Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.HOUSTON, TXSometimes there are no explanations other than it was not meant to be.
Magic carpet rides don’t last forever. You want to believe they take you all the way to that place you’ve never been. But there’s a fine print on the back side of the ticket for the joy ride that Joe Flacco and the Browns took us all on.
Nobody wanted to look at it. But turn over the ticket and you will see it now. It reads, “Board at your own risk.”
The risk was heartbreak.
“The further you go, the more heartbreak there is,” Flacco said.
That’s what everyone felt when the Houston Texans ousted the Browns from the AFC playoffs with a stunningly complete 45-14 mauling in NRG Stadium.
It was a crash and burn that nobody saw coming.
A loss to the upstart Texans was seen as very possible by oddsmakers, who installed the Browns as merely 1 ½-point favorites against a team coached by a rookie coach and quarterbacked by a rookie quarterback.
But nobody saw Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud strafing Jim Schwartz’s bad-ass, boom box-wielding, No. 1-ranked defense for 274 passing yards, three touchdowns, and a nearly-perfect 157.2 passer rating.
"it doesn't always turn out how you want it to. It was a bad day for us," said coach Kevin Stefanski.
“We picked the [expletive] wrong day to play like we did,” said spot-on cornerback Martin Emerson.
It was such a laugher for the precocious rookie QB from Ohio State that Texans coach DeMeco Ryans pulled Stroud with 9:22 to go in the fourth quarter. You see, the Texans – yes, the Texans, who were 3-13-1 a year ago – have bigger fish to fry in the AFC playoffs.
More plausible than Schwartz’s defensive no-show – with the exception of linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who was outstanding shooting underneath blockers for four tackles-for-loss -- was Flacco’s performance.
The South Jersey native who rescued the Browns’ dire quarterback situation in late November finally rolled snake eyes at the craps table.
There will be no Flacco returning-to-Baltimore storyline. It's over.
Flacco’s five games with the Browns were filled with jaw-dropping, thread-the-needle passes and exhilarating 300-yard exhibitions.
His eight interceptions in five games – two of which were returned for touchdowns, and another returned to the 1-yard line – were inconsequential as he won four games. But, well, they all came home to roost on Saturday.
Flacco tossed two Pick 6’s in the span of two minutes in the third quarter to end any hope of making up a 24-14 halftime deficit.
“I don’t think there’s much to be said about them,” Flacco said.
The first one was the killer.
The Browns’ defense had forced a punt on Houston’s first possession of the second half. A patient, time-consuming offensive drive resulting in a touchdown by the Browns would have reclaimed some control of the game. It looked like that was happening.
But after a third first down, Flacco sought a “shot play” for Elijah Moore from the Houston 34. Wrong thought.
Pass pressure from the Houston defense demanded a Flacco throwaway. But instead of throwing it into the ground, Flacco floated it down the left sideline. Cornerback Steven Nelson fielded it like a fair catch and then returned it, maddeningly, 82 yards through a demoralized Browns offensive unit for the touchdown.
“You have to be able to live with sacks,” Flacco said, essentially talking to himself. “You have to realize that sometimes sacks are not such a bad thing.”
Nelson’s Pick 6 increased the Houston lead to 31-14. Still not insurmountable, but ...
On Flacco’s next possession, he faced fourth-and-2 from the Browns 33. He tried to jam a ball to tight end Harrison Bryant, and linebacker Christian Harris caught it. Worse, he maneuvered 36 yards through a bewildered Browns offensive unit for another Houston defensive touchdown.
We haven’t mentioned Amari Cooper yet.
The receiver who posted a Browns franchise-record 265 receiving yards against the Texans on Christmas Eve was a ghost in this game.
Ryans went out of character in shadowing elite No. 1 cornerback Derek Stingley on Cooper most of the game, and it worked. Cooper had an inconsequential 59 receiving yards on four catches.
The Browns’ leading receiver was David Bell with eight catches for 54 yards. Tight end David Njoku had 93 yards receiving on seven catches. The Browns’ only touchdowns were scored by Kareem Hunt on a 1-yard run and an 11-yard catch in the first half.
The Texans had mounted no pressure on Flacco in the 36-22 Browns victory on Christmas Eve. By getting up, 24-14, at halftime, the Texans were able to crank up their pass rush in the second half. They sacked Flacco four times, hit him seven times, and forced the two Pick 6’s.
The Texans’ defense played like the Browns were supposed to play.
“We just didn’t execute the way we wanted to,” said tackle Dalvin Tomlinson.
Aside from Owusu-Koramoah, the Browns’ defense shrank in the biggest game of the year. The Texans rang up 356 yards and four touchdowns on offense.
There will be a lot of talk about Myles Garrett’s game, which was way below the level of a defensive player-of-the-year candidate. Garrett was credited with three tackles – no sacks, no pressures, no hits on Stroud.
In his post-game press conference, Garrett cited the cliché excuses of double teams, chip blocks and quick releases by the opposing quarterback to explain his lack of impact on the biggest game of the season.
The more realistic explanation was that he didn’t win enough one-on-one battles against his career nemesis, Houston left tackle Laremy Tunsil, who returned from a knee injury in the first half and beat Garrett more times than not.
So Garrett ended his seventh Browns season with one sack in his last seven games.
“This is the most painful loss of my career,” Garrett said. “This is something I’ll use every day until we get back to this point next year and make another run again.”
You can blame Garrett if you want. Or cornerback Greg Newsome, who was smartly picked on incessantly by Stroud in the first half. Or Flacco, whose two Pick 6’s surely secured the loss.
But in the end, the script for this zany Browns season didn’t include a happy ending. They overcame incredible adversity to make the playoffs. But the carpet ride fell short of everyone's hopes.
“It’s disappointing the way it ends,” Flacco said. “When the city embraces you, you want to do big things. It’s about getting these communities excited about their team. That’s what we like to do. I can’t thank the organization, this city, enough.
"It was a lot of fun.”
Nobody can disagree with that.
