The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
On the Browns and their ‘broken record’
David S. Glasier weighs on in the Browns’ latest loss, including their fourth-quarter collapse, Josh Gordon’s performance, and a sea of green and gold at FirstEnergy Stadium.
In the immediate wake of the 27-21 overtime loss to Green Bay on Dec. 10, Browns coach Hue Jackson referred to what he’d witnessed as “a broken record.”
He had that exactly right.
The ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is the nagging constant for the 2017 version of the expansion-era Browns.
It happened in Week 1 against Pittsburgh, Week 3 against Indianapolis, Week 5 against the New York Jets, Week 8 against Tennessee and in Week 14 against the Aaron Rodgers-less Packers.
Bottom line is, the Browns are 0-13.
With the home finale against Baltimore on Dec. 17 and road games at Chicago and Pittsburgh after that, it’s a stretch to imagine the Browns getting out of their own way often enough to win one of those games and match last season’s 1-15 slog to the finish line.
Agony of defeat, revisited
The difference between the Green Bay loss and the
other four setbacks cited earlier is that the Browns had a 21-7 lead going into the fourth quarter against the Packers and back-up quarterback Brett Hundley.
They’d had more good moments than bad and appeared poised to break through with a win after
12 straight losses.
Then, as predictably as night follows day, the Browns collapsed in the fourth quarter on offense (David Njoku’s dropped pass), defense (two TD drives by Green Bay) and special teams (65-yard punt return by the Packers’ Trevor Davis).
Those missteps sent the game to overtime, where rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer’s bonehead throw on a scramble was intercepted, handing the win to the Packers.
“They do a lot of good things,” Jackson said of his players, “and we do things that don’t give is a chance to finish football games.” A broken record, indeed.
The plus side
Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon has dealt with issues on top of issues off the field, but the man can play football. He connected with Kizer on a 38-yard pass play on the Browns’ opening snap from scrimmage. Six plays later, he caught an 18-yard TD pass from Kizer.
Second-year wide receiver Corey Coleman also had a solid outing with five catches for 62 yards and a TD.
Maybe the Browns finally do have the makings of a wide receiver corps that gives Kizer or whoever is behind center a chance to make impact plays down the field. The key word there being “maybe.”
Running back Isaiah Crowell ran with purpose, too, piling up 121 yards on 19 carries.
Identity crisis
In a half-full stadium, a substantial percentage of the fans in the seats were clad in Packers gear.
The sight couldn’t have pleased Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, even if the businessman in him was relieved to be generating some revenue from seats that otherwise would have gone unused.
All of those empty orange chairs spoke to the erosion of the Browns’ fan base in the post-1999 expansion era. So does the number of fans coming to games at FirstEnergy Stadium wearing the colors of the Packers, Steelers and other popular, successful NFL franchises.
Further testimony to fan disaffection and disinterest came during a halftime ceremony featuring Hall of Fame fullback Jim Brown. Entire sections of prime seats were empty as Brown, now 81 and five decades removed from the end of his playing career, stepped to the microphone and addressed the few thousand fans who remained in their seats. Those fans caught a fleeting glimpse of an aging star from the franchise’s long-ago glory days.
The Browns have miles to go to transform their fortunes on the field and cease being the NFL’s laughingstock.
Equally daunting is the challenge of re-connecting with fans who have had their fill of losing and organizational dysfunction.