Quarterback Brian Hoyer, the comeback kid with the never-say-die attitude, didn’t try to softpedal the 24-6 beatdown that the previously winless Jaguars put on the Browns Sunday.
“We got our butts kicked,” said Hoyer. “You have to give credit where credit is due. Their defense, I talked about it all week long, probably could have been the toughest defense we were going against. They handed it to us and we just couldn’t get anything going. Offensively, we played definitely our worst game so far.”
Hoyer, who slipped to 6-3 with the Browns, thought he mustered some of that Kardiac Kid magic in the fourth quarter when Andrew Hawkins took his short pass and raced 65 yards to the Jaguars’ 29 with the Browns trailing only 10-6. But Jacksonville sent the Browns staggering backward on the next two plays to snuff out the threat.
“It’s demoralizing,” said Hoyer.
Even coach Mike Pettine had to call it out for what it was. “Offensively, I think we obviously took a huge step backwards,” he said.
Hoyer, playing his first full game without two-time Pro Bowl center Alex Mack and pressured relentlessly, had his worst game as a Brown.
He completed only 16 of 41 attempts — a career-low 39 percent — for 215 yards with no touchdowns and one interception for a career-low 46.3 rating. He was also strip-sacked once to set up a Jaguars field goal and wildly overthrew a wide open Jordan Cameron on a 4-yard post pattern in the end zone in the second quarter. It was the Browns’ second trip inside the 20, and they had had six points to show for it.
His fourth-quarter pick, off a ball thrown behind Ben Tate that went off his hands, set up the touchdown that produced the final margin. He also had four passes batted down.
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