The Cleveland Browns won’t tell you this, but they likely would have rather faced the New England Patriots without Tom Brady in the mix.
Sure coaches can talk about competition and wanting to see the other team at 100 percent. That’s fine and dandy, but facing Tom Brady compared to either Jacoby Brissett or Jimmy Garoppolo is a completely different monster.
Now at 0-4 on the season, Cleveland is facing the daunting task of facing a Patriots team that’s coming off a shutout loss. It is doing so with Brady returning to action after serving a four-game suspension for his alleged role in Deflategate.
It’s in this that first-year Browns head coach Hue Jackson isn’t what we’d call too excited about facing Brady and the Pats come Sunday.
“Not fun at all,” Jackson proclaimed on Tuesday, via ESPN. He (Brady) will be chomping at the bit.”
We have to feel for Jackson a bit here. He took over an already sunken ship and has led it to a 0-4 record through the first quarter of the season. Injuries to the team’s top two quarterbacks coupled with another off-field incident surrounding the suspended Josh Gordon, and things don’t seem to be going too swimmingly for the Browns.
The team must now contend with what promises to be an angry Patriots team that’s getting its Hall of Fame quarterback back on the field.
Unfortunately, the Browns don’t seem to be well equipped to handle this. The team ranks 27th in scoring defense and 22nd in total defense through four games.