The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Texans hit Browns with a dose of reality
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
By the time the Browns woke up in the third quarter Dec. 2 it was too late to overcome a wretched first half in a humbling, 29-13 loss to the Texans in Houston.
The way the excitement built by beating the Falcons and Bengals was snuffed out was like dousing a candle with a fire hose.
Had the situation been different, say with the Browns in the AFC South and fired Hue Jackson going over to become an assistant coach for the Texans, Baker Mayfield probably would not have been as brash as he was last week after throwing four touchdown passes in Cincinnati. Or maybe he would have: Mayfield is not going to be shaken by throwing three first half interceptions and basically pushing the Browns into a 23-0 deficit they could not escape despite winning the second half, 13-6.
There are many reasons to pick apart the Browns for the way they played in Houston, starting with Mayfield being careless in the first half. Two interceptions he threw, one returned for a pick-six, led to 10 Texans points. Another thrown into the end zone with 1:44 left in the first half cheated the Browns out of a chance to cut the Houston lead to 20-7 before halftime.
The defense was far from blameless. It was the first game all season they did not create a takeaway.
The defense was responsible for only one Houston touchdown – an 11-yard pass to tight end Jordan Thomas to finish off an 11-yard drive. That does not tell the whole story, though, because the Texans held the ball for 37:35 compared to 22:25 by the Browns.
The Browns committed six penalties for 45 yards. Once again, that statistic doesn’t tell the complete
story. A holding penalty on left tackle Greg Robinson, just 10 yards on the stat sheet, wiped out a 76yard touchdown pass to Antonio Callaway.
Rather than dwell on all the negative of having the two-game winning streak snapped, general manager John Dorsey should look at his roster and look at the Houston roster to figure out how much better the Browns must get to compete with the Texans for four quarters.
The Texans have won nine straight games. They haven’t played a difficult schedule, but nevertheless it takes more than luck to go from 0-3 to 9-3.
Mayfield is a good place for Dorsey to start. Mayfield played well and with courage in the second half, passing for 351 yards while completing 24 of 30 passes.
The Browns kept Mayfield clean for the third straight week. Texans defensive end J.J. Watt was held to one tackle.
Maybe the Browns got a little full of themselves after beating the Falcons and Bengals. They started believing their own playoff talk.
“They didn’t flinch (after playing poorly in the first half,” interim coach Gregg Williams told reporters in Houston. “They came out in the second
half with a tempo, with an urgency. We just have to get better than that.”
The Browns are 4-7-1. The next four weeks will reveal what they’re made of. Will they fold, or will they come out with spirit against the Carolina Panthers on Dec. 9 at FirstEnergy Stadium?
Their playoff hopes were all but squashed by a better Texans team. Now they can play spoilers. They can do that by playing the last four games like they played the second half against the Texans.