NFL teams
Pat McManamon, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Browns' pratfalls make dropping to 0-13 a bitter experience

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns have only themselves to blame for squandering a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and losing for the 13th time in 13 games on Sunday.

In the litany of painful Browns defeats, this one will be remembered as especially bitter.

The Browns had so much going well. ESPN Analytics had their win probability at 95.9 percent at one point of the game, the highest percentage they’ve had all season. And the Browns led for 60.2 percent of the game’s plays, the first time this season they’ve been over 50 percent.

DeShone Kizer was having his best game.

Isaiah Crowell topped 100 yards rushing.

The defense had allowed the Green Bay Packers just seven points through three quarters.

And early in the fourth quarter, the Browns led by 14.

Yet they lost, inexplicably, improbably, illogically -- 27-21 in overtime.

“Another unfortunate event happens to us,” was the way Kizer described it.

Except the past two years the Browns have been living an unfortunate series of events that would be worthy of a series of kids' books had they not already been written (by the esteemed Lemony Snicket).

The Browns did themselves in during this loss with mistake after mistake after mistake. Most came in the fourth quarter, when it’s time to win a game.

One defensive stop, one fewer offensive mistake, and the Browns would have erased the zero in their win column. Instead, they lamented their inability to finish and failure to come up with key plays at key times.

David Njoku dropped a third-down catch with 2 minutes, 59 seconds left that would have converted a first down and allow the Browns to run valuable time off the clock.

On the ensuing punt, the Browns let returner Trevor Davis weave his way through the initial wave of tacklers and escape for a 65-yard return.

That set up the Packers' game-tying touchdown with 17 seconds left, the second touchdown the defense gave up in the fourth quarter.

In overtime the Browns won the toss, got the ball and had third-and-2. Coach Hue Jackson called for a bunch formation left, which left Josh Gordon one-on-one with Damarious Randall outside.

“I wanted to give our best player a chance to win on a one-on-one matchup,” Jackson said.

Kizer looked to Gordon, saw he was wrapped up by Randall -- the Browns wondered if Gordon was held; Gordon was not in the locker room to talk to the media -- and rolled right.
 Kizer was pressured, then came back left. As he did, he saw Rashard Higgins spin away from coverage in the deep middle of the field.

Kizer planted and tried to throw to Higgins, who said he was five yards from any Green Bay defender.  But Packers linebacker Clay Matthews caught up to Kizer as he threw and hit his arm. The ball was a fluttering duck high in the air and was intercepted to set up the game-losing touchdown.

Jackson and Kizer saw the play a little differently, with Kizer saying it was a touchdown had his arm not been hit.

“You strike up the band there and enjoy the first win of this year,” he said.

“DeShone, obviously, I think he saw Rashard in the middle of the field running, and you are running to your left and that is just hard to do, to throw the ball back across your body,” Jackson said.

The coach said Kizer should have just taken the sack or thrown the ball away and let the Browns play defense. Kizer thought he had a chance to win the game, and as he put his hands on his helmet as he walked off the field, he was thinking the game had been there to be won.

“You feel that if they make that play, you are going to come off and you are going to be rewarded for all the work that you put in,” Kizer said. “Even specifically in that play, you reverse the field and are making things happen. But obviously, another unfortunate event happens to us and unfortunately we are sitting here with another L.”

Kizer had a good game going until that turnover. He finished 20-of-28 for 214 yards with three touchdowns, but the Browns looked back at a lot of errors in critical times -- and calls they felt went against them.

In the first half, Gordon appeared to be interfered with at the goal line, but no flag was thrown. Add Njoku’s non-catch, the punt return, then the defense’s inability to stop Brent Hundley (265 yards and three TDs) as the Packers scored the game’s final 20 points -- and the no-call on what many thought was a hold on the overtime interception.

There was plenty of shared responsibility.

In the postgame locker room, new general manager John Dorsey sat next to Kizer for several minutes, sharing some thoughts. It was evident Dorsey was stepping right into his new job.

The Browns, though, can’t seem to take the steps necessary to get a win -- even when they play one of their better games of the season.

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