After their loss to open the season, Cleveland Browns fans lost confidence in the direction of the team. Specifically, they had a decrease of 34 percentage points from week-to-week, dropping from 55% confidence to 21% confidence.
I think fans were willing to deal with the usual frustrations from QB Deshaun Watson for a couple of weeks, with the assumption that QB Shedeur Sanders’ shot at starting again would come sooner rather than later. However, it’s one thing to lose a close game with bad quarterback play. It’s another thing to get completely blown out by the second quarter, with horrible defense all-around playing a factor in that blowout too. How can a team look so lost and uninspired in Week 1?
We asked one other question this week, which asked if fans expected the Browns to at least have a better performance in Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I phrased the question in that way because I thought, “If I ask my usual question of who will win the game, 99% of people are going to vote Tampa.” I thought my phrasing would lend to more optimism, but only 29% of fans think that Cleveland will play better this week. The rest are expecting a rinse and repeat of the same degree of shitty football, as Todd Monken would put it.
There was also a national poll this week that asked which team had the worst quarterback situation. There were some good contenders on the list — the Browns, Falcons, Dolphins, Vikings, and Patriots — but the Browns ran away with it easily at 67%, followed by the Falcons at 19%.
According to FanDuel, the Browns are 8.5 point underdogs against the Buccaneers this week, with the over/under being 41.5.
