EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 It feels hopelessly over. The season. The Kevin Stefanski-Andrew Berry-Paul DePodesta-Deshaun Watson era. The desperate and puzzling Dillon Gabriel experiment.<\/p>\n
All of it. And not just the parts that were predictably sunk by the failure of the Watson trade and this year\u2019s round of musical quarterback chairs. Losing was expected this season, and embraced to a point.<\/p>\n
The punchless offense has been predictably bad since early September. But losing to the New York Jets (2-7) the way the Browns (2-7) did Sunday \u2014 with a flurry of penalty flags, long special team touchdowns by New York and short-yardage misses \u2014 seemed to reinforce that this whole operation is more of a construction project going awkwardly quiet than any functional rebuild.<\/p>\n
In the big picture, it was a good day for the Browns\u2019 potential 2026 draft positioning, given that the Jets, Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints all somehow won. It was a bad day for the folks currently running the Browns and their chances of surviving another miserable season. The Browns fell to the Jets 27-20, by way of two special teams touchdowns and a whole bunch of seemingly avoidable mistakes, which reinforces the team\u2019s reality: for a season and a half now, the Browns have gone nowhere but backward.<\/p>\n
That the Cleveland offense actually appeared semi-functional for stretches of Sunday\u2019s game didn\u2019t matter, mainly because the Browns didn\u2019t sustain much over the final three quarters. The Myles Garrett-led defense has been exceptional at times, and mostly dominated the Jets. But the home team entered the fourth quarter with zero net passing yards yet took the lead for good on a well-timed screen pass from Justin Fields to Breece Hall, who found daylight on a cutback and went 42 yards to the end zone.<\/p>\n
The Browns tried to answer and got into Jets\u2019 territory, but a fourth-down blitz off the edge by New York forced Gabriel to try to step up in the pocket. Jets defensive end Will McDonald was waiting, and though he had four sacks, none was more important than that one. Hall rushed for 30 yards on the next play, and the Jets soon after got a field goal to make it a two-score game.<\/p>\n
Some numbers could quickly explain why the Browns lost despite outgaining the Jets 278-169, including, obviously, the six sacks absorbed by Gabriel, the Browns\u2019 10 penalties and them running 70 plays to amass those 278 yards. The Browns entered the game with the league\u2019s lowest average yards per play at 4.1, then it went even lower in a winnable game against a bad Jets defense that traded its two best players, Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, ahead of Tuesday\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n
But the story \u2014 and the reason this one feels more egregious than other losses \u2014 was more about the flow of the game. Despite their defense dominating, the Browns never got breathing room. The Jets got a 99-yard kickoff return from Kene Nwangwu to immediately answer the Browns\u2019 95-yard scoring drive in the first quarter. Cleveland then went three-and-out, and Isaiah Williams took the ensuing punt 74 yards to the end zone.<\/p>\n
These were not hidden return yards that sometimes subtly swing games. These were huge, game-changing plays that gave the Jets a chance to overcome their offensive struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to win as a team and lose as a team, so we will all own that, including myself,\u201d Stefanski said of the special teams touchdowns. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t do a good enough job in any facet. We\u2019ll just keep swinging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that the official midway point of the season can be marked by another bad offensive showing and a loss to a Jets team that entered the game with one win, it\u2019s fair to wonder how many swings this group has.<\/p>\n