{"id":3419,"date":"2016-10-05T19:13:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T23:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=3419"},"modified":"2016-10-05T19:13:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T23:13:05","slug":"cleveland-browns-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2016\/10\/05\/cleveland-browns-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Browns Are in Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While this headline is true most weeks, it&#8217;s especially painful\u00a0in week five. The 0-4\u00a0<strong>Cleveland Browns<\/strong> are taking on the<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>3-1<strong> New England Patriots<\/strong>. That&#8217;s bad news for any team, but it&#8217;s especially bad when you consider that this is the week that sees <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a><\/strong> return to action.<\/p>\n<h2>The Cleveland Browns Are in Trouble<\/h2>\n<p>The Cleveland Browns have\u00a0a middle of the pack passing defense. They&#8217;ve been giving up around 260 yards a game so far, and have allowed ten touchdowns through the air. These numbers aren&#8217;t terrible, but when you consider who they&#8217;ve played, it&#8217;s a little disconcerting.<\/p>\n<h3>Opposing Quarterbacks<\/h3>\n<p>The Browns have faced off against <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FlacJo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Flacco<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CousKi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kirk Cousins<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WentCa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carson Wentz<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/T\/TannRy00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Tannehill<\/a><\/strong> so far this season. While Wentz is still a rookie, the other three men\u00a0have proven to be good, but not great quarterbacks. The veterans only boast three 4,000 yard seasons in 17\u00a0combined years, and none of them have broken 30 touchdowns in a season. However, all three quarterbacks had their best game of the season against Cleveland&#8217;s defense.<\/p>\n<h3>Tom Brady<\/h3>\n<p>Now there&#8217;s a chance that Tom Brady comes out and is rusty. He wasn&#8217;t\u00a0even been allowed to interact with his teammates during his suspension, and a quarter of the season is already gone. There is a chance that Tom Brady comes out and struggles. But that&#8217;s not likely.<\/p>\n<h3>Ticked Off Tom<\/h3>\n<p>The far more likely scenario is that Tom Brady comes out, as prepared as humanly possible, and takes out all of his &#8220;Deflategate&#8221; frustrations on the Browns defense. The Cleveland Browns are in trouble because Tom Brady is angry, and he&#8217;s scary when he&#8217;s angry. When Brady was coming back from a teased suspension last season against the <strong>Pittsburgh Steelers<\/strong>, he went off for four passing touchdowns in the opener.<\/p>\n<p>That wasn&#8217;t the first time Brady played after getting in trouble with the NFL. Back in 2007, coach <strong>Bill Belichick<\/strong> and the team got in trouble for filming the <strong>New York Jets<\/strong>&#8216; defensive signals during a game. The coach was fired and the team lost their first round pick for the following draft. How did the team respond? They won all 16 regular season games, wide receiver <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MossRa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Randy Moss<\/a><\/strong> caught 23 touchdowns, and Tom Brady threw for 50 touchdowns, a then-record.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also worth remembering that early in their 2014 Super Bowl campaign, Brady and the Patriots struggled. The team started 2-2, and<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/videos\/new-england-patriots\/0ap3000000403252\/Belichick-scoffs-at-question-about-Brady-s-future\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> critics questioned <\/a>if Brady should be benched after the team lost 41-14 to the <strong>Kansas City Chiefs<\/strong>. Of course, the team would go on to win 10 of the next 12 regular games before eventually dethroning the <strong>Seattle Seahawks<\/strong> in <strong>Super Bowl XLIX<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On any given Sunday, Tom Brady could turn in a historical performance. After all, he is one of the best quarterbacks <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2016\/08\/01\/tom-brady-place-nfl-quarterback-greats\/\" target=\"_self\">of all time<\/a>. But when he&#8217;s angry? There&#8217;s nothing quite like it.<\/p>\n<h3>The Brady Bunch<\/h3>\n<p>As if Tom Brady wasn&#8217;t enough of a problem, he&#8217;s bringing a bunch of weapons with him. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EdelJu00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Edelman<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GronRo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Gronkowski<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BennMa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Martellus Bennett<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HogaCh00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Hogan<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/A\/AmenDa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danny Amendola<\/a><\/strong> are all potentially dangerous receivers, and that&#8217;s without mentioning the potent run game. The Patriots are averaging nearly 140 yards per game on the ground, led by veteran tailback, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BlouLe00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeGarrette Blount<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots offense has done a decent job\u00a0<em>without\u00a0<\/em>their future hall of fame quarterback, but with him, the NFL is in for a rough time. When Hue Jackson&#8217;s team takes the field this Sunday, they&#8217;re in for the beating of a lifetime. Make no mistake, the Cleveland Browns are in trouble.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/612052714\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/612052714?et=vITPuYMwR4xMU26sVgsYrg&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=jTRfpKlmhASKyod964q2rBbYni44crCnY4-qZ6S9vU4=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Tom Brady making his 2016 regular season debut with the New England Patriots, the Cleveland Browns are in trouble. Big, big trouble. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1347,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[264,61,758,38,40,331],"class_list":["post-3419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-browns","category-patriots","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-football","tag-hue-jackson","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-tom-brady"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}