The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Browns pile of woes gets higher every week
Thesaurus.com has 34 synonyms for “awful,” all fitting to describe the Orange and Brown Mistake on the Lake.
A thesaurus comes in handy for anyone covering the Browns. I used to lug around a thick book in the pre-Internet days.
Thesaurus.com has 34 synonyms for “awful,” all fitting to describe the Orange and Brown Mistake on the Lake of the last 19 years, and those 34 don’t include the saltier words those writing for Rolling Stone or Scene Magazine have license to use.
The Browns fell to 0-5 on Oct. 8 when they were beaten, 17-14, by the Josh McCown-led New York Jets. McCown, who until beating the Browns had never won three straight games in his career.
He threw two touchdown passes against the Browns’ defense, which, if it doesn’t deserve to be labeled with one of those 34 ways to describe awful, certainly isn’t the force defensive coordinator Gregg Williams boasts it to be.
Everything that has gone wrong for the Browns since their rebirth was exposed in one three-hour farce at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, who has regressed steadily since playing well in the opener, was pulled at halftime after turning the ball over twice inside the Jets 5.
With the Jets leading, 10-7, early in the fourth quarter and the Browns facing fourth-and-2 at the New York 4, Coach Hue Jackson elected to go for it. But when Isaiah Crowell ran behind Kevin Zeitler, the highest paid guard in NFL history, all he could get was 1 yard.
Jackson’s decision will be second-guessed on Monday-after radio talk shows. But the problems with this team go far, far beyond one coaching decision.
Jackson was counting on Crowell getting the 2 yards behind the Millionaire’s Row in front of him, and if that somehow didn’t work he was counting on the defense getting a quick stop and getting the ball back for Hogan and the offense. That didn’t happen, either.
McCown, who played two seasons for the Browns without winning a game at FirstEnergy Stadium, looked like Peyton Manning leading the 97-yard drive to expand the Jets’ lead to 177. Hogan threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Duke Johnson with 1:49 remaining. But the Jets recovered an onside kick and the Browns lost by three points for the third time this season.
“To a man, they all know they fight and they fight hard,” Jackson said after the game. “They want to win worse than anybody, and I want to win for them.”
It is the same tired line we hear every week. Good teams win the close games. Bad teams do what the Browns do.
The Browns are 1-20 under Jackson — 1-25 when the last five games of 2015 are added to the pile.
Now, after vowing to ride Kizer through the highs and lows of a rookie season, Jackson has coached himself into a corner.
Hogan should start against the Texans in Houston on Oct. 15 if this really is about winning. Kizer will be a better quarterback — but he isn’t now. Hogan was more decisive in the second half than Kizer was in the first half. Hogan threw two touchdown passes and the interception he threw was tipped.
“If I feel like when (Kizer) is going through trials that I feel like there is something better, then that’s my job as a head coach to make a decision and say, ‘Hey look, this is better for us’ and that is what I did,” Jackson said.
Kizer had no quarrel with the decision.
‘My job as a quarterback here is to do whatever I can to help us win,” Kizer said. “It’s tough to do that when you’re not in the game due to poor performance. We’re in the red zone three times in the first half (including a missed field goal) with zero points. No matter what the situation is, it’s on me as a quarterback to make sure we score points.”
Rookie kicker Zane Gonzalez missed fieldgoal tries of 52 and 39 yards in the first half, so the Browns might try out different kickers before playing the Texans.
The kicker can’t kick, the offense can’t get 2 yards when it needs to, the defense can’t make a stop when it needs one and the rookie quarterback looks lost in a dense forest at midnight without a flashlight.
So how awful are the Browns? That’s what Thesaurus.com is for.
“My job as a quarterback here is to do whatever I can to help us win.” — DeShone Kizer