The Browns' failure to recover an onside kick with 1:22 remaining in the fourth quarter was just one of several mistakes that had to go wrong for them to lose to the Jets on Sunday.
The ball was kicked toward Cleveland's "hands" team receiver Amari Cooper. He seemed to have a chance to either collect the ball himself or at least swat it out of bounds. Instead, cornerback Justin Hardee seized control of the ball and gave the Jets the opportunity to score the winning touchdown.
Cooper told reporters on Tuesday, "It was my play to make and I didn't make it," according to Tom Withers of the Associated Press.
Cooper noted that kickers no longer try onside kicks by popping the ball in the air. Players knew at that time to jump into the air and catch it despite the possibility of being hit.
Cooper was quoted in a Cleveland.com video saying, "It's kind of a new style of teams onside kicking the ball to where you don't really know if it's going to go 10 yards and it's moving at an unusual angle - more difficult to locate the ball and make a play on it. On the one hand, you want to reach the ball as quickly as you can. You don't want to misread the ball, on the other hand. Just more challenging. But ultimately, you have to execute those kinds of plays.
With Thursday's game against Pittsburgh, Cleveland will at least be able to quickly put their embarrassing loss behind them.
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