Mid-week thoughts

The Deshaun Watson era in Cleveland commences in just 18 days and Browns fans, those who have not bolted the bandwagon despite a 3-6 record with a distinct downward trend, will welcome him as the next best thing to a savior.

He arrives with just one detriment. He doesn't play defense.

What he does in six games at quarterback for the Browns for the rest of the season will have little impact on where and how they finish. He can throw three or four touchdowns a game and they'll mean nothing other than adding to his impressive National Football League résumé.

Right now, the Browns harbor the notion they can still reach the postseason with games against the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers dead ahead, The likelihood of that possibility still there when Watson returns is remote at best.

The best he can do -- and there is no guarantee he can come right back after nearly two seasons of inactivity and be an elite quarterback -- is something Jacoby Brissett hasn't done and that's fire up an offense that can flat outscore an opponent in a shootout.

Brissett, warming the starter seat while Watson serves his 11-game suspension, has thrown just eight touchdown passes, five devastating interceptions and has not recorded a 300-yard game. And yet,  the offense averages 24 points a game which, under ordinary circumstances, should be good enough to win more than three games. 

But these are not ordinary circumstances with a defense that belches an AFC Central worst 26.5 points a game. So many games this season that were eminently winnable were frustratingly lost by a defense incapable of making a play when a big play would have made a difference.

The Browns this season have played five games that have been decided by three points or fewer and won just one, the season opener where they got an improbable 58-yard field by a rookie in the waning seconds of regulation to win by two points.

They lost the other four, three of them at home, by a total of nine points where all the offense needed from their buds on defense was just one play. Forcing a fumble in the red zone. Intercepting a pass to stop momentum. Anything.

Instead, they got nothing in the losses to the NewYork Jets, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers. Split those four losses and the Browns are 5-4 today. Pipe dreams don't make it so, though. It all falls under the category of woulda, shoulda, coulda, didn't.

The club's turnover ratio stands at a dismal minus-5, mostly because the defense has only eight takeaways, including an embarrassing three interceptions for an even more embarrassing minus-4 yards. Denzel Ward and A. J. Green gained nothing following their picks and Grant Delpit lost four yards.

Watson is not going to help that. Maybe next season and beyond, But for the here and now, he is just another really good football player who did a lot of really bad things in his personal life just anxious to get back to work with a defense that will let him down, too. Count on it.

Now the reason for the disappointing defense. Split that award between General Manager Andrew Berry and defensive coordinator Joe Woods, Berry for refusing to address the massive problem at defensive tackle and linebacker in either the college draft and/or free agency and Woods in general for game-planning passively. Defense is all about aggression. Not the Browns'.

A breakdown shows the Cleveland run defense this season has been like the little girl with a curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid. 

The aspect of the defense, correctly maligned on the whole, was very, very good in victories over Carolina, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, limiting them to just 194 yards, or 65 yards a game. The six losses tell a very different story, a very horrid story.

In those losses, the opposition ran for 986 yards, or 141 per game. In the losses to the Falcons, Chargers and Ravens, though, they were savaged for 795 yards, or 199 a game. Even though the final scores of those games were close, the offense never had a chance because the alarmingly weak run defense kept them on the bench.

Berry is responsible for crafting the roster and handing it over to the coaching staff. For the most part, he has succeeded with the offense. He has failed abysmally with the other side of the ball. He was dealt a bad break when veteran middle linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. went down with a torn quad in week three but has not successfully replaced him. The Browns have won only once since then, losing five of the last six.

He seriously needs to address the defensive tackle deficiencies. Perrion Winfrey is all talk and no bark, a bust in his rookie season. Young veterans Jordan Elliott and Tommy Togiai are barely adequate. When Taven Bryan is your best at the position, you're in trouble.