CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When you're 0-13, when you're trailing 17-10, when you're trying to just get something, anything going on the offensive side of the ball and you're backed up deep in your own territory again, maybe that's when you try to do just a little too much.
Maybe that's what happened on a miscommunication between wide receiver Josh Gordon and rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer on Sunday with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. Gordon ran up the sideline. Kizer pump faked and threw to a spot behind Gordon. Three plays later the Browns punted.
"In my head, I was thinking get down the field, try to make a bigger play," Gordon said, "and the play, it was really on me."
Kizer and Gordon both said the same thing after the game, that Gordon was supposed to sit down in a Cover 2 hole.
"Josh, with the speed that he has, trusts that he is going to run past anyone who is behind him," Kizer said. "I was trying to get the ball out quickly. He had a different mindset at the time."
Gordon, who was late to this winless party to begin with, had a few moments on Sunday where it appeared he and Kizer weren't on the same page. Early in the game, there were at least two plays where he appeared to line up in the wrong spot and had to be directed elsewhere. It's not entirely unexpected considering this is just his third game back, but it also shows the flaw in putting so much hope in a player who played his first real NFL game in three years a few weeks ago in Los Angeles -- a player who appeared to check out the last time he came back in 2014 when frustration over quarterback play and a collapse out of the playoff picture was simply too much.
Gordon spent some time on the sideline by himself after the play and then had a brief conversation with head coach Hue Jackson. It was a difficult afternoon for Gordon, catching just five of 11 targets for 47 yards with a long on the day of 18 yards.
"In the course of the game, I was ready to book it, try to go get a big chunk of a play as I can, and had a little miscue right there," Gordon said. "That's on me, for sure."
When you have the talent Gordon has, though, you might think you can lift this team out of its winless rut on your own, maybe with a big catch down the sideline to pull them away from their own goal line. Isaiah Crowell did it when he broke a 59-yard run in the second quarter that dug the Browns out of a hole and set up their lone touchdown of the game.
Maybe that's what Gordon was thinking. Maybe it's just too soon to expect the kind of electric performances we saw from Gordon back in 2013 when he was at his all-too-brief peak.
Gordon hasn't been here all season. He hasn't gone through two years of losing. He was dropped in. After the game, he sounded like he was starting to understand what the rest of the locker room had been going through all year.
"I finally understand it," he said. "I finally get it, that's a tough load to carry through an extensive season, fighting back injuries, fighting close games, psychologically, physically, that's tough. I get it and I'm here fighting with them. I'm going to keep going as long as they keep going."
This level of historic losing can wear on anyone, even someone who's only been here for a small chunk of it.
Make no mistake, General Manager John Dorsey is watching this team and evaluating this roster as closely as anyone. He sits on the locker room after games and watches. He's one of the last people to leave the room.
With Gordon, it's worth monitoring how he approaches these final two games. Will this be a repeat of 2014, a notably different time in Gordon's life that saw him suspended by the team for the final game of the season after a night of partying. Hopefully he's left those days far behind him.
"We were able to come off to the sideline and make the proper adjustment," Kizer said of the play. "We will continue to move forward on making that adjustment so we make sure that we complete those balls."
Gordon took responsibilty for the miscue. The hope with Gordon is that this time he'll iron out the miscommunications. The hope is that, on days when his quarterback isn't delivering, Gordon is there for him on the plays when he does.
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