The Cleveland Browns offense has been ugly this season, but Sunday's loss to the Detroit Lions saw it reach an all-time low.
On top of scoring a season low 10 points in what was a 34-10 walloping, veteran quarterback Joe Flacco turned the ball over on three separate occasions. It was the two first half interceptions in particular that stuck with the veteran QB after the game.
The first one came with a littler under two minutes to go in the first quarter. Flacco was looking the way of Cedric Tillman split out to his left and thought he was running a fade. Tillman had an option route though and instead cut his route off into a hitch instead, but Flacco had already made up his mind. He lobbed up a pass down the sideline and into the waiting arms of Lions safety Kirby Joseph. The Lions kicked a field goal five plays later.
Clearly he and Tillman weren't on the same page. Flacco put it on himself.
"The first pick was on me, and anytime you give a chance to give this team a little bit of momentum and play from the lead, that makes them that much better," Flacco said. Yeah, I thought he was going. I was in the wrong, not him."
The second pick came with 4:36 to go in the second quarter. Flacco looked toward Jerry Jeudy along the sideline to his left and let it fly as soon as Jeudy cut his route to the sideline. Only the former first-round pick got tangled up with Lions cornerback DJ Reed, slipping underneath him and allowing Reed to dive for an acrobatic interception.
That one was less explainable for Flacco.
"I don’t know about that second one," he said. "I really didn’t. That set them up too. I really didn’t think that they came up with that, but in the box score they did and it hurt us."
Turnovers ultimately ruled the day in Cleveland's loss. An Aidan Hutchinson strip sack with about seven minutes remaining in the fourth was the third and final blow on the day. That led to the Lions final touchdown a few minutes later to put the finishing touches on their blowout victory.
In total, 17 of Detroit's 34 points came directly off of turnovers by Cleveland's offense. Another seven came via special teams, courtesy of a Lions Kalif Raymond punt return touchdown also in the fourth quarter.
The Browns continually shot itself in the foot. It's why they're 1-3 on the season. Through four games, Flacco and the offense are averaging just 14 points per game. The 18-year veteran completed just 47% of his passes against Detroit, for 184 yards to go along with the two costly interceptions and his fumble.
Another rough day will only make calls for a quarterback change even louder in Cleveland. Head coach Kevin Stefanski repeated what he has the last couple weeks, that a switch at QB is not his focus right now.
Flacco understands the situation, though. He knows he has to play better, or eventually, he'll lose the starting job.
"You can’t think about it when you’re a player. I know what I signed up for," he asserted. "I signed up for coming in and competing for a job and then leading this team to victories. And you know that everybody’s always being evaluated in this league and that’s no different for any position. So it’s disappointing to go out there and play the way we did today. Other than that, I’m not really worried about all that stuff"