VIDEO: Odell Beckham's Punt Return Disaster Was Perfectly Symbolic of Browns' Garbage Start
By Chris Russo
Odell Beckham, Jr. was trying to get the Cleveland Browns back into a game where they trailed the San Francisco 49ers heavily on Monday night, but instead, he just epitomized their season.
Oh boy. Odell.... what are you doing??pic.twitter.com/RZF0CRd076
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) October 8, 2019
With minutes remaining in the 49ers' eventual 31-3 blowout on Monday Night Football, Cleveland head coach Freddie Kitchens let Beckham, Jr. return a punt and try to spark something. Then, flawlessly embodying the term "try-hard," OBJ made a ton of dekes while surrounded, lost the football, and perfectly captured the essence of their deflating 2-3 record.
Pretty representative of their season, don't you think? OBJ goes back, makes a few moves...it seems like he's cornered, but you've seen him escape jams before, and it looks like he's going to make some magic. Then, he just drops the ball. All sizzle, no steak.
It's pretty much the 2019 Browns in a nutshell, right down to the symbolic unimaginative play calling (here, Odell, you do it!). This is what Baker Mayfield spent all offseason bragging about?
#49ers CB @RSherman_25 justifiably went hard at Baker Mayfield for lack of respect to the game after he refused to shake hands during the pre-game coin toss [via @ProFootballTalk]
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 8, 2019
It took Richard Sherman only 2 minutes into the game starting to pick off Baker in a 31-3 win. pic.twitter.com/Pi8LH4SxiD
On top of the Browns' abysmal performance, they also apparently lost without grace. Plenty of time left to figure it out, but for now, this too little, too late false hustle embodies Cleveland.