An infamous kiss, closing windows, and YIELD: While We’re Waiting…
October 21, 2014LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love make this week’s Sports Illustrated Cover
October 21, 2014One game.
The Cleveland Browns lost this one game.
That is all that happened Sunday. They played terribly, no doubt. They were road favorites and embarrassed themselves long and hard in Jacksonville. They put the kibosh on all of the optimism that came with defeating the Steelers. They raised every demon that resides within Browns’ fans, uncomfortably familiar ideas of inferiority and self-loathing.
But it was only one game.
Brian Hoyer was flagrantly awful against the Jaguars. He completed 39% of his passes. It was his first full game as Browns starter without a touchdown. He missed open guys. He was unable to lead the Browns to a touchdown despite the Browns’ D thrice intercepting Blake Bortles. Fair or not, Hoyer’s fingerprints were on the botched fourth-down conversion attempts. He made me regret purchasing a Romanburger last week.
But it was only one game.
The offensive line was a shambles, barely a shadow of its former self. The Browns O-line without Alex Mack was like Halloween without candy or Christmas sans cookies: an incomplete institution. Browns runners managed just 69 yards on 30 carries. The offense gained a yard or less on 48 of 74 offensive plays. The line allowed seven tackles for loss, three sacks, and seven more hits on Hoyer. I wish Paul McQuistan the very best, but he inspired a generation of matadors Sunday.
But it was only one game.
The run defense showed precious little progress. Denard Robinson had the day of his professional life, running for 127 yards and a touchdown. The former Michigan quarterback did things that we once wished of Josh Cribbs. Blake Bortles ran for 35 mostly unmolested yards as the defense paid him no mind. Paul Kruger had a solitary tackle on 60 snaps.
But it was only one game.
The special teams continued to disappoint. As the fourth quarter punt bounced off of Jordan Poyer’s facemask, the Browns’ chances of winning bounced away with it. We could see a path to victory but it kept escaping us, a mischievous rabbit always out of reach.
But it was only one game.
There were some bright spots if you squint, sort of how you notice the brightest parts of a cave once your eyes adjust. Joe Haden and Justin Gilbert played borderline well. Tashaun Gipson had two legitimate NFL interceptions, giving him four for the season. Andrew Hawkins was at his slippery best.
But still, it was only one game.
This isn’t to say that we should only try to look on the bright side. Believe me, I get it. Having waxed poetic a week ago about how this team won me over with its hustle and heart, I feel betrayed. It’s dumb and immature, but a football team can make you feel things normally reserved for your parents’ divorce. The things that I thought to be true were not on Sunday. My worldview was shown to be inaccurate.
The Browns were not tough. They were not smart. They were not opportunistic. Au contraire: They were meek. They were boneheaded. They were wasteful. No matter how many times the Jaguars slid the door open, the Browns rammed headlong into the wall.
Any and all worries about falling in a trap game were validated Sunday. The Jaguars defense was described early in the week by Joe Thomas and others as the best the Browns have faced. It certainly looked that way. If the victory over Pittsburgh was a 10, this game was a zero wrapped in putrid Lake Erie perch.
This team is still 3-3. They have at least six winnable games left on the schedule, if you’re silly enough to think that the Browns ever function predictably. We’re in the thick of this season now, and now we will see what the Browns are made of. They probably aren’t as good as we thought last week or as bad as we think now.
We should listen to Joe Thomas.
“It’s the nature of the league. You win one game and you’re crowned as Super Bowl champions. You lose one and you’re announced as the worst team in the league. I hope that we have the perspective on this team to understand that that’s the way it goes in the NFL.”
I hope so, too. After all, it was only one game.
16 Comments
One could also argue they lost their dignity by losing to the Jaguars.
It was one game but during a sixteen game schedule more often then not one game is the difference between making the playoffs and not. But more importantly it was how they lost the game. On top of the fact the offense was exposed. It will be interesting to see what happens against Oakland. I’m hoping this year is different and that this team isn’t as weak minded as past teams and that they definitely learned something and win verse Oakland. Then again I won’t be shocked if they lose either. That’s just reality unfortunately. It’s what 14+ years does to a person.
And April baseball doesn’t matter.
“But more importantly it was how they lost the game.”
^This.
They have lost 3 games this year. This one, and only this one, left me with the helpless feeling so familiar from past Browns teams. The feeling that, down only 4 points, the opponent’s lead was insurmountable.
My hope is that, while in years past the resounding win was the aberration, this year the embarrassing loss will be the aberration.
It was only one game, but it was a game that we should have won and that instead brought back memories of Mangini & Shurmur offensive football (yes, use offensive in either usage here).
It’s the type of game even while we are being ugly that we will need to win if we want to be a consistent playoff team. It’s also the type of game that I don’t necessarily expect us to know how to win yet. So, let’s go out and win these next 2 games and move on from there.
“down only 4 points, the opponent’s lead was insurmountable”
If only the NFL used the NFLE field goal rules. Then Dawson could have won us a few more games.
Great writing Will. I was almost happy it wasnt even close at the end. That was I could just laugh rather than cry. Hopefully they take Oakland and Tampa VERY seriously now.
For as great a win as Pittsburgh was the loss to Jacksonville was just as low. Basically I feel like the Browns record 3-3. They won some games they could have easily lost and they lost some they could have won. So their record is spot on in my opinion. Lets see what happens this week.
A “fan” usually says this those of us more intelligent sportsman know better right?
ALL GAMES MATTER! This isn’t hard.
I would hope not but we both know differently, unfortunately.
True until they stop losing games like that one: Same old sorry-ass Browns
Let’s start with winning the next game and move on from there.
There is nothing undignified about charity.
Yeah I actually subjected myself to that whole thing again. Increasingly the takeaway is just that the line shuffle was coming against just the wrong opponent and emphatically didn’t work, and all the worst plays just happened at just the wrong time. 4 drops and they were all critical, 3 bad triggers from Hoyer and they were critical, one terrible tackle and it was critical, one attempt to invent a new place and way to catch a punt and it was deathly critical. Couple sacks at exactly the wrong time. Two wrongs (Both the Jags and Browns both thinking there were 12 men on the field when really there were 11) not making a right at the worst possible time. Really kind of just ‘a bunch of stuff that happened.’
Hoyer really was more badly harassed than I remembered in real time. I counted 3 instances where McQuistan actually sped the d-lineman towards the backfield with attempts to push the rusher outside that were actually aimed right up the middle. That’s true on the int play where Hoyer couldn’t follow through and left the ball behind. They might get away with this line configuration against Pit and LA but there aren’t many teams where that’s true; they need to find something else there.
But overall, I think if you played that same game with the same personnel the same way 10 times the Browns would probably still win 8 of them, something like 16-6. Even with the structural matchup problem on the line, it took a lot of balls bouncing off facemasks, knees not quite touching down, passing up points, and general planet alignment for that game to turn out that way.
When Mark Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks, he said “We’re not selling basketball, we’re selling fun!” If Cleveland wants to become football’s next “America’s Team”, they might want to sell fun and win with Johnny Manziel.