BEREA, Ohio -- Maybe defenses figured them out. Injuries proved too costly. Attrition sunk their chances. Quarterback uncertainty exhausted them.

Blame the Cleveland Browns' recent slide on many reasons, but first consider this -- did the heightened expectations of a 6-3 start warrant a mental shift that the Browns weren't able to make in time?

That's not a leap Browns players are making, but after talking with a few veterans this week, this is the sense I get: The Browns played the underdog, no-respect card to perfection to start the year, then had to readjust when winning settled in.

Most preseason projections had the 7-7 Browns winning, what, four or five games max? They surpassed those projections because they felt they had more talent than people realized.

The classic overachievers jumped to an AFC North lead after nine games, then suddenly were asked to sustain the momentum in a loaded AFC playoff push.

Everyone knew what the Browns were doing and dared them to keep doing it. That's not an easy place to be, jumping from underdog to favorite on short notice.

That's what makes this 1-4 slide so painful, considering what was on the table for this team in January. The Browns aren't mathematically out of the playoffs, but their chances are pretty much dead. The Browns would have to win their final two and hope everyone else crumbles around them.

"All I know is, as coach [Mike] Pettine says, you want to be playing your best ball in December," right guard John Greco said. "Clearly we're not doing that. We have to find a way to get back to it."

There's no better reminder of that than a 30-0 blowout at home to division rival Cincinnati, which opened the game with an eight-minute, length-of-field drive and never looked back.

Finishing .500 or better for the first time since 2007 would be a significant feat. Eight wins doubles last year's win total. Finishing 7-9 is about the worst way a credible NFL team can end it. You're just hanging there.

Somehow, the Browns must rediscover the edge that got them so far in the first two months. One problem: Pettine's been looking and can't figure out how the Bengals just raided the Dawg Pound so easily. The loss is even "more puzzling," Pettine said, after the Browns had a productive week of prep.

"How we started the year, a lot of people won't remember that," Pettine said. "We'll be remembered by our last game, our last performance or our last month or our last two months. I think that is important as you move forward ... When you have the culture of losing that's been here when it's been only four or five wins a year going back however many years, that's a difficult thing to overcome because it's a mentality. When you get stuck in a rut like we're in now it's easy to fall back into an old habit. That's what I've been saying. We need to fight our way out of it."

That's a pretty strong statement from Pettine, who is sort of speaking directly to Browns fans that can't help but feel fatalistic toward their team.

Give them a reason not to.