by Another Sunday and yet another loss for the Cleveland Browns. They confirmed their spot as the NFL’s worst team with a 27-20 defeat at the New York Jets. From disastrous special teams to even worse defensive mistakes late when the Jets were trying to give them the ball back, this may be an all-time low in the Kevin Stefanski coaching career. Let’s take a look at what jumped out the most.
The Dillion Gabriel stat line
17 of 32 for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns. No interceptions but only a 9 per yards catch average.
The Jerry Jeudy state line.
He showed for a little bit at least, for the first time in weeks. He had 6 catches for 78 yards with a touchdown. Most of that coming in the first half as he disappeared again in the second half.
Carson Schwesinger is perfectly fine.
The rookie middle linebacker who is having a tremendous season, appeared on the injury report all week long, the past two weeks in fact, but today he seemed as good as ever with 10 tackles and several blow up plays.
Numbers can lie as first quarter is a disaster
The Browns ran 23 total plays, soaking up 11:19 off the clock and accruing 87 total yards next to only 6 plays for 13 yards from the Jets in the first quarter. The Jets didn’t even get a single first down. It didn’t matter because the horrific special teams of the Browns allowed a kickoff return touchdown of 99 yards from Kene Nwangwu to tie the game at 7 after a beautiful 95-yard touchdown drive from Cleveland. The Jets tacked on a 74 yard punt return touchdown from Isiah Williams to take a 14-7 lead into the second, after pretty much doing absolutely nothing on offense.
A pick leads to six and then seven
Down 14-7 and stunned by giving up back-to-back returns, the Browns offense needed a big play and didn’t get one. The defense did however as Ronnie Hickman picked off a Justin Field pass, to set up the Browns with a short field. Jerry Jeudy who has been left for dead this season, finally re-appeared as the Browns went deep and Gabriel hit him with an over the shoulder pass to score from 22 yards touchdown. This tied the game at 14 and gave the Browns their first bright spot in several minutes. The game went to overtime tied 17-17.
A third quarter of nothing
Two of the offenses in the NFL, if not the worst, combined for 0 points and 4 punts. 3 of the 4 drives finished in 3 and outs. These two teams are awful.
Browns cannot stop the run in the fourth
Breece Hall, who the Browns defense managed to contain for the fist 45 minutes suddenly couldn’t be stopped in the fourth quarter, gaining almost 100% of his game high 83 yards including a 30-yard touchdown.
In the end, the Browns beat themselves.
The Cleveland Browns had two separate chances to get the ball back with plenty of time for a game tying drive. First a terrible holding call on Devin Bush followed up by an even worse jumping offside call on a fourth down that would have given them the ball back.
This team is terrible.
