Browns' west coast woes continue

DENVER — The Browns will limp to the team plane for a week-long trip to Los Angeles after losing 29-12 to the Broncos on Sunday to fall to 7-4. With the Steelers coming alive and beating the Bengals earlier in the day to improve to 7-4, it was a perfect opportunity for the Browns to game some ground on their division rivals, but it wasn't to be. The Steelers have the tiebreaker in the division by virtue of their division record. The Steelers are 3-1 in the division and the Browns are 3-2. The 8-4 Ravens play the Chargers in the Sunday night game. The Broncos — turnover machines that they are — won their fifth straight game to improve to 6-5 and get themselves firmly into the AFC playoff conversation. They jumped out to a 14-0 lead and survived the Browns closing to 14-12 in the third. The Browns slipped to 1-6 in Denver since their return to the NFL in 1999. The Browns, who had their three-game winning streak snapped, will spend the week in Los Angeles practicing at UCLA before they face the Rams next Sunday. They lost quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson to a head injury with 13:28 left in the game; and lost receiver Amari Cooper (2 of 6 targets, 16 yards) to a rib injury with 8:28 remaining. They were already without starting cornerback Denzel Ward (shoulder) and safety Rodney McLeod, who's out for the season with a torn biceps. And Browns defensive end Myles Garrett had his left shoulder in a sling in the postgame locker room and said that he heard something in his shoulder pop during the game. He had trouble raising his arm and needed help getting his shirt on. Not even the presence of Nick Chubb at Mile High on Sunday was enough to pull the Browns out of their doldrums. Chubb, out for the season with his knee injury, will spend the week with the Browns in L.A., but there's not much he can do to get the playoff train back on track. "We're on a business trip. The first one didn't go how we wanted it to," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said after the loss. "... We just didn't play clean ... put the ball on the ground four times and didnt stop the run the way we expect to." P.J. Walker (6 of 13, 56 yards, 58.5 rating) finished the game. Thompson-Robinson was 14 of 29, 134 yards, 1 TD — his career first — with 73.1 rating, and had five runs for 21 yards. With him likely in the concussion protocol, the Browns might have to decide if Joe Flacco, signed this past week, or Walker will start next week in L.A. Stefanski said after the loss that he would wait to see how the week went before deciding who the starting quarterback will be vs. the Rams. In L.A., they will meet up with their injured starting quarterback Deshaun Watson, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in L.A. last week. He'll be out there spending time with the team during meetings and practices. They will need all the support and encouragement they can get. With the Broncos clinging to a 17-12 edge, Thompson-Robinson dropped back to pass and scrambled around near his own end zone, looking for a play on third and long. After he threw it away, the Broncos' Baron Browning crashed in on him, drilling him in the shoulder and chin. Down and woozy on the field, Thompson-Robinson was checked by the medical staff and then walked off the field with the medical staff. He visited the medical tent, and when he emerged, he walked to the locker with a towel over his head. Soon after, the press box announcer revealed he was being evaluated for a head injury. With Thompson-Robinson still in the medical tent and Walker on the field, the Browns committed their second turnover against one of the most opportunistic defenses in the NFL. On a reverse, Elijah Moore pitched the ball to Pierre Strong Jr., but Strong fumbled the exchange. Denver's D.J. Jones recovered to start the Broncos at the Browns 20. Four plays later, Broncos tight end Adam Trautman made a fantastic catch of a Russell Wilson pass at the right side of the end zone to put increase their lead to 24-12. It was first ruled incomplete, but changed to a TD upon review to apply the final dagger for the Browns. Tight end Harrison Bryant had lost a fumble on a sneak play in the first quarter, and the Browns did what they knew they couldn't do out here in the thin Denver air: They lost the turnover battle. The Broncos headed into the game on a four-game winning streak fueled by their grabby defense, which had forced 13 turnovers in the previous four games and 12 in their previous three. In addition to losing to Thompson-Robinson, the Browns also lost receiver Cooper to the rib injury with 8:28 left in the game after he took a huge blow from safety P.J. Locke. The Browns also lost defensive tackle Jordan Elliott to an ankle injury. It was a costly loss all the way around for the Browns, as they lick their wounds and try to regroup next week against the Rams. Defensive lineman Za'Darius Smith went down with a left ankle injury on the first play of the second half, and came limping out of the tent with his ankle taped. Linemate Myles Garrett also suffered an injury in the third quarter on a running play. While he was in the tent, the Browns forced a three-and-out on the Broncos' opening drive of the second half, which was huge. They key play was Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah's tackle for a loss on third down. Owusu-Koramoah led the Browns with 12 tackles, including a sack, and also forced a Wilson fumble in the first half. The Browns then took it to Denver on the ensuing drive, driving 79 yards in 13 plays to pull within 14-12 on a 2-yard TD pass to tight end Bryant. The two-point try failed when Cooper dropped the low pass in the back of the end zone. Thompson-Robinson patted his chest to signal that it was on him, but the pass hit Cooper in the hands. He always calls that a drop. The Browns defense came up big again on the Broncos' next drive after they marched to the 3 on some chunk plays, including a 24-yard run to the 7 by Samaje Perine. On third and 3 from the 3, Ogbo Okoronkwo dropped Perine for a 3-yard loss to force the Broncos to settle for a 23-yard field goal and a 17-12 edge with 1:25 left in the third. The Browns closed to 14-6 at the half on a 24-yard field goal by Dustin Hopkins with 22 seconds left in the half, his second straight kick after the Browns fell behind 14-0 in the second quarter. The Browns were forced to settle for the second field goal when Thompson-Robinson's pass at the back right corner of the end zone to Elijah Moore fell incomplete. Both Moore and Tillman showed up in the same spot on the pass, and prevented each other from catching it. Tillman was sensational on the drive, catching passes of 17 and 23 yards to the Broncos' 9. A pass from the 6 intended for David Bell was batted at the line by Mike Purcell. It was the second straight drive on which the Browns were forced to settle for a Hopkins field goal after a botched third-down play. Hopkins kicked a 36-yarder with 5:59 left in the half after Jerome Ford dropped the short pass to the left on third and 11. But Ford was a big part of getting them into field goal position with a 19-yard run on the second play of the drive and an 11-yard run two plays later. It was as if the Browns finally decided to run the ball on the NFL's 32nd-ranked run defense. The Broncos jumped out to a 14-0 lead with 11:11 left in the half on a 2-yard run by Wilson, his first rushing TD of the season. He also gained 19 yards on a keeper on the 13-play, 80-yard march. Wilson also found Marvin Mims Jr. for a 16-yard pass on third down, with Garrett in coverage. Two defensive penalties helped Denver's cause, a neutral-zone infraction by Garrett, and an offsides by Alex Wright. Both teams overcame first half turnovers on fourth down gambles. Harrison Bryant fumbled the snap on a fourth and 1 with 4:37 left in the first quarter, and Denver recovered. But Wilson gave it right back on an 8-yard scramble on a fourth and 3 when Jeremiah Owes-Koramoah punched the ball out at the end of the run. Browns defensive end Alex Wright alertly fell on the ball. The Broncos took it to the Browns on their opening drive, on a 3-yard TD run by Perine to finish a nine-play, 80-yard drive. Key plays on the drive were a 34-yard pass interference call on cornerback Greg Newsome II vs. Courtland Sutton; and a 31-yard catch by Sutton on third down on which Newsome appeared to stop on the play. The Broncos rushed for 101 yards in the first half, and converted 4 of 6 third downs, two areas the Browns had been stellar in heading into the game. The Browns, on the other hand, were only 1 of 7 on third down in the first half for 14.3% The Broncos were also 2 of 2 in the red zone in first half, while the Browns were 0 for 2. Up next The Browns play in Los Angeles' Sofi Stadium vs. the Rams (5-6) next Sunday. Kickoff is set for 4:25 p.m.