CLEVELAND, Ohio – If you’re going to lose, that’s how you leave. This was the kind of loss that should have sent the Cleveland Browns into the off-season not overwhelmed by regret, but full of purpose.
Anti-bettors who think Browns coach Kevin Stefanski abandoned the chance to win in the final five minutes by betting on the fourth and 9 on the 32-yard line, went too far.
Stefanski is as strategic in fourth-round decisions as any coach in the league, and he said after the game that he would have tried if the yards were more manageable. But 9 yards was too much. This was not the “surrender football” that we often see. This was not Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin, playing in the quarter to one in midfield last week.
Returning to Chiefs reserve defender Chad Henne, who had just launched a terrible interception, was a calculated risk. Even with only a time limit, if the Browns could force a three-and-out, they would take it back and make another attempt. They didn’t stop. But even Baker Mayfield thought the kick made sense there and believed the Browns would see the ball again.
So I can’t imagine seeing Sunday as a kind of longing. It was a reminder. I’m not going to think about what it could have been like for the Browns. I will think about what they are.
Not because the Browns did everything right on Sunday in their 22-17 loss to the Super Bowl champions, but because they released a solid but not spectacular version of their winning formula and learned how far it would take them.
They are as good as any team, except Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs. At the end of Sunday, they were not playing against the Mahomes Chiefs, because the best player in the league had been eliminated from the game with a concussion. Therefore, the Browns, with their failed defense, were waiting for one last stop against a reserve quarterback to give this attack a chance to win the game.
They’ve had that chance before. After Mayfield and the Browns designed a 75-yard drive that lasted 8 minutes and 17 seconds to reduce Kansas City to five points, they recovered the ball with eight minutes to play after Henne’s final zone choice. Do the same thing, win the game.
They did not, Mayfield explaining that the Chiefs brought some effective pressure. The Browns hit after seven moves, 12 yards and 3:51, and never saw the ball again. The Browns were 6 out of 13 on the third descent and 3 out of 3 on the fourth descent on Sunday, but much of the success of the fourth descent came from sneaking, and several of the conversions from the third descent came with planned pitches before the bats to the receivers of passes that earn the final few yards on their own. So, 9 yards was asking for a lot. Stopping Henne was asking for a little less.
If Mahomes was healthy, maybe asking for those 9 yards instead of pitching to Mahomes would have been Stefanski’s decision. By ESPN’s numbers, the decision was right on the edge (a 29.5% chance of getting it right, when a 30.7% chance is what would make it worth it) and the difference from Henne vs. Mahomes was enough to sway in my mind.
But the Chiefs converted two final thirds of downs and one fourth down and held. It wasn’t Mahomes, but they were still the Chiefs, and that’s what Kansas City’s offensive firepower does in a game.
Each punt seems like a failure, because each shot to Kansas City can be a touchdown. The Browns never forced the Chiefs to kick, but they limited the attack as much as they could have expected, forcing three field goals and a failed field goal on a short field after Mayfield’s only interception.
They took a chance. But the story of the season is not about failing to take advantage of that chance. It is about everything else that brought you here. No one at Browns was happy on Sunday. But I think you should be. Mayfield, as he said throughout the season, spoke again after the game about setting a new standard.
A regular 11-5 season, a playoff win over the Steelers and a five-point loss to the Chiefs defined it. If the Browns had played against anyone else on Sunday – Buffalo, Baltimore, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, New Orleans – the idea of a pre-game victory would be completely reasonable. I thought that believing that they could defeat the Chiefs was a bit much, just because you can do everything right, but Mahomes will always be waiting.
They did everything possible. And that means that the next season has no limitations.
In 2021, the Browns can defeat everyone.
Browns playoffs shirts, hats for sale: This is where Cleveland Browns fans can order shirts and caps celebrating the team’s qualification for the 2020 NFL playoffs.
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