CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns’ 19-16 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday was a welcome change of pace for a team that has struggled for much of the season.

The victory didn’t change everyone’s perception of them. ESPN radio host Dan Le Batard wasn’t too impressed by Cleveland’s effort, offering a blunt critique during Monday’s broadcast.

“The Browns are dumb. They’re a dumb football team,” Le Batard said. "They get penalized a lot, they are super-undisciplined. Jarvis Landry gets taunting penalties when 2-6 and scoring a touchdown.

"I’m not going to say it’s not a talented football team, but I don’t often say, ‘Man, that team is super-undisciplined.’ And it’s not just the penalties, it’s some of the things that they do that you’re watching the game and you’re like, ‘That’s not smart. That’s just not smart football.’”

Former Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas, who now co-hosts the ThomaHawk Show podcast with former Bengals and Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins, spoke with Le Batard on Monday’s broadcast. He didn’t disagree that the Browns have made some dumb errors, but he says he is seeing some positive developments.

“They’re playing better,” Thomas said. "They’ve finally eliminated the penalties and the turnovers that were killing them all season long. But they’re playing like a young football team, and I think that’s a little bit to be expected with a new offense and a new coach and a lot of young players, who, typically young players make stupid mistakes.

“I think if they do want to go on a little bit of a run and make it interesting down the stretch here and try to sneak in with one of those wild-card spots, they have got to start playing a little bit more like a veteran team, because going down to the goal line and getting zero points in eight plays is not smart, winning football.”

Le Batard said he’s “baffled” at how the Browns have turned Odell Beckham Jr. into an “average” receiver. Hawkins told Le Batard he believes the team’s offensive scheme is part of the problem and that head coach Freddie Kitchens is worrying too much about getting all players involved in order to keep them “happy.”

“It’s hard to win football games that way, it’s hard to get the offense going,” Hawkins said. “You have to make the players fit into a scheme rather than the scheme fit the players. … They’ve got to get that figured out.”

Le Batard doesn’t like interviews to be too serious and he started by asking Hawkins what was more impressive, former Baltimore Orioles star Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive games streak or Thomas’ playing 10,366 consecutive snaps?

“I’m going with Joe Thomas, not because I’m biased. Mostly because also in that streak is the amount of losses he took, which might have been even more than Cal Ripken even though baseball schedule is bigger than a football schedule, so Joe Thomas gets my vote,” Hawkins said.

Replied Le Batard, laughing, “I mean, he is, he’s a Hall of Fame loser, right?”

Thomas took the ribbing with good spirits, joking that the 0-16 season in 2017 helped him make his decision to retire.

“I thought it was pretty funny, how Hawk says everybody that retires has that moment where they feel like they want to go back,” Thomas said. “My last season was 0-16 and it’s funny how going winless, you actually never get that itch again to go back and torture yourself for one more game, so I am happily retired, happily in the podcast business, happily in the Hall of Fame of losers, as Dan so eloquently put it.”

The interview can be heard below, beginning at about the 1 hour, 15-minute mark.