Written by Thomas Moore

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There will be lots of debate this week after the Cleveland Browns most recent loss, a 23-20 overtime setback to the Dallas Cowboys.

Talk over Pat Shurmur’s future as head coach. Talk about Brandon Weeden’s future as starting quarterback. Talk about Miles Austin’s fumble in overtime that was ruled an incomplete pass. Talk about another game that got away from the Browns in another season that is going to end like so many seasons before it.

“It felt like we could have won this game – multiple times,” wide receiver Greg Little said. “I guess we just need a spectacular play. To win a close game, someone has to make a play.”

There are two takeaways from Sunday’s game that stand out above everything else and explain why the Browns are once again coming home on the wrong end of the score.

The first is the Browns lone offensive series in overtime.

Cleveland held the Cowboys on the opening possession of overtime, and the Browns took over on their own 10-yard line following a punt by Brian Moorman. All the Browns needed was a field goal and they would come home with a win in a game they appeared to lose on multiple occasions in the second half.

After nearly four years of watching the Browns choose field goals over touchdowns, the Browns finally found themselves in a situation where all they needed was a field goal. If there was ever a situation that was made for a Shurmur offense, it was Sunday, in overtime, just waiting for someone on the Browns to step up and take it.

So what do the Browns do? First-down run by Trent Richardson for no gain, second-down incompletion by Brandon Weeden, third-down pass for six yards to Josh Gordon, punt.

Ball game over.

The second was, of the Cowboys’ 30 first downs, 10 of them came as a result of a defensive penalty by the Browns – with seven of those penalties coming against the secondary as Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo took advantage of Joe Haden’s absence to continually abuse Buster Skrine (three penalties) and Sheldon Brown, among others. On the day, Dallas was just 4-of-14 on third down, but much of that effort by the Browns defense was wiped out by penalties.

“What are you supposed to do when a receiver is pushing you?” said Browns safety T.J. Ward, who was hit with an absolutely crap unnecessary roughness call in the fourth quarter. “I felt like we were playing one-handed out there.”

The poor play overshadowed a solid effort from the front seven, which worked over an absolutely horrible Dallas offensive line, sacking Romo a season-high seven times. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Browns sent four or fewer pass rushers on 85.7 percent of Romo’s dropbacks in the first half, but Romo adjusted in the second half to complete 13-of-18 passes against four or fewer rushers including his only touchdown of the game.

The Browns took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Weeden to tight end Ben Watson. They pushed the lead to 13-0 by the half on, what else, Phil Dawson field goals of 51 yards and 37 yards. Dawson has now made 25 consecutive field goals, including five from 50 yards or more.

The Browns had other chances to extend the lead but, as is their wont, they were conservative and/or confusing at the worst times on offense.

At the end of the first half the Browns used their final timeout after sacking Romo on third down to force a Dallas punt with 1:31 left. But then, for reasons known only to Shurmur, the Browns ran Richardson three straight plays to kill out the remaining clock.

Why stop the clock and get the ball back only to run three handoffs? Who knows?

In the third quarter, Dallas coach Jason Garrett had his own special moment when, after kicking a field goal to cut the Browns lead to 13-3, Garrett called an onside kick that the Browns recovered at their own 44.

A touchdown in that spot would have put the Browns in control of the game, so of course they ran Richardson twice for a total of six yards, and then Weeden threw incomplete on third down, forcing a punt.

Three and out and another wasted opportunity.

Meanwhile, Romo was getting warmed up, completing 9-of-9 passes in the third quarter and eventually bringing Dallas into the lead, hitting Dez Bryant with a 28-yard pass and a 17-13 lead. For the day, Romo was 35-of-50 for 313 yards and, after committing 12 turnovers in the first three home games of the year, the Browns were only able to force Romo into one turnover.

Things would only get crazier from there.

On the following possession, it looked like game over for the Browns after Weeden was sacked and fumbled the ball, with Dallas recovering on the Cleveland 18-yard line with just less than six minute remaining.

Frostee Rucker got the ball back two plays later when he forced a Romo fumble and Weeden moved the Browns 64 yards in 10 plays before the drive stalled at the Cowboys’ one-yard line when Weeden overthrew Jordon Cameron in the end zone on fourth down.

The Browns defense came up big, though, and forced a three-and-out, using their timeouts to give the offense one last chance with 1:10 left in the game.

On the first play of the series, Weeden hit Watson for a 17-yard touchdown and, shockingly, the Browns had the lead again and a chance to win the game.

But Romo drove the Cowboys down the field with the help of 35-yard pass interference penalty on Brown, and Dan Bailey’s 32-yard field goal sent the game into overtime.

And we all know how things went from there for the Browns.

On the day, Richardson rushed for 95 yards, coming up just short of becoming the franchise’s first rookie with three consecutive 100 yard games.

Weeden was 20-of-35 for 210 yards and for much of the day looked like a scared rookie. The Cowboys dropped two interceptions, including one on a horrible throw by Weeden out of his own end zone, and even though he was only sacked twice, Weeden never looked comfortable.

So the Browns drop another in a growing list of winnable games and now sit at 2-8 on the season.

They continue to make just enough plays to stay in the game but can never make the extra plays need to actually win.

"It sucks," Weeden said. "We battled. We made a play late in the game. We thought we finished and it sucks."

"We've got a lot of (fight). The guys in this locker room continue to battle. I don't know why we aren't getting it done late and that's the frustrating part. We have to find a way to do it and I don't have the answers right now. We have been in every game. You can't say we don't play hard. ... We are on our way. I'm very optimistic about this football team."

Now they come home to face Pittsburgh, which is always a treat.

And there’s no telling what the Browns have in store for us then.

(Photo by ClevelandBrowns.com)