CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns played the Baltimore Ravens even Monday night for a half.

Expect this to be the mantra from the coach following the eighth loss in nine games — well, we showed some positive things in the first half.
Gosh golly gee whiz, get out the Black Label for that one Mabel.
Whatever.
What was painfully evident was that it took one possession and one completion and one touchdown for the game to swing the Ravens’ way.
All involved fundamental errors that 1-and-7 teams like the Browns make even though they cannot afford them.
Take them in order.
The Browns had the Ravens facing third-and-5 at their 46-yard-line. This is a good situation for a defense, and in the first half the Browns were able to stop the Ravens on five-of-six third downs.
They chose the wrong time to end that positive.
Brandon McDonald gave up a simple out pass to Derrick Mason, then compounded the mistake by going for the ball and not playing the man.
Mason turned a first down catch into a 41-yard gain.
The fundamental nature of the error was glaring. Had McDonald merely made the tackle after the catch, the Ravens would have been near the Browns’ 40-yard line, not at the 13. McDonald’s gamble and whiff allowed Mason to turn and run down the sideline.
There, as the Ravens lined up to run a play, the Browns, for inexplicable reasons, could not get the right personnel on the field.
Nine games into the season and the Browns had guys leaving the field and trotting on as Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco called signals.
The play was a simple handoff right to Ray Rice, which made sense because the last Browns defender to trot on the field was to the far left of the formation at the snap.
And he looked pretty lost as to where he was supposed to be.
The Browns have proved they cannot beat teams when playing 11-on-11. Trying to beat a team down a man seems way too much to ask.
Rice scored easily — the only blemish was that for the first time this season a Ravens back was touched on his way to the end zone against the Browns.
With 12:28 to go in the third quarter, the Ravens led 7-0.
Of course, these are the Browns so they could not merely leave well enough alone.
On first down, Brady Quinn threw toward Robert Royal. The throw was high and wide. Ravens safety Dawan Landry intercepted and scored a touchdown. This one, for good measure, was untouched.
At that point, the Browns’ offense needed two scores to take a lead (Shaun Rogers blocked an extra point). It would have been easier to climb Mount Fuji.
Quinn’s third-down throw went right through the hands of Mike Furrey and into the hands of the Ravens’ Chris Carr.
This set up a field goal, making it 16-0. In just more than half of the third quarter, the Browns had turned a close game into a rout.
That’s what happens when the Browns fall behind by 16. This is a team that has gone a year without a running back scoring a touchdown. Expecting them to come back from 16 behind against a defense like the Ravens’ is expecting far too much.
The Browns were walking off the field, heads down, as if the deficit were 61.
Oh, there was also a cheap shot thrown in. Quinn, for inexplicable reasons (other than frustration), went low to the knees of the Ravens’ Terrell Suggs during Carr’s interception return.
A league intent on protecting players would enact a hefty fine for this hit.
Quinn was not blocking — the Ravens had the ball — and he dove at the knee of Suggs and sent Suggs to the locker room. Suggs was not even looking in Quinn’s direction when Quinn hit him.
It’s hard to think Quinn would try to hurt anyone intentionally, and Quinn did go and say something to Suggs. But a cheap shot is a cheap shot and this was unnecessary.
The game ended in a scary and bizarre way. Josh Cribbs had to be carted off the field after he took a blindside hit from a Ravens lineman on the game’s final play. The Browns tried one of those lateral plays — apparently thinking a touchdown and 10-point conversion could tie the game.Cribbs took the shot and was taken off on a stretcher and cart after laying several minutes on the field.
How, then, to measure this loss?
As progress? Hardly.
Is it progress when the offense does not move past the opposing team’s 45-yard line, when it runs a quick-rollout-and-throw offense filled with four- and five-yard passes?
Perhaps it’s progress that at halftime the score was tied.
Hoo hoo. Zero-zero. Now let’s charge in and make adjustments.
Except the only people who thought the first half was good football played for the Browns’ defense.
The Ravens got close enough to miss a field goal, the Browns never got close enough to try.
The Browns did go no-huddle and had Quinn throwing quick, short passes. This was done not because of Quinn but to counter the Ravens’ aggressive defensive style.
It worked OK. For a half. Though OK must be tempered by the reality that it led to zero points.
Nothing like building for the showdown with the Lions in Detroit with a scoreless first half.
This was neither pretty or attractive, it was just — close.
By early in the fourth quarter, the stands were deserted.
The pregame protest in which fans were not supposed to take their seats for kickoff was more or less a fizzle.
The Browns, though, did the protesters a favor. They played so poorly on offense they brought about a protest all by themselves.