Three takeaways from the Cleveland Browns blowout loss to the Chicago Bears

One of the NFL’s best teams, the Chicago Bears, came to play bully ball in Cleveland. It went about as well as one would expect.

They steamrolled past Cleveland, winning all three phases of the game to pick up a 31-3 win.

Here are three takeaways from the Browns brutal loss as they drop to 3-11 on the season.

1. Disaster in operations during the first quarter costs team

Right from the start, things looked wrong for the offense. Players were confused, there were 12 men on the field during the second play and it was a scramble to get the play called.

Something clearly happened in communication between head coach Kevin Stefanski, play caller Tommy Rees and quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

There was even a play where after 10 seconds of miscommunications, Stefanki and Sanders had to sprint to meet up and call a play. Sanders couldn’t communicate it in a huddle fast enough, and the team took a delay of game.

Sanders would eventually have to switch his wrist band with the play calls, which seemingly helped smooth things out. It took a while to get there, and the whole offense was out of sync.

Meanwhile the Bears were soaring. They scored two touchdowns, taking a 14-0 lead while Cleveland couldn’t pick up a first down.

It’s unclear what started the miscommunication, but clearly some disaster occurred to start the game.

2. The offense stunk and the blame is on everyone

This may have been the offense's worst performance as a unit. Every single thing seemed to go wrong.

For starters, the offensive line was banged up heading into the game. Jack Conklin and Wyatt Teller are out, and Ethan Pocic is on IR. Teven Jenkins also exited the game early, and Zak ZInter was a healthy scratch.

The current look line just couldn’t hold up in the run or passing game. Lanes disappeared fast, Bears were consistently in the backfield and they even had some penalties thrown on them.

In the run game, Quinshon Judkins just couldn’t break a tackle all day long. He averaged under two yards per carry, running the ball nine times for 16 yards.

Then in passing games, there were plenty of bad routes and drops. Harold Fannin Jr., who has been a standout all season long, dropped some easy catches. Jerry Jeudy dropped a potential touchdown, and his drop was intercepted by the Bears.

Then there’s Shedeur Sanders. After taking several steps forward last week, he went backwards this time. Yes he was under pressure, yes his wideouts were bad, but he still made far too many mistakes.

He missed on several throws, either too high or too low or just wobbly passes, he threw a pick to a rushing linebacker, the few times he did have a clean pocket, he took too long to make a read and was sacked.

He finished the day 18/35 for 177 yards and three interceptions. Even on a bad team, those stats are bad. Sanders still deserves to be the starter, but if you can’t find even mild success with a bad team, you may not be a starter for long.

The lone bright spot was Sanders' connection with Isaiah Bond, who hauled in a couple deep passes for 89 yards. He has developed nicely with Sanders throwing the ball.

3. The defense was just as bad

No Denzel Ward, and the defense took a serious downgrade. The secondary couldn’t maintain coverage at all. Both Myles Harden and Tyson Campbell gave up touchdowns as Caleb Willaims bullied the Browns’ secondary.

In the run game, the Bears averaged nearly five yards per carry. Carson Schwesinger racked up his usual double-digit tackles. The defensive line made some okay plays, but overall it was rough.

The Bears’ offense was simply better, and they showed it. The lone bright spot for Cleveland was Myles Garrett recorded 1.5 sacks, putting him one away from tying the NFL record.

It’ll be interesting to see just how much fight this time has left in them by the end of the year.