The Cleveland Browns Engineered The Worst Play Call Of The Year

The Cleveland Browns are an abject disaster in every way, from the top to the bottom of the organization. The owner is bad. The front office is bad. The coaching is bad. Many of the players are bad, and the ones who aren’t are usually left helpless by the general ineptitude of everyone else around them.

What truly sets the Browns apart from other horrible franchises in the NFL, and really all of professional sports, is their commitment to finding new ways to fail in an increasingly flamboyant and confusing manner. At the trade deadline, the Browns failed to complete a trade with the Bengals for quarterback A.J. McCarron (which was probably a bad idea) because they failed to call it in to the NFL prior to the 4 p.m. deadline.

There were then reports that the coaching staff felt the front office sabotaged the trade on purpose, which would be utterly absurd for any other franchise, but about par for the course for the Browns. On Sunday, the Browns coaching staff decided it couldn’t let the front office have all the ass-showing glory to themselves, and broke out the single worst play call of the NFL season.

The Browns faced 2nd-and-goal from the two yard line with 15 seconds to play and no timeouts after a failed fade route. There was still plenty of time for a couple more passes to the end zone before, at worst, a field goal attempt to pull closer than the 17-10 deficit they faced. That would be what a mediocre-to-good team would do. The Browns and coach Hue Jackson chose the road less traveled with a quarterback sneak. It failed in spectacular fashion and the clock ran out on the half with Cleveland scoring no points.

https://twitter.com/WorldofIsaac/status/929794854862934017

It is the most Browns play call possible in this situation, so you almost have to tip your cap to Hue Jackson for his commitment to the Browns’ brand. Cleveland’s interior line gets no push, and thus Kizer goes for no gain. The Lions, wisely, lie on the ground and take forever to clear the pile, making it impossible for the refs to spot the ball and Kizer to spike it for a fourth down at lest.

There was one very solid spike on the play, though, as running back Duke Johnson’s frustration finally erupted with him ripping off his helmet and slamming it to the turf, earning a 15-yard penalty for the second half kickoff. No one can fault Johnson for his anger, and really Hue Jackson is lucky the helmet didn’t come hurtling at him for that play call.

The Browns remain the most Browns that a franchise has ever Brownsed. Go Browns.

Update: After the game Hue Jackson wouldn’t go much into detail about the call but it might have been an extremely poor audible by rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, which might be better? I’m not sure. In any case, it was a very poor decision, but if Hue is indeed taking up for his rookie quarterback (who he has otherwise handled horribly this year) then good for him.