Browns Blues: No Layoffs At Factory Of Sadness On The Lakefront

CLEVELAND, OH – If you’re like me, you don’t watch the Browns games with any vested interest. The games are almost an afterthought. My wife, on a recent Sunday, asked me why I watch the other teams play, and then watch the lowlights of another Browns loss in this Lost Season.

My reply? “Because all of the other teams are so much more interesting to watch.” I mean, how many times can you watch this team of questionable draft choices miss tackles and throw interceptions in the red zone?

Watching the other teams – ALL OF THEM – makes you realize how far this team has to go to be even competitive. It’s like watching the JVs scrimmaging the varsity in high school. It’s men against boys in a man’s game called the NFL.

Which brings me to Sunday’s epic 27-21 folderoo against the gritty and highly entertaining Green Bay Packers. Up 21-7 going into the fourth quarter, the Browns teased us with the faint smell of victory.

DeShone Kizer actually played like an NFL quarterback. His stats: 20-28, 214 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a pretty good game for most NFL quarterbacks. Unfortunately, his two interceptions made the difference in the end. The kid cares, too. You can tell. He’s young and will get better in terms of making split-second decisions during a game.

The blame for this defeat goes mainly to the defense and special teams. When you’re up 21-7 in the fourth quarter, you go for the jugular and step on your opponents’ collective throat. That’s what good teams know how to do. The defensive players pin their ears back and attack.

With time running down in the fourth quarter and the Browns hanging onto a 21-14 lead, the Packers’ Trevor David took a punt and returned it 65 yards setting up the tying score. He danced through Browns tacklers like they were trying to avoid contact.

With his father Clay Matthews Jr. looking on in overtime, Packers’ monster linebacker Clay Matthews the Third got enough of his hand on Kizer’s arm to have him throw a wounded duck of a pass that was intercepted.

If the son of a former Browns linebacker making the big play to win the game wasn’t enough irony, Josh Gordon putting on sunglasses after he caught his first touchdown in almost four years was even more ridiculous.

Davante Adams’ scamper into the end zone to win the game put what was left of the crowd out of its misery and into another death march to the Warehouse District’s watering holes to drown their sorrows.

As the saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. For the Browns, their chances of finding that nut are running out.

Photo By David Richard/Associated Press