The CLEVELAND BROWNS Are 9-3 And Absolutely No One Seems To Care
When I think losing and football, I think Cleveland. You do, too. A case could be made for the Lions, there's no question, but Detroit didn't go and lose and entire franchise to another city. So that really adds an extra layer of loser to what Cleveland's put together since their rebirth near the turn of the century. Does 9-3 mean anything? For the vast majority of franchises, no, no it sure doesn't. But we're not talking about other franchises right now. We're talking about the Cleveland Browns being 9-3.
Look at this franchise since 1999 and tell me 9-3 isn't noteworthy.
FIVE seasons with THREE (3) wins or less. As many seasons with TWO (2) wins or less than .500 or better seasons. This is with annual top 10 picks, 15 different Week 1 starting quarterbacks, and TEN different opening day head coaches. Again, this is only going back to 1999. We're talking about 21 years of misery with the most fleeting shimmers of hope.
I understand the 2020 Cleveland Browns are not world beaters. No one has them as Super Bowl favorites, nor even contenders. They have a -15 point differential (19th in the League), they have a negative margin of victory (-1.3), and the only thing they appear to be truly elite at is turnover differential (4th in the League). All of that information matters absolutely ZERO to me. It's the Cleveland Fucking Browns. They're 9-3. If I were trying to build a case for them being the best team in the League or a Super Bowl contender then yeah I'd need those numbers to look a whole lot better. But, I'm not, so I don't. The Cleveland Browns at worst will be 9-7. They play both New York teams as well as the Ravens and Steelers before it's all said and done, I wont count out a four game losing streak to end the year but that seems like the least possible scenario.
The thing that's been driving me insane watching people break down the Browns this year is talking about their strength of schedule. THEY'RE THE BROWNS! They aren't supposed to win any of these games. Every game they win is a miracle. From 2015-2017 they won four games total. Four out of 48 tries they emerged victorious. That's who we're talking about here. They swept the AFC South and are a game away from sweeping the NFC East. Each time I hear that they have no good wins it always seems to be revisionist history. The Colts are a good win. The Titans literally yesterday was a great win. Dak Prescott could still walk when the Browns played the Cowboys, I have a hard time calling that a bad win. Prescott put up 500 yards that game, any other time a QB balls out like that against the Browns the last 20 years they walk out of there with a 30 point win.
For all the talk about no great wins, there's been one bad loss - Las Vegas. Vegas and Cleveland are probably the same team. Both have expected records of 6-6 at this point of the season which feels fair. The Browns haven't been able to face the Jets and their conspiracy to throw games, but they will soon enough. Regardless, losing 16-6 to basically the same team as yours is a bad loss. Losing to the Ravens in Week 1 and the undefeated Steelers in Week 6, both on the road, aren't bad losses to me. The Ravens didn't start to crumble until recently and the Steelers are real world Super Bowl contenders. The point of all this is that the Browns, for the first time since Bill Belichick was running the show, appear to be a competent football team capable of winning games they should likely lose. Speaking of Belichick, there have been four Patriots games this season alone where his team was in a position to win such a game and left unable to accomplish the job. The Seahawks, Bills, Broncos and Texans games were all sitting there waiting to be won and the Patriots weren't able to do it. Being able to eek out a 50/50 game with a win isn't sustainable but it also isn't something to stick your nose up at if you keep doing it repeatedly.
The 2020 Cleveland Browns are 9-3, a real football team for the first time in over a decade, and deserve better than, "Yeah, well, who have they played?"