Written by Thomas Moore

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The Cleveland Browns closed out the 2012 NFL season – and what is likely to be the Pat Shurmur era – with a 24-10 loss on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If this truly was the final game with Shurmur as head coach, the Browns final drive was the quintessential offensive drive under Shurmur. The final four plays were:

• A four-yard run by Chris Ogbonnaya
• A five-yard pass to Ben Watson
• A sack of quarterback Thad Lewis that knocked Lewis out of the game
• A sack of quarterback Josh Johnson that was recovered by the Steelers

The loss means the Browns finish the season at 5-11, the fifth year in a row that they have won five or fewer games. Cleveland also went 1-7 on the road for the second consecutive year. It was also the fourth time in the past five years that the Browns have ended the season with a loss to the Steelers.

The bar has been set so low for coaching success in this town that, despite going just 9-23 in his two years, Shurmur finishes just one game behind Eric Mangini on the franchise’s all-time coaching list.

“I'm looking forward to coaching this team next year if that’s the case,” Shurmur said after the loss. “If not, then what I’m going to do is help coach and help inspire a team to win games in some role. I have kids in college. I have mouths to feed, and this is my profession and this is what I choose to do. That’s it. That is how simple it is in my mind.

Speaking of low expectations, because many believed that quarterback Thad Lewis was going to be put up a performance reminiscent of Spergon Wynn or Bruce Gradkowski (we were in that group), the fact that Lewis didn’t totally embarrass himself led to too much chatter after the game that Lewis deserves a chance as the Browns quarterback next year.

Lewis was 22-of-32 for 204 yards and a touchdown to go with a horrible interception in the red zone. His performance was certainly not horrible, especially against the NFL’s top-ranked defense, but nothing to get overly excited about, either.

“I think Thad Lewis played an outstanding game considering the situation he was thrust in to,” Shurmur said. “He showed what I knew he had in him. This is the first chance he’s had to play and I thought he showed up well.”

The Browns only converted three-of-10 first downs and lost three fumbles, helping kill any real chance they had at pulling out a win. The biggest fumble was by Travis Benjamin in the third quarter. The Browns were trailing 17-10 and Benjamin dropped the ball after catching a 13-yard pass to the Browns’ 35-yard line.

The Steelers recovered and went on to score a touchdown just six plays later.

“Basically the game came down to two fumbles by rookie receivers that led to 14 points,” Shurmur said.

The most exciting play of the game for the Browns was probably the fake punt call in the third quarter, where Ray Ventrone rumbled 35 yards. That play will probably go down in franchise lore with Reggie Hodges’ run on a fake punt in 2010 in another season that went nowhere.

The defense played fairly well, holding the Steelers to just 212 yards of offense, but they allowed three touchdown passes from Ben Roethlisberger and it just never felt as if the Browns were ever in the game.

Probably the best thing you can say about the defense is that they refused to back down from the Steelers and their cheap shots. There was a lot of activity after the play and for the first time in a long time the Browns gave as good as they got.

But, like most games over the past 13 years, it just is never enough.

“We just need to find a way to win, stats mean nothing,” linebacker Craig Robertson said. “You have two columns, wins and losses. That’s all that matters.”

So, here we are, at the end of another disappointing season for the Browns. The momentum and enthusiasm of the three-game winning streak seems so long ago as it quickly evaporated during yet another season-ending losing streak.

There were a few things of note, as Greg Little had a nice touchdown catch and finished the season with a team-leading 53 receptions. He is the first wide receiver to lead the Browns in receptions for consecutive years since Dennis Northcutt in 2003-04.

Jabaal Sheard had two sacks and finished the year with a team-high seven sacks – six of them coming over the second half of the season.

Josh Gordon had a catch in all 16 games and led the team in receiving yards with 805 and had a team-high five touchdown receptions.

Other than that, there’s not much else to say about the game; win or lose it really didn’t matter for the Browns. And there will be plenty of time to discuss Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert in the coming days, we’re sure.

“We didn't win enough games,” Shurmur said. “I was never really worried about (next year), and I have no regrets. What I would say at the end of the season is that the future is bright for that group of (players). I think the coaches that work with them are outstanding.”

So that’s a wrap on the season and most likely on Shurmur. Now the real season begins for owner Jimmy Haslam and CEO Joe Banner.

And Browns fans everywhere better hope they perform a lot better than Shurmur.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)