Cleveland Browns, Steelers share AFC North basement as Ravens, Bengals win

The Cleveland Browns find themselves tied for last place with the Pittsburgh Steelers after a crushing loss to Arizona coupled with a Steelers overtime win.

It could not get any worse for the Cleveland Browns as the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, and Pittsburgh Steelers all won on Sunday, while the Browns were taken behind the tool shed by the Arizona Cardinals, 37-14.

It’s very hard to see how they will be able to get ready for the Broncos, as they left body parts all over the field on Sunday. The Browns couldn’t see fit to give many snaps to D’Ernest Johnson, even in “garbage time” at the end of the game when the outcome was not in doubt, and that did not help Kareem Hunt, who was not at 100 percent going into the contest.

Baker Mayfield took a pretty good pounding with five sacks and three unplanned rush attempts. A lot of this can be blamed on J.J. Watt, the five-time All-Pro, who could not be stopped by rookie James Hudson.

Nevertheless, Mayfield ascended into a tie for second place in the NFL race for most-sacked quarterback with 18 sacks. Ryan Tannehill is the leader with 20, then Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, and Sam Darnold are all tied with Mayfield. Is it a coincidence that all of these quarterbacks are having lousy years? The media tends to blame the quarterbacks, of course, but as a rule, no quarterback puts up decent numbers while getting sacked 50 times a season.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah also was seen limping off the field near the end of the game. With him apparently unable to go, the Browns will be a lot slower on defense. They do have competent linebackers to fill in, however.

Looking at the numbers, it’s hard to believe that the Browns actually accumulated more passing yards than Arizona (234 yards for Mayfield versus 229 yards for Murray). The Cardinals did much more damage on the ground (229 yards versus 73 for the Browns) and also benefited from 88 penalty yards called against the Browns.

Mayfield turned the ball over three times, twice on fumbles and once on an interception.

There’s plenty of evidence that the Browns beat themselves, determined to join Pittsburgh in the basement. What do you expect from nine penalties, five sacks, two lost fumbles, three failed fourth-down attempts (two of which cost points), and an interception? Most people would expect a loss, and that is pretty much what happened.

Meanwhile, it was disturbing that Baltimore took care of the Los Angeles Chargers, who seemed like such a formidable opponent for the Browns the previous week.