CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – It’s always the little things.
And where the Browns are concerned, they always seem to bite them worst when it counts the most.
It happened again Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium, dropping Cleveland below .500 at 2-3.
Here are our Top Takeaways from a frustrating 30-28 loss to the Chargers.
1. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski summed everything up succinctly, and perfectly: “Very frustrating.” in other news, water is still wet and the sky is blue.
2. In Week 1, Cade York was the toast of the town. Sunday, he’s the goat. York missed two field goals, including from 54 with 11 seconds remaining to seal the third loss of the season. “Hit it well. My head was still down,” York said. “I thought it was going to be dead straight right down the middle. Looked up and it was just outside.” York also missed a 45-yard field goal wide right with 11 seconds remining in the first half to keep it a 21-17 game at intermission. “That's my first time missing twice in a game,” York said. “So I wasn't like I went out there and was just going, 'Oh, I just missed one before.' I hit it hard, hit it strong. I just missed it.”
3. The Browns were handed a gift when the Chargers went for it on fourth-and-1 at their own 46 with 1:14 remaining. Credit rookie cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. with an excellent play to break up the pass intended for Mike Williams to turn it over on downs and give Cleveland life. Unfortunately the Browns did what the Browns do, squandered the opportunity.
4. If there's a hot seat in Cleveland, it's gotta be Joe Woods. My goodness. Teams just take a blowtorch to his defenses. Sunday it was the Chargers turn: 465 yards in total offense and 238 of those on the ground. “We have to tackle better,” Stefanski said. “There are a lot of things that if you want to play good defense, we have to start doing.” It is unexplainable and inexcusable.
5. That said, when you lose three out of your first five and none of them have anything to do with being without your $230 million quarterback and more to do with bad coaching, players being unprepared and players not being fundamentally sound, those are things that tend to get a head coach fired at the end of the season. This is a results business and Stefanski has done little early this season to get a fourth year in Cleveland.
6. Wet paper bags tackle better than the Browns, and that might be an insult to wet paper bags. Since Week 1 when they held Carolina to 54 net rushing yards, the number has increased each week steadily to a whopping 238 Sunday. That means 250 can’t be out of the question next week against the Patriots. “Right now, it’s not good,” defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said. “We got the names and the pieces on paper, but we gotta come out here and put it together. I’ve been on my fourth team and this, by far, [is] one of the [most] talented defenses I’ve been on in my years, so I expect a lot out of this defense and right now we ain’t showing up and doing it right now.”
7. Once again everyone will point to Jacoby Brissett’s third interception of the season, but it didn’t cost the Brows the game. With 2:44 remaining and the ball inside the 10, Brissett, who had an incredible scramble a few plays earlier to avoid a sack and pick up a first down, just threw one right to Chargers safety Alohi Gilman while trying to get the ball to Amari Cooper in the back of the end zone. Brissett also had plenty of room to run on the play. “That was a poor decision by myself,” Brissett said. “Yes, I saw Amari coming. I know I am better than that, and I just made a bad decision.”
8. Nick Chubb deserves better. Chubb wasted no time carving up the Chargers as he racked up his fourth 100-yard rushing effort in five games. His 41-yard touchdown run to open the scoring in the first quarter was a mixture of power, field vision and speed. With the ball resting inside the 5, fans chanted “Chubb! Chubb! Chubb! Chubb!” And Chubb delivered moments later with a second touchdown run, from two yards to reclaim the lead at 21-17. Chubb finished with 134 yards on 17 carries.
9. “We gotta find a way to finish,” Chubb said. “We're always in the position to finish and win the game. Just as a team we have to find a way to pull through and win the game. We were in a great position the last couple of games to win the game, we didn't do it.” Yep, again.
10. Kareem Hunt continues to be the counter punch. His 2-yard run capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive and reclaimed the lead for the Browns at 28-27 with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter. Hjalte Froholdt, who lined up at fullback, unleashed a hellacious block to free Hunt to go up and over the pile. In all, 11 carries, 47 yards and the score for Cleveland’s No. 2 back.
11. There was no waiting for Browns receiver Amari Cooper to get involved this week. Through two offensive possessions, Cooper had as many catches – four – as he had targets last week in Atlanta. Cooper’s 11-yard touchdown catch was his third of the season and gave the Browns a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Cooper finished with a team-high seven catches for 76 yards and the score.
12. Chargers running back Austin Ekeler did most of the pumpkin carving Sunday afternoon. He ran right through the Browns defensive line and 71 yards to the 4 before being brought down by Greg Newsome II from behind. The hustle by Newsome, and Ward, who was in pursuit, saved 4 points as L.A. had to settle for a 28-yard field goal and made it a 14-3 game with 2:26 remining in the first quarter. “Once they cracked that 75 or 80-yarder, knew they were definitely going to lean on it,” defensive end Myles Garrett said. “They felt like they had an advantage on us to attack some of the soft spots in our defense and that’s what they did. They were able to rush for over 200 and that’s clearly on us. I feel like that’s on us, the D-line, making sure the edges are set and not getting knocked off the ball.” Ekeler got into the end zone with a 22-yard run in the third quarter to put LA back on top, 24-21. Ekeler racked up 173 yards on 16 carries. That’s just embarrassing.
13. The Chargers listened to the film and ran the ball effectively against the Browns. Ekeler and Joshua Kelley combined for 222 yards rushing. “Can’t beat teams if you can’t stop the run [in the] National Football League. You know that. I know that,” Clowney said. “It’s my ninth year. Never won [when] you give up over 100 plus yards in the run game. You know today we gave up too too many and we gotta look in the mirror and see what we can do individually to help this team.” Kelley walked into he end zone untouched for a 5-yard score to cut the Browns lead to 14-10 early in the second quarter. Again, embarrassing.
14. Brissett, king of the QB sneak, just looked at the bench with his hands on his hips after handing off to Kareem Hunt, who got dropped for a loss of 4, on fourth-and-1 at their own 34. The Chargers took over at the Cleveland 30.
Luckily, the defense held and forced another field goal and L.A. was only able to extend their lead to 27-21 with 5:47 remaining in the third quarter.
15. Cornerback Denzel Ward departed in the third quarter with a head injury and he did not return. Ward was placed in concussion protocol and his status for next week will be determined.
16. The glass half full view of things in the Browns could be 5-0 and they’re not that far off.
17. The cold hard truth is the Browns have too many good players on both sides of the ball to be as undisciplined, ineffective and inconsistent as they are.
18. 2-3 isn’t the end of the world, but with their upcoming schedule it very well could be. There’s little on tape to suggest the problems are just going to clear themselves up anytime soon.
