You can wear yourself out doing “the Cleveland thing,” commiserating over the fact that Carson Wentz beat the Browns on Sunday instead of playing for them.
That – bypassing the chance to take Wentz and instead trading out of the No. 2 pick with Philadelphia – will play out over time. One game – good or bad – is hardly enough evidence, although it makes for a good storyline for some who see things only in a “near-view” mirror.
But the Browns – and anyone connected to them in any way, shape or form – need to start worrying about … the Browns, and no one else in Philadelphia or New Philadelphia, or wherever. Imagine that, taking care of your own house first? What a concept. They need to start worrying about what is, rather than what isn’t, and won’t be, with the team.
As such, the main thing to take out of the 29-10 season-opening loss to Wentz and the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field is what the Browns have, and don’t have, and what they did, and didn’t do.
What the Browns have – what, or who, as it were – a center in Cam Erving who can’t snap the ball to quarterback Robert Griffin III consistently.
What they don’t have – at least right now – is the opportunity to do anything else but to continue to play Erving and hope he gets better. He didn’t get any better through the preseason, or on Sunday when he heaved the ball so far over Griffin’s head that it nearly hit the Liberty Bell. It ended up going out of the back of the end zone, giving the Eagles a safety and a 15-10 lead. Not long thereafter, the Eagles scored a touchdown to push the advantage to 22-10.
Game. Set. Match.
Every game has a turning point, and this was definitely it. The Browns had rebounded from a horrible to close the gap to 13-10. They were not only in the game, but they also had the momentum.
That’s likely not going to happen much this year, so to throw it away – literally and figuratively – was egregious.
That they can’t do much about it is even worse. That will have to wait until next year when they can bring in another horde of players. You can’t fix everything at once.
Let’s lay that the blame for that squarely where it belongs, and that is at the feet of former General Manager Ray Farmer. The No. 19 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft ought to be able to snap the ball to the quarterback.
What the Browns did after Erving’s error was collapse. That’s what young, inexperienced teams do.
What they didn’t do all day was play consistently well. That’s also what young, inexperienced teams do.
It’s great – it’s all well and good — for Griffin and wide receivers Terrelle Pryor and Corey Coleman to hook up on long passing plays, and for Emanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib to harass the quarterback. But it means nothing if you follow that up with a bunch of clunker plays.
This game is all about consistency. The teams that have that quality win games – consistently. And the ones that don’t, don’t — consistently.
Along with all that, the Browns have to do better – much, much, much better – on special teams. That the Browns have been horrible in that aspect of the game since special teams coordinator Chris Tabor arrived five years ago, and wrre again on Sunday, is inexcusable. In order to be competitive, the Browns, who are not nearly good enough on offense and defense alone, need special teams to be special.
Head coach Hue Jackson put the blame for the loss – special teams, offensive team, defensive team, the entire team — totally onto his shoulders in his post-game press conference. It’s not all his fault, but it is certainly his responsibility to fix it.
That starts with making sure that, no matter how one-sided these losses get, or how many of them occur, this young team doesn’t lose its way. It just needs to get better – and better and better.
And more consistent.
Especially with snapping the ball to the quarterback.
Because on Sunday, the Browns discovered that even something as simple as that can cause them to lose a game.
Until further down the road, if at all, it doesn’t matter – or at least it shouldn’t matter – to the Browns what Carson Wentz did, or didn’t, do.
