Do you have kids?
If you do, you know that they do everything wrong once.
Everything.
The whole gamut.
You just hope they learn their lesson and do it only once.
If that indeed happens – if they’re not repeat offenders – then you have to live with that. It’s part of growing up.
And so it with Browns head coach Hue Jackson’s kids – the members of his very young and very inexperienced team.
The season-opening 29-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles turned when the Browns had a shotgun snap over the quarterback’s head for a safety in what was then a close game.
The 25-20 loss to the Browns’ alter egos, the Baltimore Ravens, in the home opener turned on the fact the team roared to a 20-0 first-quarter lead and then seemed to quit playing for the next 2½ quarters, thinking that their AFC North foes were just going to crawl up into a ball and die.
Last week’s 30-24 loss in overtime to the Miami Dolphins turned when the Browns, who had already misfired on two field-goal attempts, completed the hat trick by missing the 46-yard game-winner as time expired in regulation.
And Sunday’s 31-20 setback to the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field turned when the Browns committed turnovers on three straight possessions, the first of which was a fumble by Malcom Johnson at the Washington 9 when Cleveland, already ahead 20-17 after rallying from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit, seemed to be on the verge of scoring a touchdown and increasing the spread to 10 points. Given that second life, the revitalized Redskins got going again and the Browns continued in their downward spiral.
Indeed, it isn’t hard to see what the issue was in this game. It was those turnovers. You can’t turn the ball over three consecutive times, especially in the second half when most NFL games are decided, and expect to win.
And the Browns didn’t win.
As such, they are 0-4 as they return home to get ready to face the season debut of Tom Brady with the New England Patriots next Sunday.
That’s not good.
“Every week, it’s something different,” Jackson said afterward. “You know how these things go.”
What are “these things?”
Teaching his kids the lessons of the NFL.
It doesn’t happen overnight.
The good news is that the Browns seem to be learning. They aren’t making a lot of the same mistakes from week to week.
The bad news is that there are many, many more different kinds of mistakes left to be made before the Browns exhaust that supply.
So keep holding on.
With both hands.
Tightly.
And be patient.
