Written by Thomas Moore

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The Cleveland Browns lost to Green Bay on Sunday by the score of 31-13.

It was the Browns second consecutive loss after energizing the city with a three-game winning streak.

The game was effectively over with 3:48 left in the first quarter after an Eddie Lacy one-yard run gave the Packers a 14-0 lead.

And it left us, just seven games into the 2013 NFL season, wondering if the Browns are going to win a game again this season.

The Browns went three-and-out on their first drive – gaining all of one yard – and had to punt.

Four plays later, Green Bay had a7-0 lead thanks to a 10-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Jermichael Finley.

Next series? The Browns went eight plays before quarterback Brandon Weeden threw an interception.

This time it took the Packers 11 plays to score and put the game out of reach.

It was the same script we’ve seen pretty much on a weekly basis.

Bad quarterback play? We had that.

Weeden, not a very good quarterback on his best day, is even worse now that his confidence is at zero.

On the day Weeden finished just 17-of-42 for 149 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He was also sacked three times, meaning he has gone down 21 times on the season. He was also plagued repeatedly by dropped passes, most notably on a fourth-down pass to Josh Gordon on fourth-and-15 from the Packer 31 yard line.

The Browns were trailing 17-6 at the time and, while it may not have made a difference in the final outcome, that is the kind of pass Gordon needs to come down with if he wants to be a No. 1 receiver.

Sunday’s offensive output means the Browns have now scored 17 points or less on offense in five of their seven games this season.

Complete lack of an NFL-caliber running game? Check.

The running game was once again an afterthought as the Browns rushed for just 3.6 yards per carry on 23 attempts. Weeden – who we feel the need to point out is not a running back – had the longest run of the day at 11 yards.

The players the Browns actually list as running backs ran 20 times for 65 yards – a 3.25 yard per carry average – as Willis McGahee “led” the team with 39 rushing yards. In our game preview we said no one on the Browns would rush for more than 50 yards and they didn’t let us down.

As a team, the Browns had 83 yards on the ground, or just one more than Lacey had for the Packers all by himself.

Sunday marked the fourth time in the past five games that the Browns running backs combined to average 3.5 yards per carry or less (the one time they went over that mark they shot all the way up to 3.8 yards per carry).

Long day at the office for the defense? That’s a discount double-check!

Playing with a receiving group that was decimated by injuries, Rodgers still managed to throw for three touchdowns to three different receivers and was sacked only once (Paul Kruger, his first since opening day) as the Browns were not able to get any serious pressure on him.

In the past two games the Browns have now given up seven touchdown passes, four of which have gone to tight ends after Finley pulled in his touchdown reception on Sunday.

So now what?

The Browns can bench Weeden and start Jason Campbell next week in Kansas City, a move that if they make it has to be for the rest of the season. If the decision is made to sit Weeden, it has to be permanent.

But will it really matter? Will Campbell somehow take five years off of McGahee’s legs? Or turn Fozzy Whittaker into anything other than a special teams’ player?

Can he make Gordon and Greg Little give maximum effort on every pass? Or help Davone Bess hold onto the ball?

Will a new quarterback help the defense on third down, where the Packers were six-of-eight in the first half on Sunday?

Does Campbell know how to cover a tight end in pass defense?

The point is, this Browns team has problems all over the place, ones that extend past just who is the quarterback.

Weeden may be the easiest target – and it definitely seems like Campbell couldn’t do any worse – but to think a change at quarterback is going to solve all the problems is just being extremely narrow-minded.

This Browns team has been looking at 2014 since the start of the season. The three-game winning streak and the play of Brian Hoyer – who gained points in the fans eyes by simply not being Brandon Weeden – made it seem like that would not be the case, but reality has quickly set back in on the shores of Lake Erie.

And if there were still any holdouts that thought this team was built to win this year, then Sunday’s effort against Green Bay should be proof that that is not the case.

(Photo courtesy of The Associated Press)