Cleveland, OH

The Cleveland Browns are at a crossroads after seven games and it looks like it's on the offense to make sure the season goes down the right road.

Another sub-par performance by the Browns West Coast offense resulted in a 20-10 loss in San Francisco Sunday afternoon as Cleveland lost for the third time in four games.

At 3-4 there is still time to turn things around, but not much. The Browns' remaining schedule is not exactly a forgiving one and unless things change on offense, it's going to be a long few months.

It's a given that the Browns are a bit young and they also have been a bit unlucky in the injury department, regardless, Cleveland is going to have to find a way to establish the run and keep quarterback Colt McCoy on his feet.

Sunday's loss highlighted those areas.

Cleveland was outgained on the ground 174-66 and the Browns averaged a paltry 2.9 yards per rush. Frank Gore went for 134 yards and a TD on 31 carries but even when the Browns defense stiffened in the second half, allowing just three points, they couldn't take advantage.

McCoy was sacked four times and lost a fumble on the second play from scrimmage. This coming after he was dumped five times in Cleveland's previous game. McCoy ended up putting the ball on the ground four times against the 49ers but was lucky enough to recover three of them.

With two games against Pittsburgh and Baltimore remaining on the schedule and another against surprising Cincinatti, Cleveland is going to have to do a better job protecting McCoy.

Establishing a running game would help, but so to would having some healthy backs.

The Browns entered Sunday's game with Peyton Hillis inactive with a hamstring injury and Montario Hardesty suffered an injury to his right calf which kept him out of the game.

"I was just running a route and kind of felt it; I tried to give it a go, but it wouldn't go," Hardesty said. "It's tough. I want to play; I want to make plays. I felt this was a good opportunity for me. I felt like I could make something happen, but things like this happen some times. We'll evaluate in the morning and go from there."

Chris Ogbonnaya rushed for 37 yards on 11 carries and caught five passes for 24 yards but has only been with the team two weeks. Now he may be asked to carry the load for the Browns.

The pressure Mccoy has been getting and the lack of a run game has resulted in a bunch of slow starts. After getting shut out in the first quarter Sunday, Cleveland has been outscored 44-3 in the first quarter this season. That's going to make things tough on a team that has trouble scoring points as it it.

Cleveland has scored 107 points in its first seven games (15.2 per) and has topped 17 points just once this season.

It's not that the Browns don't compete, and they did well to keep things within striking distance Sunday, but the NFL is no place for moral victories.

"I get tired of talking about it, but we never give up," McCoy said. "We're going to fight until the end and now, it's about winning. That's it; it's about winning. We could talk all day about how we fight and fight. That's good; that's the character of this team, but we've got to start winning. When our back's against the wall, we usually play pretty (well). We'd just like to not be in that situation at the end of the game."

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