Rest up... then clean up. Rest of the schedule is winnable and you should be there come playoff time. Combined, 14-20-1 on the remaining opponents... 2 or 3 (Titans, Ravens and the Eagles) games are really tough, but the Browns must beat the others (Giants and Jags)... no room for mistakes, your playoffs start now.
There are basically three tiers of NFL teams: the "Have's", the "Have nots" and the "Wannabe's". Every September: The "Have's" only wonder how they're going to fit another Lombardi in their trophy case. The "Have not's" only wonder who they're going to pick with the #1 pick in the next draft. The "Wannabe's" hope to win enough games to get into the playoffs. The hallmarks of the "Have's" are: Consistency in the front office. Adequate talent across the board on both sides of the ball. Coaching staffs that tailor their approach to the talent on the roster. Leadership both on the field and in the meeting rooms. The 2020 Browns clearly fall in the "Wannabes" category. Yes, we're 5-3-0 and it's been mostly a fun ride for the fans so far. Yes, we're very likely to make the playoffs this year. But it's virtually impossible for a team to catapult themselves directly from a "Have not" to a "Have". So, at the halfway point of the season - where do we stand with regards to the Hallmarks of the "Have's" ? One cannot demonstrate consistency in a single year. The jury is still out. Stay the course, Jimmy! There can be no question we're still lacking "adequate talent" on both sides of the ball. (this includes depth to compensate for injury) My first impression is that Berry and Stefanski are in synch. They clearly filled some holes and appear to implement schemes to match the names on the roster. The second half of the season will answer this.
Except, the last time that we tried to win a meaningless game against the Browns in week 17 , Ben was carted off on a stretcher causing half of The Steelers Faithful to go into cardiac arrest. Then he came back and took us to the SB. I don’t give a crap about 16-0 as much as health for the post season. Of course Rudolph would probably win the game for us anyway.
Trust me. We would be more than happy to duplicate that. Only this time, put his big ass out to pasture - for good. OBTW - you got beat by the Packers in that Super Bowl.
Pretty early for playoff talk but assuming no major injuries I would put 4 teams in right now: Kansas City Pittsburgh Baltimore Buffalo That leaves 3 spots for: Tennessee 5-2 Indianapolis 5-2 Cleveland 5-3 Las Vegas 4-3 Miami 4-3 The Raiders loss hurt because they are unlikely to win the division and thus will be fighting for a WC spot like the Browns. The Colts win was big if they don't win the division. The Titans are on the schedule. Bengals did you a real solid here. This could be a must win and it's on the road. The Dolphins have strung 3 wins together but have a difficult schedule remaining. Gonna be interesting but I think the Browns have to get to 10 wins.
Browns could get to 10 and still be sitting at home. Tennessee's a wild card (chances are they were overlooking Cincy) but they boat-raced us last season. Just pulling from recent history, the losses down the stretch will be: Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Tennessee Philadelphia, both New York teams, Jacksonville, and Houston are all winnable games. 5-3 over that span gets us to the 10-6 mark, but losses to the aforementioned teams keep us home in January. And with the way our defense is playing, we'd be a one-and-done playoff team this season. Feels like we need six or seven pieces on that side of the ball to get to where it needs to be. Offensively, we just gotta get healthy, but we also got to figure out why this team shows up and plays like they did against: Baltimore (6 points), Pittsburgh (7 points), and Las Vegas (6 points) some weeks, while averaging 37.4 points in the other match-ups.
Titans, Dolphins and Colts do not have easy schedules going forward: Dolphins - @Arizona, KC, NE, @Las Vegas, @Buffalo Tennessee - Indy, @Balt, @Indy, Cleveland, @G. Bay Indy - Balt, @Tenn, GB, Tenn, @Las Vegas, @Pittsburgh
Let's just hope our 2 time walk-on, #1 overall, Heisman Trophy winning, defending AFC offensive player of the week, Quarterback Baker Mayfield can get his poop in a group over the bye week and figure out a way to establish some consistency with this offense. We either hang 35 on the board, or get completely stifled, and getting stifled by the Raiders, especially at home, is cause for serious concern IMO.
If he was referring to 2008 . . . there's no doubt he wouldn't have said, "WON the Super Bowl" instead of "took us to the Super Bowl". Gid never passes up a chance to remind us how many SB's you guys have won. He just got his "last time's" screwed up.
I wasn’t sure off the top of my head and didn’t feel like looking it up. Been to so many SBs they all become a blur. Just like you guys start blurring out on number one overall draft picks
S.A.S. I would listen to Willie and not look past Philly. The Steelers and Ravens have seen that they can play. The problem is the eagles start slow and play to their competition. If they ever get healthy or figure it out they are dangerous, as has been the case the last 2 seasons after slow and injured starts.
(Assuming all other teams finish up as expected) The key to a Browns' playoff game is Indianapolis. If the Colts split the series with the Titans - Titans are in as AFCS champ, Colts as a Wild Card. If the Colts sweep the Titans - Colts are in, Titans are in (better conf. record than the Browns plus head to head) If the Titans sweep the Colts - Browns are in, Colts are out. One other scenario: If the Raiders beat the Colts (week 14) - Browns are in, Colts are out. It appears we need to become Titans and Raiders fans.
