What the #$@! was That?

There are few words that come to my mind that are family friendly enough to share about the Browns game. Here are a few though.

Awful. Embarrassing. Terrible. Ugly.

I just feel sick after this one. I mean really, is a win against a very bad Cincinnati franchise too much to ask? The obvious answer to that question is yes, but I mean...wow.

When you look at the stats, this one doesn't exactly look so bad. But I'm telling you, the Browns played one good quarter of football today. And last time I checked, football games last four quarters not one.

I'm sure a lot of analysts are going to talk about AJ Green's touchdown play and say it was the turning point of the game. But I'm going to go earlier than that. The turning point of the game to me was when we had to kick a field goal on our first drive of the second half. On that drive, the Browns didn't even face a 3rd down until we were at the Bengal's 3 yard line. But their secondary made two good plays to save touchdowns on passes to Evan Moore and Josh Cribbs. Granted the Bengals didn't score again until  halfway through the 4th quarter, but the Browns offense couldn't put anything together after that.

But about that disgusting play that led to the Bengals touchdown, I blame the coaches for that, not Joe Haden. I don't know why the Browns were still huddled up when Cincinnati was already lined up for the play but, you can't blame one individual player. Besides, if the Browns had scored a touchdown when they should have earlier in the game, and/or capitalized on their good field position then that touchdown wouldn't have been the big momentum shifter it ended up being.

Look, I could go into the stats and things like that but the bottom line is that the Browns have got a heck of a lot of work to do. And you wouldn't think that would've happened, especially with Andy Dalton being taken out after getting injured in the first half, but it did.

For me, this loss goes squarely on the shoulders of Pat Shurmur. He didn't have his guys ready to play for four quarters - it's just that simple to me. Granted they did clean up the penalties with only one in the second half after 10 in the first, this team was undisciplined and failed to execute in key moments.

I don't care how bad Indy looked today, if we continue to play like this we're not beating anybody.

See you next week. Try to enjoy the rest of the day Browns fans. At least the Indians are winning. (Like we actually care...)
~MAS