I am really glad I had other things to keep me occupied on a Sunday afternoon. Most of it was spent writing about Carey sports. Go Blue Devils! I love my alma mater and her students and teachers to pieces!
The Carey community expects and appreciates excellence in the classroom, and on the field or court. And it feels great to be associated with a bunch of hardworking farm kids. I grew up and graduated as one of them. The drive for success among Careyites who give their absolute best is contagious. It fires the rest of us up!
So when you're a long-suffering, grizzled, psychologically broken Cleveland Browns fan, you need to bask in that winning mentality from somewhere else, for as long as you can. This team certainly doesn't have it.
You need to look for any kind of happiness and joy in life when dealing with these guys. Otherwise you'll very quickly lose your sanity and never fully recover!
Hang in there, folks. There are only three games left. Three more weeks left until we can decompress. Being a Browns fan is not for the faint of heart. And I salute you if you're still here. We may root for a garbage football team. But our loyalty is unmatched.
And yes, that is a badge of honor. If frontrunning fans had to even remotely endure truly bad football like we have? Those pansies would tuck tail and run at the first sign of trouble. Guaranteed!
Once, just once, I wish we didn't have to suffer like this. The Lions wandered through NFL hell for several years. Now they have turned themselves completely around and are a Super Bowl contender. There's no reason we can't do the same under competent ownership.
But then again, the idiot running this whole show, James Arthur Haslam III, may as well be the Clown in Chief. The man has no clue what he's doing. And when you don't know what you're doing, but you have an ego the size of Jupiter and you think you know better than everyone else, this is what happens.
Let's rip the Band-Aid off and get this one over with, shall we? Goodness gracious...
SIX Turnovers?!
I have no idea why these guys can't do the simple, small things right. Even before coaches tell you to be disciplined in peewee football as a kid, they tell you to take care of the ball. That's football 101 that every kid learns. But apparently the Browns didn't get the memo.
Winston threw three picks, including two in the endzone. DTR had one. And the team also fumbled twice. How on earth they can be this god awful I have no idea. They're actually fortunate Kansas City didn't make them pay more dearly than they did. Goodness...
I never thought I would have to say this. But next season, maybe Stefanski should seriously devote some time during each week of the season to working on fundamentals like discipline and taking care of the ball.
Would running through that each week be embarrassing for a bunch of guys who call themselves professionals? Probably. But if that's the case, I have one thing to say: GOOD!
Let them be embarrassed and angry. I hope they go through the fundamentals each week at some point. I hope it bothers them. I hope it ticks them off to no end, so they never make the same stupid mistakes over, and over, and over again! Drill it into their thick skulls until they get the point!
Because until they quit making boneheaded mistakes like turning the ball over six times, they will never be a consistent winner.
Earth to Jameis: Praying ain't enough!
I am glad Jameis is a Christian. I am a Christian too. We both love and believe in Jesus. But when he said he was praying to "overcome pick sixes" a few weeks ago, I just had to roll my eyes.
Don't just pray about it, dude. Get your butt into the training facility and focus on your throwing mechanics or thought process until you figure out the root of the problem. Hire a shrink to figure out if it's a mental issue too, if need be. But get it fixed!
If I was that bad at my job as a writer, no one would hire me for anything. How he's still in the league is beyond me!
I wonder what goes through Jameis' head before he makes such poor decisions with the football. And I say this sincerely as a guy who likes and appreciates him as a person.
Does he overestimate his own accuracy? Can he not see or read defenses properly from bad or compromised vision? Does he feel like he has to force it all the time?
I genuinely want to know what he thinks just before he uncorks a bad one right to the other team. Because no decent quarterback keeps making these same mistakes over and over. Today his final stat line was 16-25 for 146 yards and three picks. Yikes!
I don't think Jameis is the answer. But these kinds of performances worry me. Jimmy Haslam and the Ivy League Braintrust in Cleveland will now think this justifies starting Watson next year, rather than looking for a quarterback in the Draft or Free Agency.
Jameis had a legit chance to push Watson for the starting spot going into 2025. If he were solid like Flacco was while he was here, fans would have been HOWLING for Winston to start the first time Watson throws a pick. He'd have a case.
But when he looks this bad? He's lucky he doesn't find himself on the first flight out of Cleveland!
This last point isn't really a reason the Browns lost. But I have a bad feeling Nick Chubb's days in Cleveland might be numbered too. Heck, his days of playing football entirely may be over much sooner rather than later.
Nick Chubb can't catch a break!
As if slogging through an awful season wasn't bad enough, who knows how long Nick Chubb will be out. He'll obviously be out for the final three games of the year. But I don't know what the timetable is for returning from a broken foot.
He ran for 41 yards on nine carries before he came up limping in the third quarter. He soon had to leave the game, and could be seen on crutches.
My heart hurts so bad for this guy. He just can't catch a break. First a blown knee, and now this.
But when he's healthy, Nick just quietly goes about his business every week and lets his running do the talking for him.
He's a perfect fit for Cleveland if I've ever seen one. He's not flashy or sexy. He's just STOUT! Tough. He embodies the city better than few athletes can. Maybe even all of them. The only ones who I can think of that embody Cleveland better than Chubb are either Jim Brown or Joe Thomas. Two Hall of Famers.
Cleveland isn't the mistake by the lake either. It's a town full of hardworking people who do anything they can to provide for themselves and their families. It's a hard-nosed but beautiful blue-collar place. And the people there love the athletes who play for their teams with the same mentality.
As sad as this sounds though, it would not surprise me if Nick Chubb's time in Cleveland is drawing to a close. He's under contract until the end of the season. Once he gets healthy, I wonder if he'll leave town. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he did. He deserves so much better, and has given so much to a team that is wasting his prime years.
As for those of us who still choose to stay fans in the middle of this mess, you have to wonder how much more we're able to take too.
Hang in there, Dawg Pound. Three more games until this nightmare season is buried six feet deep. I'll grab the shovel. You guys bring the adult beverages.
Statistical Leaders
Jameis Winston: 16-25, 146 yards, 3 INTs.
Jerome Ford: 7 carries, 84 yards, TD
Jerry Jeudy: 11 catches, 108 yards
Sources
ESPN, USA Today, Bleacher Report
Picture Credit
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