Cleveland Browns Hit New Rock Bottom in Loss to Pittsburgh Steelers

The Cleveland Browns are an absolute nightmare.

That’s probably not the first time you’ve heard this, but I’m not sure of a better way to describe what's transpiring on the football field.

I’ll try to find a few positives to take away from this game, but as the season continues to roll on, finding positives will be massively complicated. Even this week, I can’t even say how great the defense was, because they looked very pedestrian anyway. They made some nice stops to hold Pittsburgh to field goals, but Rodgers and company moved the ball easily all game long.

On the other side of the ball, it’s kinda impossible to talk about anything positive. A few times today, when Dillon Gabriel wasn’t getting actively murdered, he made a few nice downfield throws. Unfortunately, almost every single one of those was dropped. The worst one was in the 4th quarter when he hit Isaiah Bond directly in the head on a slant route, which he never even looked at.

Jerry Jeudy has gotten to a point where he’s borderline unplayable, but he still might be the best receiver on this roster. If someone ran a route today, they probably had a drop. I’m not sure why I’m still surprised and disappointed by the same mistakes that kill this team every single week.

Speaking of the same mistakes that kill this team every week, the offensive line play is approaching worst-of-all-time territory. There’s not a single positive on this offensive line. Quinshon Judkins had his worst game of the season because he got hit behind the line every time he touched the ball.

T.J. Watt was living in the backfield every time he was left on an island, and it’s not really a surprise. The starting players on this offensive line are terrible, but the backups genuinely give Gabriel 0.5 seconds to get the ball out of his hands, leading to 16 QB hits today. Since 1999, that is the third most QB hits allowed in a game, with the record sitting at 18. It's disgusting what this team is allowing to happen to a rookie quarterback.

You’ll still see people online clamoring for Shedeur Sanders to get some opportunities out there, but he should be praying never to see the field this season. He holds on to the ball a lot longer than Gabriel, and I can’t imagine what would happen to him behind this shoestring offensive line.

The Browns might need to start leaning more on some tempo on offense, because it’s the only time Gabriel even looked mildly comfortable out there. How can you blame him, though? This offense isn’t similar to anything he ran across three different colleges; everything around him on the offense is a nightmare, and at least he can try to get the ball out quickly when they’re moving with tempo on offense.

Going into next season, I would’ve loved to use the first-round pick on Caleb Downs to take this defense to another level, but it would be organizational malpractice to not draft a receiver or offensive lineman with your two first-round picks.

This is going to be a very long 11 more weeks of Cleveland Browns football.