{"id":155380,"date":"2022-12-12T09:38:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T09:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/this-drive-was-the-difference-in-the-browns-loss-to-the-bengals-ashley-bastock\/"},"modified":"2022-12-12T09:38:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T09:38:03","slug":"this-drive-was-the-difference-in-the-browns-loss-to-the-bengals-ashley-bastock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/this-drive-was-the-difference-in-the-browns-loss-to-the-bengals-ashley-bastock\/","title":{"rendered":"This drive was the difference in the Browns’ loss to the Bengals: Ashley Bastock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

CINCINNATI, Ohio — It’s difficult to have to retell the story of this game.<\/p>\n

For most of the afternoon it was a slog, a chore to watch.<\/p>\n

I thought pretty early in the afternoon of the pilot scene from the NBC sitcom The Good Place<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>in which protagonist Eleanor Shellstrop bemoans that after death, average people should get to spend eternity in a \u201cMedium Place,\u201d rather than The Bad Place, before quipping \u201clike Cincinnati!\u201d<\/p>\n

The game between the Bengals and Browns on Sunday afternoon was certainly fitting of The Medium Place. A 23-10 loss for Cleveland that drops them to 5-8, felt like an eternity, and swung another huge blow into their postseason hopes. It was a medium place game for a team that’s been pretty medium all year. Not great, as they waited for Deshaun Watson to return, but not exactly among the basement dwellers of the NFL.<\/p>\n

Recommended Browns stories<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n

In a medium game, though. There was one drive that was the medium-est of them all. One that defined the loss and essentially decided the game before we even got to halftime.<\/p>\n

Early in the second quarter — at the 14:46 mark to be exact — Cincinnati got the ball. A fairly innocuous drive that began at their own 15, the Bengals got one first down as Martin Emerson Jr. was called for holding. But after a Joe Burrow incompletion on third-and-15 from their own 17, the Bengals punted the next play.<\/p>\n

But like it was for most of the afternoon in which both teams combined for 13 penalties that cost 134 yards, a flag was on the field. Linebacker Tony Fields II was called for roughing the kicker, a 15-yard penalty that resuscitated the Bengals on a dead drive, giving them a first down.<\/p>\n

Two play later, a Jadeveon Clowney sack was negated when rookie edge rusher Isaiah Thomas got called for an illegal hands to the face penalty. The very next play, Denzel Ward was whistled for defensive pass interference, a 33-yard blow.<\/p>\n