Coach Hue Jackson still feels the love from Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam despite the nightmare he’s living.
“I never could have dreamt this ever,” Jackson said Friday during a conference call.
With their 28-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night, the Browns fell to 0-10 for the first time in franchise history. They also set a team record for the longest single-season losing streak. They had nine consecutive losses in 1975 and 2004.
When losing reaches a historic level, questions about job security inevitably arise.
Yet Jackson said he believes the Haslams have his back. They hand-picked him and hired him Jan. 13.
“Jimmy Haslam and Dee Haslam have been outstanding,” Jackson said. “Obviously, they don’t like to lose, either, but I think they understand the plan and what we are trying to accomplish. I have total faith and confidence in them and the vision that we have created.
“No one wants to be sitting here in the position that we are in, but they have been outstanding to me. They have been outstanding in their support of me. I feel very comfortable as far as where we are in my relationship with them and how they feel about where we are headed.”
The Haslams haven’t publicly addressed Jackson’s performance this season.
“[Losing this much] is different, but at the same time, I get it. I am in it. It is at my feet,” Jackson said. “I am not going to run from that. I do understand what the issues are and where we are and where we are going to go but, also, it has been tough. I have a good staff who stands behind me. I have an owner who has been unflinching. I have executives in the front office ... who have not blinked, and they get it. Are we disappointed for where we are? Yeah, but I think we also understand what we have to do in order to get this changed.”
The players, meanwhile, insist their confidence in Jackson isn’t slipping away.
“I just kind of beat myself up over [the losing] because I want to win for him, and he is doing everything that he can to put us in the best position to win,” right guard John Greco said during a conference call. “[The coaches] put together a great game plan every week, but they are not out there throwing, catching and blocking. We have to do our part.
“I do not have that feel that anybody is losing confidence at all. That is not there at all. It is just kind of a level of frustration locker-room wide as to why are we not getting it done. We just have not figured it out yet.”
It’s not because of a lack of effort, Jackson said, convinced his players are buying in.
“I have never been around a group that works as diligently as these guys trying to do it right, doing everything we as coaches have asked of them to give themselves the best opportunity,” Jackson said. “It has eluded us, but I can’t say enough about the guys and how they come to work, everything they do to put this football team and organization in a position to try to have success. We just have not had it.
“The biggest growth I have seen in this team is their ability to stick together. Not that they were not together from the start, but when you are in this kind of situation, it is very easy to fall off the cliff and go the other way.”
The Browns have lost a staggering 13 consecutive games dating back to last season. Their previous record of 11 defeats in a row spanning seasons was broken in Sunday’s 35-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Now they’re in serious danger of becoming just the second team to finish a season winless since the NFL adopted a 16-game format. The 2008 Detroit Lions went 0-16.
The Browns won’t play again until they host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 20, so Jackson has asked his players to take the weekend off and recharge before coming back to work Monday.
“We are going to have six games left to have an opportunity to do something that we all want to do, which is win a football game,” Jackson said. “I think they will do that.”
No one outside of Browns headquarters expected them to be good this season, but this is worse than most people envisioned.
A new regime led by head of football operations Sashi Brown, chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry and Jackson overhauled the roster by tearing it down and loading it with rookies. The Browns have the youngest team in the NFL, and they also have been decimated by injuries, including at quarterback. It’s the perfect storm for an awful record.
“We have some young players that we are trying to develop and see, and I think those things are important, but also these guys do deserve an opportunity to win because that is the ultimate,” Jackson said. “That is what this is truly all about. There is a fine line between [developing young players and trying to win], but if I had to choose right now for our football team for everything they have given to me and how they have been, I would choose winning over everything.
“We are not going to stop searching, trying to figure it out because somewhere in there is the key to unlock something that will get us to where we need to be. ... We are the youngest team in the league with the most rookies, I get all of that, but what is put in front of them can be a very daunting task. I don’t think our guys are running from it.”
The Browns have lost 20 of the past 21 games and 28 of the past 31.
Now their all-time record is 461-461-10. They had never previously been at or below .500 at any point in team history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“I understand [fans who have] concern, but I have a strong commitment to the Cleveland Browns,” Jackson said. “I know Dee and Jimmy Haslam do, too. I know Sashi and Paul and AB [Andrew Berry], we all understand where we are, and it is disappointing.
“None of us want to be in this situation, and especially for our fans, we do not want that for them and our players. But this is where we are. This is our reality, so we have to fight our way out of it. All I can say to our fans is hang with us. I have never been through this, and it is new and different. I don’t like it, and we have to do something about it. I am very confident that we will.”
Jackson must hope the Haslams are as confident in him as he believes they are.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.