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BEREA — It’s not a nightmare, or an optical illusion. The Browns offense has really been as bad as it’s looked.

Historically bad.

The Browns are on pace to score the fewest points since the NFL adopted a 16-game schedule in 1978. They’ve scored 78 points (8.7 a game), which puts them on pace for 139 for the season. The 1992 Seattle Seahawks set the record with 140 points.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, the man in charge of the game plans and play calls, was asked Friday how much he’d like to avoid being the captain of the worst offense in the last 30 years.

“I would like to very much,” he said. “I can’t think that far down the road with those numbers. Score as many touchdowns as we can this week.”

Touchdowns plural is optimistic. The Browns have been held without one five times in nine games.

You can’t pick up a newspaper or click on a Web site without seeing a story or statistic depicting the struggles of the offense. Daboll doesn’t need any outside research to understand the depths of the futility.

“(Shoot), I live it,” he said. “It’s not good enough.”

“You want to call it extra bad, little bad, however you want to call it,” fullback Lawrence Vickers said. “Bad is bad. If we’re not doing the things we need to do and we’re not winning, then that’s bad.”

Daboll is in his first year as a coordinator and play caller for an offense ranked last with 214.3 yards a game. He’s become the face of, and spokesman for, the worst part of arguably the NFL’s worst team.

The Browns (1-8) have five offensive touchdowns in nine games. They also didn’t score an offensive touchdown the last six games of 2008 under coordinator Rob Chudzinski, so it’s five scores in 15 games, starting Nov. 23, 2008.

That’s the fewest over a 15-game span since 1950, which is as far back as STATS LLC can track. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976-77 are next with seven, sharing the spot with the Browns’ stretch from Nov. 17, 2008-Nov. 1.

During the 16-0 loss to the Ravens on Monday night, ESPN said the five touchdowns in 14 games was the worst stretch since the 1933-34 Cincinnati Reds, who shut down operations.

The Browns aren’t that hopeless.

“It’s not to the point where you’re going to be hiding underneath the table,” Daboll said. “But I’m not too big of a phone guy right now. I got a little office up there I kinda live in and work my tail off to get this thing turned around.”

The Browns’ 8.7 points a game is the third-lowest scoring average since 1950, according to STATS LLC. Tampa Bay averaged 7.4 over 14 games in 1977 and Atlanta 7.9 in 1974.

If the Browns averaged 36 points a game for the remaining seven weeks, they’d still fall one point short of the 331 the New Orleans Saints have already scored.

Daboll and his players have nowhere to go for cover.

The passing game ranks last in the NFL with 116.2 yards a game — fewer than 14 teams average rushing — and hasn’t eclipsed 100 yards in four of the last five games. The fifth totaled 106.

The rushing game ranks 26th with 98.1 yards, and the Browns are last in interception percentage (15 in 264) and 31st in first downs (114) and third-down efficiency (26 percent).

“It’s not good, whenever you’re categorized as worst of the worst, which is what it is,” said receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, who leads the team with 358 receiving yards. “You really can’t chop it up no other way.

“It makes you feel bad to feel a part of it and you only want it to turn around and get better at some point.”

Coach Eric Mangini worked with Daboll in New England, then hired him as quarterbacks coach of the Jets the last two years. Mangini has defended him all year and stuck with him through the bye week when a change could’ve been made.

Daboll takes responsibility for the offense’s poor play, but still believes in his ability as a coordinator.

“I feel confident in the things that I’ve learned from the guys that I’ve worked for,” he said. “That’s not going to waiver. The system is a good system, but it hasn’t been productive to this point. So we’re going to keep at it.”

Daboll has been hamstrung by what seems like a lack of talent at the skill positions. Quarterbacks Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn have struggled, Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie are rookie starters at receiver and running back Jamal Lewis is 30 years old. The line has also been inconsistent.

“We need to do a better job all the way around,” Daboll said. “It starts with the protection, the running game, the receivers getting open, the quarterback throwing, the calls.

“It’s not fun. It’s not like we’re not trying. We’re trying our (tails) off, trust me. You’ve got to wake up the next day and go out there and fight.”

Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com.

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