It’s the NFL, where just about every game comes right down to the end. Thus, if you make plays down the stretch, you win, and if you don’t, you lose. It’s really no more complicated than that.

So with that having been said, then, it’s not necessarily how you start, but rather how you finish.

And therein lies the reason why the Browns are 0-8 at the halfway point of the season, with people everywhere wondering whether they’ll win a game – any game – in 2016.

The Browns, bolstered by the fact they led the Baltimore Ravens 20-0 in the first quarter early in the year and the New York Jets 20-7 at halftime last Sunday, have been outscored by just 10 points, 117-107, in the first half this season. That’s incredible considering that they haven’t won a game.

But the Browns, suffering from the fact they ended up losing 25-20 to the Ravens and 31-28 to the Jets, have been outscored 121-51 – 70 points! – after halftime, including 6-0 in overtime.

There is no way in this league that a team can do that and expect to win – to even have a chance to win.

It’s part of the growing and maturing process – a big part, to be sure – for the youngest and most inexperienced team the Browns have ever had.

The Browns are stuck in neutral right now. They can’t get any better, really, until they get better in the second half – until they learn how to close out games.

It’s simple, then, in that they have to take that next step at some point.

So, will that point come on Sunday when they lost the Dallas Cowboys at FirstEnergy Stadium?

We’ll see.