15 on a Brissett-Amari Cooper 15-yard connection and York's third field goal of the day with 6:17 left in regulation. It would have been 24-16 and a chance to tie the game, but Stefanski popped one of those stupid pills and went for a two-point attempt, which sort of looked like a microcosm of Brissett's afternoon. It failed miserably.

So did the subsequent onsides kick attempt, which initially looked successful. The Browns were awarded the ball with Ronnie Harrison on the coverage. But replay showed A. J. Green III of the Browns placing his hand on the ball with one foot clearly out of bounds. New England ball.

The Cleveland defense stiffened again and forced a Jake Bailey punt. Then the wheels fell entirely off the wagon. In a matter of three plays, the close game became a rout.

Browns punt returner Chester Rogers, a veteran who should know better, muffed the punt, the Patriots recovering at the Cleveland 19. On the first play, Thornton skirted left end the 19 yards on a reverse with nary a Brown close to him.

Two plays later, Brissett was strip-sacked, fumbling when he attempted to tuck his arm back, defensive lineman Carl Davis Jr. lugging it to the Cleveland eight. Stevenson banged in the final nail, barging six yards for his second score of the day.

By then, the stadium was no more than half full, many of them wondering where they've seen this act before. Like for the last two decades.

It sure is beginning to look like the 2020 season was nothing more than a season-long aberration that lured many old fans back to the bandwagon. Turns out it was just another tease.

After a brief absence, the Factory of Sadness lives on.

Three (losses) in a row?

Is it possible the Browns game Sunday at home against the New England Patriots can be considered a mirror-image game? 

Think of it this way: Both teams enter the game at 2-3; both are operating with  backup quarterbacks; both have very strong running games; both quarterbacks are supported by solid offensive lines; both own inconsistent defenses; and both teams are at a stage of the season where another loss severely lessens their chances for the postseason.

So what kind of a game can we expect? One separator distinguishes the main difference between these two teams: Coaching. It is a slam dunk in favor of the Patriots.

Bill Belichick, operating this season without offensive and defensive coordinators, knows how to beat the Browns. He practically owns them. The overall series is tied at 13-13, but the former Cleveland coach is 8-1 against his old team since losing his first crack at them in his first season with the Pats in 2000.

Kevin Stefanski is a relative neophyte. He's still getting his toes wet with how to handle a team, not just an offense. Too many parts are falling apart -- mostly on defense and special teams -- and are still under construction.

Belichick's strengths over the years are strong defense and even better special teams. Offense with Tom Brady for all those years was a big factor, of course, but defense and special teams are what won all those Super Bowl rings for two decades. 

Last season's 45-7 drubbing of the Browns in Foxboro in week 10 turned out to be a blessing is disguise for the Cleveland defense, which suddenly turned into a top five unit, limiting the remaining seven opponents to just 18.6 points a game. A soft offense torpedoed the season.

There has been absolutely no carryover by that defense this season. It stands as the main reason the Browns are struggling, having lost three of their last four games, including the last two in a row.That's why Sunday's game carries a must-win label.

Same for the Patriots, who come into this one with momentum after hanging a rare shutout on the Detroit Lions, who entered the game last Sunday as the highest scoring team in the National Football League. The main factors? Defense and special teams. Belichick magic from a coaching standpoint. 

The Patriots offense this season pretty much depends on the availability of quarterback Mac Jones, who guided them to a 10-7 record as a rookie last season. His status for this one is iffy with ankle problems and is being listed as questionable. The guess here is Belichick gamesmanship to keep Stefanski guessing and rookie Bailey Zappe will start.

Because these teams rely heavily on the ground game to set up the passing game, look for both defenses to load the box with as many as eight men to limit the tough infantry yards and force Zappe and Jacoby Brissett to throw the ball.

The combined talent quotient between these quarterbacks suggests a low-scoring game with a majority of points manufactured through takeaways, field position with punting a major factor, time of possession and field goals with Nick Folk, who booted five in the Lions victory, holding a decided edge over Cade York.

When Zappe is not handing the ball off to Rhamondre Stevenson, who gashed the Browns for 100 yards and two touchdowns last season and put up 161 yards last Sunday, his main targets will be Jakobi Myers, Kendrick Bourne, DeVante Parker and tight end Hunter Henry. If he has a strong afternoon in his second NFL start, the Browns are in deeper trouble than any of us thought.

The key for the Cleveland defense will be to confuse Zappe with multiple looks in the secondary, blitz  from different angles on occasion and hope Myles Garrett plays more like the Myles Garrett who is about to break the club record for career sacks than he did in last week's loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The key for the offense will be slowing down linebacker Matt Judon and edge rusher Deatrich Wise Jr, who own 10 of the club's 11 sacks, maintaining the NFL's best running game with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, helping tight end David Njoku fill up the stats sheet for the fourth straight week and continuing to zealously protect Brissett, who has been dropped only five times this season.

Unlike last Sunday's scoring bonanza, this one will wind up with boringly few points. Brissett and Zappe show why they are backups, the dropped-pass rate for both teams will edge higher and coaching will be the deciding factor. Can't pick against Belichick until he loses to the Browns. Stefanski drops his third straight game for the second time since becoming head coach and falls to 3-6 in the last nine games. Make it:

Patriots 23, Browns 15

Mid-week thoughts

It sure seems as though the 2022 season has become, in the words of head coach Kevin Stefanski, a season where "the focus . . . is looking at ways we can get better." Nothing wrong with that. Except it arrives on a weekly basis. 

They reside in postmortems after games and in the run-up to the next game. Week after week and yet precious little gets resolved. This team consistently finds ways to lose games they shouldn't lose. Its only consistency is its inconsistency.

That's not the way it should be after five weeks with a team loaded with a roster believed by many around the National Football League to be one of the most talented. As it has turned out, though, it wouldn't be incorrect to label them underachievers, the defense in particular.

The overall performance on that side of the football has been alarmingly unsettling because it was believed at the beginning of the season, wrongly as it has turned out, it would be the antidote to an offense handled by a backup quarterback. 

This offense is solid. But it has not kept up with the numerous mistakes by the defense in an effort to outscore other teams in order to win. The high-scoring 2020 team that was 11-5 did that with a worse defense, if you can believe that, than the current one. This team averages 26.6 points a game. It shouldn't be 2-3.

It seems when one hole is plugged, another pops up when the opposition owns the football. Thumb meet dike. That's the mark of an average, at best, team. Smart teams that minimize and then eliminate mistakes are the ones that qualify for the postseason on a regular basis. The Browns right now are flirting with average with six straight tough games dead ahead.

As the head man, Stefanski cannot dodge bullets. Goes with the job. Everything goes through him. The bad defense? His fault. Below-average special teams? Ditto. Bad decisions when calling plays for the offense? Where do I start? 

What has happened is solely his fault. Think buck stops here and desk. His "that one's on me" bullet-taking has grown stale. At this rate, he'll need a flak jacket to weather the season. 

The way the season has unfolded, how much longer will Stefanski wait before he looks at himself in the mirror and seriously questions what has gone wrong thus far because very little is working; and why are the Browns 2-3 instead of unbeaten.

***

As for the pathetic run defense, which has regurgitated 440 yards in the last two games after surrendering only 251 in the first three games, Stefanski told the Cleveland media it's "never one thing. It can't be one player. It can't be one position. 

"It's everybody We have to own it and we have to fix it . . . because if you don't stop it, teams are going to always continue to do that." Yep, got that right. He later acknowledged "it is my responsibility to get this fixed." Then do it. Saying it means nothing.

Until coordinator Joe Woods determines the best way to turn things around is by playing aggressive, nasty football for four quarters. nothing will change. This defense plays on its heels. Time to make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen.

***

As for beleaguered (in my estimation) quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who has flunked three tests this season (all losses) with the game on the line, Stefanski issued a pat on the back, sometimes known as a vote of confidence

"I have a lot of faith in Jacoby," he began. "I think he is playing well and that (his latest interception in the Chargers loss) was bad. . . .  He's beating himself up about that. . . . He'll be in those moments again . . . And I expect him to come through." The odds say he's way overdue. Brissett that is.

***

Stefanski also addressed the plus-minus ratio -- the Browns are flat at zero -- with regard to the difference between winning and losing. Interestingly, the Browns won the turnover margin in both victories; tied in one of the losses; and lost the margin the last two games, both losses.

They have lost the ball four times -- three Brissett interceptions and a David Njoku fumble -- with four takeaways -- picks by Denzel Ward and Grant Delpit and fumble recoveries by Ward and Jadeveon Clowney on a strip sack. Four takeaways are way too few after five games,

"It's a major, major point of emphasis for us," Stefanski said. "The No. 1 stat in this sport is turnover margin. We have to do a better job of taking it away." He mentioned punching, stripping and tipping the ball to create the takeaways. "Do anything we can to get the ball when we're on defense and special teams."

***

It went unnoticed in the Chargers' loss, but the Browns caught a huge break un the latter stages of the second quarter. Down, 17-14, Brissett marched the offense down to the Chargers' four-yard line. On third and goal, Brissett failed to connect with Amari Cooper, but tumbled after releasing the ball.

Referee Adrian Hill reached for and threw a flag. "Personal foul," he announced. "Roughing the passer, No. 69, defense. Half the distance to the goal. First down." Terrible, terrible call. Wasn't even close to roughing.

Chargers defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day made the mistake of putting his hands on Brissett a second after he released the ball and almost playfully shoved him with both hands. Not hard, It was not malicious. The Cleveland quarterback sold it by flopping down. He did not appear hurt. 

Guessing it was an overreaction by referees around the NFL after the lack of such a call in the two incidences that resulted in concussions suffered by Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.  

Nick Chubb scored the second of his two touchdowns on the next play from the two to give the Browns a 21-17 lead, not the 17-17 tie it should have been with a Cade York field goal. It was a gift. So much for the notion officials are always against the Browns.

Monday left-overs

Jacoby Brissett sure has a high opinion of himself. It's one thing to be confident of what you do for a living. It's quite another to be unrealistic about how well you do it.

The backup Browns quarterback said something after he and his teammates combined to drop another winnable game Sunday, this time to the Los Angeles Chargers, after twice blowing an opportunity to win the game.

For the third time this season, each time with the game on the line, Brissett completed a pass to the opposition. The first two were desperation heaves and could be excused. Not the one he threw against the Chargers, though. He hadn't reached desperation stage yet. That one was unforgivable. 

"I know I'm better than that," he declared, "and I just made a bad decision" Therein lies the problem. He is not better than that. If he were, he wouldn't be filling in for Deshaun Watson while he serves his suspension. He'd be starting for some other team.

Brissett is average at best, unreliable at worst and proved it Sunday. He shouldn't beat himself up for not being the guy he thinks he is. He had two chances, thanks in large part to a tactical blunder by Chargers head coach Brandon Staley, to prove he is better than he thinks he is. And failed both.

The first chance. Third and seven at the Chargers' nine-yard line, inside three minutes left in regulation and trailing, 30-28, with kicker Cade York warming up on the sideline. With a chip-shot field goal -- and the lead -- in his back pocket, Brissett had two options once the ball was snapped.

He had an opportunity to run toward the wide-open right flat and gain a few yards to assure the three points. Or he could throw to Amari Cooper, whom he said he saw in the back of the end zone. How he missed Chargers strong safety Alohi Gilman standing directly between him and Cooper is a mystery.

He chose unwisely and threw rather than run. Gilman had an easy pick. Brissett threw the ball right to him. Not "better" at all.

The second chance. Moments later, Chargers ball, fourth and a yard at their 46, 73 seconds left and Staley on the verge of shockingly going for it. Quarterback Justin Herbert misconnected with Mike Williams and the Browns were back in business, albeit with no timeouts.

Time once again for Brissett to prove he, indeed, was better. Second chances like this don't come along often in the National Football League. Time for redemption. Until it wasn't because Brissett moved his offense just 10 yards (on a hookup with Cooper), hurling three uncatchable passes to Anthony Schwartz and Donovan Peoples-Jones. 

It proved once and for all that Brissett was not "better than that" because he is not. He was just being himself in situations such as this. If he were better, York's field-goal attempt would have been closer to 40 or 45 yards rather than the 54 he was tasked to make and avoid another tough loss.

***

Call it a coincidence, but there could be a change or two on defense after the Browns acquired linebacker Deion Jones from the Atlanta Falcons Monday. After what has taken place the last two games, such a move might elicit an "it's-about-time" cry from frustrated fans.

The Cleveland run defense has upchucked 440 yards the last two games, both losses, and there seemed to be no help in sight until General Manager Andrew Berry acquired Jones, a six-year pro who has averaged nearly 110 tackles a season and achieved Pro Bowl status in 2017.

Jones, 28 in a few weeks, was on injured reserve after off-season shoulder surgery when the trade was made. Because of his physical status, it is not known how -- or when -- he'll be be ready to play or where, for that matter, he will play.

He is an outside linebacker by trade, but the Browns have a cavernous hole at middle linebacker with Jacob Phillips, another outside backer, struggling in an effort to fill the shoes of Anthony Walker Jr., who is done for the season with a torn quad tendon.

Jones, on the small side at 6-1, 225 pounds, is fast and quick. He's not your prototypical inside backer who plays downhill and is strong enough to fill gaps and make tackles at or behind the the line of scrimmage. Once healthy enough to dress, it will be interesting to see where defensive coordinator Joe Woods plays him.

Berry now has to set his sights where he needs the most help -- defensive tackle. The line, even with Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney back, is ineffective. It has been exposed the last two weeks and you can bet other teams have noticed. 

It was a problem in training camp, too, along with the wide receivers room. Berry had to know that. The acquisition of Jones is a nothing more than a Band-Aid. Hint: Trading deadline is Nov. 1. 

***

York seems to have the correct attitude to what has transpired thus far with just five games on his NFL résumé. He has experienced the highs -- the sensational 58-yard field goal that won the season opener -- and the lows -- missing his first two field goals after eight straight makes, including what would have been the game-winner.

"Gotta get over it," he said. "That's my first time missing twice in a game. It wasn't like I went out there and was just going, 'Oh, I missed one before.' I hit it hard. I hit it strong, I just missed it."

The one pitfall York needs to avoid is allowing misses -- he also missed two extra-point attempts to go with his latest misses -- to bother him. Putting past failures in the rearview mirror is generally the best antidote. Remember the good ones and learn from them; and forget the bad ones quickly.

Twenty-four hours of reflection and then it's on to the next game. He has been assured by his head coach and many of his teammates that the current events have not lessened their faith in him. 

***

Finally . . . Having fun with stats: The Browns totaled 846 yards of offense the last two games . . . and lost both; they have lost games thus far by one, three and two points; they have scored 133 points and allowed 125; and they have accumulated 400 yards or more of offense in three games . . . and lost all three. . . . Jones becomes the sixth former Louisiana State player on the roster. Grant Delpit, Greedy Williams, Ethan Pocic, York and Phillips are the others. . . . Final word goes to cornerback Greg Newsome II, who sums up the season this way: "It's definitely frustrating. We know what talent we have in the building. We're just not showing it every play on Sunday." 

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.

Points blitzkrieg

There is at least one certainty as the Browns enter the gauntlet that is the next seven games on the schedule when they welcome the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday.

The Cleveland secondary, which has failed way too many challenges this season, will be very busy. As in all afternoon. Because if there is anything the Chargers do exceptionally well, it's throw the football. A lot. Like two out of every three plays. An astounding 84% of the Chargers' offensive yardage comes via the forward pass.

Which means that secondary, arguably the weakest part of the defense, will get "torched if we're not locked in," admitted free safety John Johnson III the other day. And because they have had trouble locking in, especially late in games this season, the Chargers' game plan won't be difficult to figure out.

The defense has not faced a quarterback like Justin Herbert this season. The 6-6 Chargers gunslinger populates a quarterback stratosphere that includes Patrick Mahomes II, Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson. He has risen to elite status is just two seasons.

Herbert suffered fractured rib cartilage a couple of games ago, but that didn't stop him from throwing his normal 300+ yards a game. As a result, the Chargers average a mere 64.5 yards a game on the ground. The Browns' run defense, abused in last week's deflating loss in Atlanta, should get this week off.

The only hope the Browns have in this one is to make sure their season-long ability of controlling the football by moving the chains and sustaining drives -- they average nearly 36.5 minutes of ball ownership  a game -- is good enough to keep Herbert tethered to the bench and limit the damage. 

It will also be interesting to see if head coach and chief playcaller Kevin Stefanski learns his lesson from the Atlanta setback and leans more heavily on the ground game against a Chargers defense that really hasn't been challenged much at all in that area.

After Jacoby Brissett showed last week he is incapable of taking control of a game and lifting the offense on his shoulders in comeback fashion, Stefanski is likely to keep his quarterback in game-manager mode and feature Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt and safe, high-percentage passes.

The Chargers' secondary has allowed opposing offenses to complete 68% of their passes for 240 yards a game. Much like the Chargers, the opposition doesn't run the ball much, either. All of which sets up an interesting scenario.

It is entirely possible this one could develop into a clash between an exceptional ground game against an exceptional aerial game with the losers, at least conceivably, being the defenses of both teams. One strength against another. In other words, a scoreboard fiesta is a distinct possibility with the team that owns the ball last winning.

The Browns' defense is buoyed by the return of Myles Garrett on the edge after totaling his late model car and missing the Atlanta loss. But it is not known how much the injuries sustained in the crash will affect his performance. But if Jadeveon Clowney sits out another game with ankle miseries, Garrett will draw plenty of company.

He will face rookie tackle Jamaree Salyer, who drew high marks in his National Football League starting debut in last week's victory over Houston. He and his linemates have allowed just four sacks this season, enabling Herbert, who will be without Keenan Allen for the third straight week with a hamstring, to target the likes of Mike Williams, Joshua Palmer, tight end Gerald Everett and running back Austin Ekeler.

The Cleveland offensive line, which has allowed just five sacks this season, no doubt will keep an eye on the dangerous Khalil Mack, who owns five of the Chargers' 11 sacks. They won't have to deal with the equally dangerous Joey Bosa, on inured reserve with a torn groin muscle.

It all boils down to two bad defenses and two good offenses pointing to a what very well could be the kind of game that excites fans.This one just might come down to the final moments with ownership of the football determining the winner. So why not go for it? It's Herbert vs. Chubb and Co. in a flurry of points. Defense be damned. Make it:

Chargers 38, Browns 34

Mid-week thoughts

Observations after week four . . . 

Nothing but high marks for the offense. Ground game is special. Jacoby Brissett is playing, with a couple of notable exceptions, just the way the Browns believed he would when they signed him to warm Deshaun Watson's seat until his ironic return from his suspension Dec. 4 against his old team, the Houston Texans.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the offense that better playcalling from head coach Kevin Stefanski can't improve. The offensive line, especially with the return of right tackle Jack Conklin, sizzles when Stefanski goes old school.

Guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller excel at creating holes for the ground game and protect the quarterback zealously. Left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. is having his best season thus far. And Ethan Pocic, who replaced the injured Nick Harris in the pivot in training camp, has been a pleasant revelation.

Whenever Brissett doers what he does best, defenses struggle to shut this offense down, let alone slow it down. And what does he do best? Manages the game. That is until his head coach goes off script and turns the game over to him as he did Sunday in the loss in Atlanta.

Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt are premier runners. No, make that elite runners. Stefanski's refusal to utilize them more lessens the opportunity to win games. You go with the big guns behind one of the best offensive lines in the National Football League. Stefanski is misusing Hunt by not giving him more touches.

With a quarterback like Brissett, who is limited in what he can do, you should lean heavily on the big artillery. Brissett excels at minimizing mistakes. His only two interceptions this season have been desperation throws in the final minute of both losses. 

This is a team built to milk the clock. tire opposing defenses and frustrate edge rushers because he is excellent at getting the ball out quickly. The offensive line probably loves blocking for him, at least from a statistical standpoint. He has been sacked only five times in 134 dropbacks, mostly on blitzes.

The very average receiving corps is beginning to come around. Amari Cooper is having an up and down season -- a pair of 100-yard games with two touchdowns counterbalanced by a brace of games with four receptions and 26 yards. He's due for a big game Sunday at home against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Tight end David Njoku has become somewhat of a force with 14 grabs -- several of them acrobatic -- for 162 yards and a touchdown in the last two games, while Donovan Peoples-Jones is either feast of famine in game plans with 29 targets in games one and four and just four in the other two.

The eyes say there haven't been as many dropped passes as last season, but a check reveals the eyes are wrong. With six this season, Browns receivers are on pace to equal last season's total of 25.  Must be time for a refraction. 

Now then, the defense. Ugh, the defense.

The erstwhile pillar of strength that entered the 2022 season is playing more like a pillar of salt in the final 15 minutes of games. The first three quarters thus far haven't been that bad -- just 45 points, including scoreless third quarters -- and just like that, members of that unit turn into something quite different and exceedingly damaging in quarter four.

With one exception, the Pittsburgh victory in week three, the Cleveland defense became a bunch of hapless, hopeless professional football players who either forgot how to play the game or didn't realize a game contains four quarters.

The secondary has been awful in those 15 minutes. Pointing out individuals to blame with numerous busted coverages is futile because it has happened so often, indicting the whole group is not incorrect. It is apparently unfixable. Why? Because it hasn't been fixed. It is the main difference between 2-2 and an unbeaten season thus far.

And with Justin Herbert of the Chargers, one of the NFL's top quarterbacks on tap Sunday, even one member of that secondary fears what the immediate future holds. ". . . I think each and every play we've got to be locked in or we're going to get torched," said free safety John Johnson III, "because they've been doing it to anybody dating back to last year."

Up to now, the secondary has been fortunate to face Baker Mayfield, backup Joe Flacco, the mediocre Mitch Trubisky (now benched) and journeyman Marcus Mariota. Herbert is a gigantic step up.

The pass rush this season has been spotty at best. Myles Garrett has three of the eight sacks thus far. At this point last season, that figure was 14. And with Jadeveon Clowney iffy at best with an ankle, that total won't budge much. Furthermore, not much help off the bench.

The Atlanta Falcons exposed an enormous weakness at tackle a few says ago, ripping off 199 yards, mostly in the second half of their improbable victory. It's a weakness that needs to be addressed pronto, but the front office doesn't seem to be too concerned, thinking perhaps that might have been an aberration. It wasn't.

Now the linebackers. The immenseness of the loss for the season of Anthony Walker Jr. cannot be stressed enough. He will be severely missed for the next 13 games. Jordan Phillips is not the answer. He is fast. He is young.  He is not ready. He's got the rest of the season to prove he can be the player they think he is.

The biggest disappointment, though, is Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. The former Notre Dame star has not been as aggressive as he was in college. Not certain whether it's because of the comparatively timid scheme defensive coordinator Joe Woods prefers.

At Notre Dame, the ball sought -- and found --  him. He was around the ball a lot. Aggression was a big part of his game. He was a playmaker. He is not a playmaker with the Browns. He's the kind of athlete who needs to be turned loose -- run downhill, so to speak -- so he can make plays.

As for special teams, there seems to be nothing about which to be concerned unless you're bothered by the two extra points Cade York missed. One cost them the Jets loss.

Now let's see how the remaining 13 games unfold and these units play. From the looks of the schedule, it looks rather grim until Watson returns. By then, it might be too late.

Monday's leftovers

It's the day after the game that should have been won but wasn't and the sting of losing still burns. In fact, it's even worse than the original feeling because the numbness has worn off.

The Browns lost a game Sunday down in Atlanta that never should have been close to begin with. It will resonate for a very long time because the head coach betrayed the men whose performances ultimately determine how long he remains on the job.

Kevin Stefanski is the head coach of the Browns. The head coach. Not the offensive coordinator. That's Alex Van Pelt, who is really the offensive coordinator in name only (OCINO). Stefanski has deemed himself the playcaller whenever the Browns have the football. That's a problem.

This playcaller is hurting his team big-time and his head coach by extension. Sunday's loss is a perfect example of the playcaller overruling what a sound-thinking head coach would almost assuredly do when putting points on the scoreboard comes into play.

Last time I looked, points were valuable no matter when they are scored. Three points are just as valuable in the first quarter as they are in the last quarter. They don't count any more or less at the end of a game.

One of the worst feelings a losing head coach can experience are regrets. Wudda done that (but). Cudda done that (but). Shudda done that (but). But what? Didn't do that.

Stefanski is experiencing more "that's on me" moments this season than in his first two seasons. To me, those are regrets. Regrets do not win football games. And a 2-2 record at this point is unacceptable because this team is good enough to be unbeaten after playing the softest part of the schedule. 

Yes the Browns are tied for first place in the AFC Central. That's the good news. The bad news? A dangerous seven-game gauntlet lies dead ahead beginning with the Los Angeles Chargers at home Sunday followed by games against New England, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Miami, Buffalo and Tampa Bay. That division lead is precarious at best. The basement beckons.

Stefanski likes to say his main job is putting players in the best position to . succeed. Says it all the time. And yet, he continues to avoid following that philosophy.

For example, why dial up a pass play on second and goal at the Atlanta one-yard line in the final minute of the first half with the best ground game in the National Football League aching to score? No need to get cute. Run the damn ball with Nick Chubb and/or Kareem Hunt. 

Instead, he settled for a Cade York field goal after a Wyatt Teller hold on the pass play pushed them back. He put Teller put in a position to be subjected to the possibility of a penalty. He and his linemates should have been blocking for Chubb or Hunt on downs two and three, not dropping back to protect the quarterback.

It is becoming more apparent Stefanski, the head coach, is having problems with his playcaller  retrospectively. It's so much easier to see the screwups after the game. Smart decisions during the game is the perfect antidote for that malady.

He is coaching and thinking like a coordinator, not a head coach. He is hurting this very good team. He needs to look at the big picture and do what's best for the team, not just one side of the ball. He needs to remind himself daily to take the points when they are available and not be greedy.

Someone in the Ivory Tower should tell him what's best for this team is ceding the playcalling to Van Pelt and becoming the head coach for the entire team. They are hurting right now and most of the fault for that rests on his shoulders. 

***

It would be easy for some to write off the loss in Atlanta to the fact the defensive line was operating at a distinct disadvantage due to injuries along the front four that saw only two veterans suit up. It took the Falcons an entire half and then some to discover that.

For a while, it looked as though they were content with trying to win on the arm of quarterback Marcus Mariota. Once they realized that wasn't going to work, they uncorked a strategy for which the Browns had no answers. 

It actually began in the late stages of the third quarter after consecutive three-and-outs and a Denzel Ward interception convinced them to try something else. That something else made Browns fans think of defensive ends Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney and defensive tackle Taven Bryan.

Caleb Huntley (a practice squad call-up)) and Tyler Allgeier (a rookie) ran the football like grizzled veterans 10 consecutive times -- it looked as though Mariota need work with his handoffs -- for the entire 75 yards, the shortest gain of the bunch was the final five yards for the score by Huntley, who lugged the ball eight of the 10 times.

That worked so well, they stayed with it on the next possession and were rewarded with chunk runs of 21 yards by former cornerback and kick returner Avery Williams and 41 more yards by Allgeier, all with starter Cordarrelle Patterson resting a sore knee on the bench. The Cleveland line looked helpless and didn't get much, if any, help from the linebackers.

If nothing else, it proves two things: Garrett and Clowney need to be healthy to give the Browns a decent chance to snuff out -- or at least slow down -- opposing ground games. And the bench is too young and inexperienced to be a factor.

***

Questions, questions, questions: Why was Amari Coper targeted only four times Sunday? . . . Was the Falcons' pass defense, ranked 27th in the NFL entering the game, that good? . . . Why didn't Brissett just throw the ball away instead of taking a sack in the final moments in Atlanta territory and York warming up on the sideline for another long-distance field goal try? . . . And finally, why did Brissett throw into triple coverage (leading to a pick) when at least one other receiver was open along the sideline?

Answers, answers, answers: Beats me. If Cooper is that good, he should be open a lot. . . . And no, that defense is not that good. That's why they're 27th. . . . Good question. He's been around long enough go know sacks are drive killers. . . . Desperation, I guess. Either that or he didn't scan the entire field. Another reason he is a journeyman quarterback. Just good enough to play backup in the NFL, but not good enough to make plays when needed the most.

***

Finally . . . Can't remember the last time the Browns compiled 403 total yards, 177 of them on the ground, controlled the game clock for nearly 36 minutes and ran 71 plays and lost. . . . How many more blown coverages does Stefanski need to see to step up and give his defensive coordinator some help? Oh that's right. He has enough problems managing the offense. . . . Nice to see rookie wide receiver David Bell creeping into the game plan. Caught four of five targets (he was the target on Brissett's pick) in the last three games for 47 yards, including two grabs against the Falcons for 35 yards. . . . Also nice to see Donovan Peoples-Jones back in the rotation. After being targeted just four times in games two and three, Brissett threw to him nine times against the Falcons, connecting on five for 71 yards.

Losing the hard way

Kevin Stefanski is a straight shooter. When something goes wrong, the Browns' head coach is the first to admit it. "That's on me," he says. And he has said it several times this young season.

I'll say it for him this time. The 23-20 loss in Atlanta to the Falcons Sunday lies squarely atop the shoulders of an Ivy League graduate who gulped numerous stupid pills en route to what should have been victory number three. Yep, this one's on him.

Victories in the National Football League are precious. You have only 17 opportunities to win games. So you better win them when you play well enough to win. But when the head coach and playcaller for the offense screws up, victories become losses.

Stefanski has been head coach of the Browns  for a little more than two seasons. One would think he would know by now you never leave points on the field when you're that close to putting points on the board. Don't waste good opportunities.

He seems to be a different playcaller the closer his offense gets to the goal line. That offense on three occasions was within five yards of the Atlanta end zone Sunday. Three touchdowns seemed imminent. Until Stefanski reached for the stupid pills.

The result was only 10 points when common-sense coaching would have resulted in at least 17 points and no concerns about another blown coverage in the secondary that gave the Falcons life when it appeared it  was on the verge of another clean game.

What happened on the game's opening drive sort of foretold what would happen about three hours later. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett moved his offense to the Atlanta three-yard line, highlighted by 45 yards of passes to tight end David Njoku, but the drive bogged down. 

That's when Stefanski swallowed his first stupid pill, going for it on fourth down and failing badly when Jacoby had no one to throw to in the end zone. Analytics undoubtedly dictated the call. Common sense would have preferred a chip-shot Cade York field goal. There's three points.

Two possessions later, jackpot when Brissett capped a 16-play, 75-yard drive with a scrambling, rumbling four-yard run on third down that seemed more like 20 yards. No decision making from Stefanski required here.

Here's where it begins to get a little maddening. On the next possession, this one a 13-play journey, the Browns wound up at the Atlanta one-yard line on a gorgeous pass from Brissett, who dropped a 42-yard dime into the outstretched hands of Donovan People-Jones as he fought bright sunlight to make a terrific catch.

Time for the Browns' outstanding, league-leading ground game to finish it off, right? Think stupid pills. Nick Chubb, who later on romped 28 yards to give the Browns a 20-17 lead with about 10 minutes left in regulation, ran behind a jumbo formation (seven offensive linemen), but was stacked for no gain on the first attempt.

Okay, why not try it again with the NFL's leading rusher? Makes sense. Think pills. Instead of handing off to Chubb again, Brissett dropped back, but failed to connect with Njoku. A completion wouldn't have counted, anyway. Right guard Wyatt Teller was detected holding. 

If it had been a running play, Chubb probably scores, Teller probably delivers the key block cleanly and no penalty flags fly. Two incomplete passes later, York kicked a 29-yard field goal to achieve the halftime 10-10 tie. That's four more points.

Why even throw in that situation when the Falcons' defense was beginning to wear down?  Run Chubb or Kareem Hunt. They're the best running tandem in the NFL for a reason. 

The defense, operating with a young, relatively inexperienced short-handed line due to injuries, benefited from the offense's domination and shut down the Atlanta offense in the first half with only 120 yards from scrimmage, just 31 on the ground.

The Falcons' only touchdown, a Cordarrelle Patterson 13-yard run, followed the first of the Browns' two turnovers late in the first quarter, a Njoku fumble. Marcus Mariota, who connected only seven of his 19 passes, was in the midst of a miserable afternoon.

The offense dominated the first 30 minutes, owning the football for 20 minutes and 34 seconds. And yet,  only 10 points. 

Then Stefanski made the mistake in the second half of putting the game in the hands of a journeyman quarterback even as his ground game was slicing and dicing the Atlanta defense. Brissett is not a game-changing quarterback. He is a game manager. Period.

The head coach must have fallen in love with the Brissett-DPJ connection in the first half and dialed up 16 more passes in the second half, but his quarterback connected on just half of them for only 65 yards. The Falcons, notably cornerback A. J. Terrell took away his favorite receiver. Amari Cooper, coming off two straight 100-yard games, was held to one catch for nine yards on four targets.

The game changed dramatically when the Falcons, after back-to-back three-and-outs to start the second half, decided to ram the football down  the throats of the young and inexperienced Cleveland defensive line since Mariota wasn't helping, It worked.

Mariota became a facilitator as running backs Caleb Huntley, fresh off the practice squad, and Tyler Allgeier, combined to rip off the 75 yards on the ground bridging the third and fourth quarters in a stunning display of bully football. Huntley carried eight times for 54 yards and the touch for a 17-13 lead. The Falcons offense tacked on 171 more infantry yards in the final 30 minutes to wind up with 202

The Chubb touchdown early in the fourth quarter and the first of Younghoe Koo's two field goals squared the score at 20-20 halfway through the final quarter. And that's when the dreaded blown coverage struck again for the fourth time this season.

A pretty good afternoon of pass coverage was wiped out when Mariota, on a desperate heave from his goal line, found wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus all alone at the Atlanta 32. And I mean all alone. No member of the Cleveland secondary was within 20 yards. 

To make matters worse, 15 more yards were tacked on to the 42-yard play when cornerback Denzel Ward corralled him by his face mask, making it a 57-yard swing. Can't blame that on Stefanski. That's Joe Woods territory. Koo's second field goal untied it with 2:25 remaining.

Working with no timeouts, the Browns managed to get to the Atlanta 41 with a minute and a half left and with York warming up on the bench, thoughts of the season opener wafting in the air. A Brissett sack, the only one of the afternoon, and an interception, ditto, closed it out as the Browns now enter a brutal seven-game stretch at 2-2.

Would all that have occurred had Stefanski just taken the points and not turned greedy at the goal line? We'll never know.