The Browns continued their struggles with self-inflicted wounds, a dynamic that looms large over a young team searching for its first win of 2017.
After six games, they lead the NFL in turnovers with 16 (including 13 interceptions) and have 46 penalties.
That frustrating trend continued in Sunday's loss to the Texans where Cleveland had three giveaways and 11 penalties in a game where it struggled on both sides of the ball.
In his postgame news conference, head coach Hue Jackson again lamented such miscues and made clear Monday they've been a problem for the Browns thus far.
"I know one thing that can help (the season) flip is we have to quit turning the ball over on offense," he said, "and we have to keep getting more turnovers on defense and we have to continue to eliminate the penalties, the self-inflicted wounds that have hurt our football team."
Those kinds of things have been part of Cleveland's undoing more often than not. The Browns have turned the ball over at least once in every game and have four games with at least three giveaways. They had a season-high (five) against Baltimore in Week 2.
In last week's loss to the Jets, the Browns outgained New York, 419-212, but were ultimately foiled by three giveaways, including two in the red zone.
"Our offense to me, there has been some times that we have played some decent offense, but we have turned the ball over," Jackson said last week. "If we take some of these turnovers away from the scoring zone, it's a whole different story that we are talking about right now."
As the Browns regroup for games against the Titans and Vikings before the bye week, Jackson expressed confidence in his group.
"I think our guys know and I truly know that at some point in time this thing is going to flip," he said, "and you don't know what might make it flip."
Eliminating turnovers and penalties, of course, will be central to that mission.
