Mistake-prone outing sinks Cleveland

There were several areas of team play that need addressed.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CLEVELAND -- Ryan Tucker tried to put the Cleveland Browns' lackluster performance into perspective.
"You can't beat a high school team with five turnovers and not scoring in the red zone," said the 6-foot, 6-inch, 325-pound offensive lineman after the Browns' 13-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"Obviously, there's a lot of room for improvement," he added. "We have to keep our heads up and keep fighting."
Correcting mistakes
And they have to start keeping hold of the ball, something running back James Jackson and Jamel White couldn't do, fumbling three total times. After fumbling twice, Jackson was hard on himself after the game, admitting his mistakes to a horde of reporters.
"You can't blame anybody but me," Jackson said. "The turnovers killed us."
Receiver Dennis Northcutt had his teammate's back one week after Jackson ran for two touchdowns against the Arizona Cardinals.
"It wasn't just him. This is a team game," Northcutt said of the Browns' mistakes. "You win together and you lose together. Things like that happen."
Jackson, who carried 25 times for 94 yards with a career-high five catches for 49 yards, added, "I've got to put it behind me. My teammates told me to keep my head up and move on."
The Browns' five turnovers -- quarterback Kelly Holcomb was intercepted twice -- were only part of the problem. When the offense had opportunities to score, moving into the red zone (inside the 20-yard line) four times, it fizzled.
"We got in a rhythm last week" in a 44-6 victory over Arizona, said Holcomb, who completed 25-of-44 passes for 234 yards Sunday. "Today, it was a scattered rhythm. When you get down there, you have to put seven on the board, not three."
Reads change
Against the Cardinals, Holcomb passed for 392 yards and three touchdowns, and Andre' Davis and Quincy Morgan each had over 100 receiving yards as the Browns opened their offense.
Butch Davis was asked why the Browns didn't go back to their receivers -- Andre' Davis and Northcutt had three catches and Morgan one -- and instead chose to focus on getting Jackson and White the ball underneath the defensive coverage.
"They were just part of our reads," said the coach, who stressed the Browns' consistency in "a lot of phases" Sunday.
The Browns even appeared to have a touchdown, when Northcutt returned a punt 75 yards in the first quarter, only to have it called back on a holding penalty by Roosevelt Williams.
"It doesn't make me feel any better to take seven points off the board," Butch Davis said. "We had a chance to take control early in the game."
But it didn't happen, and the Browns were left to ponder their fate as they travel to Seattle next week.
"As hard as it is for anybody to believe," Tucker said, offering more perspective, "we're not out of it."