Browns, Bengals fall behind Ravens in AFC North while Steelers win
The Browns and Bengals both lose, while the Ravens take sole possession of first place and Steelers also win.
The Cleveland Browns loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, 47-42, was doubly painful as Cleveland lost their share of first place in the AFC North. The Browns and Bengals both lost, falling to 3-2, and find themselves looking up at the victorious Baltimore Ravens, who won in overtime versus the Indianapolis Colts, 31 to 25, as the Colts blew a 16 point lead.
Meanwhile, readers of this space had been warned not to bury Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers prematurely, because they are like vampires and are almost impossible to kill. These fears turned out to be justified as Halloween draws closer. They upset the Denver Broncos, 27-19.
Cleveland, of course, coulda, woulda, shoulda beat the Los Angeles Chargers. Dawg Pound Daily has written at length about the unfortunate events of the fourth quarter, in which coach Kevin Stefanski had a mental vapor lock which led to calling a draw play on third down and nine which was bad beyond all redemption.
After such a bad call, the referees, it seems, were disinclined to do their job and call pass interference on a desperation Hail Mary play during the next Browns possession. Psychologically, Cleveland didn’t deserve to win at that point.
It was clearly the worst blown call of the season, but psychologically perhaps they set themselves up for that by making an appalling play call on their own behalf on the previous possession. It’s not an adequate excuse for poor officiating, just a suggestion that it seems sometimes officials punish the undeserving in this way.
After the game, Baker Mayfield blasted the officials, rightly so, but there is plenty of blame to be passed around. Many opportunities were squandered for more points.
Browns were upset but there were positives
Overall, however, this team scored 42 points on the road. They corrected everything this writer asked of them from game three and game four. Namely, they targeted Donovan Peoples-Jones a few times (he caught everything Baker threw at him with the exception of one Hail Mary at the end which soared way over his head); they targeted Odell Beckham, Jr. with a few short passes to get him started (though, regrettably, did not follow up with with the pass for first downs when they were needed in the fourth quarter); and Mayfield is overall much more accurate after two weeks of getting used to that brace on his left shoulder.
They also bit the bullet with Jed Wills and sat him down to try to get him healed up, and Blake Hance was just fine in his place.
Freddie Kitchens is still available if you want him, but overall this team is making progress and trending in the right direction. 42 points is trending better, not worse. Let’s not go back.
As for the defense, this writer believes that Justin Herbert is the best passer in the NFL right now, just as good and maybe a little better than Patrick Mahomes. Cleveland could have used Denzel Ward in the secondary, that is for certain. Is it possible to devise some schemes to get some extra speed in the defensive backfield? Like, maybe the Browns need more dime packages and even dollar packages and whatever comes after that.
Let’s move on to Baltimore and what it means for our Browns. Not a happy thought.