The Browns are now 0-6.
That’s the big negative.
But more than that, there’s the positive that they made a real game of it in a 28-25 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
They got crushed last Sunday in a 33-13 loss to the New England Patriots after having shown a steady week-by-week improvement. That was a giant leap backward. Now they are back on the upswing, and that’s a good thing. You can’t really worry that much about winning. You just want a gradual trend in the right direction, and there was that against the Titans so you have to be at least somewhat satisfied.
What isn’t satisfying is that the Browns, after trailing just 14-13 at halftime, did nothing offensively for almost all of the second half in falling behind 28-13. They rallied at the very end to get close, but it’s unacceptable to play so poorly for so long. Football is a lot about consistency – good, that is – and the Browns, especially with the line, were consistency bad when they had the ball in the second half. You don’t win that way. You can’t.
Cody Kessler threw for the second-highest yardage total ever by a Browns rookie quarterback, 336, which is encouraging – until you realize that rest of the top five efforts belong to Brandon Weeden (three times) and Eric Zeier (once). So that’s not exactly an indication of future greatness.
Sure, Kessler was under siege in the second half, but he, like the rest of the offense, didn’t play well after halftime in the parts of the game that he could control. I’m not about big numbers from a quarterback. He needs to do things to help his team win, and there were a lot of lengthy stretches in the second half when Kessler did not do that. That’s why head coach Hue Jackson was lukewarm in his praise of him afterward.
“So, how was your date tonight, son?”
“Uh, it was OK. She is a nice girl, Mom.”
“But is she pretty?”
“Like I said, Mom, she is a nice girl.”
But what about center Cam Erving? He – er, it – was ugly. He was awful in his return, just like he was before he got hurt. He continues to be a bust.
But nose tackle Danny Shelton, another first-round pick from the 2014 NFL Draft, continued to trend upwardly. We’ll see what happens from here with him.
That cornerback Joe Haden missed the game due to injury – again — is a bad sign. He’s hurt way too much. Is he through? Let’s hope not. But when a player is done, the injuries just keep on coming, and that’s the case with him.
It’s still a mess with the Browns, but it’s a little less of a mess than it was a week ago at this time.
It is that kind of season, one in which you have to embrace the little victories. So that’s what we will do.
