Joel Bitonio acknowledges Browns 'frustrated' by losing but not close to being fractured

BEREA, Ohio — Frustrated has been the word of the week for the Browns. What hasn’t been in their vocabulary is fractured.

“Yeah, I mean, frustrated is a big point,” left guard Joel Bitonio said Oct. 16. “Obviously everybody’s frustrated because no one wants to be 1-5, but I think our team actually is very close. The guys get along and we push for each other and we haven’t had any of that internal arguing and stuff like that. Everybody’s all on the same page of what do we need to do to be better to try and find a win.

“So, from that mindset, everybody’s frustrated with the results, but there’s no infighting and that. It’s just like we have that urgency and that you get a little bit more maybe fired up throughout the week when you’re trying to find a way to get a win.”

The frustration is more than understandable. A team with a 1-5 record should be frustrated.

What Bitonio said he believes the Browns are built to withstand is the splitting that can occur as losing builds upon losing.

“It’s just the in-house, like, you have people blaming other people,” Bitonio said. “You have people talking behind people’s backs. You have these meetings where it’s all just blame, blame, where a lot of people are just taking the blame on themselves, we have to do better as this and we’ll be in a better situation.”

The Browns can go through almost every one of the five losses and find points where, with just a slightly altered result, it could’ve flipped to the win column. There were the missed kicks against the Cincinnati Bengals and the blown lead late against the Minnesota Vikings, two of the most obvious ones.

Even games like the Week 6 loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers had moments when the Browns could’ve changed the outcome. Instead, it just continued to snowball on them.

“Couple things happen, a few things happen a little bit differently, we’re looking at a different record,” assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said. “Now, you obviously can’t change those things, and that’s just inevitable. Stuff happens in sports and in football. But I do think that, if a team can get it right, it’s a team that’s connected and are doing things that teams do and stick together. I think that we’re all supporting one another, and I think we all understand the situation.”

Of course, there’s also the overriding point that’s contributed to the frustration talk, which is the offense’s inability to sustain drives and, most important, score points. That’s why another 1-5 team, the Tennessee Titans, fired coach Brian Callahan Oct. 13. Callahan’s offensive line coach, his father Bill Callahan, was also let go.

The Titans score the second-fewest points per game in the league at 13.8. The worst? The Browns at 13.7.

That’s where the frustration talk really came from when All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett talked about it after the Steelers game as it followed the same script as every other loss. That script involved a defensive performance worthy of a win, and an offensive performance worthy of being forgotten.

“Yeah, we want to be better for our defense,” Bitonio said. “We want to get them a two-score lead to try and let ‘em rush the passer and unleash it. I think a lot of teams have realized, get the ball out quick, try and neutralize our defense’s pass rush because they’ve done a good job when they’re allowed to rush the quarterback. And for us on offense, we have to put a little pressure on ‘em so that they’re going to have to start taking shots and start things.

“So I totally get it. I mean, if you’re sitting here and you’re 1-5 and you’re not frustrated at things, that’s a bad sign. So we’re all on the same page in that boat and then, yeah, losing sucks.”

The mindset of the Browns, though, is on the next one. The 1-5 Miami Dolphins come to Cleveland Oct. 19, as the Browns schedule begins to ease up a bit after nothing but AFC North and NFC North teams over the first six games.

The Dolphins game starts a stretch of three consecutive games for the Browns against non-Buffalo Bills AFC East teams, with the bye week tucked in after an Oct. 26 trip to face the New England Patriots. After the bye, it’s the currently winless New York Jets starting a stretch of five games, with four of those against teams with no more than two wins as of Week 7.

That’s how the Browns hope frustration can turn into satisfaction.

“I mean, obviously it’s frustrating,” safety Grant Delpit said. “You do all you can do to stay together as a team, try to get that winning feeling back. You know, I don’t even know what it feels like. Like, I forgot that feeling, really just chasing that feeling, man, and trying to do everything you can to get that back and not turning on each other, because that could avalanche the season.

“So hopefully it’s staying together and finding a way to get one win so you can multiply.”