The Cleveland Browns learned a difficult lesson against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium Sunday.
And the lesson is that no matter how much of a lead a team has over the Patriots, with quarterback Tom Brady running the offense and Bill Belichick coaching from the sidelines, no advantage is safe until the clock runs out.
Up by 12 points with 2:39 to play, the Browns allowed New England to score 13 unanswered points to claim a 27-26 win.
“It’s tough to win here,” Browns quarterback Jason Campbell said. “It’s definitely tough to win here, and there are reasons for that. They have a great coach, a great quarterback, and they’re reigning (AFC East Division) champs for a lot of years. It’s a tough place to come in and win.
“I feel like with two minutes left in the game, we could close this thing out. That would’ve been a huge, giant step for us. There’s going to be different opinions about what happened, but we’ll watch the tape and see what we can improve on.”
Campbell said it would have been a special win because he felt the Browns were counted out by everyone except the 53 players in the locker room and their coaches.
“That’s what made it a good opportunity,” Campbell said. “If you want to get recognition and respect, you have to earn it, and what better opportunity than to play against a team like this at their home field?
“The past two weeks, and three of the past five games going back to the Kansas City game and the way we lost that game, we’re so close to being a 7-6 team, and we’re a 4-9 team. Those three games were so close. Like (Browns coach Rob Chudzinski) said, we’ve got to keep working, just keep fighting. I’m proud of this team. We showed a lot of resilience. With the team fighting these next three games, there won’t be any giving up.”
Although he completed 22 of 49 attempts for 391 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover, Campbell shouldered some of the blame during his postgame press conference.
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