Painless precision

It was thorough, almost surgical, what the Miami Dolphins did to the Browns Sunday in Miami, showing them how to play a dominating, near-perfect football game.

The 39-17 final in no way indicates how one-sided this one was as the Dolphins excelled -- that's putting it mildly -- on both sides of the ball. The precision with which they operated, particularly when they owned the ball, was marvelous to watch and admire even if you are a Browns fan.

The Browns were outclassed, outhustled, outplayed and outcoached in a game for which they had two weeks to prepare during the bye. So what went wrong? Everything that could . . . did. It was unquestionably the season's worst pounding.

This is how championship football is supposed to be played and the Browns now realize they are nowhere near the stratosphere the Dolphins occupy with a four-game winning streak The big surprise was how well the Miami defense played.  

To further advance the notion games are won and lost in the trenches, the Miami offensive and defensive lines owned the line of scrimmage, beating the Browns off the ball with monotonous  regularity all day long. 

This was supposed to be a classic battle between a team that throws the ball extremely well (Miami) against one that runs the ball extremely well and bleeds the game clock. The Dolphins kept their end of the bargain with Tua Tagovailoa acting as the cunning ringmaster. The other team did not.

It was classic example of one team flat out beating the daylights out of its lesser opponent in every department. The vastly overrated Cleveland defense surrendered nearly 500 yards of offense, including a stunning 195 on the ground. Stunning because the Dolphins averaged 86 yards a game entering this one.

Cue the hue and cry for the head of Cleveland defensive coordinator Joe Woods, whose unit played fairly well the last couple of games. The Dolphins took care of that in a hurry. 

Tagovailoa threw for 285 yards and touchdown throws to fullback Alex Ingold and wide receivers Trent Sherfield and Tyreek Hill. He had a lot of help from an offensive line that kept him clean and provided massive holes for  running backs Raheem Mostert and new arrival Jeff Wilson Jr., who combined to shred the Cleveland defense for 195 yards,

No matter what the Dolphins ran, it worked. Butter, meet hot knife. Tua & Co. scored  points on seven of their first eight possessions. The only time they failed was when they turned the ball over on downs at the Cleveland 14 when a fourth-down gamble failed in the second quarter.

I counted only three negative plays on offense out of 67 snaps from scrimmage for Miami, which mercifully took a knee with two minutes left in regulation or else it night gave been worse. The offense was so good, Dolphins punter Thomas Morstead enjoyed the entire game from the sideline.

You know it's pretty good when the only thing that went wrong for the Dolphins was two extra points missed by kicker Jason Sanders or else the final would have been 41-17, which would have made it look worse in some quarters.

The Dolphins' defense, which recovered nicely after the Browns took a 7-0 lead on the game's first possession, throttled running Nick Chubb before he finally broke loose for a 33-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. He fumbled for only the sixth time in his career in the opening quarter which the offense converted into the first of two Sanders field goals.

It wasn't as though nothing went right for the Browns in the loss as much it was the Dolphins operating with exquisite precision against a team barely hanging on to the notion there is still hope for the postseason. Not anymore.

The loss was the Browns fifth in the last six games, dropping them into a tie with Pittsburgh at the bottom of the AFC North and all but eliminating them from even thinking about playing football beyond the scheduled 17 regular-season games.

Technically, they still have a chance. Realistically, though, this season is lost with eight games to go and Deshaun Watson waiting in the wings. It's beginning to look as though by the time he gets back in a few weeks, the Browns will be playing just to pad their stats.

What this game showed the Browns, who should be forced to watch this nightmare on tape before it's archived, was just how far they need to improve to join the National Football League elite. After Sunday's embarrassing thumping, it's merely a pipe dream.