Cleveland Sports Journal

Browns lay an egg

When you do the eye test, the Browns 21–15 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday looks even worse.

The Browns were non-competitive throughout the game, especially on offense. People come to watch offense, and when there is no offense, or bad offense, it is a real turn-off to the fans.

And then you get to the fact that this was Alumni Weekend, one in which Phil Dawson and Jim Donovan were being inducted into the Cleveland Browns Legends club. Then the Browns play like that, looking as if they hadn’t practiced all week and didn’t want to be playing on Sunday, was a real smack in the face to everyone who cares about this team.

Don’t give me the stuff about all the injuries to the office of line. The line was struggling long before the injuries started to mount up on Sunday.

I’m wondering about first-year Browns offensive line coach Andy Dickerson. After previous line coach Bill Callahan left for the Tennessee Titans when his son, Brian, became head coach, we kept hearing it was going to be OK in Cleveland. I just don’t see that. Last year when the injuries really started to pile up, the line never seemed to miss a beat. That’s coaching, so kudos to Callahan. Now, the line looks disorganized and unprepared.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sleep Sunday night. How this team plays, and how it looks, means something to the people who follow it, and when it is so far off course, as it was Sunday, it’s just hard to wrap your head around. 

The fact that the Browns would let the New York Giants, of all people, a team that was really struggling for the first two weeks of the season, come into Huntington Bank Field and dominate the Browns almost from start to finish, is incomprehensible. There is absolutely no excuse for that, other than the Browns have lost their way both in their players and coaches. 

Steve King