OF THROATS AND PLAYING AT HOME

By STEVE KING

Too many turnovers, especially turnovers — again.

Too many penalties.

Too little defense when it was really needed.

Most people will say that those things are thing that cost the Browns the most – cost them dearly – in a – 32-28 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium to drop their record in this once much-ballyhooed season to a dismal 2-4 as they head into their bye week.

That’s difficult to argue with. It seems so easy to figure out.

But I would contend – and will contend – that while those are, to be sure, extremely important, there are other factors that also hurt the Browns badly – just as badly or possibly even more so.

The Browns did what they had to – did what I wrote in this space in my last post that they had to do – in that they got ahead quickly at the start of the day to get a sold-out, raucous crowd into the game.

But they stopped there. And they absolutely, positively couldn’t afford to stop there.

After blowing out to a 20-6 advantage, the Browns quit playing. Instead of stepping onto the Seahawks- throats – the throats of a team that was playing on the road, three time zones away, and was having all kinds of problems getting acclimated to the time change and the opponent – the Browns ended up stepping onto their own throats by easing up.

At that point, if the Browns had scored another touchdown to make it 27-6, that might have just about finished off the Seahawks and caused them to give up the ghost. But the Browns let the Seahawks breathe, and when they did, the visitors got their act together, building a wave of momentum they never really lost on their way to outscoring the Browns 26-8 the rest of the way.

Along with that, the loss reduced the Browns’ home record to 0-3. There is no way that this team – or any team – can get to where it wants to go if it can’t do a whole heckuva better – markedly better, about 180 degrees the other way better — at home.