The Numbing Sameness of It All, Again--Ravens, Again, Edition

There's no way, a day after snapping one of the more embarrassing losing streaks in franchise history, to definitively say if the Cleveland Browns are a franchise on the rise.  But after dominating the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, 24-18, there's at least enough reason to believe that this might be the case.

This Browns team at this moment isn't exactly a playoff contender but neither is it the woeful doormat it's been for years. And if that's the only conclusion to draw from Sunday's victory that's still better than the conclusions Browns have been used to drawing on a typical in season Sunday evening.

Are they a team on the rise?  One telltale sign is when it believes that's the case. This Browns team believed, indeed assumed, it would win Sunday and not in a wishful thinking sort of way.  Some of that stemmed from the tough loss it suffered at the Ravens hands in the season' second week, a game it could have or maybe should have won.  Some of that stemmed from the way the Ravens have struggled since that win, struggles that confirm that the various off season financial moves the Ravens endured, including paying quarterback Joe Flacco as if he were Tom Brady, were ill advised. And some of that stemmed from a Browns team that simply seems more energized on both sides of the ball when Brandon Weeden serves as a backup.

The offense, led by a gritty Jason Campbell, set the tone early and closed the door late. It's actually hard to remember when that was the case, particularly with a quality team.  In between those bookends the defense forced the Ravens into a one dimensional offense by taking away any semblance of a running game and forcing Flacco and a modest  set of receivers into roles they are ill equipped to execute even against a defensive backfield as thin as the Browns'.  Flacco was pressured all day, sacked 5 times, and generally had the beleaguered look afterward that Browns fans are used to seeing on the faces of their various quarterbacks over the years. It was satisfying on many levels.

While it never completely felt like the victory was either assured or in doubt, one play that surely tipped the balance in the right direction is the very one that has so completely defined the the troubles of Campbell's backup. It was a desperate flip pass to running back Chris Ogbonnaya, the third of the season though the first from Campbell.  Where Weeden looked ridiculous for trying Campbell pulled it off with aplomb and at just the right moment. Combined with the horse collar penalty then Ravens drew trying to tackle Ogbonnaya, the Browns were able to drain the clock of most of its remaining life while setting up a 22-yard Billy Cundiff field goal that forced the Ravens into needing a touchdown from 80 yards away with 14 seconds remaining. That the Ravens didn't even much try was a particularly enjoyable coda to a game in which they never led anyway.

The other play, perhaps the game's biggest, that gives reason to think this team is rising while the Ravens are falling, was the little 3-yard catch by Davone Bess on 4th and one from the Baltimore 43 yard line with 3:12 remaining, the Ravens with a full complement of times outs, and the Browns with merely a 3 point lead. Miss on that play and the Ravens are a couple of first downs away from perhaps tying the game. Campbell was pressured but bought time and eventually found a diving Bess. It was the kind of play that a possession receiver like Bess is supposed to make and the kind of play he couldn't make a week ago. It broke the hearts and minds of the Ravens defense.

Bess had two touchdown grabs in the game, one of which included an impressive 15 yard run after catch and ankle breaking fake on the Ravens' Ladarius Webb who dove to his right at the insistence of a Bess head fake and Bess took his body the other direction and into the end zone. Bess' overall play Sunday was everything it wasn't the week before.

The game served as redemption of sorts, too, for receiver Greg Little, who had one of the best statistical days of his career, 7 catches for 122 yards.  But Little both gives and takes and so it was Sunday as Little cost his offense 30 yards on two stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. He tossed a defender's helmet, apparently because he didn't like the extra curricular push in the pileup and taunted another within ready distance of a referee.  Little has much to learn and he could do worse than befriending Bess and picking his brain.

Campbell's 3 touchdown passes against a team that has bedeviled the Browns for 5 years was a welcome surprise. It's a testament too to the interesting mix of caution and abandon that head coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner employ on a weekly basis. Certainly a welcome respite from the stodginess of Pat Shurmur's version of the West Coast offense. Yet the better story of Sunday's win was the play of the defense.

Barkevious Mingo has a chance to be a real rarity in Cleveland, a first round pick that pans out. His quickness is wondrous and even with just a handful of games to his professional resume teams are specifically scheming against him and with very mixed results.  The presence he brings to the defensive line, along with an increasingly stout Phil Taylor, combined to make both Flacco and running back Ray Rice's Sunday miserable. Rice played like Trent Richardson but with even less burst. Had Flacco not scrambled for 25 yards while as he was trying to escape a constantly pursing defensive line the Ravens rushing total might have looked like Michigan's did against Michigan State on Saturday.

If teams weren't convinced before Sunday's game, they are now.  The Browns are a difficult defense to run on and are one of but just two teams to not give up 100 yards rushing to any one opposing player.  That's a worthy accomplishment 9 games into the season.

The Browns' defensive backfield, as thin as any unit in the league, had just as good a day Sunday as the defensive line.  Outside of Joe Haden's fingertip interception, it wasn't a particularly loud day but that's what made it so good.  There weren't any particular instances where Buster Skrine, for example, found himself with his back to the quarterback chasing a receiver.  Skrine's improving, likely, but it's clearly aided by a defensive front that can pressure an opposing quarterback.  But before we celebrate too much let's remember that a few more good quarterbacks await in the season's remaining 7 games before we can draw any particular conclusions about Skrine's long term prospects.

As for the Ravens, it was fun and just on Sunday to watch a team struggle on offense the way the Browns usually do, particularly since it was Baltimore's lost offense. Watching one Baltimore drive after another fail for every different reason was the real treat, certainly on par with watching the Steelers get taken to the woodshed by the Patriots on Sunday.

Flacco played Sunday like he's regressed since securing a big contract.  The Browns' defense was no small part of it Sunday but so too is the lack of talent around him at the moment.  Whatever Derek Anderson-like lightning in the bottle that Flacco caught in last year's playoffs has disappeared just as quickly as it did for Anderson.  Maybe he finds it again but he'll need a better supporting cast for that resurrection.

Certainly the Baltimore fans must be miserable as they watch the downfall of a team that just months ago was Super Bowl champs.  To that I just say, “welcome to the party.  I hope you remembered to bring the cupcakes.”

After 9 games, the Browns finally draw a bye week and for once it's not filled with the kind of intrigue centered around another potential regime change.  Chudzinski for now looks like exactly the right hire.  He's quirky without being odd.  He's willing to take chances especially of the high risk variety when his team otherwise has nothing to lose.  The players seem to like him but more importantly respond to him. In baseball terms, where Shurmur was Eric Wedge, Chudzinski is Terry Francona.

The latest word out of Berea is that Campbell has sore ribs after having the full weight of Haloti Ngata fall on him in a somewhat questionable fashion.  Ngata is quite acquainted with less than ethical play so his relatively late pancaking of Campbell after he already was down remains questionable.  But in the body of work that is Ngata's, it doesn't make the list of his top 50 offenses.  Campbell will have several days to recover, which is a good thing.  Because when this team has looked most on the rise is when it has had the benefit of anyone but last year's number one pick behind center.

The Things We Know--Week 9

Here’s something definitive we learned from the Cleveland Browns on Sunday: before you swagger, you have to learn to walk, or throw, catch, or tackle, or, for the love of God, line up correctly.

In the run up to what would become their 10^th straight loss (a period that spans 5 years or roughly longer than most celebrity marriages) to the Baltimore Ravens, all the talk around Berea was that the team had a new found sense of confidence and swagger, that they were closing the gap on their AFC rivals.

It’s hard to imagine a team that has won 5 or more games just twice in the last 10 years, a team that goes through regime change like a banana republic, a team with a 29 year old rookie quarterback, a team that once again leads the league in dropped passed and blown coverages, a team so irrelevant that its highlights are relegated to 30 second blips on SportsCenter and Football Night in America, a team that is so shaky fundamentally that it routinely burns time outs because it can’t get the right players on the field or line up correctly, a team that is penciled in as a win on every opponent’s schedule when it is released each off season, and a team that hasn’t been favored to win but a small handful of times in the last 10 years, home or away, swaggering or confident about anything, let alone a match up against a team that specifically targets its visits to Cleveland as an opportunity to support its own flagging confidence.

That anyone suggested that the Browns’ had some sort of renewed purpose because they beat a poorly coached San Diego team and a poorly coached Cincinnati team while losing to an interim-coached Indianapolis team in between, is tantamount to journalistic malpractice. It’s akin to simply making things up, which is far easier than actually researching things I’ll grant you that.

The Browns are full of young players, most of whom don’t even know what they don’t know, so if they faux swagger around the Berea complex like they’ve accomplished anything it’s probably understandable in the same way your kid thinks you should buy him the latest version of Call of Duty because he only missed 3 on his 10 question spelling test. But that irrational exuberance by players who entered the game, yes entered the game, at 2-6 doesn’t mean that the team is suddenly better or that it has, in fact, actually closed the gap on its AFC rivals.

We already know that the Bengals aren’t a very good team because the only thing keeping them off the radar even somewhat for the last decade is the fact that the Browns have been worse. The Steelers looked pretty solid against the New York Giants on Sunday, that same Giants team that handled the Browns like Ohio State handled the Miami Redhawks. The Ravens are a team in transition, particularly on defense, but they still have more than enough to treat the Browns like little more than pests. So if there’s been gap closure, it was hard to tell through the fog of 5 lousy field goals on Sunday.

But if anything signifies how ill-conceived and misplaced this confidence it gained by barely handling two other lousy teams in the last three weeks it was the massive deuce the Browns’ defense and offense dropped in its own punch bowl during the first two offensive and defensive possessions of Sunday’s game.

The Ravens started the game by ramming it down the Browns’ defense’s collective throats in what basically served as a reminder as to who the daddy really is in the relationship. The Browns’ offense responded with a three and out, outsmarting itself on a third and short. So that the message wasn’t lost apparently, that exchange was repeated in nearly identical fashion on the next Ravens’ and Browns’ possessions which ended up giving the Ravens a 14-0 lead.

In addition to reinforcing the pecking order between these two teams, this tidy little exchange x 2 took the helium out of whatever balloons the fans carried in. Even when the Browns had a 15-14 lead relatively late in the game (and any lead by any Browns team that extends beyond the first quarter would be considered relatively late in the game), the fans never really bothered to re-inflate. They knew, just knew, that Phil Dawson’s fifth field goal of the game would quickly be answered by a touchdown that would give the Ravens an insurmountable lead mainly because it would be more than a 3-point gap. It was and it was and frankly the 2-point conversion was just piling on for good measure.

Which brings us to what’s become a weekly feature called “what will Pat Shurmur do on 4^th and short late in the game with his team trailing?” This week it was the Browns facing a 4^th and 2 from their own 28 yard line with under four minutes remaining. They had just two time outs because, no surprise, they had needlessly burned one earlier because the play clock was about to expire, again because they couldn’t get a play into Weeden in a timely fashion. Seizing a moment that he’s never seized before, Shurmur kept the offense on the field. Quarterback Brandon Weeden fired prematurely as if he was the high school geek that had somehow convinced the homecoming queen to make out with him in the back seat of his parents’ Caddy and the last remaining shred of a potential threat had ended. It wasn’t a real threat anyway because the Browns had no chance of scoring a game-tying touchdown so it’s not like the Ravens’ field goal thereafter actually put the game out of reach.

But let’s not second guess the decision on 4^th down to go for it. It’s the decision Shurmur should have been making all season. Having seen it blow up in his face doesn’t make the decision wrong. The play call was fine as well. The execution was awful. It was awful all day

If you want to fault Shurmur, then fault him for the call on third down or fault him for not putting that decision in the context of Weeden’s miserable performance, but don’t fault him for trying to put a 2-6 team in a position to win the game with under 4 minutes remaining. If the Browns punt there’s no guarantee, particularly coming off a drive where the defense looked horrible while allowing the Ravens to go ahead for go in the first place, that they get the ball back, even with two time outs remaining and the two-minute warning available to stop the clock. If that had happened, the same goofs who felt that the Browns’ confidence in themselves was justifiable would be bitching that Shurmur once again failed to take a chance with a 2-6 team late in the game.

Besides, the underlying suggestion of those second-guessing this particular Shumur decision is that it was the essential reason the game was lost. Hardly. The game was lost each and every time the Browns settled for 3 points instead of getting 7. And make no mistake about it, they settled for 3 points. That’s where Shumur’s coaching went off the rails on Sunday, not on the 4^th down call. The Browns were in the Baltimore red zone several times on Sunday, indeed more than the Ravens were in the Browns’ red zone, and yet not one pass was thrown in the end zone.

It didn’t even look as if one pass play for the end zone was even called and that includes the touchdown pass-that-wasn’t to Josh Gordon. Shurmur showed no confidence in Weeden at any of those critical moments and while there’s no guarantee that more aggressive play calling would have resulted in a touchdown, at least there was a chance it might have. That is the only context in which I’ll consider the 4^th down call a mistake. If Shurmur won’t show confidence in his quarterback throughout the game, it gets a little tricky changing course late in the game.

And while we’re talking about Shurmur’s tentativeness as a play caller and a head coach, let’s not forget the context. It was clear from almost the first snap that Trent Richardson was going to have a good game. The Ravens don’t play great run defense anymore and Richardson had good drive in his legs that was apparent from his first carry. Instead of going to Richardson to get the tough yards on 4^th and 2 or 3^rd and 1 or 3^rd and 1 or…, the Browns tried to be too cute by half by calling for a pass each time. That too is a measure of Shurmur’s lack of confidence in himself or his team.

A team that thinks it can’t compete attempts to win by surprise and deception instead. This Browns team isn’t going to be competitive with anyone until it has enough confidence and swagger to run Richardson into the middle of the Ravens defense that is surprisingly poor against the rush. For all the talk going into the game it was this actual crisis of confidence in Richardson, in the offense generally, that told the real story of this team and ultimately set them up for failure later in the game. It’s no surprise they failed.

**

While the Browns aren’t closing the gap on anyone at the moment, it is kind of fun to watch the Ravens struggle. While they’ve placed much faith in quarterback Joe Flacco, he appears to be nothing more than Weeden, except younger. Flacco has a big arm and has amazing bouts of accuracy. He also gets flatfooted and dumbfounded at times, except when he plays Cleveland. That’s when he looks like precisely what he is, a quarterback that is 10-0 against the competition.

One of the reasons though that Flacco can play with almost reckless abandon against Cleveland is the flip side of exactly why Weeden can’t play that way against the Ravens. Baltimore has Ed Reed and Cleveland does not. Reed is a ball-hawking defensive back and he literally scares the shit out of Weeden. So afraid is Weeden of Reed that it wasn’t until he was forced to at the very end of the game did Weeden even throw in that direction.

Meanwhile Flacco had no such concerns about anyone in Cleveland’s defensive backfield. This has been my point all along about Joe Haden. Until team’s game plan against him in the same way that Cleveland, for example, game plan’s against Reed, Haden won’t amount to anything more than a younger version of Sheldon Brown.

Haden’s weaknesses were fully exposed on Sunday. He can’t be trusted to cover Baltimore’s receivers one-on-one. If I was Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh I’d be wondering why Ravens’ offensive coordinator Cam Cameron abandoned what was so clearly working for them early in the game.

That said, some credit should go to Browns defensive coordinator Dick Jauron as well. After seeing his defensive exposed for two quick scores, adjustments got made and until the defense once again fell apart at exactly the wrong time it was keeping the Ravens in check. Running back Ray Rice ended up with 98 yards rushing but it was one of the quieter 98-yard rushing days you’ll see. The damage the Ravens did was done early and late and the middle of the game looked like just about every Cleveland Indians game from this past season, tedious when it wasn’t being outright boring.

**

Rarely if ever do you hear of a team saying that its bye week is coming at the wrong time. Such as it is with the Browns at the moment. It seems like every player yesterday that wasn’t dejected about the loss was just plain pissed. The source of the angst seemed multiple but mostly stems from all the losing. Most of these players have enjoyed nothing but success until they ended up with the Browns and when the best you can say about your team is that it has a lot of really competitive losses that doesn’t count for much.

When a team is struggling like this and changes are imminent, the bye week represents the best time during the season to make key changes. Yet as frustrating as Sunday’s loss was for players and fans alike, there wasn’t anything particularly unique or telling about it either. That’s why new owner Jimmy Haslam will stick to his prior statement about not making any changes until the season’s over.

Shurmur didn’t do himself many favors in the way he coached against the Ravens, but then again he’s been his own worst enemy all season anyway. Again, nothing about Sunday’s loss was any more telling or unique with respect to Shurmur then any one of the other 21 losses he’s coached this team through.

What would be helpful, at least viscerally, is if Haslam displayed some of the emotion that is on display during the game at a press conference, soon Fans who would only be satiated by a change might at least be placated for the next several weeks if they heard Haslam say that he’s tired of seeing this franchise dick around and actually start accomplishing something. The fans have supported this team above and beyond what fans should be called on to do and if Haslam truly wants to win them over, the time is now and with an appropriate or even inappropriate display of anger at the all too predictable outcomes faced each week.

Burned Again

When Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini was harping at his players earlier this week about the mental mistakes that were killing this team, maybe defensive coordinator Rob Ryan should have been paying attention.

With the Browns in the lead as the fourth quarter started and the the Baltimore Ravens seemingly playing from their heels, Ryan dialed up an ill-advised all out blitz on Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, a call that left cornerback Eric Wright all alone to cover Anquan Boldin. Boldin and Flacco couldn't have found a better match up and made Wright look foolish, just as they had done twice previously in the game, as Boldin grabbed an easy touchdown pass in the end zone to give the Ravens a 21-17 lead. More importantly, the touchdown completely shifted the momentum of the game and ultimately led to the Ravens 24-17 victory, the final points coming on a Billy Cundiff 49-yard field goal.

It would be hard to overstate how ill-advised Ryan's call really was, but let's at least set the context.

For the third straight game, the Browns went into the locker room with the score 14-10 and a 2-game history of showing no ability to score in the second half. But with star-in-the-making Peyton Hillis running like Mike Alstott the entire day, the Browns were able to take a 17-14 lead with just seconds gone in the fourth quarter.

The statistics will show that the score came on a Seneca Wallace to Ben Watson 1-yard touchdown pass. But it was a touchdown set up by a 46-yard run from Hillis and a 15-yard roughing penalty by safety Tom Zbikowski tacked on when Zbikowski tackled Hillis out of bounds, mostly out of frustration. Hillis had been overpowering the Ravens defense all day and had rushed for over 140 yards by that point.

After the Phil Dawson kick off, the Ravens took over on their own 31 yard line and seemed to be getting mostly in their own way early in the drive with a pair of false start penalties and a roughing penalty on tight end Todd Heap. But the Ravens started picking away, eventually moving into Cleveland territory. Flacco then hit Heap for 14-yards down to the Cleveland 32-yard line.

The Browns' defense held the Ravens on the next two plays, setting up that crucial 3rd and 5 play at the Cleveland 27-yard line. Hold here and a Cundiff field goal and a tie game looks to be the worst that can happen. Ryan, though, had other ideas and decided that a little carpe diem was in order, sending 8 players at Flacco. But Flacco's offensive line fended off the blitz, Boldin made Wright bite on a head fake right then went left and grabbed the 27-yard pass for the touchdown.

You could feel the air come out of the Browns' balloon and for all practical purposes the game was over. The Browns did have time and a chance at the end of the game to move into a position tie the game, but Wallace tried to his Josh Cribbs on a long pass down the sideline on a 3rd and 2 with just over 4 minutes to play but missed badly. The Browns were forced to punt and never got the ball again.

Any football coach will tell you that when you live by the blitz you die by the blitz as well and that's exactly what the blitz-happy Ryan did. What made the call so strange is the fact that it left Wright all alone on Bolding and Wright had already more than proven he couldn't cover Boldin, having given up two other touchdowns to him, one for 8-yards in the first quarter and a second for 12 yards in the 2nd quarter. It was exactly the wrong call at the wrong moment on the wrong player and all it did was cost the Browns the game.

In all, Boldin had 8 receptions for 142 yards, most of which were against Wright. Maybe Wright, who is usually pretty reliable, was starting Boldin in his fantasy league or maybe it wasn't Wright at all, but Brandon McDonald slipping back onto the team donning a Wright jersey. Whatever else it was, though, it was clearly Wright's worst game as a professional.

It would be easy to point out that Boldin on Wright is a mismatch of major proportions given Boldin's size and Wright's lack thereof, but these kinds of match ups are common in the NFL. The real question now will be how Wright will respond to such a public flogging.

Ultimately, the loss was expected, just not the way it happened. The Browns played the Ravens competitively throughout, which is the surest sign of progress given how poorly the Browns played the Ravens last season.

The Browns defense mostly dared Flacco, who had been struggling, to beat them and all Flacco did was respond. Finding ample time throughout the game to set his feet and scan the field, Flacco was 22-31 for 262 yards and the three touchdowns to Boldin.

But even with Flacco returning to form, the Browns, behind Hillis and Wallace, were certainly keeping it interesting.

In the first half, with the Browns down 14-3 and looking as if their best chance to get in the end zone would have been if safety T. J. Ward could have held on to a sure pick-6 interception on Flacco's first pass of the game, Hillis went to work and the Browns got back into the game.

There was a short pass that went for 11 yards and then a mere 5 yard run. But the run that signified the entire drive, indeed Hillis' entire inspired approach was a play through a huge hole on the right side of the line that went for 25 yards. About 17 yards into the run, Ravens safety Dawan Landry stood waiting and Hillis buried his helmet into Landry's chest and pushed Landry for the final 8 yards before reinforcements came to help Landry bring Hillis down. The drive ended with Hillis running behind fullback Lawrence Vickers in a hole cleared by left tackle Joe Thomas for an easier than it looked touchdown that closed the gap to 14-10.

It was the kind of drive the Browns needed at that exact moment. Without it, they might have folded for the rest of the game. As it was, it gave them the momentum going into halftime and knowing they'd get the ball back to start the second half.

But the Browns couldn't capitalize on the momentum to start the second half as the Ravens decided that keying on Hillis might be a good idea. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll kept running Hillis at the Ravens anyway and Hillis eventually broke the 46-yard run that seemed to have turned the game the Browns' way.

Hillis ended the game with 144 yards, the first time a Browns' running back had gone over 100 yards against the Ravens. He also added 36 more yards on 7 receptions. Wallace, too, helped keep the vaunted Ravens' defense off balance, passing effectively throughout the game, finishing with 18-24 for 141 yards and 1 touchdown.

Wallace managed the game well enough throughout and didn't make any crucial mistakes. But if he had one fault it was keying too much on receiver Josh Cribbs, who had 5 receptions for 58 yards, and his running backs. Wallace didn't throw a ball toward Mohamed Massaquoi all day, even when he appeared to be open.

If Wallace is going to be effective as a quarterback, he's going to have to find a way to get other receivers involved. Still, Wallace did more than enough to legitimately create an issue of whether or not he should sit when injured quarterback Jake Delhomme heals from his high-ankle sprain. Wallace showed decent pocket awareness, scrambled mostly at the right time and was accurate throughout the day.

Once again, though, the Browns are well into another season and win-less. The little victories and progress made are nice but real victories are the ultimate measuring stick and in that the Browns look like they'll continue to come up short for awhile longer.

They play Cincinnati and Atlanta at home the next two weeks and then go on the road for games against Pittsburgh and New Orleans before the bye week. If they make it through that stretch with even one win, it would qualify as a minor miracle. Most likely they will hit another bye week win-less again and trying to convince the fans that these little victories and progress will eventually lead to something bigger. I'd say it would be the toughest sales job in Cleveland, but for the foreseeable future that belongs to Indians president Mark Shapiro.

Run Over

If the Cleveland Browns season is lost, fans and players alike can look back at Sunday’s 37-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens as the reason why. Needing a victory to both pull even with the Ravens in the AFC North and to even their divisional record, the Browns instead couldn’t solve a pair of rookies and one savvy veteran. Now, instead of evening their record, the Browns find themselves firmly locked in third place in their division and again wondering why and where things went wrong.

The rookies, running back Ray Rice and quarterback Joe Flacco, were primarily responsible for sending the Browns to another home loss. But without several key third down catches by receiver Derrick Mason, the Ravens might instead be the ones questioning themselves.

That Rice, Flacco and Mason were the primary reasons the Browns lost Sunday is beyond question. But a huge momentum killer could be placed once again in the stone hands of receiver Braylon Edwards, except he’d probably drop that, too. Edwards, with a step on a Ravens’ defender, dropped a critical and perfectly thrown pass at the Ravens’ 25-yard line early in the fourth quarter with the game tied that quarterback Derek Anderson launched from inside his own 20-yard line. It was the last time the Browns came close to scoring in a game that until then had as many lead changes as this year’s various presidential polls.

The Browns did have two opportunities late to get in position to either tie or win the game. But their first attempt was a harmless three-and-out and the second ended with Anderson’s first interception in four games, a rather unfortunate softball to linebacker Terrell Suggs that he ran back for a touchdown for the final margin of the game.

When the Browns look back at this game, they’ll wonder how it got away from them so quickly. The inability to contain either Rice or Mason will figure prominently, as will the Edwards drop. But a defense that had bent all season finally broke at all the wrong times and allowed the Ravens to run up 30 points on them. What was most disappointing about that is that the Browns had a 14-point second half lead that evaporated under an onslaught, yes onslaught, of 24 unanswered Ravens’ points. Offensively, the Ravens aren’t exactly Texas Tech.

The game wasn’t necessarily without a handful of Browns’ highlights. It’s just that there weren’t nearly enough. Indeed, all looked well when the Browns went into the half tied. But then again, the Browns led 10-7 at the half when the teams met earlier this season and we all know how that one turned out. It was foreshadowing.

A Josh Cribbs 92-yard kickoff return after Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco hit Mason on a 47-yard touchdown pass obscured a mostly dominating Ravens’ defensive performance in the game’s first half. The Browns were limited to two Phil Dawson field goals, one from 23 yards after the Browns’ best drive of the half stalled at the Ravens 7-yard line, and another from 54 yards late in the second quarter.

That second Dawson field goal actually seemed to give the Browns a lift heading into the half. After the Ravens answered Dawson’s first field goal with a 32-yarder of their own by Matt Stover, there was only 29 seconds remaining in the half. Seemingly ready to take that lead into the locker room and assuming Cleveland wouldn’t risk a turnover so late in the half, the Ravens relaxed enough on defense to allow Anderson and the Browns to move quickly into Ravens’ territory. With three seconds left in the half, Dawson then hit the 54-yard field goal, with plenty of room to spare, to knot the score once again, this time at 13-13.

For what seemed to be the first time in way too long, the Browns finally came out of the half as if they really had made adjustments. They seemed to have the Ravens on their heels, both offensively and defensively. After a quick Ravens’ three-and-out to start the second half, Cribbs took a line drive Sam Koch punt back 32 yards, to the Ravens’ 28-yard line. Anderson pump faked on the first play and found Edwards in the right corner of the end zone. Cornerback Frank Walker nearly had the interception but Edwards wrestled it away and held on for the 28-yard grab, helping give Cleveland the quick 20-13 lead with the half barely two minutes old.

On the Browns’ next drive, the middle of the field was wide open for Anderson as he first hit Edwards for a 18-yard play and followed that with a 12-yard pass to Winslow that got the ball to the Ravens’ 15-yard line. Though not a great red zone team all season this time the Browns were able to solve those woes. A 7-yard run by Lewis set up an Anderson to Jason Wright 7-yard touchdown pass that replays showed may have been a bit of a gift. That pushed the score to 27-13. It seemed like a rout might be on.

The Ravens, meanwhile, still seemed stuck somewhere between their locker room and the tunnel leading onto the field, with two quick three-and-outs to start the second half. And just when the Browns seemed poised to take away the Ravens’ sea legs for good, Flacco found Mason on 3rd and 16 with a 20-yard pass to keep the drive alive. Just as a similar Mason catch had done earlier in the game, this catch by Mason seemed to ignite the rest of the team. The Ravens then went into a no-huddle offense that had the Browns struggling to make substitutions on defense. Rice peeled off an 11-yard run, then fullback Le’Ron McClain added another 8 yards. Mason helped keep it going with another key catch and then Rice took over, first with an 8-yard run and then an 18-yard run that initially was signaled a touchdown before it was overruled by the sideline judge. Two plays later though McCain barreled in from the 1-yard line and the Ravens were within a touchdown.

It was the momentum shift the Ravens needed. The Ravens’ defense held the Browns to another quick three-and-out and then returner Yamon Figurs took a Dave Zastudil punt 23 yards back to the Browns’ 42-yard line. Flacco hit Clayton for 14 yards and two plays later found Mason with a pass at the 20-yard line. After the catch Mason made a nice inside move on cornerback Eric Wright and then waltzed the rest of the way into the end zone. A game that the Browns were well in control of was suddenly tied at 27.

With the Browns now reeling, they had the chance to turn it back around on their next series, but the Edwards drop ruined that party and the Browns were forced to punt, again. It was either Edwards’ 11th or 12th dropped pass of the season, depending on who’s counting. Either way, he still leads the league in that dubious category. Rich Gannon, doing the commentary for CBS, suggested that the Browns get vision therapy for Edwards. Hire that man.

Still, the game was tied even if the Browns’ body language suggested otherwise. After holding the Ravens on their next series, the Browns got the ball back but deep in their own territory. An interference call on Winslow, which was actually a smart play in order to avoid an interception, pushed the ball back even further. After Zastudil’s punt put the Ravens at their own 37-yard line, Rice galloped 60-yards down to the Cleveland 3-yard line. But the Browns’ defense stiffened, forcing a 22-yard Matt Stover field goal.

The Browns still had two shots to either tie or win the game. They could have had 41 shots and by that point the result would have been the same. The game was effectively over. The Suggs interception was just some unneeded icing.

Though it arguably didn’t figure into the final outcome, Stover’s first field goal, a 41-yarder that came on the Ravens’ first possession of the game, bears some mention somewhere in the chronicling of this game. A promising Ravens’ drive had stalled at the Cleveland 23-yard line. On third and 11, the Ravens were caught holding. Inexplicably Crennel declined a penalty that would have put the Ravens into a 3rd and 21 from the Cleveland 33-yard line and a potential 51-yard attempt for Stover which seems beyond Stover’s range at this point in his career.

Indeed this was underscored a short time later when the Ravens, facing fourth down from the Cleveland 34-yard line elected to punt instead of attempting the long field goal. But then again, what would a Browns game be without a questionable call by Crennel?

The Browns aren’t necessarily finished for the season, but they aren’t exactly in the catbird seat either. With the erratic play of this team serving as its calling card, there’s every indication that the rest of the season will be a similar ride.

Anderson perfectly captured the vibe. He wasn’t exactly terrible in the game just erratic. At times he looked like the Anderson of last season, or at least early last season. At other times, he looked like the Anderson that most fans now see in their nightmares. In all, he completed 17 of 33 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw the rather unfortunate interception to Suggs that sealed the Ravens’ win and was booed mightily for it. His counterpart, Flacco, was far better. He was 17-29 for 248 yards and two touchdowns. He wasn’t intercepted.

The Ravens’ defense, which hasn’t let an opposing running back rush for over 100 yards in a game, left with that sting in tact. Lewis had 19 carries for 49 yards. Rice, on the other hand, was busy impersonating the Lewis that used to carry the ball for the Ravens against the Browns. He had one big carry after another to keep drives alive. He finished with 21 carries and 154 yards.

The Ravens now appear to have the team that the Browns’ coaches envisioned for themselves. They have a quarterback who can consistently manage a game, even if he is a rookie. They have a running attack that can actually shred a team that is otherwise built to stop the run. They have a lockdown defense that for every body blow it takes it delivers two in return. It’s why, ultimately, the Ravens have the Pittsburgh Steelers in their sights and the Browns don’t.

It’s a short work week for the Browns and then back at it on Thursday night against a Denver Broncos team with a shaky defense. If the Browns’ offense can’t find a way to solve them, then at 3-6 all that’s left is a run toward a low first round draft pick. Like Sunday’s game against the Ravens, it certainly didn’t seem like that would be the case when it all started.