Turnovers, penalties, and costly drops plague the Cleveland Browns again, mirroring past failures and hinting at a bleak offseason.
There are several overused idioms that come to mind after the Cleveland Browns 31-3 loss to the Chicago Bears.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks. A Tiger doesn't change its stripes. Whichever one you prefer, they can all be used to describe the 2025 Browns. 15 weeks into this thing, the 3-10 team rife with flaws wasn't all of a sudden going to become a competitive one.
Sunday's loss to the Bears followed a similar script to so many losses before it. The game began with Chicago returner Devin Duvernay returning the opening kickoff 52 yards to the Cleveland 47 for the first possession of the game.
The drive went nowhere, but a punt to the one-yardline left the Browns starting their first series under the shadow of their own goal-post. They proceeded to get flagged for a false start, run one play for a gain of one, then get flagged again for too many men in the huddle, run two more plays, then punted the ball back to the Bears.
Chicago started its second drive on the Browns side of the field again, this time at the 42 and six plays later they were in the end zone. The ensuing Browns series then started with a delay of game penalty. They had three penalties and three plays run. It was as disastrous of a start anyone could fathom.
The special teams problems persisted. Penalties stalled drives, granted somehow they limited it to six total for the game.
Dropped passes have been another thing that has plagued the Browns all season. Jerry Jeudy was once again the culprit on another brutal one on Sunday. Sheduer Sanders delivered a dime to Jeudy along the sideline with just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The ball couldn't have been thrown any better, perfectly placed for Jeudy to go up and bring it into his chest over some tight coverage by Jaylon Johnson near the goal line. Instead it slipped right through his hands and into Johnson's for a pick. Sanders's second of the game.
It halted a promising drive in it's tracks. In the end the Bears turned three Sanders' interceptions into scores to oull away in the second half.
It was all too familiar. Turnovers. Special teams blunders. Drops. Penalties. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Every week this team fails to correct issues from the weeks before. That's coaching.Every week the warts of this roster rear that ugly head. That's on roster building. Both Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry have a hand in this disastrous Browns season. Neither is exonerated, even if they expected a bit of a gap year.
Sunday's game felt like the beginning of a slow march to an inevitable house cleaning. And the bone-chilling temperatures that swirled through the windy city over the weekend felt like a fitting backdrop for a team that appears poised for a very dark and bitter cold offseason.