CLEVELAND — Well, it's all starting to catch up to them.
Somehow, some way, the Browns were able to find the win column the last two weeks — an improbable win over the San Francisco 49ers here in Cleveland followed by a miracle victory last week in Indianapolis over the Colts.
Today, not so much.
The Browns come up short in Seattle, falling to the Seahawks 24-20. Remarkably, it was a game the Browns probably could've won.
With Deshaun Watson still on the sidelines and having to roll the dice with former XFL quarterback P.J. Walker, wins during the last two weeks allowed us to cover up a major issue with the Browns. They allowed us to give the Browns a pass, kick the can down the road, and not worry about the quarterback situation with this football team.
Tonight, it was a reality check in the Emerald City: You can't win over a long period of time with P.J. Walker as your starting quarterback.
And that's not bashing Walker; he's done a serviceable job in a really difficult situation. But Watson's absence is starting to be felt, and it was only a matter of time.
The Browns' quarterback situation is a mess, and it's something that should have all of us concerned going forward with this football team. And I don't know that I'm even going at Watson; there was no contingency plan.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson clearly wasn't ready, and Josh Dobbs was traded to the Arizona Cardinals. This team was left with nothing at the most important position on the field.
And while I give the Browns a B+ in how they've played on the field during that time, they get an F- for how they've handled this Watson injury situation — no contingency plan, a failure in communication, all of it, bad.
Tonight, we saw it finally effect them on the field: a loss to a team that, yeah, they probably should've beaten.
And unfortunately, as long as the $230 million dollar quarterback is on the sidelines, these are the Sundays we'll be getting used to, not the improbable victories we enjoyed the last two weeks. That's just the reality with your Cleveland Browns right now.
The Browns fall to 4-3 on the season. Let's hope it doesn't start to snowball with the snow that's heading here this week.