Blown up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Close, but . . . 

Kevin Stefanski has been down this road before. To be exact, it was week 16 of the National Football League season last year and the Browns streaking toward their best season since reentering the league in 1999.

In the week leading up to their road game against the one-victory New York Jets, the 10-4 Browns received word that COVID-19 had wiped out the entire wide receivers room. Jarvis Landry, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Rashard Higgins and KhaDarel Hodge out.

Ja'Marcus Bradley, activated from the practice squad, newly-signed free agent Marvin Hall and practice squader Derrick Willies were Baker Mayfield's lone targets with speed and quickness that afternoon. Three tight ends and running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt were also available.

The Jets were terrible at stopping the run, the lifeblood of the Cleveland offense. The smart move was to run the football, right? That's what they did best. They had a terrific offensive line that run blocked better than protected Mayfield. Their receivers were back in Cleveland. Every logical reason to run, not throw. Grind it out and win the war of attrition. Slam dunk and move on. 

So why did the Browns lose the game, 23-16, to a ONE-VICTORY team? Because Stefanski flatulated all over the game plan, which called for only 18 rushing attempts in 80 snaps. Mayfield was tasked to drop back 60 times. He was sacked four times, completed 28 of 53 passes and scrambled for yardage three times.

Chubb and Hunt each scored once, but ran for just 39 yards primarily because Stefanski, a very smart and savvy coach, chose to eschew the run. The situation dictated run. The ground game never had a chance because Stefanski didn't let it.

So what does this have to do with Sunday's game in Foxboro, Mass., against the New England Patriots? This time, COVID-19 almost completely wiped out the running backs room this week.  Chubb, Hunt (on injured reserve), rookie Demetric Felton and practice squader John Kelly are back in Cleveland.

Only D'Ernest Johnson, who introduced  himself to the NFL community a few weeks ago with a 146-yard, one-touchdown effort in the nationally televised Thursday night victory over the Denver Broncos, is healthy. General Manager Andrew Berry scrambled to get help for Johnson, bringing free agents Brian Hill and Dexter Williams in off the street. Hill, a five-year NFL veteran, will be active Sunday.

The question that needs to answered now is whether Stefanski learned his lesson from last season's Jets loss with regard to crafting a better game plan this time with the healthy personnel on board. 

These are not the Jets. These are the 5-4 Patriots, who have won their last three games and four of the last five after a 1-3 start, two of those losses by a total of three points. Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick seems to be hitting a lot of the correct notes lately primarily on defense, doing so with a rookie quarterback.

While Mac Jones is putting up nice numbers and minimizing mistakes, it's the defense that has meant the difference between winning and losing. A thieving back seven (13 interceptions) has led the way. Overall, it has compiled 16 takeaways, 11 in the last five games, including a pair of pick sixes in the latest victory over Carolina.

Edge rusher Matthew Judon, who bedeviled the Browns for five years with the Baltimore Ravens, is well on the way to his best season ever in his first year with the Pats with nine of the team's 19 sacks. The run defense, meanwhile, has held four teams under 100 yards.

Jones, reportedly gaining confidence with each start, has led a well-balanced offense that has scored 25 or more points in six of the nine games. The 68% passer has thrown just 10 touchdown passes and been picked off seven times, but he has shown the ability to sustain drives and keep his defense rested.

His favorite receivers are tight end Hunter Henry (five touchdowns) and wideouts Jakobi Meyers and Kendrick Bourne for offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels' relatively conservative offense.

With most Belichick teams over the years, no one running back sticks out. He prefers committee football with his backs. This season, it's been mostly Damien Harris with 547 yards and seven of the club's 11 touchdowns on the ground, and rookie Rhamondre Stevenson, but Harris will miss the game with a concussion.

Stevenson, a 6-0, 250-pound load, cleared concussion protocol Saturday and probably will share the ground game with veteran Brandon Bolden and J. J. Taylor, in theory tilting the edge to the Cleveland run defense.

So what can we expect from Stefanski as he seeks to put victories back to back for the first time since weeks three and four? Has he learned his lesson from the Jets game last season and lean more toward a strength, in this case a more balanced offense, with his main runners sidelined and his receiving corps in good shape? 

And what can we expect from the Cleveland defense? Last week, it was a relative blitzkrieg from the normally conservative Joe Wood with as much man coverage as they have played all season. With a rookie quarterback in Jones, more of the same would seem to be on the menu. And now that rookie linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is back from injured reserve, that would be the ideal scenario.

But don't count out the possibility of the same kind of defense from Belichick when the Browns own the football. Confusing young quarterbacks with numerous disguised pass coverages is one of his specialties, especially with an opportunistic secondary.

This one figures to be relatively low scoring with the possibility of a lot of work by punters Jamie Gillan of the Browns and Jake Bailey. In games like this, my tendency is go with the better defense. Not to denigrate the Browns D, which has permitted just 45 points in the last three games, the Patriots have been more consistent on that side of the ball this season. Make it: Patriots 22, Browns 17

Mid-week thoughts

Every now and then Kevin Stefanski, one of the best young offensive minds in the National Football League, reaches down into his bag of tricks and hauls out a play reminiscent of a highly malodorous skunk.

The Browns' head coach and playcaller tends to outsmart himself at the most inappropriate times on occasion and tries to get cute, sometimes too cute. Take, for example, one of those times in the big victory last Sunday in Cincinnati.

The Cleveland offense was cruising with a 21-7 lead midway through the second quarter with momentum when the defense created  a turnover in Bengals territory, safety John Johnson separating the football from Cincinnati receiver Ja'Marr Chase. The Browns began the drive at the Cincy 30.

The offense, by then playing with supreme confidence, reached the 13 in three plays, the seven in four plays and the four in five plays. Third and one at the four. Time for Nick Chubb, who would run for 134 yards on the afternoon, to finish the job, a 28-7 lead just a few yards away.

And that's when Stefanski, in all his brilliance, believed he had a better idea. Quarterback Baker Mayfield had to be shocked when he heard the call for a handoff to Jarvis Landry, who would then pitch the ball back to Chubb, who drifted left at the snap, and catch the Bengals defense napping.

Instead, they smelled it. Landry's pitch back to Chubb was low and bounced about five yards behind the line of scrimmage. The Browns were fortunate Chubb was able to recover at the 10. The parting gift was a 28-yard Chase McLaughlin field goal that made it 24-7 when it could have been 28-7 with smarter playcalling.

It was definitely one of those moments when Stefanski had the opportunity to chastise himself and suggest it was a play he would have wanted back. He's been around long enough to know the closer you get to an opponent's goal line, zero thinking about gadget plays. Too many people handle the football. It was a high-risk, low-percentage play that is more likely to backfire than work.

One more Stefanski niggle. I'm not sure what the reason for his apparent fetish for fourth-down gambles is. If it's related to analytics, maybe revisiting that philosophy is in order.  He all season long has adamantly and stubbornly gone for it on fourth down when in enemy territory.

Maybe it's his way of showing his men how much confidence he has in them converting. Well, he hasn't been rewarded very much. He has gambled 18 times -- two a game on the average -- and converted just seven, a dismal 39%. 

Instead of playing for field position and pinning an opponent close to the goal line with a punt or calling on McLaughlin, who already has a 57-yarder this season, for a field goal, he is leaving too many points on the field.

Okay, the Browns won the game. That's not the point. There will be similar opportunities down the line. The hope is Stefanski remembers this faux pas and avoids repeating it.

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It is time for Stefanski and his offensive staff to realize Donovan Peoples-Jones is a lot more than a good blocker in the ground game. The sixth-round draft choice last year has turned into a pretty good -- and very reliable -- pass receiver.

DPJ, who never lived up to his advanced billing at the University of Michigan, just might be one of those athletes who keeps getting better with every step up during his career. There was a reason he lasted until the sixth round.

He quietly has worked his way up the depth chart at wide receiver to the point, now that Odell Beckham Jr. is plying his trade with the Los Angeles Rams, where he is a solid WR2 behind Landry and most likely will see his snap count rise.

In limited opportunities to this point, Peoples-Jones in 19 career games with the Browns has been targeted only 38 times with 29 receptions (22 for first downs) for 618 yards and five touchdowns. This season in seven games, he has caught 15 of 18 targets for 318 yards, 12 first downs and three TDs. Overall, he has caught 76.3% of his targets.

Those numbers, when extrapolated, would make him the most productive wide receiver on the team. Assuming the coaches are paying attention, there is an excellent chance Browns Nation will see DPJ play a much bigger role the rest of the season.

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Nice to see good players rewarded as the Browns execute a 1-2 punch on consecutive days, wrapping up their two guards on the offensive line for the next few years with well-earned contract extensions that make them two of the three highest guards in the NFL.

Wyatt Teller signed a four-year extension worth slightly more than $14 million a season and Joel Bitonio was given a three-year extension worth a league-best $16 million per. Bitonio is the longest-tenured of the Browns at eight seasons. 

Teller, a benchwarmer for the first half of last season, cracked the starting lineup midway through the season and has played at an All-Pro level since. He made the key block in Chubb's 70-yard gallop against the Bengals Sunday, pancaking Cincy safety Jessie Bates III. 

The man responsible for Teller being a Cleveland Brown? Former General Manager John Dorsey, who sent a couple of low-round draft picks to the Buffalo Bills during training camp in 2019. Dorsey is now q a senior personnel executive with the Detroit Lions.

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With the Browns still struggling to get to reasonably good health with COVID-19 and injuries stunting the effort, the pressure mounts on Stefanski to keep his club on an even keel from an emotional standpoint. He already passed the first test with all the OBJ nonsense last week.

Teller believes his coach has the right mind-set to handle such situations. "It's 'Hey, how are we going to handle this situation, and handle it in stride,' " he said. "I think that's how coach Stefanski is and I'm thankful for that."

It's going to be tricky again this weekend with running backs Demetric Felton, John Kelley and Chubb in COVID-19 protocol. There is an outside chance Chubb plays Sunday if he is asymptomatic and tests negative twice in a 24-hour period by Saturday at 4 p.m. If not, D'Ernest Johnson gets the nod and the game plan possibly changes.

For those who forgot, Johnson ran for 146 yards and a touchdown when Chubb and Kareem Hunt, still on injured reserve, were not available for the Denver Broncos game a few weeks ago. Caution: Don't look for a repeat. The Broncos 'defense wishes it could be like the Patriots'.

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Finally . . . Patriots coach Bill Belichick is 7-2 against the Browns and unbeaten in five games at home. A win will boost his victory total with New England to 250. . . . Safety John Johnson III and slot corner Troy Hill are beginning to look more and more like the playmakers who helped the Los Angeles Rams become one of the NFL's best defensive teams last season. The Browns' new aggressive defense is refreshing. . . . If Beckham was hoping to be the No. 1 receiver with his new club, he chose unwisely by signing with the Rams, who have Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods locked in at 1-2. 

It's gotta be KC for OBJ

It's been about 48 hours now since Odell Beckham Jr. cleared National Football League waivers after being cut loose by the Browns and he still remains a free agent.

Various reports indicate the wide receiver and his people have narrowed the field to three teams with mutual interest. In no particular order, they are Green Bay, Kansas City and New Orleans. Unless someone surreptitiously sneaks in the back door late, those are the finalists.

Each meet Beckham's main objective of joining a team with a legitimate chance of playing in the postseason, something he has done only once in his nine-year career. After perusing the chosen finalists, it seems his best chance of playing well into January lies with only one team.

After weighing all the possibilities, only one team fits the best profile for Beckham. That's because of all the quarterbacks involved, only one is good enough and tethered to his team long enough to qualify. 

That's the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes II, who has already been to two Super Bowls and is good enough and young enough at 26 to add more visits to his resumé. The very-well compensated Mahomes this season needs someone other than Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce to depend on.

But if Beckham wants to be the No. 1 guy, only the Saints qualify. Certainly not Green Bay, where Davante Adams is clearly Aaron Rodgers' top target. Another reason to eliminate the Packers is Rodgers' expected exit after this season. 

So if Beckham wants to be the top guy with the Saints now that Michael Thomas has been shut down for the season, his quarterback will be either Trevor Siemian or Taysom Hill, who take over following Jameis Winston's season-ending trip to injured reserve with a torn ACL in week eight. Don't see that happening.

So it makes the most sense for Beckham to subjugate himself -- and his ego -- for the opportunity to play with one of the bright, young quarterbacks in the NFL for at least the remainder of this season with a chance to continue his career with him by signing a long-term deal during the offseason.

But I'm still keeping an eye on that back door for someone like the New England Patriots to sneak in. That would be so Belichickian. 

Monday leftovers

It sure looks as though the departure of Odell Beckham Jr. has had a profound positive effect on the way Baker Mayfield operates the Browns' offense if game one in the post-OBJ era is any indication.

Forget the statistics, which were good to begin with. What Mayfield did Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals passed the eye test with flying colors. He looked nothing like the struggling, clueless quarterback who was awful as he shepherded the offense through a rough patch that produced a 1-3 record.

Gone was the indecision. His body language shouted, "I've got this.' Just about everything flowed. The rhythm, so dependent in a Kevin Stefanski offense, was more precise than it has been in a long time as he snapped a personal three-game losing streak. 

Considering all the tumult off the field that led up to the 41-16 walloping of the Bengals, a Mayfield stickout performance wasn't among predictions for the game. Some, in fact, believed he had reached the zenith of a rapidly fading career, his numbers were so bad.

What they didn't know was Stefanski gave him a terrific game plan, one that spread the football around and left the Bengals' defense guessing most of the afternoon. After weeks of numerous three-and-outs, only one in 11 possessions.

This was the Baker Mayfield who emerged as one of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League last season and led his team to the postseason. He was the quarterback fans started believing was the one to lead the Browns to the Super Bowl.

On Sunday, he was a quarterback wearing a cumbersome harness to protect a badly injured left shoulder. But you'd never know it. He answered yet another question about how difficult it was operating with just one good arm. Has the deep ball been eliminated from the playbook as a result?

Uh, no. Not when he hoisted a football 56 yards into the air after a deft play fake and floated it parabolic fashion into the waiting arms of Donovan Peoples-Jones in perfect stride for a 60-yard touchdown strike in the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead.

It was a thing of beauty as it descended, almost as it was drawn in the playbook. It was the kind of play that not only restored whatever confidence he had lost -- or at least questioned -- during the prolonged down period, it sent a message to his teammates that the old Mayfield was back.

And now as they embark on the second half of the schedule Sunday on the road against the New England Patriots, the Browns do so with a level of confidence that had been absent for almost the entire month of October. As they say, it's not how you start (in this case a season) that counts, it's how you finish.

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Kudos to Stefanski for beautifully preparing the Browns for the game under what had to be trying circumstances with all the nonsense swirling around the offices in Berea all week long. He latched on to the team's focus and held it through the weekend.

Coaching a football team, especially one at the professional level, requires as much psychological and emotional approach as it does drawing Xs and Os on a whiteboard. Getting between the ears of the players is equally important.

Beckham was a popular player in the locker room. Because of that, the manner in which he left had to be difficult to handle for those close to him, especially Jarvis Landry. It was a delicate balancing act for Stefanski and the coaching staff to sustain the players' attention.

Obviously, it worked in what must be labeled the most important game of the season. Of course, they're all important, but this one took on much more importance because the result hinged on what direction the Browns would head following it. A loss would have dropped them to 4-5 with a very uncertain future.

The very positive outcome now propels the Browns into the second half with a renewed confidence, one that was AWOL for a month. They needed a game like that to feel good about themselves and get back on track. 

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Let's put this one to rest. No matter how Mayfield performs the rest of the season, what difference does it make that he, at least statistically, is a more efficient and successful quarterback with Beckham elsewhere in the NFL?

The point is moot. Beckham is not wearing Seal Brown and Orange anymore and is a much happier football player. Makes no difference where he plays next. It will not cast aspersions against either  Mayfield or OBJ in any way whatsoever. They now travel different paths.

All this does is prolong an argument that died the day the wide receiver and Browns reached an agreement to go their separate ways. It has been established Mayfield was not a good quarterback with Beckham in uniform. Now that they are no longer teammates, time to move on.

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Nice to see Stefanski has rediscovered Nick Chubb. For a coach who is madly in love with a balanced attack, he is reluctant to use his best running back more often in an offense designed to set up the passing game with a strong ground attack.

He's rarely going to get games out of Chubb like the one he put together in Cincinnati, running only 14 times, picking up 137 yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns. There will be games, probably like the one Sunday in New England where he won't be as effective.

Chubb's value, besides being the hardest man to bring down in the NFL, is battering defenders. The more he is used, the harder it is to stop him. He can singlehandedly wear down a defense. So by the fourth quarter, he becomes more dangerous. Running 14, 15, 16 times a game won't accomplish that. He needs more, 

We are eight games away from the finish line and Chubb, by virtue of his relatively light load this season -- only 17 carries a game -- is fresh. He averages an incredible six yards a pop in seven games. He is the kind of runner who does not require a pitch count. He needs to touch the football 25-30 times a game. 

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Finally . . . Heading into the season, Rashard Higgins was thought to be the No 3 wide receiver for the Browns after Beckham and Landry. He and Mayfield have a nice symbiotic relationship in the passing game. Not anymore. Higgins has dropped almost entirely out of sight, booking only three snaps against the Bengals, He went untargeted, Peoples-Jones now seems to be WR3 and rookie Anthony Schwartz is WR4. . . . Among the items Stefanski needs to clean up are pre-snap penalties, The Browns had five in the first half Sunday. Paying attention before the ball is snapped shouldn't be that difficult. . . . Cornerback A. J. Green was in for only seven snaps, but it was in long enough to recover a fumble by Bengals rookie receiver Ja'Marr Chase in the second quarter after a John Johnson hit, It led to one of Chase McLaughlin's  two field goals. . . .  Welcome back Andy Janovich, who exited injured reserve and had four snaps Sunday. Why is he sill on the team?

Still kicking

For those of you who have begun to craft an obituary for the struggling 2021 Cleveland Browns, hang on just a little bit longer. Stop writing. Same for those preparing a eulogy.

The Browns are not dead. Not yet, anyway. After the way they played against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday, they are more alive, from a football standpoint, than at any point in the season. 

Apparently, they took their head coach seriously when late this past week he said his team was "desperate and that's where our focus is." Well, that focus was a laser-sharp 20/20 Sunday after they went out and hung a stunning 41-16 thrashing on the Cincinnati Bengals. If that's what desperation football is, sign me up.

No one saw this big-play spanking coming. After all, the Browns' offense had generated just 41 points in the previous four games. Winning the game was prime, of course, but matching that total in one game was eye-opening.

From the 99-yard pick six by Denzel Ward on the opening possession of the game after jumping an end zone route by rookie wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase to the 60-yard touchdown dagger Baker Mayfield connection with Donovan Peoples-Jones early in the second quarter to Nick Chubb's 70-yard scoring burst midway through the third quarter, this one was pure fun.

After the Browns took a 24-10 halftime lead, it would have been natural for suspecting fans to start thinking there was still one half of football left and the way this team had been playing, nothing was safe. Little did they realize they were watching what amounted to a statement game.

The statement: "We are not dead. Time to start taking the Cleveland Browns seriously. More to come."

The game statistics belie the final score as the Cleveland defense put on its best performance of the season. The Bengals had 25 first downs; the Browns just 14. The Bengals ran 70 plays to score 16 points; the Browns logged 46 to score 41.  The Bengals owned the football for 35 minutes and 22 seconds; the Browns just 24:38.

So how did this turn out so favorably for the Browns? Arguably the most important stat of any game: Turnovers. The Browns had three, converting them into 13 points. The Bengals, zilch.

Due to Ward's opening surprise, the Cleveland offense did not see the football until 4:33 remained in the first quarter and the Bengals had tied it up at 7-7. The defense, on the field for nearly 23 minutes in the first half. limited the Bengals, who entered the game having scored 109 points in the last three games, to just 10 points, while the offense scored 24 in just eight minutes.

No problem, though, with Mayfield, looking better by the possession in spite of a badly damaged left shoulder and managing the offense masterfully, putting up 34 points in just 41 plays. It was an offense that had been absent since a 42-point outburst against the Los Angeles Chargers in week five.

But the defense deservedly shared the honors -- perhaps even moreso -- with this victory. It was almost unrecognizable because of what sure looked like a new-found aggressive stance. The pass rush was tenacious, racking up five sacks of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and forcing the three turnovers after entering the game with only five total (a penalty wiped out a fourth).

This is the opportunistic defense most fans expected after General Manager Andrew Berry massively addressed that side of the ball during the offseason and exponentially raised the talent level of the team. It was originally thought the unit would become cohesive right away. It didn't, but now that it has stepped up big time against one of the National Football League's best offenses, the future looks bright.

Defensive coordinator Joe Woods, becoming bolder by the game, turned the blitz loose against Burrow, who was knocked down a dozen times. Slot corner Troy Hill, spectacular with seven solo tackles, two sacks and three knockdowns, seemed to be ubiquitous. Equally ubiquitous middle linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. checked in with 14 tackles, 12 solo. Safety John Johnson III caused a fumble and intercepted a pass.

Overall, this one clearly qualified as the club's best overall effort of the season, something on which to build for head coach Kevin Stefanski, especially after what has transpired the last month, the last week in particular with the Odell Beckham Jr. saga. 

Entering the game on the tailend of a four-game span that saw the offense slumber with an allergic reaction to scoring points, many inhabitants of Browns Nation were flummoxed at just what the hell was going on. After last season, 4-4 was not excepted at that point, especially with a relatively easy schedule.

On this day, however, everything clicked. Kind of made me wonder where in the world the team that showed up Sunday has been the first two months of the season. The fact they were playing .500 ball at this point was somewhat miraculous, especially with the OBJ nonsense swirling around the club on a weekly basis. Now, it's what chaos?

Sudden thought: Now that OBJ will officially become an ex-Brown Monday with his quickie divorce, does this pounding of the Bengals mean what I think it means? How emphatically was that question answered? You know, the one about whether Mayfield is a better quarterback with Beckham not in uniform.

He was an efficient 14-of-21 for 218 yards and touchdown passes to Peoples-Jones and David Njoku to wrap up the scoring in the final quarter. He was sacked a couple of times, but generally looked more relaxed and confident in the pocket than he has been the last month or so.

One terrific game like this, however, is insufficient evidence to adequately answer that question, but the fact is Mayfield wins more games with Beckham nowhere to be seen than when he suits up. It's an argument best suited for talk radio, one that no doubt will be looked at quite closely as the rest of the season unfolds.

It was also good to see Chubb rebound nicely from his 61-yard game last Sunday in the Pittsburgh loss, churning out 137 yards on just 14 carries en route to his two-touchdown afternoon.  

So hold off on those obituaries and eulogies for the time being. The Browns are off the resuscitator and functioning, at least for one game, quite nicely. Now comes the second half of the season against a much tougher schedule.

The Nantz-Romo factor 

Numerous concerns floating out there as the Browns, deep in a slump and struggling to stay relevant in post-season conversation, begin a stretch with three of the next four games on the road beginning Sunday in Cincinnati against the Bengals.

Coming off a three-game homestand that barely managed to produce a 1-2 record thanks mainly to the defense, and a drama-filled week that saw the rancorous departure of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., it's anybody's guess what to expect at this point of the 2021 season.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski, sensing the importance of this one, went so far as to declare his team "desperate" for a victory. "We're desperate and that's where our focus is," he said.  Quite out of character for the normally staid, even-keel coach. 

Stefanski's offense, for all practical purposes, is broken. Only 41 points generated in those three games in front of full houses of disgusted fans. Strangely, it's the same offense that scored 42 points in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in week five.

The passing game is way off kilter as Baker Mayfield gamely -- and futilely -- attempts to be a very good National Football League quarterback while playing with torn and fractured body parts in his non-throwing arm.

He maintains a torn labrum and broken shoulder bone are not affecting how he conducts business. Why, then, are most of his passes of the short- and medium-distance variety? Don't remember when he last really cut loose and tried to hook up deep. 

That's because wearing a harness tightly strapped to his side to restrict movement of his left arm alters his throwing motion just enough to prevent him from being his normal self. He is clearly not the freewheeling -- and very accurate -- gunslinger we saw in the second half of last season during the team's post-season run.

Statistics indicate injuries are a factor. Like only two games this season with (just barely) 300+ yards and an embarrassing six touchdown passes in seven games. Two went to tight ends, three to wide receivers, including a Hail Mary, and one to a running back on a well-executed screen. 

For comparison purposes, Mayfield had seven overall scoring throws against the Bengals last season, including five in one game. All were with Beckham out with an ACL, bolstering the notion he was a better quarterback with OBJ out of commission.

Want more evidence it's not the same this season? Mayfield has thrown zero scoring passes in three games. He was blanked just four times overall last season. Suffice it to say this offense is not playing even close to inspired football. It seems at times as though that side of the ball is going through the motions. 

But, argue those who tend to glom onto a positive outlook, there is always the run game. After all, the Browns still lead the league in rushing. And Nick Chubb is back and reportedly healthy. What about that?

The answer to that is provided here by the Pittsburgh Steelers, who held Chubb to just 61 yards in last Sunday's loss, a game that was very winnable. The run game is hit and miss. Various injuries to Chubb and Kareem Hunt, as well as tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin, have stunted the infantry attack.

What most fans have not seen this season that worked so well last season are rollouts, bootlegs, counters  and misdirection plays, especially against teams that can be easily influenced by the initial flow of the blocking.

Get Mayfield out of the pocket on designed plays. Remaining in the pocket this season seems almost like imprisonment. Okay, an  exaggeration, but pocket presence is not one his strengths. How many times have we seen him hopelessly unable to find open receivers and get sacked when reacting too late?

Stats time again: Mayfield has been sacked 22 times already this season in seven games. He was dropped 26 times all last season. In five of those games, he was not sacked once. Can't say that this season. 

This is the team that will be in Paul Brown Stadium Sunday, facing a team playing the brand of fan-fun football the Browns played last season. The Bengals have scored 106 points in the last three games. It is also a team spitting angry after being upset last Sunday by the lowly New York Jets . . . and look who's next. 

They are also a team on the rise with second-year quarterback Joe Burrow throwing the football like a seasoned veteran and managing an attack that averages 27.5 points a game with a defense whose strength threatens the Browns' biggest strength. 

Burrow threw for 726 yards against the Browns last season in two losses with six touchdown passes. This season, he and college teammate Ja'Marr Chase have reunited and combined for 786 yards, seven touchdowns and three 100-yard-plus games, including a 201-yarder while upsetting Baltimore.

The vastly improved Cincinnati defense allows just 98 yards a game on the ground. The defensive line, which owns 18 of the club's 21 sacks, might be the best in the AFC North. The Browns' offensive line will be severely tested.

Where the Bengals are most vulnerable, as are the Browns, is in the secondary, giving up 10 touchdown passes and 267 yards a game. (The Browns have allowed 17 TDs.) That's what Mayfield and the OBJ-less receiving corps must exploit if they have any chance to win because Burrow will strafe the Cleveland back end all afternoon. 

The Browns no longer have an offense that can keep up in the event of a shootout. That's how far it has fallen. Unless, that is, Stefanski and his offensive staff have somehow managed to rediscover the formula that surprised the entire NFL last season. A lot also depends on whether Mayfield can recapture the magic that made him relevant last season. As it now stands, that's way too much to ask of him.

Having seen both teams quite a bit this season, there is no question the Bengals have a better team. Not a better, more talented  roster. A better team. And right now, that is the biggest difference between these teams. The Bengals overachieve. 

The Browns are struggling; the Bengals are not. And since Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, who haven't covered a Cleveland victory since can't remember when, are doing the game for CBS television, this pick is easy. Make it: Bengals 34. Browns 17

Pressure now on Mayfield

Now that the final  chapter of the Odell Beckham Jr. Saga soap opera has been written and on the verge of being completed, time to move on. No sense dragging this unpleasantness any further.

For all practical purposes, Beckham is gone. Where he lands . . . who cares? No matter what he does wherever he lands, his 32-month tour with the Browns will be looked upon for what it was: A disaster of enormous proportions.

Fingers of blame will be pointed at him by those who never bought into the notion he would be the final building block for the Browns en route to the postseason. Those who take his side will direct their digits of blame at the quarterback who failed to connect with him and hastened his departure.

Starting Sunday in Cincinnati, and for the eight games (should he last that long) that follow, the pressure of reviving an offense that has stagnated, for the most part, since the early stages of the season will be on Baker Mayfield to produce.

The latest brouhaha that triggered Beckham's exodus thrusts Mayfield into a spotlight that most likely will shine brightly and determine once and for all who makes him most effective. Now that OBJ is history in Cleveland, time to find out whether he is a better quarterback without him.

Deep dives into their 28-game professional relationship prove that the two landing on the same page was not working and was never going to. No matter what Freddie Kitchens and Kevin Stefanski tried, it just did not work. 

It was most noticeable last season after a torn ACL ended Beckham's season in game seven against the Bengals. Mayfield was a completely different quarterback after that, successfully connecting with as many as nine or ten different receivers a game, masterminding an explosive offense that propelled the Browns into the playoffs for the first time since 2002. 

That dangerous attack carried over into this season, the Browns coming within five minutes of knocking off the Kanas City Chiefs on the road in the season opener as Beckham began the season on injured reserve. 

When he returned for game three, the disconnect was noticeable again, the duo connecting on just 50% of their passes in five games. The last straw arrived last Sunday at home in the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

One successful target -- a second target was wiped out by a roughing-the-passer call against the Steelers -- gained just six yards on a screen pass. That was it. And that's when the you know what hit the you know what.

It has had a deleterious effect on the team this week. Beckham has a reputation of being popular in the clubhouse. His all of a sudden not being a part of the team might confuse those particularly close to him. "It's part of the business" might not be a sufficient enough reason to fully understand why this was happening.

Beckham failing to respond in any fashion when his father posted a damning 11-minute video on Instagram early this week disparaging Mayfield set the stage for what eventuated. Conspiracy theorists -- and no, I am not one -- concluded it was all staged by the wide receiver.

How this all affects the team Sunday is the X factor. Stefanski's biggest task now as head coach is making certain the events of the last several days do not fracture his team, splitting the locker room. To that end, he approaches Sunday's game rather melodramatically, his team having lost three of the last four games.

"We're four and four," he said the other day. "We have to get a win. Our lives depend on it is the way we look at it. We're desperate and that is where our focus is."

There are those who believe this distraction won't harm the winning culture Stefanski and General Manager Andrew Berry have developed and nurtured the last season and a half. Call the Beckham exit addition by subtraction and move on.

Then there are those who saw what unfolded this week, remember vividly what transpired for most of the last two decades with this franchise and lament, "Here we go again." The next nine games will determine which group is correct.

Don't let the door . . . 

It's only a matter of time before Odell Beckham Jr. becomes a former member of the Cleveland Browns, ending what can best be labeled a rancorous 32 months since arriving in a trade from the New York Giants.

The end, which could come as early as Friday, will bring to a close a period that, depending on what unfolds following his departure, could be a turning point for a franchise that has seemingly lost its way on the field in the last month.

The distraction is evident and seems to have divided the locker room. "I feel the majority of this locker room would love to have him in this building, flat out," free safety John Johnson III shared with the media Thursday after Beckham was given an excused absence from practice for a second straight day. 

"Hopefully, we can get him back if that's possible. That's just my opinion on it. If not, we've got to carry on. We've got a big game coming up, another division game. That's what my mind-set is. Just get ready for this week."

Whether the Browns place Beckham on waivers, possibly place him on season-ending injured reserve with various ailments or flat out cut him, he is gone, nothing more than a seemingly good deal at the time that went terribly wrong almost from the beginning.

When Beckham arrived in 2019, he was championed as the missing piece of the puzzle. Pair him up with Baker Mayfield, who had become the face of the franchise with a sparkling rookie season, sit back and watch what happens.

What happened was a disconnect almost from the beginning with Mayfield, under the mismanagement of way-in-over-his-head rookie head coach Freddie Kitchens, frequently failing to take advantage of the receiver's talents. It took a season-ending injury to Beckham midway through last season to discover Mayfield had no such trouble with his other receivers.

Slowly but surely, the whole Mayfield-Beckham disconnection saga began to unravel when Beckham returned to the active roster in week three this season. It was exacerbated by a shoulder injury Mayfield incurred in week two against the Houston Texans, unwisely trying to tackle safety Justin Reid after intercepting a pass in the second quarter.

By the time Beckham was cleared to resume play in game three, Mayfield was nursing a torn labrum in his left shoulder. It was followed three games later by a broken bone in the same shoulder. Although he said it did not hinder his throwing motion, Mayfield's failure to connect with the club's No. 1 receiver was obvious.

No matter what head coach/playcaller Kevin Stefanski drew up, it rarely worked with the precision many fans expected when OBJ arrived. Too often, the quarterback was high with his throws, getting under the football and sailing it instead of driving threw it in his delivery.

Other times, Beckham worked his way clear and Mayfield either failed to see him or chose to continue his progression and distribute the football elsewhere to Beckham's frustration. That was seen in some camps as the quarterback ignoring his ostensibly main man.

It was shortly after the Texans victory, the first of three straight Cleveland wins, that Mayfield began struggling with the passing game. In the four games he piloted since the Houston victory  -- disregarding the 47-42 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in week five because it was an outlier -- the Cleveland offense generated just 64 points.

Mayfield, who has lost three straight games as the starter entering Sunday's game in Cincinnati, completed just 62% of his passes in those four games for an average of 237 yards per and just three touchdowns. If not for a resurgent Cleveland defense, which surrendered just 67 points in those games, and a terrific ground game, who knows what the record would be today.

The Browns are fortunate to be 4-4 at this juncture with an offense that more resembles Browns offenses of the first 20 seasons of this iteration than it does the scary numbers put up last season. And with Mayfield operating quite literally with one arm almost pinned to his side by a harness and the next blow to the area a distinct possibility, the once-promising season could blow up at any time. 

The sooner the club separates from Beckham, though, the better. Distractions like this have a tendency to linger unfortunately and the club shouldn't be emotionally burdened with dragging it on. It's incumbent on the front office, which should have seen this coming. to act quickly and decisively.

It's getting messy

The fecal matter has hit the fan at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. in Berea, Ohio. Odell Beckham Jr., it would appear, is not welcome anymore at the west side training home of the Browns.

For reasons that might become clear later, the mercurial wide receiver was told Wednesday not to report to practice for Sunday's game against the Bengals in Cincinnati. The team couched the move by calling it an  "excused" absence. In other words, he was instructed to stay away.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski Wednesday explained he "just felt it was the right thing to do." Michael Silver of the NFL Network tweeted Stefanski told his players Beckham was "essentially not on the team right now . . . and was told to stay home."

Replied Stefanski when asked about Silver's tweet, "I would just tell you today he's excused and we'll see where this goes." It quite likely is being handled on a level above Stefanski.

That probably means Beckham's representatives and Cleveland General Manager Andrew Berry are  huddling in an effort to bring this unpleasant chapter to a conclusion agreeable to both sides. Suspending Beckham with pay for the rest of the season or just flat out cutting him -- addition by subtraction -- are two of the possibilities.

The directive came less than 24 hours after Beckham's father, Odell, posted a damning video on Instagram belittling Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. The 11-minute video, entitled Odell is Always Open, shows numerous occasions when his son was open and ignored by Mayfield. It went viral.

Mayfield pronounced himself "as surprised (at the video) as you were." when addressing the situation Wednesday with the Cleveland media. "Hurt? No. Surprised, yes, I want Odell to succeed. That's where we're at. At least that's what I thought."

One of the sticking points -- and this is just a guess -- is Junior did not respond in any way to his father's video, either separating himself from it or criticizing him for posting it. His silence could be construed as tacit approval.

It very well could become -- maybe it already has -- the tipping point in the relationship between the player and the team, a relationship that has not worked since the Browns traded for him on March 13, 2019 in a blockbuster deal with the New York Giants made by then-General Manager John Dorsey.

The working relationship, at least on the field, between Mayfield and Beckham seems to have degenerated and festered to the point where the club felt it had to do something to defuse a situation that was becoming toxic in the view of some members of the media.

The possibility of dividing the locker room, especially at this stage of the season when the team is still in contention despite losing three of the last four games, is palpable. Beckham's forced absence is not helping the situation.

The nadir was reached in Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at home when Mayfield targeted Beckham just once -- a six-yard screen pass -- as the offense sputtered throughout the game. It was embarrassing the former All-Pro receiver was virtually ignored.

The cracks in the veneer of Stefanski, also the playcaller for the offense and person mainly responsible for the amount of targets Beckham gets, are becoming more noticeable by the game. What worked in last season's 11-5 record isn't this season and he thus far has failed to uncover a solution.

The fact the Browns became one of the National Football League's most dangerous teams in the second half of last season without the services of Beckham, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury in game seven, was the first clue the situation was headed in the wrong direction.

For reasons that might never be adequately explained, last season's statistics proved Mayfield had a much better relationship with wide receivers Rashard Higgins, Jarvis Landry, KhaDarel Hodge (now with the Detroit Lions) and Donovan Peoples-Jones down the stretch than he ever had with Beckham.

How this all affects the remainder of the season will now be played out in the next nine games as the Browns, who evaded drama all last season and qualified for the postseason as a result for the first time since 2002, are back in the drama business. Not a good omen for a team that specialized in drama and languished in the division basement on an annual basis since then.