Browns lose again in a shootout against a great quarterback

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.

INGLEWOOD, CA

For the Browns to get to where they want to go – namely this very SoFi Stadium in February for Super Bowl 56 – they’re going to have to find a way to win a shootout against a great quarterback.

The Browns and Los Angeles Chargers combined for 41 points in a wild fourth quarter that saw four lead changes. But even a second missed extra point in a tight game couldn’t deter Justin Herbert from ruining the Browns’ flight home with a painful 47-42 loss.

The Browns are 3-2. Both losses on the road came against potent offenses and revealed shortcomings on defense and offense.

Like against Lamar Jackson last year and Patrick Mahomes in this year’s season-opener, the Browns could not stop Herbert’s relentless attack on their defense.

And the Browns’ offense, which was efficient for 57 game minutes, could not answer in two final possessions with the game on the line.

Herbert destroyed the Browns’ No. 2-ranked defense for four touchdown passes in the air and one on the ground.

"To win a game like this, one that turns into a track meet, you need a superstar quarterback to win it," said Chargers coach Brandon Staley. "That's what he is. He was fantastic in the game."

It got so easy for Herbert that the Browns purposely allowed the Chargers to score with 1 minute and 31 seconds to play. The Browns stood up running back Austin Ekeler and then pushed him over the goal line to save a few seconds and give their offense a chance to pull the game out.

But with no timeouts left and both starting offensive tackles injured, the Browns couldn’t even cross midfield in eight plays starting from their 25.

In their previous possession, with them clinging to a 42-41 lead after Los Angeles kicker Tristan Vizcaino’s second PAT miss, the Browns went three-and-out after a curious handoff on third-and-9 and then a punt with 2:02 to play.

“With where we were with our tackle position, quite honestly, [I] just didn’t feel like I wanted to give a chance for something bad to happen there again,” coach Kevin Stefanski said of that sequence. “All of these things I would tell you, I need to do a better job. I share in that loss just like everybody else does. We’re going to win these games together and we’re going to lose these games together. I certainly need to do a better job.”

Handicapped by the loss of left tackle Jedrick Wills (during the week) and right tackle Jack Conklin in the fourth quarter with a knee injury, and the loss of cornerbacks Denzel Ward (neck) and Greedy Williams (shoulder) during the game, it was incumbent on Stefanski to scheme his team to the finish line. It didn't happen.

The Browns also felt victimized by two key officials’ calls in the fourth quarter – one on pass interference on cornerback A.J. Green on a fourth-and-4 pass for Mike Williams, and the other a non-call on a second-down pass by Baker Mayfield on the next-to-last possession. The Browns’ quarterback thought Donovan Peoples-Jones was pushed out of bounds and Rashard Higgins was obstructed.

“Might as well forward the fine letter now,” Mayfield ranted after the game. “We asked the ref on the sideline how the hell he missed that call. They were shoving DPJ out of bounds, and then Higgy gets grabbed, so there’s two PIs on the one play.

“You would like to see it called both ways, if that’s the case. It’s just a critical point in the game to where if they’re going to call it on fourth down, then we should get it on second.”

On the Green penalty, defensive spokesman Myles Garrett said, “It was a terrible call. It is what it is. Refs are human and make mistakes. We’re held to a high standard of excellence, and so should they.”

That those questionable calls affected the outcome was the fault of the Browns for not capitalizing earlier in the game.

“We shouldn’t even have been in that position,” Mayfield said. “We left too many points on the field in the first half. It’s very frustrating that we didn’t do our job well enough to just take the ballgame away. We left it in the hands of somebody else. We have to be better on that.”

On their first drive, the Browns moved effortlessly to the Chargers’ 17 with their three tight ends opening lanes for Nick Chubb, and David Njoku collecting 31 yards on two catches. But they had to settle for a short field goal.

And then in the second quarter, they moved from their 20 to the Chargers’ 17. Stefanski went for it on fourth-and-2. Mayfield’s short pass to Odell Beckham Jr. at the first-down marker was shockingly dropped by the one-handed catch artist.

Beckham caught the only other two targets that came his way, for 20 yards. He was stunningly out of the thought process on the deciding possessions at the end. Mayfield’s targets on those last two series were, in order, Higgins, Higgins, Kareem Hunt, Hunt, Njoku, Peoples-Jones, Higgins and then a final Hail Mary pass that fell untouched in the end zone.

Mayfield dispelled any concerns about the labrum injury in his left shoulder and finished with respectable numbers – 23 of 32 for 305 yards and touchdowns of 7 yards to Higgins and 71 to Njoku, who had a monster day (seven catches for 149 yards). And Chubb (161 yards, including a 52-yard TD run) and Hunt (61 yards and two TD runs) were practically unstoppable. The two-headed monster averaged 6.7 yards a carry.

In fact, they may have been too good for their own good.

With the scored tied at 35-35 and 7:24 to play, the Browns could have tried to grind out clock to save their defense from further assault from Herbert. But after a screen pass to Hunt and a Chargers face-mask penalty slingshot the Browns 28 yards on first down, successive handoffs to Chubb (8 yards) and Hunt (24, 7 and 8 for the TD) ate up only 2:39 off the game clock.

“I think it’s hard [to play the clock game],” Stefanski said. “Points are a premium. There are opportunities, certainly late in games, when you want to use the clock. I don’t know if the seven minutes was on my mind. I wanted to make sure we scored there.

“I thought our defense did a great job coming back and forcing them into the end zone so that we could touch the ball one more time. I would just tell you guys that there are certainly things that I’m really disappointed that I did in this game. I got to come through for our team.”

After holding the Bears and Vikings to under 10 points in successive wins, the defense was torched by Herbert for 398 yards (26 of 43 passing) and four TDs. On every one of the TDs, the Browns secondary was disoriented and experienced communication breakdowns.

With Jadeveon Clowney made inactive with an elbow injury, the Browns’ pass rush sacked Herbert only twice (Garrett and Malik McDowell).

So, how do the Browns find the solution to winning these shootouts?

“We just have to be ready for whatever game it is,” Stefanski said. “For instance, last week I don’t think we saw the [low-scoring] game unfolding like that. As coaches, we need to react to the game that is being played.”