The Cleveland Browns became one of the more fun stories down the stretch, but the wind was taken out of their proverbial sails in Houston.
After losing Deshaun Watson for the season in Week 10, the Brown ultimately turned to Joe Flacco, who carved up one defense after another to help pull Cleveland into the playoffs. Between Flacco’s remarkable play and a stout defense, the Browns looked like a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
But they got smacked by C.J. Stroud and the Texans, with Cleveland’s season ending on a 45-14 loss to Houston. Flacco was fine in the first half but tanked in the second half, and the Texans offense ran circles around the Browns’ defense.
Injuries impacted the Browns’ season more than arguably any other playoff team, and Ken Carman said Monday on The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima that he can’t really be mad about the result.
“Technically, yeah, you had your fourth quarterback out there and he turned into a pumpkin in the second half, and I was as shocked as anybody out there,” Carman said. “I cannot believe the defense played as bad as (they did), but I’m watching it going, can I really be mad? I can be upset, I can be disappointed, and I am disappointed in a lot of ways.
“But I’ve got Ogbo Okoronkwo out there, who probably should not have been on the field, and he’s chasing the tight end and he’s never going to catch the tight end. It seemed every play the Texans had seemed to go on for 1,000 miles. …
“It’s a terrible day. It was a fun regular season,” Carman continued. “They went out and they played badly, they played like garbage on Saturday, there’s no doubt about it. They stuck with it through a half, it was a 10-point game, then the pick-six happened and it was all downhill from there. And certainly after the second pick-six happened, then everybody was just shellshocked.”