Browns Fold Yet Again in the Second Half, Lose to Patriots 32-13: Game Notes
The only consistent part of 2025 is the inconsistency we witness each week.
We’re back on the familiar stage as the Browns fought throughout the first half of a road game, trailing just 9–7 at halftime, but folded late, allowing the Patriots to score 21 unanswered points in the third quarter en route to a 32–12 loss.
A week after earning his first victory as an NFL starter, Dillon Gabriel went 21 of 35 for 156 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He discussed the failures following the game: “It starts with me. We’ve got to be better,” Gabriel said.
Kevin Stefanski said Gabriel will remain the starter for now. “With a young quarterback, you understand that there are going to be ups and downs,” he said. It will be interesting to see how long the Browns continue to try to push through those ups and downs, as the offense is mired in another season as one of the league’s worst units.
Cleveland hasn’t won in six trips to Gillette Stadium since it opened in 2002 and now has an eight-game skid in Foxborough.
The New England Patriots are off to their best start since they had Bill Belichick calling plays and Tom Brady slinging passes. Drake Maye passed for 282 yards and three touchdowns on the day. The Browns had him uneven in the first half, but he dominated after the break. The victory improved New England’s record to 6-2 — its best start since the Belichick-Brady Patriots opened 8-0 in 2019. The Patriots also now own the league’s longest winning streak, at five straight.
The bye week should welcome some tough questions and self-scouting, but it’s tough to be optimistic about fixing the myriad of failures this group is putting on the field each week. It appears there’s no easy fix to the problems. But that won’t stop us from discussing them and focusing on the process over the results.
Here are the Week 8 Game Notes.
Things started out well for the offense as they rolled down the field in 12 plays covering 54 yards and scored the game’s first touchdown. They converted on a third and long for 19 huge yards to Harold Fannin Jr. and then found Fannin again for an 18 yard touchdown on a well executed insert concept which released Fannin from the FB alignment into the second-level and a corner route touchdown. From there, though, it was downhill as the offense only was able to muster 150 yards the rest of the game.
Dillon Gabriel was rough. All day. He continues to drop back with few intentions of pushing the ball downfield and is consistently taking checkdown options covered tightly by zone defenders waiting on the decision. For the day, Gabriel had the following data.
• -17.6 EPA (3rd percentile)
• 30% success rate (4th percentile)
• 6.1 aDOT (14th percentile)
• -5.3 CPOE (28th percentile)He has consistently performed worse across each of his four starts and today the turnover bug caught up with him. Per PFF:
Gabriel passing grades per week (pending week 8 review) W5 63.5, W6 52.5, W7 48.6, W8 38.4. He’s the lowest graded passer in the NFL (min 100 attempt), worst in uncatchable throw rate, lowest in BTTs, 3rd worst in TWPs, lowest in positive grade rate, and 2nd worst in rhythm throw rate.
His 3rd quarter interception was particularly brutal as it sealed the Browns fate. He tried to throw back to the dig over the middle of the field but left the ball too far behind David Njoku and inaccurate. Even without the defender who undercut the ball, it was going to be a third down miss that had a chance to be caught.
I’m unsure where the Browns go with Gabriel from here. He is too often swallowed up inside the pocket unable to process an answer. He is checks the football down to covered players resulting in losses, is inaccurate too often, and just isn’t playing clean football. The vision that he can turn it around is tough to hold faith. His process is failing on its own, let alone those around him failing to prop him up.
The run game was non-existent and probably their worst result of the season. They did get a 31-yard Malachi Corley FLY sweep for 31 yards and a Gabriel scramble for 12-yards on a scramble but otherwise it was nothing. Loaded run boxed and poor execution. They went for 12 rushes and just 19 yards from the running backs in this game. Cannot win this way.
The wide receiver group remains a mess. They accounted for two receptions on the 21 for the day. Empty targets to Isaiah Bond throughout the afternoon, and Jerry Jeudy only had two targets and zero receptions. Jamari Thrash hauled in the only two for the game and went for 31 yards. It is wild to think an NFL game can be played where the offense has 19 running back rushing yards, 35 dropbacks in the passing game, and receivers have just two catches.
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