There was a lot to like about the Browns’ performance against the Jets today.
For the third game in a row, the Browns went toe-to-toe with one of the NFL’s elite teams and showed they belonged. It was an excellent game between two evenly matched teams. The defense played tough during the second half. Colt McCoy capably directed the Browns’ two-minute offense and engineered a tying score with less than a minute to go. He may well be the Browns’ quarterback of the present and the future.
And, yet, with the Browns within a whisker of an overtime win, a strip and fumble, and then a final defensive breakdown, meant the difference between a 4-5 record and a chance at the playoffs and a 3-6 record and a very difficult uphill climb. The fact that the Browns are probably the best 3-6 team in the NFL means bupkis.
In the NFL, there are no moral victories. A loss is a loss, and the Browns’ loss today was a tough one, indeed.