There are a lot of constants – none of them good — for the Browns in the expansion era.
One of them – and a big one, at that — is the inability to score points.
The Browns are next-to-last – 31st — in the NFL in scoring this year, totaling 240 points for an average of just 16 per game. Only the Los Angeles Rams, with 218 points, are behind them.
This will mark the 14th time in the 18 seasons since they returned to the field in 1999 that the Browns have failed to score 300 points. And 300 points is not very many.
Their highest point total of the year is 28 in a three-point, mid-season loss to the New York Jets. Last Sunday’s 20-17 win over the San Diego Chargers ended a streak of six straight games in which the Browns scored 13 points or less.
Yes, their defense is bad, too, also being 31st in the NFL in giving up an average of 28.3 points per game. But in a league where every rule change in the last 40 years has been made to benefit the offense and facilitate scoring, you have virtually no chance to win when your weekly output is only a touchdown, an extra point and three field goals. That’s chump change.
The lack points is, of course, tied directly to the lack of a good quarterback. That’s why Hue Jackson was hired as head coach a year ago. He understands offense and quarterbacks, and he understands that he has to get the problem – er, problems – fixed.
And there’s another thing about the struggle to score points. It’s boring to watch, especially for younger fans who want NFL games to be like the video games they play all the time – that is, up and down the field with a lot of points lighting up the scoreboard.
They don’t want to see 10-7 defensive battles. Instead, they want it to be 40-35, with the team that’s trailing having at the ball in the red zone at the end of the game with a chance to win it.
So the Browns are not just losing. They are also not entertaining to watch, A loss is still a loss, certainly, but there’s a lot less “wow” factor in losing 13-10 than in falling 34-31.
That’s where the Browns are at as they get ready to end their season in Pittsburgh on Sunday. It is not an enviable position, and Jackson knows it. He fully realizes his job security down the road – not now, just down the road – depends on changing that.
It will not be easy.
