There is a special kind of knee-jerk reaction that only occurs in Cleveland Ohio. Recency bias doesn’t even begin to describe how quickly fans and even sportswriters can vacillate between “we’ve got a championship caliber team” and “we’re in the toilet”. It’s a town that only cares about what you’ve done for them lately, as in yesterday. Forget about last week, last month, and god forbid you consider past seasons as reference points to evaluate a current organization. My point is that for the better part of two decades, the Cleveland Browns did not play a meaningful game in the month of December. This is a team that averaged four wins a year over the span of 15 seasons. This is a team that Terry Pluto would optimistically pick to go 6-10 every year. We all craved relevance more than anything, we wanted to see the Browns in the first couple of stories on Sportscenter as Christmas approached. The 2017 season is not ancient history, and nether is that stupid 0-16 parade at the stadium. So take a second, recognize the Browns are 6-6 and in the hunt for a playoff spot.
I get that it’s difficult to objectively assess a team after an inexplicable loss like last week to Baltimore. It’s mind boggling that the defense had four interceptions, held a team to 16 points, and still managed to lose. The Cleveland offense was terrible, and there’s a litany of columns you can find on cleveland.com about all of the details about why that was. The game was a huge opportunity for Cleveland to stick their toe in the playoff door in the AFC, and instead they stepped in a St. Bernard-sized pile of dog poop.
So of course it was all doom and gloom across the sports landscape in Cleveland last week. Granted there are some valid concerns; Baker’s creaky shoulder, dropped passes, and the complete lack of a downfield threat, and the paltry 2.4 yards per rushing attempt. However, I wonder how the conversation would have gone if just one play had gone the other way. (Like if Lamar Jackson doesn’t make that crazy TD pass to Andrews, or if Austin Hooper actually catches a pass.) Listening to Cleveland sports radio this week, you would think that the Browns were completely outplayed in every facet, and that it was totally a one-sided affair, when in fact it was not. The Browns were in position to win the game, and very nearly did, although that’s not the takeaway you would get from any article or podcast. It is true that the offense was anemic, and the play-calling bizarre, but with all that went wrong, it’s not a stretch to say the Browns could have won that game. I can only imagine how that would have been on Monday morning across Cleveland. This team is gritty, they’d say, they didn’t play well but they gutted out a road win against a rival. Or something like Baker played hurt, was willing to put it all on the line for a win. It would take about 12 seconds to jump right into playoff talk, Hey we won at Baltimore, we can beat them again, and be in the mix to win the division. But the thing is, it’s the same players, the same coaching, and 56 of 57 plays would be the same. So the outcome of a single play changes the narrative by 180 degrees. Such a fickle bunch, these Clevelanders. I heard everything from cutting Baker, firing Stefanski, to replacing the peanut vendor in section 236. There are five games to go, and three are in Cleveland, the situation isn’t as dire as some would have you believe. The bye week couldn’t come soon enough, and although the fan base didn’t take a deep breath and relax, hopefully the coaches, players, and peanut vendors did.
The truth is that this team is definitely good enough to beat Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, there is no question about that. We are not going to be overmatched in any of those games, and we match up well with those teams and I expect that games will all be close in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, we get a play that goes our way late in the game, and we keep the playoff hopes alive one more week. I’m happy to go into this last stretch with the defense playing out of their minds, and with Stefanski using the bye week to reinvigorate the offense. Regardless of how it shakes out with the playoffs, the Browns are probably at worst going to finish 9-8, and for how many seasons would we have all been delighted at finishing over .500?
Go Browns.