The Cleveland Browns don't seem capable of winning a game this season
The New York Jets are a team in disarray — their head coach, who finds himself on the hot seat, is warring with the team's quarterback, who is on a one-year contract, was benched and then returned to the starting role after his backup was injured in the first game after the switch.
The team's franchise cornerback is saying that his "body is failing him."
Then, earlier this week, the embattled coach refused to say who would be the team's new backup quarterback. Things got hostile.
All of this to say: Things are not going well for the Jets.
But no matter how bad it gets for the 31 other teams in the NFL, they can always count on the fact that things will be worse with the Cleveland Browns.
You only needed to watch the second half of Sunday's Jets-Browns game to understand why that's the case.
Things were going great for Cleveland in the first half. Josh McCown had returned to the starting lineup and looked strong under center, going 16-for-27 for 228 yards and a touchdown, leading the Browns to a 20-7 lead.
In the history of the Jets, the team had never come back from a 13-plus-point halftime deficit on the road — they were 0-for-69.
Until Sunday.
The Browns let a 13-point second-half lead slip away when they allowed the Jets to score 24 unanswered second-half points to win 31-28.
Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick — the one they didn't want but are now stuck with — had a terrible first half but bounced back with strong second, going 13-for-20 for 198 yards and a touchdown. Did he prove he's a competent quarterback? Probably not, but next to the crumbling pile of salt that was the Browns in the second half, he looked like an All-Pro.
The Browns had fewer than 50 yards in the second half of this contest, excluding the 85-yard final drive that pulled the game to within three points with only 12 seconds left. Call it garbage time if you want.
The Browns are now 0-8 on the season, and they likely choked away their best chance to win a game this year on Sunday.
Where do you see their first win?
Is it next week against the Cowboys?
What about at Baltimore the week after that?
At Pittsburgh on Nov. 20?
Maybe the New York Giants' will be the team that falls to the Browns when they visit Cleveland on Nov. 27.
But if they're not, the Browns will return from a bye week with games against the Bengals, at Buffalo, the Chargers, and at Pittsburgh.
Where's the win?
The Browns had a win in their grasp Sunday — they were finally squaring up against a team that was somewhere near their level.
Then, a collapse.
A 0-and-16 season is looking more and more likely by the week.
