BEREA, Ohio -- Heads were still shaking in the Cleveland Browns locker room on Wednesday, three days after a last-play loss to Baltimore.

Running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery talked about being on the other side (he used to coach in Baltimore).

Joe Haden said he’s not playing up to the level he expects.

And Donte Whitner said he’s flat-out steamed -- that he was so steamed he left the locker room Sunday as soon as he could.

“I’m very angry,” Whitner said Wednesday. “Because we don’t know how good we are or how good we can be yet, and we had opportunities to close out these football games. No matter what the outside world thinks or the way they feel, we understand now that we can play with any team in the National Football League.

“If you beat yourself, if you make small minor mistakes, they tend to be big things on the football field. Once we clean that up, we should be right where we want to be. But until then, we’re not going to take that step forward.”

Frustration that it’s been oh-so-close for oh-so-long is simmering, with players saying they’ve been oh-so-close for two years and it’s time for that to end.

“You can’t keep shooting yourself in the foot,” Montgomery said. “At some point you just have to come out ... you look for someone to step up and make a play.”

He added: “It starts with the coaching staff and then it works down through the players.”

Whitner knows the Browns' reputation, and he accepts it. He pointed out his thinking behind the Browns being given a Week 4 bye.

“The NFL sets it up,” he said. “If they don’t have any expectations for you, they give you a bye week early. If they expect you to go to the Super Bowl, they give you a bye week late.”

The fact that Denver and Seattle have the same bye week as the Browns might blow Whitner’s theory up.

But he still feels not many expect much from the Browns.

“This is where we fall since the Browns haven’t won in a number of years,” he said. “That’s the way it goes.”

He then looked ahead to the Tennessee game coming off the bye and said it’s “almost a must-have game.” Falling to 1-3 would be tough, but not winning after coming so close against two very good teams would let negative feelings take deeper root.

“I don’t think it’s any time to panic,” he said. “We lost two football games by a total of, what, four points? When nobody really gave us a chance to win any of these games. ... We had numerous opportunities to close this last football game out, whether it be the defensive side of the ball or the offensive side or special teams catching a punt and not allowing it to bounce inside the 10-, 5-yard line.

“There’s no need to panic. We just have to clean up the small mistakes.”