CLEVELAND, Ohio — Jacoby Brissett was so upset with himself for turning the ball over three times in Sunday’s 38-15 loss to the Patriots — including an interception on the second play of the game — that he addressed the team in the locker room afterwards and vowed that the turnaround starts with him.
“Being critical of myself and taking responsibility for my mistakes,” Brissett said. “That’s where it starts at the quarterback position and then leading the charge going forward and letting the guys feel that from me that it’s more to come and it’s better to come. Showing them the 100 percent commitment, focus and confidence that I have in not only myself but the group that we have. I think we will be OK.”
The Browns, who slipped to 2-4 with their third straight loss, had better be okay in a hurry, because they have back-to-back AFC North matchups coming up next, in Baltimore next week and then against the Bengals here on Monday Night Football on Halloween night. The saving grace is that those two teams are tied for first in the division at 3-3, and the Browns can pull even with both.
“Nothing’s over,” said tight end David Njoku. “Nothing’s finished. We can turn it around 100%. That’s not us.”
For the third time this season, the Browns — who were bad on offense, defense and special teams — sent their fans home booing and angry. At the end of a four-out-of-five homestand, the Browns fell to 1-3 at FirstEnergy Stadium. The Patriots, led by fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe his genius coach Bill Belichick, improved to 2-3.
“It’s awful,” said Kareem Hunt (four carries for 12 yards). “It’s terrible. We definitely don’t like that, especially when we want to protect our home field.”
Despite the bad game by Brissett (21-of-45, 266 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 1 fumble, 2 sacks, 54.5 rating) Kevin Stefanski has no plans of benching him in favor of Joshua Dobbs. Brissett, who tumbled to near the bottom of the league with a 78.7 rating, was nonplussed by the news.
“I wasn’t worried about it in the first place,” he said.
Vowing to ‘be better’ heading into the game after throwing costly late picks in back-to-back losses to the Falcons and Chargers, Brissett got off to a horrible start on the second play of the game by underthrowing a deep ball down the right side to third tight end Pharaoh Browns. Safety Kyle Duggar easily picked it off, and the the Browns held New England to a field goal. But the tone of the game was set.
“I was rolling out and wanted to give him a chance,” said Brissett. “It probably wasn’t the right decision at the time just based on the timing of the game. Just a poor decision.”
His second pick came on a deep ball to the right for Njoku when Brissett got hit by blitzing linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley. The Patriots converted that into a 31-yard TD pass to tight end Hunter Henry three plays later, when Grant Delpit fell and left him wide open.
“As you know, we put a huge premium on trying to win that turnover battle week in and week out,” coach Kevin Stefanski said. “We have to take care of the rock on the offensive side. We have to take it away on the defensive side. We just didn’t do either. We had a giveaway on punt team, as well. You’re not going to win games with that type of turnover margin, as everybody knows. Jacoby understands you have to take care of the ball, and it is as simple as that.”
His third turnover came with 3:56 left in the game when the ball slipped out of his hand on his forward motion. It went down as a sack-fumble, but it was mostly a drop by Brissett. Rhamondre Stevenson ran in from 6 yards three plays later to produce the game’s final points.
“I take full responsibility with the start of the game, and that’s beating ourselves,” Brissett said. “Just have to get out of our way and then take it one play at a time, one step at a time and one day at a time.”
But Brissett, who struggled with the deep ball especially to Amari Cooper (4-of-12 targets, 44 yards, 1 TD) and was stopped short on a fourth and 1 sneak, wasn’t the only one handing the ball to the Patriots. Returner Chester Rogers muffed a punt late in the game to get in on the carnage. It set up the Patriots fifth touchdown of the afternoon, and first of two in the final 4:28 off turnovers. All told, the Patriots, who won the turnover battle 4-1, scored 24 points off the four giveaways, including 17 off of Brissett’s.
“Just not good enough,” Brissett said. “Making bad decisions with the ball. I will be better from that for sure.”
That Brissett, who has five more starts before Deshaun Watson returns from his 11-game suspension Dec. 4th in Houston, held himself accountable to the team spoke volumes to Myles Garrett.
“The man loves football, the man loves his team, he loves being here and he wants to win bad,” said Garrett. “It means enough for him to step up there and talk not only to us his teammates but the coaches and some of the other staff as well, get everybody involved. Because it’s really a team effort. It’s everybody in this organization. We have to all be on the same page and have to have a desire to correct things and win. We really have to want to win.”
With Brissett owning his mistakes, Garrett shouldered the blame for his pathetic side of the ball, which made Zappe look more like Tom Brady than a rookie making only his second NFL start. Zappe went 24-for-34 for 309 yards with two TDs and no interceptions for a 118.4 rating. He consistently slipped out of trouble and made big plays, except for two sacks by Garrett, including a strip-sack in the first quarter that was recovered by John Johnson III. Unfortunately for the Browns, they failed to score off it after the failed sneak.
“It falls on our all of our shoulders,” said Garrett, who reinjured his sprained shoulder from the rollover accident and sat out the last five minutes of the game. “But I feel like mine especially because I’m supposed to be the star player on defense and I have to make more plays.”
Garrett’s strip-sack broke Clay Matthews’ official club record of 62 sacks, but Garrett lamented it came in a loss.
“I can have all the individual records I want,” he said. “That’ll come and go. But winners, they remain in the hearts of people forever, especially in this town. So we’ve got to turn this around.”
His defensive teammates pitched in with plenty of mistakes. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah bit on a fake and let tight end Jonnu Smith shake loose for a 53-yard catch to the Browns’ 21 on the second play of the second half. That led to a TD for a 17-6 edge. Stevenson blew past Jordan Elliott and M.J. Emerson for a 31-yard TD run on a third and 10 draw that made it 10-3 in the second.
The Browns held Stevenson to 76 yards rushing, but let Zappe beat them with poise, accuracy, elusiveness and big plays on third down.
“They beat us up and down the field,” said Delpit.
“This is the NFL,” said Njoku. “If you don’t come prepared, you will be exposed. "
The Browns cut the deficit to 24-15 with 6:17 left on a 15-yard TD pass to Cooper, but failed to recover the onside kick when A.J. Green touched it illegally while out of bounds to draw a 5-yard flag and nullify Ronnie Harrison Jr.s’ apparent recovery.
That mistake was followed by the muffed punt and Brissett fumble for another total collapse on the lakefront. Cade York rebounded with field goals of 38, 48 and 51, but it wasn’t enough. In fact, it was almost as bad as last year’s 45-7 loss in New England.
“We played bad altogether as a team,” said Hunt.
Nick Chubb ran only 12 times for 56 yards (4.7) with a long gain of 18, and Hunt ran it four times for 12 yards.
“Obviously, you never go into a game wanting Nick to get 12 carries,” Stefanski said. “We didn’t stay on the field enough. We had a turnover on downs and too many third-and-longs where you can’t stay on the field and possess the ball and give the run game that opportunity.”
Hunt, who also had only one target and no receptions for a total of five touches, was frustrated by the lack of a running game.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “We need everybody to be on the same page from the offensive line to the quarterback and the running backs. I know we could’ve figured it out and found a way to still run the ball.”
It didn’t help that mauler right guard Wyatt Teller was lost to a calf injury early in the second quarter. He’ll have an MRI on Monday.
“Obviously, Wyatt provides … He’s a beast,” said Brissett. “Hjalte (Froholdt) came in and did a great job.”
The Browns were also without Pro Bowl defenders Denzel Ward and Jadeveon Clowney, but the Patriots started their third-string quarterback with starter Mac Jones (ankle) inactive and Brian Hoyer (concussion) on injured reserve.
“I don’t have a ton of answers right this moment,” Stefanski said. “I know I believe in the people in that locker room. I really do. I’ve seen it. I understand what that looked like. I understand that we got beat. That’s what it looked like. That’s what it felt like. I get it, and it is frustrating, but we have to move on to the next one.”
Brissett urged his teammates to stick together through the adversity. The Browns know the season is slipping away and that Watson won’t have anything to play for when he returns with six games left if they don’t right the ship in a hurry.
“We win together; we lose together,” said Brissett. “I felt like everybody had their handprint on this one, including myself in a big way. We have to go back to our basic fundamentals and technique, and those things will take care of themselves.”
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