The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
WASTING AWAY
Browns are 0-10 this season, 4-43 in last 47 games
This sign pretty much sums up how Browns’ fans feel after yet another loss — this time 19-7 to Jackson on Nov. 19 at FirstEnergy Stadium. The Browns remain winless through 10 games.
Forced into mistakes by Jacksonville’s top-ranked, sackhappy defense, the Browns fell to 0-10 with a 19-7 loss to the Jaguars, who shivered and slopped their way to a fourth straight victory.
After being hit and harassed by Jacksonville’s mouth-smashing defense, DeShone Kizer stepped to the podium.
Downcast and defeated, the rookie quarterback summed up his day and the Browns’ season with just two words. “It hurts,” he said. It isn’t getting any better in Cleveland.
Forced into costly mistakes by Jacksonville’s topranked, sack-happy defense, the Browns fell to 0-10 on Nov. 19 with a 19-7 loss to the Jaguars, who shivered and slopped their way to a fourth straight victory and sole possession of first place in AFC South.
For the Browns, the beatings won’t subside. They fell to 1-25 under Coach Hue Jackson and are now 4-43 since the end of the 2014 season — the worst 47-game stretch in NFL history.
Kizer was intercepted twice and fumbled twice, his final turnover recovered in the end zone for a touchdown by Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith with 1:14 left, ending any chance Cleveland had at pulling out a muchneeded win. Kizer has struggled to take care of the ball all season and his latest carelessness seemed to rattle the 21-year-old, who played well last week in a loss at Detroit and has been showing steady improvement.
That stopped against the Jaguars.
“I am trying to do whatever I can to string together some games and continue to prove my development to my teammates and to continue to earn the respect of them,” Kizer said. “This is the first game that I have come off of the field feeling
as if I didn’t prove that I have developed yet.”
Kizer finished 16 of 32 for 179 yards and was sacked five times by the Jaguars (7-3), who lead the NFL with 40 sacks and teed off
on Cleveland’s offensive line when it mattered most.
The Browns were still within 13-7 and at Jacksonville’s 40-yard line when Kizer was sacked by Yannick Ngakoue and Calais Campbell,
fumbled and the Jaguars recovered with 1:48 remaining. Jacksonville couldn’t run out the clock and the Browns got the ball back with 1:24 to go. But Kizer was belted again by Ngakoue and Smith, who also had an interception, pounced on it to put the Jaguars up by 12.
Afterward, Jackson said Kizer’s performance won’t cost him his starting job.
“DeShone is going to start at quarterback next week,” he said. “There is no question about that. We just have to continue to get better and continue to work at it. Just have to make those plays when they are there. He knows that. Have to take care of the ball better. Just have to keep working at it.”
Gabby Gipson
Jaguars DB Tashaun Gipson came close to eating his words after predicting that Jacksonville would win and pitch a shutout.
Gipson, who ripped Cleveland’s front office for not re-signing him, said he never meant any disrespect toward former Cleveland teammates, but there was some jawing between him and several Browns players during warmups.