Daily Archives: September 13, 2021

Cleveland swept by Brewers with 11-1 loss

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The rough weekend for the Cleveland Baseball Club continued with the 11-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday.

Good thing that the eyes in Cleveland were focused on the Browns playing on Sunday and not on the baseball team because it was ugly down on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. The Cleveland Baseball Club only managed four hits and one run in their 11-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. This lopsided loss comes just one day after being no-hit for a record third time this season, four times if the seven-inning game is included.

Myles Straw, Franmil Reyes, Ryan Lavarnway, and Oscar Mercado were the only Cleveland batters collecting hits Sunday. Straw’s single in the 6th drove in the only run in the losing effort. This was the third of the inning and in fact was the first inning that a hit was registered after being hitless through 5.1 innings.

Pitching wise it was not a great outing for Aaron Civale. Making his second start since returning from the injured list, Civale was hit hard early and often. Civale would allow seven runs on seven hits and two walks in just 3 innings. Three of the seven hits allowed by Civale were home runs coming off the bats of Kolten Wong, Avisail Garcia, and Manny Pina.

Cleveland is now 69-72 on the year and is firmly in second place in the AL Central. It will be an off day Monday as they will travel to Minnesota to take on the Twins for a three game series beginning Tuesday afternoon. 

Observations from Browns loss to Chiefs

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The Cleveland Browns traveled to Kansas City and took on the heavily favored Chiefs. Cleveland faltered in the second half leading to their 33-29 loss. Even though the Browns lost, there are some takeaways from what was a surprising overall performance from the team.

The Browns were perfect until they weren’t 

There is one thing that the Browns had to be if they were going to at least be competitive in this game, perfect. Cleveland played about as perfect as they could have in the first half. The problem is that it did not carry over to the second half as they were outscored 23-7 in the final two quarters, turning the ball over twice and once on downs due to a botched punt.

The fact that once the Browns stopped playing perfect they were outplayed is hardly surprising. Kansas City is still the class of the AFC, playing imperfect for large portions of the game and still coming out on top. The difference in perfection vs imperfection shows that while the Browns are an improved team on the rise, they still have some ways to go to compete with the best in the league.

Defense surprisingly slowed the Chiefs down in the first half

First things first, the Browns were never going to stop the Chiefs. Their best bet was to slow them down and they did that quite well in the first half. The problem is that predictably Kansas City found their groove in the second half as the Cleveland defense was no longer able to slow them down. Combined with the offense faltering in the second half this proved to be quite problematic.

The main takeaway from this is that there was some sort of success on the defensive side of the ball that they managed to find in a unit that was integrating new players for the first time in a regular season game. This provides some hope for potential in regards to an overhauled Browns defense.

Wide receiver snaps

Odell Beckham Jr. was notably inactive for this game. This led to an opportunity for snaps at the wide receiver position for players not named Jarvis Landry or Donovan Peoples-Jones. To the surprise of many it was Anthony Schwartz receiving a ton of snaps (31) while Rashard Higgins saw only four.

The snap differential is not surprising as Higgins skillset is redundant when compared to everyone else at the position while Schwartz provides something no other receiver has, speed. Just the pure presence of Schwartz makes the defense account for a pass that will test the back end of the secondary. This is why someone like Schwartz is not only important to begin with, but in a game not featuring OBJ.

Final thoughts

The fact of the matter is that nobody really expected the Browns to win this game. Kansas City is the superior team, playing at home, and has accomplished a whole lot more. The effort from Cleveland cannot be discounted as they actually had a few chances to win this game, the issue is really the failure to convert when they needed to late. This is something that needs to be rectified immediately if this team is going to live up to their lofty expectations.

Browns stumble in 2nd half in 33-29 loss to Chiefs

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The Cleveland Browns turned the ball over twice and were outscored by 16 points in the second half of their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Entering the second half the Cleveland Browns held a 22-10 lead and things looked good. The offense was clicking and the defense was doing just enough to slow down the Chiefs high-powered offense. Once the second half began everything changed. Suddenly the Browns were unable to score consistently while Kansas City was scoring at will. A fumble, a botched punt, and an interception on the final offensive snap for Cleveland sealed their fate in what was a 33-29 loss.

An uncharacteristic fumble from Nick Chubb was the beginning of the downfall for the Browns Sunday. The fumble occurred right after Kansas City scored a touchdown to cut Cleveland’s lead to five. The lead was subsequently cut to just two after the Chiefs converted a field goal following the fumble from Chubb.

Cleveland bounced back in what was their only scoring drive of the second half, capped off by a Kareem Hunt rushing touchdown. While it appeared that the Browns might be able to pull off the upset win on the road, Kansas City’s offense was already firing on all cylinders. Patrick Mahomes would find Tyreek Hill in what was a one-play 75-yard touchdown drive to again cut the lead to two.

Cleveland’s problems continued as after just three plays they were forced to punt, that is when disaster happened. Punter Jamie Gillan ended up dropping the snap, forcing a panicked rushing attempt leading to the Chiefs starting their next drive at Cleveland’s 15-yard line. While the field position certainly helped, the Chiefs were going to score anyway, starting just 15 yards away from the end zone just made their job easier.

The Browns did have a chance to win the game late, starting their final drive at their own 17 yard line with 2:49 to go in the 4th. Unfortunately an interception from Baker Mayfield while targeting Harrison Bryant put an end to their come back attempt. Mayfield was tripped up while attempting to throw the ball away, leading to a soft lob that was easily picked off by Mike Hughes.

Cleveland drops to 0-1 as their winless Week 1 streak continues. The last team the Browns won their first game of the season was in 2004, a year which the team finished 4-12. Cleveland will have an opportunity to get back to .500 on the year as they have their home opener next Sunday against the Houston Texans.