The Cleveland Browns must find a way to avoid a winless September or the season may already be over.
If the Cleveland Browns had an even functional offense or their kicker made their attempts, the team might be 2-0 as opposed to 0-1-1. If the Pittsburgh Steelers’ $20 million kicker came through, they’d be 0-2. For all the talk of where the Browns could be, they are where they are and the team needs a win. Now. If they can’t get a win on Thursday against the New York Jets or a week and a half later in Oakland against the Raiders, things could get ugly in a hurry.
Entering October winless, the Browns then host the Baltimore Ravens, the Los Angeles Chargers and at the apparently high-powered Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While none of these teams are terrifying, they aren’t pushovers either.
The Browns could absolutely rip off a pair of wins, be 2-1-1 and really amp up the excitement when they host a beatable division rival with a chance to really assert themselves in what is so far a questionable AFC North division.
One of the misnomers with this team is that they play hard for Hue Jackson. First, they have a ton of young players fighting for second contracts. Second, whether it was Sashi Brown, John Dorsey or the few remaining players from Ray Farmer’s era, the DNA of the players on this team is that they play hard, period.
Jarvis Landry plays hard. That’s just who he is. Myles Garrett plays hard. Joel Bitonio plays hard. The list goes on and on. They have a bunch of super competitive players that want to win badly, change this team into a winner, regardless of who the coach is. That is a critical piece of the puzzle if they are going to be successful in the future.
0-3-1 causes a different set of problems as opposed to players potentially quitting during games. At that point, the players are playing hard, but then it becomes a question of who the head coach is going to be? Jackson’s face after the game Sunday revealed a man who knows he needs to come away with wins when they are there for the taking. A winless September and short of a miraculous turnaround, it becomes a forgone conclusion for a coach that’s currently sitting at 1-32-1.
A popular talking point is how the Browns flipped so many players on the roster in this offseason, despite the fact that every team does that. For rookies and players that don’t have a secured future with this team, at 0-3-1, they start wondering if they’re going to be here next year. A new coach means a new system and different preferences, needs in players. Some of these guys obviously won’t be here next season, but when half the roster was turned over from last year to this year, that only increases the anxiety.
And it may not be the players themselves. It may be family, whether it’s a spouse at home wondering if they need to start looking for a real estate agent to sell a home, how this might affect their kids and school, taking calls from friends and family asking about it or a young player’s parents, trying to be supportive, asking them about the situation all the time. That starts to have an impact and it can snowball.
That’s when the season can go from an ugly start to just falling apart entirely. The good news, if there is good news, is the Browns were close against the Steelers and the New Orleans Saints. They can taste it. And as much as Thursday Night Football is a disgrace in what the NFL is asking players to do in terms of recovering for their bodes, having so many young players, they might want to get out there sooner to try to get rid of the taste of losing.
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The Jets are beatable. They have a rookie quarterback and the Browns have shown a dominant defense that has given two Hall of Fame passers all they could handle. They could really put the clamps on a Jets offense that has a few playmakers, but nothing along the lines of Antonio Brown, Michael Thomas or Alvin Kamara.
And while a West Coast trip is always problematic, the Browns will have a week and a half to prepare, have the ability to fly out there and get acclimated for a couple days if they choose. And the Raiders are struggling out of the gate. That’s another game that the Browns could grab a victory.
The issue for the Browns is both their offense and special teams have been awful. It’s remarkable to think the Browns could have won each of these last two games with defense carrying the entire team there.
The defense has caused eight turnovers in two games. The offense has only been able to score ten points off of those turnovers. And the touchdown was from the 1-yard line courtesy of a fumble return. They don’t have anything they can reliably go to in any situation.
Tyrod Taylor has struggled, taken a bunch of bad sacks and been so ineffective as a passer, defenses aren’t remotely afraid of him and that’s allowing them to clamp down on the running game, putting more pressure on an offensive line that has its own problems.
That certainly doesn’t help Jackson’s case. He’s an offensive guy who made grand proclamations about how he was the man to find their franchise quarterback and get this offense turned around. His latest hand-picked quarterback is struggling and the clamor for Baker Mayfield is only getting louder.
And while Zane Gonzalez will be the focal point for all of the Browns special teams failures with four kicks missed against the Saints, deservedly so, there isn’t a single unit overseen by Amos Jones that is anything other than embarrassing. Their coverage units are getting gouged by opposing returners. Jabrill Peppers is trying to get something going, but their best result is often a fair catch.
If the offense and special teams can’t perform better, they could find themselves with another loss. The defense is playing at an incredibly high level, but at some point, they’re gonna give up some plays and they need at least one other unit to pick them up.
The Cleveland Browns need a win. Hue Jackson really needs a win. Coming into the season, no one would have been surprised if the Browns were 0-2 at this point, playing two playoff teams from last year.
This game against the Jets was always one that was sort of earmarked as a winnable one and the Raiders, even on the road, sets up pretty well for them. 2-1-1 really puts the Browns back into a great spot entering October, but they absolutely cannot be 0-3-1 or the season may fall apart with everyone starting to look at head coaches and to April’s NFL Draft for answers in an all too familiar ritual.