Just one more of many, many lost seasons

Well, here we are again. Another lost season looms large as Browns fans around the world desperately try to find reasons/excuses (are they different?) for football futility. In the many, many ways that the Browns over the years have managed to reach the end of November with five or fewer wins, 2022 might be the trickiest to explain. This was after all, supposed to be a team with a superbowl caliber defense.

However, they are second to last in points allowed per game, teams have run the ball at will against the Browns, and probably I could throw for 250 yards on this secondary. I don’t really want to hear about injuries and so forth, every team has those problems, and they manage to have backups that are at least passable as NFL players. The defense especially seems to have zero depth, and that’s on Andrew Berry. I don’t really need to do a deep dive into recent drafts to know that we can’t seem to find much in the second and third rounds, and the lack of depth on the defense was really apparent this year.

You often hear coaches and analysts talking about a team and their “sense of identity”. I used to coach soccer with a guy who would tell our team that we weren’t often going to be the more talented team on the field, but for sure we will work the hardest, be the most fit, and play the more physical style. When players buy into their sense of identity, anything is possible. One of the many problems the Browns have is a lack of identity. If anything, their identity this year was “let’s just play basically okay until Deshaun Watson comes in and carries us to the playoffs”. Kevin Stefanski preaches about Browns players being “smart, accountable, and tough” but it is pretty obvious that he is the only one who believes that. So with such lackluster coaching, and a clearly souring locker room, it’s no surprise that the Browns find themselves at 3-7 and welcoming Tom Brady to Cleveland later today. And I actually don’t think we’ve seen the worst aspects of this season yet.

In some ways, this has been one of the toughest seasons for Browns fans. [Not me, I disavowed this team last summer when they broke the bank and mortgaged their future to bring in a predator who wouldn't even be able to play until December.] In August, superstar Amari Cooper came to town (he is sensational by the way), the offensive line was healthy, it looked like Myles and Clowney would destroy opposing quarterbacks and everything was rosy across Northern Ohio. But in the blink of an eye, this team was 2-5 and looking at each other for answers. A season can go off the rails so quickly, and before you know what happened, it’s late November and sports radio is breaking down the draft. I expect zero miracles from Deshaun Watson, he hasn’t played live football in over two years, and remember that the Browns defense will still be bad. I remain steadfast in my opinion that the problems with this team were not centered around the quarterback, Jacoby Brissett did everything he could do to put this team in a position to win. But it is difficult to do that when the defense is allowing almost 30 points a game.

Today I think might be one of the special moments of the season for the Browns. This is most likely Jacoby Brissett’s final game as the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, and I think that team, the fans, and myself respect the holy hell out of what he tried to do this season. He is incredibly popular in the locker room, and all season long has done nothing but work hard to keep this offense going. I suspect that today this team will gather around him and do everything imaginable to try to send him out with a win, this poor guy definitely deserves it. However, I think Tampa Bay is going to run the ball 50 times for about 200 yards and take advantage of the defensive disarray in Cleveland. I think the Bucs are going to win a close one, something like 24-18.