Pat McManamon, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Inside numbers show how bad Browns were in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The ESPN Stats and Information crew puts this Cleveland Browns loss in perspective, and no matter how it's viewed the perspective is not pretty:

The Browns had not scored fewer than 21 points this season until the Jacksonville Jaguars held them to six. It ends a streak of five games in a row of scoring at least 21 points -- part of the reason the offensive struggles were surprising.

They failed to gain more than 1 yard on 65 percent of their plays (48 of 74). Entering the game, that figure was at 37 percent, meaning the Jaguars put the Browns in very bad down-and-distance situations.

To complicate matters, the Browns converted only 4 of 20 third downs. The 16 missed conversions is the most in the NFL this season.

Quarterback Brian Hoyer, he had a very poor day throwing -- being off target on 37 percent of his passes. Coming into the game, he missed on just 17 percent of his throws.

Finally, Jaguars' quarterback Blake Bortles' Total Quarterback Rating was a woeful 9.0. That's the lowest for a quarterback in a win since Andy Dalton won with a 3.7 QBR in Week 11 of last season. The common denominator: Both games were against the Browns.

It was one very long day.

In other Browns news ...

  • The one throw Hoyer said he wished he had back was a wild overthrow of an open Jordan Cameron in the end zone prior to a Billy Cundiff field goal.  "Who knows how that changes the outcome?" Hoyer said.

  • The common theme after the game was to praise Jacksonville's run defense and their front eight.  But the Browns' poor run defense should not be ignored. They faced the league's worst rushing team, and gave up 185 yards. Former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson had 160 career rushing yards entering the game. He finished with 127. "It was good to do it against an Ohio team," Robinson joked, sort of, I think.

  • The Jaguars had lost their last 18 games played in September or October, and had lost nine in a row overall. Two of the Jaguars last six wins have come against the Browns.

  • Hoyer said he thought the Browns had a chance to sneak away with a win after he connected with Andrew Hawkins for a 65-yard pass and run in the fourth quarter. But after that catch, the offense lost four on a run, lost eight on a sack and then threw an incomplete pass. "Demoralizing," Hoyer said.

  • The Browns to a man insisted they did not take the Jaguars lightly after the emotional win over the Steelers. Hoyer said not taking anything for granted was overemphasized in practice during the week.

  • Joe Thomas on why he said the Jaguars were the best defense the Browns faced all season: "They sell out to stop the run. They've got great safeties who play in the box. They've got one of the best linebackers in the NFL, and a tremendous front."

  • Thomas on the loss following a big win and how the team avoids the "same old Browns" moniker: "It's the nature of the league. You win one game and you're crowned as Super Bowl champions. You lose one and you're announced as the worst team in the league. I hope that we have the perspective on this team to understand that that's the way it goes in the NFL."

  • The final word, from Ben Tate, on how to show these are not the same old Browns: "Come back and play. Come out and play ball. That's all."

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