Berea, OH (92.3 The Fan) – Hue Jackson returns to FirstEnergy Stadium for the first time since the Browns fired him on Oct. 29 this Sunday, but it doesn’t appear he’ll be the center of attention leading up to the rematch with the Bengals.
At least in Cleveland’s locker room.
The Browns have other concerns, like sweeping Cincinnati for the first time since 2002, sweeping a divisional foe for the first time since sweeping the Ravens in 2007 and also clinching their first winning divisional record since the AFC North was formed in 2002.
Beating Jackson for the second time this season would simply be icing on the cake.
“I think the guys know what we want to do to finish out the year,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said. “Right now, the goal is to beat the Bengals because that is the next game. That is the most important one of the year. That is how we have to handle it.”
Jackson went 3-36-1 as head coach of the Browns before being fired after 2 1/2 years and his former team hardly misses him either.
Cleveland has seen a resurgence with the Browns having won four of their last five games under interim head coach and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
“He has a lot of good friendships here,” Williams said. “He is good friends with me, too, but we have to play the Bengals. Unless he is going to go out there and take a few snaps and a few reps, then I have to go back and do some really old scouting report stuff and pick up some college film.”
The reception from what is expected to be a sellout crowd for Jackson will likely be cold, at best.
“I'm sure he'll get booed a lot, the fans will probably give him a hard time,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “I think he understands that, too. Anytime you leave a team like, he got fired, so he didn't really have a choice to leave, but he's coming back on another team. If it would be next year, he would still get the same reaction.
“It's probably going to be like that, but for me personally, I've got to worry about blocking Geno all game, so I'm not even really thinking about that aspect of the game.
Unlike the Nov. 25 meeting in Cincinnati that saw the Browns out for revenge, the lead up to this one isn’t about Jackson, who took a job as a special assistant two weeks after the Browns fired him.
In that first game the teams exchanged trash talk during warmups, the Browns ran out to a 28-point lead, safety Damarious Randall handed Jackson the football after intercepting Andy Dalton in the second quarter and left with a 35-20 victory that ended a 25-game road losing streak.
Mayfield called Jackson “fake” in an Instagram comment in response to an ESPN FirstTake video showing a host criticizing Mayfield for blowing off Jackson at midfield after the game and his postgame comments.
“I said what I said,” Mayfield said. “It is another week. We have to hit the reset button. We have to be able to come in, be able to block out the distractions, block out the outside noise like we have week to week every time this season and be able to do our job.”
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis wanted none of the Baker-Hue talk when he was asked about it during the weekly conference call.
“There is not anything about Hue and Baker in this call,” Lewis said. “We are going to talk about the Browns and the Bengals. Other than that, I guess we are done.”
The Bengals likely remember the first beating, and to expect them to come to town angry and motivated is expected.
“It is alright. Football is an angry, violent game,” Mayfield said. “If you play anything but pissed off, I do not think that you are doing it right.”
Being angry is one thing, turning it into a win is a completely different story as Pro Bowl defensive end Myles Garrett pointed out.
“Maybe, but you've got to go out there and prove it,” Garrett said. “You've got to go out there and show it. You can be motivated all you want and still get your butt whooped. It's about executing.”
