The Browns are on the brink of a winless season and the projected No1 draft pick has reportedly said he doesn’t want to play there. How’s your week going?

There is no football futility quite like the touchdowns you think you have until you don’t have them. And for the Cleveland Browns – a franchise that breathes futility through two incarnations – Sunday seemed like a particularly bleak low.

On the way to what likely will be 0-16, the Browns nearly tasted elation. It came on a snow-covered field in Chicago with the serendipitous union of April’s No2 draft pick, Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky, throwing a pass into the waiting arms of April’s No1 draft pick, Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett. Garrett took his gift interception and ran into the end zone delighting at a rare Browns lead until the official’s yellow flag flew. Offside on Cleveland was the call. No score. Dejection.

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Four plays later the Bears scored the touchdown that essentially put away a 20-3 victory and sent the Browns spiraling into further misery than they already know.

This season wasn’t supposed to be a disaster. At least not the complete failure it has become. After going 3-13 and 1-15 the last two seasons, Cleveland had loaded up on draft picks and seemed to be loading up on talented young players. Often this is the formula for a quick rise. For a recent example of this see the Los Angeles Rams, who might be marching from nowhere to the Super Bowl. Only Cleveland (who once had the Rams before the Rams escaped to LA) can’t seem to get anymore. Either the young players aren’t the right young players or they aren’t fitting together properly. Or both.

Who knows what’s wrong with the Browns exactly? In addition to Garrett’s touchdown that wasn’t, one of those young players – wide receiver Rashard Higgins – had his own near-score turn to dust in the slush. He dove to catch a pass from a stumbling quarterback DeShone Kizer, scrambled up, made two nice moves and lunged toward the goal line only to have the ball knocked out at the last minute. Chicago recovered the fumble. There would be no touchdown. No joy. No Christmas miracle.

At least Cleveland is not patient with their futility. Management has reached for many solutions over the years. In many ways this is probably the Browns problem. They don’t stick with anything anymore. The NFL seemed to be in such a hurry to rid themselves of former Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner that they rushed in truck stop magnate Jimmy Haslem back in 2013. Haslem has treated his franchise like it’s a pit stop for ideas on running a NFL team.

After kicking out Mike Holmgren, who preached a slow build, he has run through three general mangers in the last four years, most recently abandoning an advanced statistical approach he embraced less th/an two seasons ago. Who knows if the Moneyball attempt would have worked He never gave it time.

Haslem has hired an excellent football mind in former Kansas City Chiefs general manager John Dorsey, though there is irony in the move. Dorsey developed as an executive in the same Green Bay incubator where Holmgren coached in the 1990s. He even worked under Holmgren for a time in Seattle before returning to the Packers where he was a trusted advisor to Packers general manager Ted Thompson. Haslem has essentially returned to an approach he kicked out the door upon his arrival.

If that isn’t the Cleveland Browns these days, what is?

Percentages say the Browns can’t be this bad forever and with so many young players who hailed on last year’s draft day you would think they will get this right. They have the first choice in next year’s draft (and the fifth as well). This should guarantee them some elite players and make up for passing on Carson Wentz and Jared Goff two years ago. But will it? Sunday morning, ESPN reported that the top quarterback prospect, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, has signaled that he does not want the Browns to choose him.

Maybe Rosen doesn’t want to see his touchdown passes fumbled in the snow. Maybe he doesn’t want to be sacked 44 times like Cleveland quarterbacks have been this year. Maybe he doesn’t want to lose week after week after week after week.

It seems the Browns have one last chance to impress him. This comes next week in Pittsburgh against their bitter rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their saving grace might be that the Steelers, who have won the AFC North, could have nothing left to play for and will rest their stars. That would be the ultimate gift. Surely the Browns wouldn’t drop that one on the goal line.

Would they?

Fantasy player of the week

Tom Brady. An unimaginative choice, perhaps. After leading the Patriots to a late victory in Pittsburgh last week, he was comparatively dull in New England’s 37-16 victory over Buffalo on Sunday. In fact, the Pats also were driven by running back Dion Lewis’s 129 rushing yards as much as Brady’s 224 by air. But Brady was magnificently efficient in completing 21 of 28 passes, two of which were for touchdowns as the 12-3 Patriots have set themselves up as Super Bowl favorites.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom Brady runs off the field after Sunday’s win. Photograph: Tim Bradbury/Getty Images

Remember those days back in early October when New England was 2-2 and people were wondering if the first real cracks of the Patriots dynasty were starting to show? That seems like a very long time ago.

Stat of the week

2,000, 10, 5. This is the very unique number that Rams running back Todd Gurley has surpassed this season. During Los Angeles’s 27-3 victory over Tennessee on Sunday, Gurley became only the third player in NFL history to have 2,000 scrimmage yards with at least 10 rushing touchdowns and five receiving. The others two are Hall of Fames: Marshall Faulk and OJ Simpson (though this may where Gurley wishes the Simpson comparisons to end).

Nonetheless, it is a tremendous achievement and should generate MVP talk for Gurley, who deserves to be mentioned along with more-discussed candidates like Brady, Wentz, Russell Wilson and Drew Brees. Running backs often aren’t seen as MVPs but it’s hard to ignore what Gurley has done. On Sunday, he was the Rams offense, rushing for 118 yards and catching 10 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns. His 80-yard scoring run off a short pass from Goff could have been our video of the week. In fact, Gurley easily could have been our player, stat and video of the week.

Video of the week

NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) Marshon Lattimore with the Butt Interception!pic.twitter.com/UVzNXUb7x2

As great as Gurley’s 80-yard touchdown reception might have been, who can ever ignore a good butt interception? While it may not be as memorable as the Mark Sanchez’s infamous butt fumble from 2012, it was significant to the New Orleans Saints’ 23-13 victory over Atlanta that put them into the playoffs. With the Saints holding a 6-0 lead late in the second quarter, a tipped Matt Ryan pass landed on the backside of New Orleans rookie cornerback Marshon Lattimore, where it stuck.



You probably can watch this play over and over but doing so would be to ignore the Saints otherwise dominant defensive performance. Twice New Orleans stopped the Falcons near the goal line and used two turnovers and five sacks to ride to an 11-4 record and damage the playoff chances of last year’s Super Bowl loser.

Quote of the week

“It’s awesome, things are going good right now, there’s a buzz in the air.” – 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garappolo after San Francisco’s 44-33 victory over Jacksonville.

Once 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan started playing his new quarterback at the start of December, things really took off for the Niners. They have won each of the four games Garappolo started and he has played better each week. Against the Jaguars, who have an aggressive defense and one of the NFL’s best pass defenses, he completed 70% of his passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns finishing with a passer rating of 102.4. He also ran for a touchdown and looked every bit the leader San Francisco has been seeking.

Garappolo has long been seen as a prize, having played well in his brief appearances backing up Brady in New England. He will be a free agent at season’s end and the gamble San Francisco took in picking him up has paid off. They can franchise him for next year or give him a long-term deal. Given the way he has played in his four-game tryout so far the lengthy contract seems to make sense. Suddenly, a franchise that looked lost seems to be on the rise again. It’s almost impossible imagining him anywhere but with the 49ers next season.

The loss was a blow for Jacksonville, who had been playing brilliantly in the last few weeks. And while the Jags still won their first division title in 18 years, they will probably not have a first-round bye in the playoffs. Players and coaches bickered on the sidelines and a team that has looked dominant for much of the season seemed uncertain – the last thing you want to appear heading into the postseason.

Elsewhere around the league:

• Kansas City won the AFC West with a 29-13 victory over Miami. After a strange mid-season slump the Chiefs have stormed back to win three in a row, building momentum for the postseason.

• Cam Newton threw for 160 yards and ran for 52 more and a touchdown as Carolina clinched a playoff spot with a 22-19 win over Tampa Bay.

• Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-11 victory over Denver that might have been his last home game with the franchise. Cousins is likely to be the top free agent quarterback on the market and his signing could create a cascade of other moves around the league.

• Russell Wilson had only 93 yards passing but threw two touchdown passes as Seattle kept Dallas’s offense from scoring a touchdown in a 21-12 victory that eliminated the Cowboys from postseason contention. Ezekiel Elliott did manage 94 rushing yards in his return from a six-game domestic violence suspension.