Great post.

I'll take it one layer deeper as these are my thoughts as of late.

You clearly paint an accurate picture of a team being behind the eight ball from the beginning of the season.

I have a clear mental image of a team that lit some cigars after their playoff victory and simply said "let's run it back"... from locker room on up.


We made it clear (told the league) that we would be running the same offense... (from clevelandbrowns.com around minicamp)

Quote
4. Baker Mayfield and continuity

That's perhaps the biggest storyline to watch for the entire offense in 2021. With every offensive starter and nearly every coach returning from 2020, expectations are high for quarterback Baker Mayfield to take an even bigger leap after throwing 26 touchdowns and a career-low eight interceptions last season.

Coach Kevin Stefanski proved his playbook could bring the best out of Mayfield, and they both believe they can bring an even more efficient look to the offense after going back to the playbook lab and making slight tweaks for 2021.

"I hope it is significantly better," Stefanski said in April, referring to Mayfield's understanding of the playbook. "I hope (it improves) as he starts to listen to the installs with (offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt) and you are hearing it for not the second time – he has heard these plays over and over again."

And we just decided to glide into the regular season based on a lazy off-season, zoom meetings, and everybody who plays a role standing on the sidelines for three preseason games.

We were victims of our own success. Everyone played well, together, down the stretch in 2020. Chubb and Hunt split carries, Landry got his 5-8 catches per game. DPJ emerged. The TEs split their targets from week to week and got the job done. The only thing missing was OBJ, but man, have you seen his workout tapes?? He'll be back at full strength too!


What could go wrong with:

Baker Mayfield
O'Dell Beckham
Jarvis Landry
Nick Chubb
Kareem Hunt

They will never all suit up for a single game.


We took haymakers from the opening bell and never really got our legs back. We went from "pound for pound" to a sloppy sparring partner and never looked back.

The OL was immediately patchwork.
Baker broke a wing. Stefanski (the QB whisperer... "trust your eyes, young Luke") had no answers and Baker trusted nothing ... not his arm, not his receivers, not his playbook... certainly never "his eyes".
Then the Jarvis uppercut. The punch that sent us into the ropes to never recover. He's gone before OBJ is "back" and before he returns -- Chubb is also injured. The offense was in a tailspin and would never recover.


Next the sucker-punches.

The Nuclear bombs on Instagram and Twitter.

The narratives from "Baker sucks" to that we are somehow once again a toxic franchise... No QB would want to come here under Stefanski, no WR would want to come here and work with Baker, etc...

And then the last, and cruelest in retrospect, the 2021 AFC North. No one wants to win it. Just show up at the end with a winning record and it could be yours. As long as we just keep punching we have a puncher's chance. Leave Baker in there because we're still competing for the playoffs.

It would have been way better if the Bengals ran away with it. If Baker were shutdown, most of the "narratives" would have never come to life.

Alas, the final beat-down was psychological, straight from the hands of the football gods... the ones that seem to hate Cleveland.