Written by Jonathan Knight

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Useless nuggets of information from Sunday’s Browns game that you can certainly live without…

TROUBLE WITH THE STRIPES: The Browns have now lost three straight games in Cincinnati and seven of their last eight. Also having lost six of their last seven overall to the Bengals, the Browns now trail the all-time series, 41-36.

SWEEPS: This is the fifth time the Bengals have swept the season series from the Browns since their return, (also 1999, 2005, 2006, and 2009). In that time period, the Browns have swept the Bengals just once (2002).

CLOSE SHAVES: Four of the last five Browns-Bengals games have now been decided by three points or less.

AND WHO CAN BLAME THEM?: Sunday’s crowd (48,260) was the smallest ever to watch a Browns-Bengals game at Paul Brown Stadium since it opened in 2000 and the tiniest to watch the Browns in Cincinnati since the strike-replacement farce at Riverfront Stadium in 1987 (40,179). The last non-strike Browns-Bengals game to draw less than Sunday’s contest was the rainy season finale of 1979, witnessed by just 42,183.

ANOTHER 50-PLUS: With his 54-yard boot in the third quarter, Phil Dawson drilled his seventh field goal of the season of 50 yards or longer, marking a new career high. His previous best was six in 2006. He’s now made 17 field goals of 50 yards or more in his career.

TRIPLE DIGITS: Cedric Benson’s 106 rushing yards marked the seventh time this season a running back hit triple digits against the Browns. He also did it in the opener, rushing for 121 yards.

FINALLY: With the 24-yard scoring toss from Colt McCoy to Jordan Norwood on the Browns’ first drive, they scored a first-quarter touchdown for the first time in 12 games

KEEPING THE PACE: While the Browns’ defense suffered its share of breakdowns, it did a good job of matching Cincinnati. Both teams collected two sacks and four tackles for loss, while the Bengals had an edge with six quarterback hits to the Browns’ three.

NOT ROAD WARRIORS: The Browns have now lost four straight road games and six of their last seven.

DEPRESSING: The Browns’ 20-point “explosion” was the first time in eight games they’d managed to score 20 points and their second-best offensive output of the year. This was the sixth time this season they’ve failed to accumulate at least 300 total yards of offense.

WEAK FINISH: While Peyton Hillis had a nice day overall after his two-month absence, picking up 65 yards on 19 carries, he only managed 23 yards on nine carries in the second half.

GOOD COVERAGE: Brad Maynard and the Browns’ punt coverage team had one of their best days of the season, netting an average of 44 yards per punt and placing two inside the Cincinnati 20. The Bengals did not pick up a single yard in punt returns on the day.

BACK TO NORMAL: Colt McCoy’s resurgence of the previous two weeks fell by the wayside Sunday as he filed one of his worst performances of the year, posting a quarterback rating of just 67.2 - his second-worst of the season (Seattle, 59.0). Rookie Andy Dalton, by comparison, topped the 100 mark for the second time this year against the Browns, scoring a 105.6. For the season, McCoy now stands at 78.1, 23rd in the NFL, while Dalton is at 81.8, good for 17th.

OFFENSIVE DEFENSE: The Browns went into Sunday’s game with the best pass defense in the NFL, but were lit up by the Bengals and allowed a season-high 270 passing yards. The 389 total yards accumulated by Cincinnati were the most the Browns had allowed in a game all year.

SILVER LINING: The Browns topped 125 rushing yards as a team for the third straight game. And while the return of Peyton Hillis certainly had an impact, their longest run of the day belonged to Colt McCoy (20 yards).

WHERE WE RANK: Averaging 4.5 yards per play, the Browns’ offense ranks 31st in the NFL, while their 15 points scored per game is 28th. The Cleveland defense is allowing five yards per play, putting it sixth in the league, and their 19.6 points allowed per game puts the Browns ninth.