I’m mostly just surprised someone admitted it

The Atlanta Falcons went into Cleveland on a three-game winning streak against the Browns, and came out with a heaping 28-16 loss that was never really close.

After the loss, on Atlanta’s 92.9 The Game, linebacker De’Vondre Campbell basically admitted what many of us have speculated for years — teams don’t take the Browns seriously going into the week:

“We didn’t come out with the energy we’ve been coming out with the past couple weeks, you know,” Campbell said. “And you know, I feel like it was one of those situations where, like as a team, we were just like ‘It’s the Cleveland Browns and we didn’t take them serious.”

Archer asked Campbell if Cleveland had given the Atlanta defense any unscouted looks. Campbell said they had, but fell back to a response of preparedness.

”I think it was more of an energy thing,” said Campbell. ”You know, like we just ... we didn’t come out and play today the way we’ve been playing the past couple weeks.

”As a defense, man, my message is just ... We’ve got to really come out with some energy every single game like we can’t afford to take any steps back. And today we took a huge step back.”

We kinda knew this, it was just surprising to hear somebody finally admit it.

It adds up though! The Browns had a good game — Baker Mayfield completed 17 of his 20 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns. Nick Chubb also had 20 carries for 176 yards and a touchdown. His longest run was a 92-yard touchdown, which is the longest in Cleveland Browns’ history.

The loss is a bad look for the Falcons, who couldn’t really afford many more of them going into Sunday’s game. Now at 4-5, playoff hopes are looking slim, and the dagger to those hopes might have been not taking the Browns seriously. That’s a terrible dagger to take.

The Falcons have had some embarrassing moments throughout their history, most recently a blown 25-point lead in Super Bowl 51. But this is pretty bad.

It’s also funny as shit, just because somebody finally said it.