Cleveland Browns lose to Cincinnati Bengals, 31-17

The Cleveland Browns fall to 0-7 on the season following their latest loss, this time to the Cincinnati Bengals by the score of 31-17.

The Cleveland Browns gave it a shot for a while but ultimately came up on the short end of the scoreboard on Sunday in losing to the Cincinnati Bengals by a score of 31-17.

The seven losses to open the season are the second-longest in franchise history, tying the 1999 team, and trailing just the 1975 team that started the season at 0-9.

There is only so much you can say or write about this Browns team as they near the midway point of the 2016 season. Cleveland tried hard, had some highlight plays, did some things that you rarely see, but are just not talented enough to actually win.

Basically, it was just another Sunday after with the guys in Orange and Brown.

Let’s roll through the high points of the game in bullet form:

• Cody Kessler (nine-of-11 for 82 yards) exited the game after getting hit in the head, meaning that fellow rookie Kevin Hogan saw his first NFL action. The Browns have now used five quarterbacks (Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, Charlie Whitehurst, Kessler and Hogan) along with Terrelle Pryor at the position this season.
• According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Browns are the first team to have at least six players throw a pass in the season’s first seven games since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay went 0-14 that season, but at least they had better uniforms.
• Also per Elias, Hogan’s 28-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in franchise history.
• Hogan finished the game as Cleveland’s leading rusher with 104 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately he was just 12-of-24 passing for 100 yards and a pair of interceptions.
• The Browns rushed for 180 yards and 6.9 yards per carry as Isaiah Crowell added 63 yards and 5.3 yards per carry. So that’s nice, although the Browns still lost by 14 points.

• Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green finished with 169 receiving yards and running back Jeremy Hill had 168 rushing yards, which goes a long way to explaining how the Browns defense managed to give up 559 yards of total offense.
• The 31 points the Browns surrendered means that Cleveland remains on pace to give up a franchise-record 473 points this season. The defense has only held one team under 28 points this season.
• Cleveland has now lost four consecutive games to the Bengals and have been outscored 129-30 in those games.
• The Browns have now lost 10 in a row (dating back to last season), 17 of their last 18 and 27 of their last 31 games.

After playing close games for the first quarter of the season, the Browns have faltered in two of the past three weeks. Injuries and inexperience continue to be a problem, especially on the offensive line as Cameron Erving left the game with an illness, once again forcing an in-game position shuffle.

If the Browns have too many more games like the one they had today against Cincinnati or two weeks ago against the New England Patriots, it will be hard to keep the momentum going during the opening season of the latest rebuilding project.

Next: Browns: Week 8 college QB tracker

Everyone knew – or should have known – this was going to be a rough year. Day’s like today, however make the end of the line seem that much further away.