The Cleveland Browns were given a golden gift by Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley and the gift led to an opportunity for a last-second win over the Chargers but Cade York's fifty-four-yard field goal attempt drifted wide right and Los Angeles rode the plane out of Cleveland with a 30-28 win.
Jacoby Brissett threw a touchdown and 230 yards but made the most significant error of the game when he threw an end zone interception to the Charger Alohi Gillman late in the game with Cleveland down by the two points they would lose by.
Nick Chubb rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns while Amari Cooper caught seven passes and the only Browns passing score.
Cleveland drops to 2-3 with the defeat and will host New England next Sunday.
Brownie Bits
1) We start with the absolute bonehead decision that only Cade York's miss took off the front pages by Chargers coach Brandon Staley.
With a fourth down and one on the Charger 46 with 1:14 remaining and the Browns have used their final timeout, rather than punt the ball and make the Browns drive the field without timeouts, Staley goes for it and Cleveland stops them, and with few yards gained would give Cade York the chance to win it.
2) I watch more Chargers football than any team other than the Browns and this is your typical Brandon Staley call.
And Cleveland fans think they have it bad with Kevin Stefanski?
Try watching game after game with Brandon Staley.
3) Jacoby Brissett has been brutalized for his late-game interception in the end zone and that's fair since the worst-case scenario would have Brissett running for a few yards or throwing the ball away to set up a field goal attempt to take the lead, if successful.
However, there was something almost as impactful later in the game that few are mentioning that you can blame Brissett and/or Kevin Stefanski.
4) After the Browns took over at the Los Angeles 46-yard line, Brissett threw an incomplete pass before hitting Amari Cooper for a ten-yard gain and a first down.
With the clock rolling after Cooper's catch and down to forty-seven seconds, the Browns called a running play with Kareem Hunt, who was stopped for no gain and the Browns lost literally half of the remaining time before they could run their next play, a long incomplete pass to Donovan Peoples-Jones.
After another incomplete pass to Peoples-Jones, Cleveland was forced to take their chances with Cade York without gaining an inch.
I hated the running play call by Kevin Stefanski but had he called a sweep or something to the outside perhaps Hunt could have gotten out of bounds and saved some clock.
5) Anything could have helped York and if you watch the field goal, it started drifting wide late in the kick, not right off the foot, so it is possible that a few extra yards gained may have been the difference in going through the uprights.
And no, I'm not ready to cut Cade York.
Every rookie kicker deals with adversity and Cleveland is a tough place to kick, so I'm willing to be patient with York and give him the entire season.
If his performance is erratic all year, bring a veteran in to challenge him in camp next summer and not before then.
6) And then the rushing defense which allowed Austin Ekeler and Joshua Kelley to run for more yardage in one game than either had accumulated in their four.
There are plenty of culprits here but the gold medal goes to Andrew Berry, who seems to take pride in not spending capital on defensive tackles and linebackers.
Berry didn't really address either position other than the signing of Taven Bryan and drafting Perrion Winfrey at defensive tackle and the run defense has paid the price for ignoring those positions.
7) The damage done to the Browns? 238 yards and a team average of seven yards a carry.
Giving away chunks of yardage against runners that haven't set the world on fire and considering that Justin Herbert isn't totally healthy with injured ribs and Keenan Allen missing at WR, allowing the Chargers to run with little resistance kept the Chargers closer than they could have been otherwise.
8) Yesterday's post covered the Browns acquiring Deion Jones to help at linebacker won't hurt any but I'll wait to see if the Browns have added a linebacker to make plays or another stat accumulator that makes tackles ten yards down the field.
I've been hoping for Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to become the impact player that the Browns have lacked for years and he has shown occasional glimpses of having the ability to do that but not consistently yet.
9) And while I like Anthony Walker as a player and his absence hasn't helped the defense, Walker is merely a solid linebacker, not a lot different than several Browns linebackers through the years.
Browns commentators that are placing a large amount of credit for the Chargers' big day on the ground because of Anthony Walker not being available are giving Walker far much credit.
10) The pass defense may have its issues but give Greg Newsome credit for hustle as Newsome raced from across the field to run down Austin Ekeler on his seventy-one-yard run.
Cleveland would then hold the Chargers to a field goal on the drive and it is all due to Newsome not giving up on a play that wasn't in his area to start with.
11) John Johnson was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the second quarter for taking his helmet off while protesting a missed call (a blindside block on Jacob Phillips) and handed the Chargers ten free yards, placed the ball at the Cleveland ten, and resulted in a Charger touchdown.
I've been disappointed in Johnson's play since signing as a heralded free agent in 2021 and Kevin Stefanski told him that "you can't do things like that and play for the Browns".
Sounds good but I've seen a lot of Browns play like that and stay around.
12) As bad as things seem, the AFC North is still in play with Baltimore leading at 3-2, Cincinnati with the Browns at 2-3, and a suddenly imploding Pittsburgh at 1-4.
I'm not saying that the Browns are likely to turn things around over the next six games but it is not out of the question since no one in the division has been able to run away and build a big lead.
New England may be down to their third-string quarterback but they will run the ball effectively and after watching the tape of this loss to Los Angeles, the Patriots will test the resolve of Joe Woods and the ability to change the momentum for the defense next week.
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