It seemed for a few moments on Sunday that the Browns may in fact snap their eight-game losing streak, but it was not to be. One of the key turning points of the game came when the Browns ran a quarterback sneak deep in Lions territory with just seconds left and no time outs. QB DeShone Kizer was stuffed at the line and the clock ran out before Cleveland could get any points on the board. While it looks like the play may have been an audible from the rookie second round pick, head coach Hue Jackson told Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com and the rest of the media that the mistake fell squarely on him.
“Doesn’t matter (if he audibled),” said Jackson. “It’s on me. To go ’round and ’round about it, I’m not going to do that. Anything that happens with our offensive football team is my responsibility, so that’s on me.”
The second-year Browns head coach didn’t budge when describing what went wrong at the end of the half, continuing to put on the focus on him being the decision maker of the offense when his football team has the ball.
“It’s on me,” Jackson continued. “I’m mad at myself. Nobody else. period. I’m taking the fall on everything. We’re an 0-9 football team right now.”
- Despite the negativity surrounding the now only winless team in the NFL, Kay Cabot did also pass along in another article that Jackson felt his young quarterback played his best game of his young professional career. Kizer himself also focused on how he’s improving as the year has gone on. “Yeah, every game so far I’ve felt pretty confident that I was getting better,” Kizer said. “I was able to play the whole game, wasn’t benched, wasn’t in a situation in which I was turning the ball over earlier in the game. Got a little rhythm going, so yeah, I think this was my best outing yet.” It’s encouraging to see Kizer put a solid game together, especially given the circumstances surrounding the franchise. He’ll likely have the keys to starting QB job for the rest of the season, so if the rookie can continue to build off his solid performance today, it may make the team think twice about whether they want to bring another young signal caller into the building next season.
- Jets cornerback Morris Claiborne left today’s game vs. Tampa Bay in the first quarter because he aggravated a previous foot injury, according to Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. The former sixth overall pick told Cimini that he wasn’t 100% going into the contest, but wanted to try and tough out the injury. “Wanted to give it a shot to see where it was, to see if I️ could make it through the game. But I also didn’t want to go out and put bad film out there and get beat where you lose the game.” We’ll just have to see how whether the Jets hold out their 27 year-old defensive back in practice this coming week. The team has the likes of Rashard Robinson and Darryl Roberts ready to go if this turns out to be a multi-week issue, the former was brought to the Jets in a trade from San Francisco last month.
- The Jaguars could lose another wide receiver after Allen Hurns went down with a knee injury during today’s comeback win over the Chargers. The wideout was injured on his 26th birthday when he was hit directly on his knee and was forced to leave the game. The former starting receiver was seen on crunches in the locker room, unable to put any weight on his right leg and is set to undergo an MRI on Monday, according to Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com.
Browns need to clean house again. Haslam can’t get his front office right. It may have been a novel idea hiring the Moneyball Boys but it isn’t working. They are clueless to the NFL ways of doing business and are poor evaluators of talent. Jackson is certainly to blame as well. This team has not improved in any area over two seasons. What a mess! Poor Cleveland.