The Browns made mistakes Sunday that bad teams make. As a result, they lost to the Ravens, 24-17, and remain winless.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After watching the CBS Sports telecast of the Browns-Ravens game on DVR twice -- late Sunday night and early Monday morning -- a truism kept ringing between the ears:
Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find a way to lose.
The Ravens, it is safe to assume, are a good team. That is why they were able to defeat the Browns, 24-17, Sunday afternoon in Baltimore.
The Browns, based on their 0-3 record, are a bad team. That is why they lost despite going helmet to helmet with their opponent on the physical front. It was fun to replay a number of the Browns' running plays so as to truly appreciate how much hitting was being administered by both sides.
The Browns can feel good about themselves for how they hung tough against a quality team in its house, and how the face of that team, linebacker Ray Lewis, was largely neutralized.
But the Browns still lost. They are 0-3. In the business of sports, especially for one in which there are only 16 regular-season games and fans paint their bodies and pay for personal seat licenses, the result is what matters.
Rebuild or no rebuild, 0-3 is 0-3.
The frustrating part for the current edition is that it has performed better than its record. I'm not going to say the Browns should have beaten the Buccaneers or Romeo Crennel's Chiefs or the Ravens -- but they could have won any one of those games. They did not, though, because their record says they are a bad team, and bad teams find a way to lose.
Against the Ravens, four plays illustrate that point as much as any others.
1. After the Browns took a 17-14 lead at the outset of the third quarter, they kicked off and tackled the Ravens return man at the Baltimore 15. One problem: One member of the Cleveland coverage unit was offside. I'm 99 percent sure who it was, but I couldn't 100 percent confirm with a replay, so I'm going to leave it as Bill Parcells would: The player. The player was one step ahead of Phil Dawson's kickoff.
Every team will make those types of mistakes in the course of a season. But if a winless team is going to beat a good team on the road, it cannot make that one.
The Ravens returned the re-kick to the Baltimore 31.
2. The Ravens moved down the field and had third-and-5 from the Cleveland 27 with 9:21 left. Quarterback Joe Flacco, out of the shotgun, connected with Anquan Boldin for a touchdown.
Yes, Eric Wright got burned as part of a bad, bad afternoon. But the Browns' blitz -- if you can call it that -- didn't help.
The Browns originally sent eight. Or maybe it was seven, because Mike Adams, on the far left of the screen, appeared to be in no-man's land. He began looking to his left, then backed off.
Adams and two other blitzers, T.J. Ward and Abe Elam, were not even at the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. Even if you grant that defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is trying to create confusion and uncertainty with the blitz packages by coming from different depths and angles, or coming in waves, there's got to be more of an immediate threat when that many players are committed.
Credit the Ravens for executing at the line; being in a max-protect mode helped. They had seven players assigned to block. But the Browns are culpable for failing to put the type of pressure on the quarterback that a rush of seven or eight is supposed to provide. Flacco had enough time to catch the shotgun snap, set his feet, see Boldin breaking free and loft the ball before getting hit.
It happened other times in the Ravens game, and in the two weeks previous, where the Browns simply did not get to the quarterback with the blitz, no matter its shape or size. And if the exotic looks before the snap have confused Josh Freeman of Tampa Bay or Matt Cassel of Kansas City or Flacco, none has shown it.
I wish I could read lips, because I am fairly certain Browns coach Eric Mangini was upset about the lack of the blitz's effectiveness after the third Boldin TD. CBS had a tight shot of Mangini speaking his mind for a second, then gritting his teeth.
3. On the ensuing possession, the Browns had first-and-10 from their 20 with 9:13 remaining. Quarterback Seneca Wallace pitched to Peyton Hillis, who was not ready for it. Wallace tracked back and fell on the ball at the Cleveland 3. Two plays later, the Browns punted from the back of the end zone, giving the Ravens excellent field position (Cleveland 42). Baltimore turned it into a field goal and 24-17 advantage.
Hillis was not ready for the pitch because, it became apparent, he and nine others on the offense thought the play was going to be a handoff to the left. Wallace accepted full responsibility for the brain cramp. As solidly as Wallace played overall, that's a huge error, a play bad teams cannot afford to make if they expect to win.
It's one thing if Hillis thinks it's a pitch when it's actually a handoff. It's another when the quarterback, who calls the play in the huddle, thinks so.
4. On the ensuing possession, the Browns had first-and-10 from their 20. Hillis rushed for 1 yard before Wallace connected with Hillis for 7.
It set up a positively critical third-and-2 for the Browns, trailing by seven. Of all the options available, Wallace throwing deep down the sideline to Josh Cribbs on the short side of the field did not seem like a wise choice. But that is what happened. Wallace not only missed Cribbs -- who happened to be covered -- he missed him big. Even if Cribbs had been wide open, the pass had no chance of being completed because it landed about eight feet out of bounds on the right sideline, near the Ravens 45.
No question offensive coordinator is one of the toughest coaching jobs in sports. The job requires split-second decisions amidst a thousand variables. Everybody's a critic. Everything looks so simple ex post facto.
Regardless, Brian Daboll probably would like to have that one back.
The call looked that much worse based on what the opponent's offense did minutes later. With 2:28 left, the Ravens had a third-and-3 from their 27. Flacco, from the shotgun, rolled right. T.J. Housmandzadeh, who came in motion from wide right, used a (legal) pick from Boldin and broke to the right sideline. Joe Haden, assigned to cover Housh, got caught up in Boldin's wash. Wright ended up covering. Flacco threw the ball over Wright and Housh caught it for a 4-yard gain.
It was Housh's only catch of the game.
I've got to believe the Browns have such a play in their book, especially when Wallace and Cribbs are on the field.