HOUSTON — I can't believe this happened.
The Browns get blown out in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs to the young, upstart, very talented, and by what I saw very fast Houston Texans. Final score: 45-14.
Hard to explain what happened here; never would've predicted this would've happened. But as you break the game down, the Browns' defense was on its heels the entire game.
Think about this: The Browns had two leads in the ballgame, and they lost 45-14 — Kareem Hunt with a rushing touchdown gave them the lead, Kareem Hunt with a shovel-pass catch from Joe Flacco gave them the lead. But as soon as they would get those leads, Houston would come right back and score, and typically score on very, very big plays.
The Browns' defense, as we all heralded the top defense in the NFL and a defense that would really dominate, did anything but that. They struggled all game long.
- They could not get to C.J. Stroud.
- They could not cover in the secondary.
Greg Newsome had a terrible game at corner, and the Browns' young safeties — Ronnie Hickman, D'Anthony Bell — along with a laboring Juan Thornhill got beat deep, too.
But the game swung critically in the third quarter: The Browns are down by 10, but they're moving the football into Texan territory. They are, at the very least, in field-goal range if they don't move the ball another yard, but Joe Flacco throws a ball under distress and it's picked off by Steven Nelson. He zig-zags up the field and goes 82 yards for a touchdown.
Still, you're thinking, "Maybe the Browns can get hot," although it looked pretty dead. And then it happened again.
Flacco is picked one more time, and another pick-six. This time, the linebacker Christian Harris cuts in front, steals the ball, and goes all the way back, and the Browns are done in this game and done for the season.
In the playoffs, when you lose, the hard part about it is it's so sudden. The buildup to the game was so exciting, Browns fans were at a fever pitch — I'm sure back in Northeast Ohio, and certainly they made the pilgrimage to come to Houston.
And BOOM! It's over, and really not even a ballgame early in the second half.
The Browns will live on what happened this year, an amazing season for them. Five quarterbacks, a 38-year-old quarterback comes in and saves the end of the season to get them into the playoffs. They have a lot of things to work on, though, and they need to get healthy once again.
But remember — that's the end of Joe Flacco, and now we wait on Deshaun Watson, who is rehabbing. And he'll be ready to go once we go through the whole process of the offseason program, OTAs, minicamps, and then the start of training camp.
It's a long, long wait after such a great season, but it's over like that.
As for the Texans? Boy, they got good very quickly. I mean, they were staggering at this time last year, but they've nailed it in the draft.
C.J. Stroud is an amazing young quarterback. He is everything that they said he was going to be coming into the game, and yet, we thought the Browns defense would be able to really go after him.
They didn't lay a glove on him all day long and he was right on the mark, and he didn't turn the ball over all afternoon long.
So to the Texans, congratulations. To the Browns, congratulations on a great year, but what a sour taste to have it happen the way it happened in this playoff game.
We're into the offseason.
Listen to Jimmy's calls from today's game in the player below: