When Myles Garrett, the All-Pro defensive end for the Browns and a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, was listing all the ways in which the team was outdone in its 45–14 loss to the Houston Texans on Saturday in the AFC wild-card playoffs, he began with “outcoached.”

I have to believe that that was intentional, as well it should’ve been.

My lingering thought about this game, and what I will remember for years to come when I think back to it, is that the Browns never seemed to make any adjustments on defense. Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz received a lot of praise from a lot of people over the course of this season, and all of it was well-deserved. But with that, then, you have to take the criticism as well, and he certainly deserved a heck of a considerable amount of it for that pitiful performance in Houston. I can’t remember when I’ve seen a Browns team in which one facet of it was so greatly outcoached as I did Saturday with the defense. Those guys looked like they hadn’t practiced all week, like they had never looked at film and like they had never put any thought into what they were doing. The Texans have a decent offense, but they were so well coached. They had the Browns on their heels all day, with misdirection and other concepts. It really did look like men against boys out there, like the varsity scrimmaging against the freshmen. That should not have happened.

The regular season is important, for it is the road to getting into the playoffs. But these postseadon games are 100 times bigger than any regular-season game, and unddr the brightest lights, the Browns humiliated themselves. Or should I say Jim Schwartz humiliated himself? This is a “win now” business, and you are judged by what you did in your last game. And if this is Schwartz‘s last game before he goes and becomes a head coach somewhere, then he left a sour taste in the mouthes of a lot of Browns fans who bought into him and his defense, and truly believed in him. He let a lot of people down, including me.

Steve King