Browns Performance Filled With Mistakes In 27-10 Loss To Chargers: Game Notes

The Browns badly needed a Week 9 win and failed in just about every imaginable way on their way to their seventh loss of the season.

(Photo - Getty)

I have to stop trying to predict this team in 2024. Time and again I have expected them to have an attitude and performance for a game and they show up putting the opposite reality in place. The team had everything they could have wanted in front of them when they came into Week 9 despite their awful start to the season. You win and you get to 3-6 and a chance to get back into the mix of things for an AFC Wild Card berth. You get the bye week and a chance to come out rejuvenated for Week 11 and beyond. Make a real push at turning this season into something meaningful.

Instead the Browns offense reverted to their form of Weeks 1-8 where they hurt themselves too consistently, made critical mistakes, failed to run the ball with efficiency, and suffered through bad quarterback play. You mix that offense with critical defensive coverage busts in the biggest third-down moments of the first half and it’s an easy recipe for an NFL loss — and usually a lopsided one. That was what we had at Huntington Bank Field as the Browns were overmatched in their 27-10 loss to the Chargers.

Let’s dig into Week 9 Game Notes.

• Starting the onslaught of mistakes was a coverage bust punt where Mike Ford (31), Pierre Strong (20), Geoff Swaim (84), Winston Reid (59), and D’Anthony Bell (37) failed to box in the opening punt return and led to a 53-yard return up the right sideline.

• This game was defined by coverage busts. The Browns tried different zone variations that led to third down touchdowns of 28 yards on 3rd and 21 and 66 yards on 3rd and 6. The first bust in Cover-2 is a rough call by the defensive coordinator on a long down and distance that left his cornerback on an island getting high/low’d.

• The other in Cover-3 where it would appear Denzel Ward missed on the coverage call. So much is unclear when the busts are this ugly so we try not to assign to much blame without 100% certainty.