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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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The Cleveland Browns fell 32-13 to the New England Patriots on Sunday at Gillette Stadium in a game that slipped away in the third quarter when New England scored 21 unanswered points to turn a 9-7 halftime game into a rout.
Rookie starter Dillon Gabriel completed 21 of 35 passes for 156 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions, while star edge-rusher Myles Garrett finished with a franchise-record and career-high five sacks.
However, none of it was enough to stop the Patriots and quarterback Drake Maye, who finished with 18 of 24 completed passes for 282 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, along with 50 rushing yards.
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Cleveland's record dropped to 2-6 as the Browns head into their bye week with more questions than answers.
On Monday, ESPN Cleveland's Tony Rizzo didn't hold back, calling out not just the product on the field, but decisions from the top down.
"I'm calling out ownership. How are you going to sell this to me and the rest of your fanbase? You can't bring these people back, you can't. Blow it up! Blow it up! Nothing they're doing right now is working, nothing," Rizzo said.
"And I don't want to hear about two good draft picks from six years ago. Where are the receivers? Where is the quarterback? I brought in a strategy guy who hired a GM, and seven years later, I don't have a quarterback. The one good one I had, they ran out of town. And then they made one of the worst trades in the history of football. How do you keep your job after that?"
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Rizzo's criticism centers around a handful of roster and cap decisions that have been made during the Andrew Berry era, including trading Baker Mayfield — now an NFL MVP candidate with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — in 2022, along with the blockbuster acquisition and massive guaranteed contract for Deshaun Watson, which has been second-guessed league-wide.
Just this past April, the Browns selected two rookie quarterbacks in the same draft and entered training camp with four QBs on the depth chart: rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders and veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.
Now, months later, Flacco and Pickett are out, while Gabriel and Sanders are still fighting for playing time.
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Sanders, the Browns' fifth-round pick, has generated outsized attention as the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, and despite coming in with an elite college resume at Colorado, has yet to play a regular-season snap.
He was listed as questionable with back tightness for Sunday's game against New England and remained inactive, with the Browns instead choosing to elevate QB Bailey Zappe to the active roster as emergency depth.
Cleveland's lack of commitment to Sanders has fueled speculation that the Browns could explore a trade for the young QB before the Nov. 4 NFL trade deadline.
With teams already weighing buyers and sellers, Cleveland sits in seller territory with the season nearly out of reach and a franchise clearly more focused on building around the future.
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