CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Put the champagne on ice.
The Cleveland Browns are about to exercise a lot of demons, and very soon.
Sunday’s 41-35 victory at Tennessee served notice that the Browns are no longer the NFL’s lovable losers and they really are about to end the league's longest playoff drought of 18 years.
The critics were looking for a statement and Cleveland’s football team delivered a big one Sunday in Nashville.
“I feel like all wins are statements,” defensive end Myles Garrett, who recorded his 10 ½ sack of the season, said.
This season the Browns continue to make history before our very eyes and fans, who have been beaten down by 16 double digit loss seasons since the franchise returned in 1999, are becoming pleasantly surprised with the regularity in which their beloved team is finally starting to win.
“They should be [excited]. They have every right to be,” receiver Jarvis Landry said. “It is definitely a special, special time in Cleveland right now. We are excited to be part of that excitement.”
Landry was one of the first players brought in to turn the league’s laughingstock into a contender three years ago, and he hasn’t disappointed.
Landry caught 8 more balls for 62 yards and his second touchdown of the season Sunday as he continues to lead the team in catches and yards for the third straight year.
“I think everybody’s eyebrows in a sense have been raised about our team,” Landry said. “Today was good for us. It was good for us as a team.”
The bar in Cleveland has gone from just win one freaking game – seriously the Browns went 4-50-1 from the end of the 2014 season, which saw them start 7-4, to the start of the 2018 season before Mayfield took over at quarterback in Week 3 – to just finish a season above .500.
With a multitude of boxes now checked, that bar has been reset to now make the playoffs.
“It has been a long time since Cleveland has had success like this and being 9-3,” running back Nick Chubb said. “I know the fans are excited. It is for them. Even though they can’t be here, we still appreciate them, and we are still playing for them.”
Chubb churned out 80 more yards and his seventh rushing TD of the season.
The Browns continue their historic 1994 pace and maintain the top Wild Card slot in the AFC.
“We did not set out to be 9-3,” Mayfield said. “There is a lot of ball left, and we hope that way so job is not finished.”
Long before the Browns selected him with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Mayfield already received an education about what football and the team means to northeast Ohio while at Oklahoma from a teammate who played at St. Edward High School.
“I heard about the Cleveland Browns ever since 2014 and how much it means,” Mayfield said. “I did not truly believe him until I really got here. It means a ton to the city, and then I realized when I got here, I was like, ‘Wow, this is real. This is a passionate fan base that lives, breathes and dies football, and Cleveland Browns football at that.’”
For Mayfield, who became the first Browns quarterback in the Super Bowl era and the first in franchise history since Otto Graham in 1951 to throw 4 touchdowns in the first half of a game, the time has come for fans to set the bar even higher.
“I think it means a lot to them, but they need to reset their expectations because we all need to reset the standard,” Mayfield said. “That is what I have been saying is there is a new standard and there is a foundation you have to continue to build on and improve.”
The win was the fourth straight for the team, marking the first time since 1967 they have been able to win 4 straight twice within the same season.
Considering the Browns hadn’t won 4 in a row since 2009, that’s quite a feat.
“I think people know that we are a good team now,” Chubb said.
The hated Ravens swoop into town next Monday night.
Depending on Tuesday’s outcome with Dallas, the Browns could have a chance to end Baltimore’s season and officially extend their own, yet only 12,000 fans will be allowed in the stands at FirstEnergy Stadium.
That might be the most 2020 thing ever – the Browns are finally winning and barely anyone can be in the building to bask in the glow.
“We think about the fans a lot,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “I wish they were in FirstEnergy Stadium, and we wish it was a different year; it is not. We feel the support in the community. I see the flags flying all over. We are hoping that we are putting a team out there that they can be proud of because they are obviously very close to our thoughts and all of what we are doing.”
It has been a long, painful road back to respectability, but the Browns put the rest of the NFL on notice Sunday.
See you in January.
