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Cleveland Browns find new way to lose: 5 takeaways

By Thomas Moore

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Nov 30, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Josh McCown (13) is attended to by the Cleveland Browns training staff after being injured during the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Browns are a lot of things but you can never say they are boring after finding a new way to lose a game.

Heading into Monday night’s game between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens, all anyone could talk about was how it was going to be one of the worst games of not only the season, but in the entire history of Monday Night Football.

Say what you will about the Browns, but at least they are rarely boring.

Cleveland left it late, but still found a new and imaginative way to lose in falling to the Ravens on the game’s final play.

Here are five takeaways from just the second game in NFL history where a team lost on a walk-off blocked field goal in NFL history.

Not one, but two special teams mistakes

Baltimore’s special teams opened and closed the scoring on the night.

The Ravens got on the board first when Kaelin Clay returned Cleveland’s first punt of the game 82 yards for a touchdown, but that was only a prelude to the fun.

“All I know is there’s never a good way to lose, but this is the worst way.” – Left tackle Joe Thomas

With the Browns lined up for a potential game-winning 51-yard field goal, Brent Urban blocked Travis Coons‘ attempt and Will Hill returned the kick 64 yards for the game-winning score.

Up until that point, Coons had been a perfect 18-for-18 on field goal attempts, so it was only a matter of time before he finally missed one. This being the Browns, he finally did miss in the most spectacular way possible.

It is extremely difficult for a good team to overcome giving up two touchdowns on special teams. For a 2-9 team like the Browns it becomes an impossible task.

Of course, the field goal attempt didn’t have to be 51 yards

The Browns had ample opportunity to give Coons a much shorter attempt at a game-winning field goal had they not mismanaged the clock at the end of the game.

Cleveland was in position to win the game thanks to Tramon Williams intercepting Matt Schaub, giving the Browns the ball at Baltimore’s 46-yard line with 50 seconds remaining and holding two timeouts

But after Austin Davis hit Brian Hartline with a six-yard pass, the Browns did not run another player until there were 18 seconds left on the clock because of a “communication issue.” Davis then scrambled for seven yards and, after a run for no gain by Duke Johnson, the Browns lined up for the ill-fated field goal attempt.

If Davis can’t hear the play, or get the team lined up quicker than he did, he needs to have the awareness to call a timeout. But he is third string (at least he was) and hasn’t played a down since coming to Cleveland, maybe someone on the sidelines could give the guy a little bit of help and call a timeout rather than wasting so much time?

“I heard somebody saying up top that (offensive coordinator John DeFilippo) was cutting out,” Pettine said after the game. “Austin wasn’t hearing him, trying to get our guys lined up. Ideally, we wanted to get it closer and save the timeout for the field goal. That’s on us. We needed to handle that better.”

Ya think?

The QB play continues to not be a problem

The Browns have all kinds of problems but the quarterback position is not one of them.

Josh McCown returned to the starting lineup and finished 21-of-38 for 212 yards and a touchdown. Once McCown went down with yet another injury, Davis came in and went seven-for-10 for 77 yards and a 42-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin.

Outside of his problems at the end, Davis looked perfectly suitable and, after scoring just 19 points combined in their past two games, McCown and Davis put up 20 last night against the Ravens.

“It felt good to play (even if) it is tough to get tossed in on third-and-10 late in the game,” Davis said. “I felt like the guys around me really just calmed me down, kind of talked me through it as we went. Once we got going, once we got in a rhythm, once we scored that first touchdown, it’s just football again.”

It’s a credit to offensive coordinator John DeFilippo and quarterbacks coach Kevin O’Connell that through everything that has gone on this year they have kept at least one position on offense functioning at a respectable level. (And as much as Pettine missed on hiring Jim O’Neil as defensive coordinator, he deserves credit for being the one who wanted DeFilippo as offensive coordinator.)

It’s a good thing that Davis looked competent on Monday night as it looks like the Browns will once again be without McCown, who left the game with a collar bone injury. McCown has given the Browns everything he has, but at this point the team should really just shut him down for the rest of the season before he leaves a body part on the field.

The strange case of Justin Gilbert, starting cornerback

With Joe Haden missing his sixth game as he continues to deal with a concussion, the Browns turned to … Justin Gilbert as the starting cornerback?

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We know Gilbert was in the game because he was announced with the starters and he recorded one tackle, but other than that we don’t remember hearing his name called – which is either good because he wasn’t getting toasted or bad because he wasn’t making any plays against Matt Schaub.

It ended up being a short night for Gilbert, however, as he left the game with a concussion after returning a kickoff in the third quarter.

Just another bizarre decision on what was yet another bizarre night of football for the Browns.

The run game remains MIA

Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell combined to rush 14 times for 34 yards.

That is a 2.43 per carry average if you are scoring at home.

The Browns couldn’t run the ball, they gave up two touchdowns on special teams, were down to their third-string quarterback and still almost won.

It’s the Cleveland way.

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