WKYC: Bud Shaw: Can the Browns bring sharp focus through season’s end?

CLEVELAND — Lost in the bedlam of last week’s Steelers game — and then absolutely buried in the news of suspensions and an alleged racial slur the last few days — was Baker Mayfield’s pregame admission that the Browns “did expect (winning) to come easy for us and that’s where we messed up.”

Tennessee should’ve disavowed them of that notion, right?

There had to be other factors to account for a 2-6 start. One stumble doesn’t end in a face plant without several more following.

But now that they actually are facing the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, it’s timely to wonder whether they really learned their lesson.

Miami is the first test of that, coming as it does sandwiched between one emotional Pittsburgh game and another on Dec. 1 that figures to make last Thursday night look like a “friendly.”

The Browns won’t have Myles Garrett (more on him later) or Larry Ogunjobi for this one. Thursday they lost Morgan Burnett for the season.

But the Browns offense vs. the Dolphins so-called defense is the far easier pickings, or at least should be.

Minus the Baltimore game, the Browns have seriously underachieved offensively. Maybe the thought of playing the last six games without their best defensive player will rally Mayfield and his talented supporting cast to not only shut out the noise but stop creating it.

Maybe they’ll be the reason why this team runs off a handful of wins and becomes a serious playoff challenger.

Arizona and Cincinnati have an even worse defensive ranking than Miami, after all.

Judging what we’ve seen, it won’t be nearly as easy as they once thought.

Didn’t think the Myles Garrett-Mason Rudolph thing could get uglier until Garrett alleged Rudolph said a racial slur that triggered the fight with eight seconds remaining Thursday.

Browns players seemed taken aback by the news Thursday but predictably supported their teammate. The Steelers, of course, stood behind Rudolph, who vehemently denied Garrett’s claim.

Why didn’t Garrett mention it when his quarterback and head coach were calling his behavior “inexcusable” and the whole country was watching and listening last week?

He took to Twitter Thursday to say it wasn’t for public consumption and seemed disappointed the allegation leaked from his appeal hearing.

He might be telling the truth.

Rudolph might be telling the truth.

Both can’t be true and now with the league claiming there is no recorded audio, we probably won’t know what happened unless someone changes his story.

I didn’t see this coming when Garrett issued an apology to Rudolph before his appeal hearing.

Maybe he’s a more magnanimous guy than most, or he concluded before the apology that nothing justified his actions.

I can only say I’d find it impossible to apologize to someone who slurred me.

Former NFL coach Rex Ryan called Garrett’s helmet-wielding an “assault” and said in his family’s 50 years in the NFL he’d never seen anything like it.

Something he won’t be able to say if a defensive coordinator ever punches an offensive coordinator wearing the same colors on the sideline.

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic posted a 35-point triple double in just 25 minutes Wednesday against the Warriors.

You will never convince Ricky Davis that’s possible without shooting at both baskets.

Dallas beat Golden State by 48.

“Tough to lose by 48 points, but a break here or there and it only would have been 42 points,” Golden State’s Steve Kerr said after the 142-94 loss.

Prediction: By the end of a trying season filled with Warriors injuries, Kerr will channel the late John McKay, who once famously walked into his locker room after a blowout loss and said, “Those who need showers, take them.”

Whatever the over-under is for season ejections, give me the over on Draymond Green, who couldn’t control himself in the best of times.
Sixers wingman Ben Simmons made his first three-pointer in his 172nd NBA game Wednesday. It was only the 17th attempt of his short NBA career.

He is not expected to ever come clean and admit he was trying to throw an alley oop.

Chase Young is back at defensive end for Ohio State just in time for the Buckeyes to be 18-point favorites against Penn State.

Without him, Ohio State would’ve been favored by what, 17.9?

Young’s talent alone should make his return feel like a cavalry ride but there’s not a team on the horizon the Buckeyes won’t be favored to beat handily — at least until the playoffs roll around.

So for now it’s as if he’s joining the pile of tacklers with the ball carrier already down and signaling for the team doctor.

Rams safety Eric Weddle, who spent the previous three years with Baltimore, isn’t planning on conducting a debriefing on the Ravens for his new teammates in advance of Monday night’s matchup.

“I could tell them a lot of stuff, but that’s just not who I am,” Weddle said. “So we’re going to play it on the field, and the best team is going to win.”

Weddle signed a two-year $10.5 million deal with the Rams after the Ravens released him in March.

His loyalty to his former teammates means the Rams will have to come to their own conclusion that tackling Lamar Jackson requires a butterfly net.

There were mixed reviews on the field conditions for the Chargers-Chiefs game in Mexico City last weekend.

Some people thought the turf was terrible. Some thought it was really terrible.

Booger McFarland kept making San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers out to be a QB Svengali in that game.

Right up to his fourth interception.

Niners corner Richard Sherman thinks his presence on the player’s association executive committee prevents him from getting the benefit of the doubt from officials.

“I had three penalties on the season coming into this game, and to get three in a half is really interesting,” said Sherman. “Especially with the way that the (pass interference) reversals have gone.

“I think there’s been probably over 100 PI challenges this year, and there’s been five, I think, reversals, and I’m two of them. I think being an E.C. member and part of that committee has its perks, and then it has its conversations where you’re the only one who gets overturned.”

Maybe it’s not that at all. Maybe Sherman didn’t shake the officials hand before the game.

Or maybe he did. No biggie.

Sherman is one of the most entertaining players in the league. Always outspoken, as he was when he said he took it personally that Baker Mayfield didn’t shake hands at the coin toss before the Monday night meeting in early October.

And sometimes ridiculously so, like when the video clearly showed Mayfield shook more hands than a campaigning politician.