Well it seems the Browns and the rest of us got a reality check this weekend. The Browns were completely humiliated in their own building 37-14 and it wasn't that close. There is trouble in Brownsland right now.
Yes, there are plenty of injuries and that sucks and hurts. There have been a bevy of bad referee calls the past couple weeks, but we are not alone there, as officiating in the NFL right now is unprofessional, amateurish, and eyebrow raising to say the least. Official's bloated egos still think they are there to help decide outcomes of games, but they are not. If that's what you want, suit up and play, but take off the zebra stripes. It's a league wide propblem, and the league won't do ANYTHING at all until it destroys a season like the Cowboys, Rams, Chiefs or Packers. Quite frankly, it's a joke.
But the Browns problems don't just lie there in the above. Their defense stinks in almost every regard. From the 4th quarter of the Charger game till halftime of Sunday's game, they gave up points I think on 9 straight drives. They gave up 26 in the 4th quarter alone of the Charger game and 49 in those three quarters mentioned. Whatever is the problem, they better get it fixed now or the season will be lost quickly. It's sad, and teams have NO FEAR of our defense. They don't punt against the Browns much, they just go for it on 4th down - and get it. They have no respect for the Browns. They can't stop anyone and they don't force turnovers. The opposing teams should leave the punter on the bus.
The offense can't close out games, or answer scoring drives against good teams when they need to. You would think scoring 42 and 29 in road games would be enough to win, but I guess not. And those are the teams they need to beat if we are going anywhere. And I'd trade OBJ so fast it would break land speed records. He can certainly catch the ball, but there is something very wrong with him on the field here. There is too much evidence now, we are better without him. He needs to go and let us return to life without him. And we need to get healthy.
Handsome devil Kevin Stefanski needs to adjust and grow up too. Start taking early game points when your team has earned them. Reward the offense, the team and the fans with field goals when they are there early. Save the 4th down nonsense for late in the game when you need to do it. Yesterday, it was THE major turning point in the game. It would have answered the Cardinals touchdown drive and restored some order. He blew it, and the momentum stayed with the Cardinals, who scored another TD and the game was in real jeopardy. All self-inflicted three weeks in a row. Wake up! Enough with the "smartest guy in the room stuff." Reward your team with points.
I love the Browns and the week 6 Browns I am sad to say, are not very good. I am starting to think that maybe we are just not as good as we think we are. Long season still, get healthy, play better, grow up and maybe things can be different like late last year.
Boy, do sports media people look silly. All the off season talk about how we may go 17-0 or 15-2, or some hideous prediction and who's gonna "possibly" beat us. One long running promo on the air said 17-0 was "in play." Its the NFl, undefeated is never really in play. I laughed at it then, and now. All this is contributing to the runaway hype this team is enduring, and that doesn't help a young team or coach either. Let's get a hold of ourselves. Even my far more realistic 12-5 take (then) is optimistic and looks in peril itself now and will fall by the way side.
What has to happen is this. Get healthy, hang on and somehow get to about 5-5 and then make a run if you can, that's sort of what the Bucs did last year. Play better, prepare better, and coach better. Understand you are better than this, but we are not elite yet. Take points when they are given to you, understand you are good enough to compete every week, then do so. And start beating the good teams, because right now we can't - and don't
Less analytics, more common sense, and accept that bad breaks and bad calls are going be a part of any NFL game and recover from it. And start this week by not squatting on the 50 yard line and laying a big, stinky, gassy, sulphuric egg on Thursday Night Football and BEAT the Bronco's to go to 4-3. Then some order will be restored.
Go Browns!
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