Four wins in a row was too good to be true for the Cleveland Browns. Coming out of Week 5 of the NFL season, the Browns took a 17-12 loss on the chin to the New York Jets in a game they could have won multiple times in the fourth quarter.

Instead, Cleveland is now 3-2 heading into an AFC North battle against the Baltimore Ravens next week. The offense had a poor showing against New York, and the special teams unit had a late miscue that killed. 

There were still bright spots for the Browns, especially on defense. Here’s a look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s loss.

Browns winners from the loss to the Jets

LB Quincy Williams

Williams said he was going to go out and have a good game against his former team, and he backed that up. Williams finished with 10 tackles and three forced fumbles.

Williams was clearly a man on a mission against the Jets. He was the best player the Browns had on the field Sunday, and it wasn’t particularly close.

DT Maliek Collins

Collins is the top healthy defensive tackle on the roster right now, and he played like it. Collins recorded 1.5 sacks against New York and was a disruptive force in the middle of the defense for much of the game. He’s up to 2.5 sacks through five games. With Mason Graham out, Cleveland needed Collins to step up, and he did just that.

WR Denzel Boston

Denzel Boston finished with three catches for 46 yards, but one play stood above the rest. His 29-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter gave the Browns their first touchdown of the game and a chance to win it if they didn’t have miscues elsewhere. 

Boston now has three touchdown catches and is clearly the team’s best wide receiver option. His job got a little harder with Casey Concepcion off the field, but Boston still found a way to make plays.

Browns losers from the loss to the Jets

S Ronnie Hickman

It was a tough day for safety Ronnie Hickman. He missed multiple tackles against the Jets and took poor angles at other points in the game.

Hickman can’t feel good about that kind of performance, and it’s not his first one this season. The Browns probably need to start playing Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in Hickman’s spot at this point.

WR Isaiah Bond

The second-year wide receiver led the team with three receptions for 74 yards with Concepcion out. On the surface, that looks like a solid day.

However, Bond was targeted seven times and had multiple costly drops for Cleveland. Those drops outweighed his yardage total, and he hurt the offense too many times in a game decided by five points.

P Corey Bojorquez

A snap went over punter Corey Bojorquez’s hands in the fourth quarter. The miscue gave the Jets great field position late in the game and helped New York pull ahead.

That’s a play that can’t happen from a veteran punter. The Browns need him to execute in that spot, and a mistake that big makes for a bad day for any punter.

TE Harold Fannin Jr. 

Fannin did not have his first catch until late in the fourth quarter and finished with just four receiving yards. Deshaun Watson did not go his way the majority of the game, but finishing with just four yards is a bad day. As one of the best weapons for the Browns, we needed to see a whole lot for Fannin in Week 5. 

RB Quinshon Judkins 

It’s looking more and more like Judkins is going to be a one contract player for the Browns after a solid rookie year a season ago. Judkins’ 44 yards against the Jets was his third highest total of the season, but he just can’t hit the big play for the Browns this season. Judkins’ longest run of the season is 14 yards and his inability to make defenders miss is a real problem. The lack of running ability for this team isn’t all on Judkins, but he has to wear part of it.  

Moving away from this loss 

Cleveland’s defense did more than enough to win this game, and players like Williams and Collins showed why the unit is the backbone of the team. The problem was everything else around it, from the drops on offense to the breakdown on special teams.

The Browns now have to regroup quickly with Baltimore up next in a key division matchup. Whether Cleveland cleans up the mistakes that cost them against New York will go a long way in determining how that game plays out.