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Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel didn’t take long to pinpoint what went wrong during Sunday’s 30-7 loss to the Browns.

“Basically the second half was our downfall,” Crennel said. “The score was close enough and then we let them drive down and score and then we turn the ball over and they get a field goal after the turnover and then we couldn’t get anything else going and couldn’t get anything else done to try to get us back into the game. So as a result of it, we ended up losing the game.”

The Chiefs entered the third quarter trailing by three points. However, Cleveland gained momentum without even touching the ball. Chiefs K Ryan Succop opened the third quarter with a kick that went out of bounds (illegal procedure), placing the ball at Cleveland’s 40-yard line.

Seven plays, 60 yards and 2:32 later, Browns rookie RB Trent Richardson scored from one yard out.

The very next drive, as coach alluded, another turnover proved costly, when Browns DB Tashaun Gipson picked off Chiefs QB Brady Quinn. The Browns used five plays to tack on three more points, thanks to K Phil Dawson.

“They capitalized off our mistakes,” Chiefs LB Derrick Johnson said. “You hate to go into a game like this, the second half; you don’t go out and play like you did the first half. This was supposed to be a really close game and it wasn’t.”

Later in the third quarter, Cleveland faced a third-and-eleven from Kansas City’s 42-yard line and was able to convert. The Browns scored five plays later, when Richardson added his second TD of the game.

“We knew they were going to run the ball,” Chiefs LB Tamba Hali admitted.

“We just didn’t know when they were going to run the ball. They passed it a little in the first half and were able to do a good job. Our game plan worked, but once the game starts switching, as far as the points and then you have to adjust. Once we were making all these adjustments, they were making plays. That hurt us as a team.”

Meanwhile, Kansas City’s offense struggled after its first-two drives of the game.

“Well I think we had a lack of consistency in a lot of our drives,” Chiefs T Eric Winston said.

“Obviously, you look at the stats and you say, ‘Wow, we ran the ball pretty well and we had a big run,’ but there were a lot of five-, six-, seven-, eight-yard runs, but we hit up some untimely penalties that moved us back into 3rd-and-8 and longer and I think we just weren’t able consistently to keep drives going. I think when you do that, it’s hard to score points.”

Fellow T Branden Albert agreed.

“Yeah, that kind of hurt us a little bit. It kind of brought us down because we could have gotten some points, but we didn’t,” Albert said. “There were a lot of miscues from everybody and we have to fix them and hopefully the next three games we progress and get better in the red zone.”

Trailing 27-7 in the fourth quarter, Cleveland’s special teams was at it again. Browns KR Joshua Cribbs returned a punt 38 yards, eventually leading to K Phil Dawson’s third make of the day, to make the score 30-7.

Crennel concluded his opening remarks by alluding to this Sunday’s opponent, the Raiders.

“We’re going to have to try to pull together and get ready for next week, which is a division opponent on the road,” Crennel said.

“And some of the young guys who have to step up and play, they’re going to have to step up and be contributors and help us out. So that’s what we’re looking at and that’s what we’re going to try to focus on this week.”