Failure to finish frustrates Browns

Associated Press

BEREA

Normally, any NFL team that forces six turnovers wins.

These Cleveland Browns seem to be anything but normal.

On Sunday, they picked off four Jacksonville passes, recovered two fumbles, returning one for a touchdown, and outplayed the Jaguars for most of the game.

But when it mattered most, the Browns collapsed and lost 24-20, dropping them to 1-5 this season in games decided by seven points or less.

They can’t complete the job.

“You gotta finish games,” lamented Browns coach Eric Mangini.

Cleveland’s latest punch-in-the-belly loss, which included rookie quarterback Colt McCoy spraining his ankle, was an oddity.

According to STATS LLC, since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, teams that have been plus-5 in turnover margin have gone 363-16-2 — a .957 winning percentage. Also, teams that have recorded six takeaways in a game are an equally impressive 450-44-2, a .910 percentage.

In the past 40 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers are 25-0 in those games. The Browns are 15-4.

Mangini simply shook his head Monday when asked if he could have imagined losing when his team had such a lopsided statistical advantage in turnovers.

“Nope,” he said. “But we lived it.”

This loss was tough to stomach on so many levels for the Browns (3-7), who showed improvement and progress in consecutive upsets of New Orleans and New England and an overtime loss last week to the New York Jets. Suddenly, those performances seem forgotten.

Cleveland’s running game, so vital to the recent turnaround, was almost nonexistent as the Jaguars held powerful running back Peyton Hillis to 48 yards on 21 carries and Jacksonville’s defensive front dominated the Browns’ revamped line.

The Browns’ offense scored just 10 points off the six turnovers. More troubling, on Cleveland’s five drives after five consecutive turnovers, the Browns totaled minus-9 yards and did not complete a pass or pick up a first down.

After playing nearly flawless football in the second half, the Browns’ defense gave up the game’s biggest play, a 75-yard screen pass late in the fourth quarter. Jags’ running back Maurice Jones-Drew darted in and around the entire Cleveland defense, with at least four Browns fanning on possible tackles, to set up Jacksonville’s go-ahead TD with 1:20 remaining.

Mangini didn’t have his best game, either. He and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll are under renewed criticism for Cleveland’s conservative gameplan.