CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns were eager to get back to work after Monday’s 31-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and they had no time to waste as the challenges just keep coming.
The Browns (2-3) will play their final game before the annual bye week break when they host a hungry Seattle Seahawks (4-1) at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland on Sunday. The Seahawks are a half-game in back of the 49ers for the top spot in the NFC West Division.
“Our sense of urgency is at an all-time high right now,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said in his weekly press conference. “I think we have guys that are locked in. We realize exactly what we need to do. We are going to take this short week and see what we can do on Sunday.”
The Browns never got on track offensively and struggled to get drive-ending stops on defense, and that added up to the 28-point loss in a game seen by the entire country on Monday Night Football.
The Browns surrendered 275 rushing yards to the 49ers (4-0, first in NFC West) and managed just 180 yards of total offense on the way to their third loss of the 2019 regular season.
But after responding to the first two losses of the season with convincing victories, the Browns believe another solid week of practice will put them in position to even their record heading into the bye before taking on the New England Patriots on the road on October 27.
“We’ve done it before,” running back Nick Chubb said. “After every loss, we came back harder, and that’s what I expect this team to do every time. Hopefully, we can stack some wins, but I know when we do face adversity, we bounce back harder.”
The Browns were the popular pick to be the surprise team in the National Football League this season after the emergence of Mayfield and Chubb and the acquisition of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. on the first day of the new league year.
But they have stumbled out of the blocks, losing twice by four scores, struggling to find Beckham Jr. with passes and then, missing opportunities to make game-winning plays late in the third setback. All of those issues have taught the Browns that it is their responsibility to give the best shot instead of taking everybody else’s.
“It has been a good wake-up call for us to realize that it does not matter who we are playing, we have to play our game,” Mayfield said. “We have to give them our best shot. It is time to stop worrying about exactly what they are doing and do our job first and be able to adapt on the fly. We have to execute our job, first and foremost.
“(It’s) about sticking together and not really caring about anyone on the outside. I think that we have identified the problem, and we are going to be able to go out there and do our best to eliminate those problems and those issues. That is the type of team we have, and we are going to ride together.”
Chubb added, “We know they’re great, but we know what we have to do. The past couple games, when we haven’t won, we’ve kind of beaten ourselves. We know if we do the right things, we’re always in the game. Hopefully, we can just find a way to win, come out on top.”