Buckeyes climb to No. 5 in latest AP Poll
September 23, 2019
Despite frustrations, this Browns team is worthy of our patience
September 24, 2019
Happy Tuesday, WFNY!
And welcome to autumn, my favorite season of the year1. We have one week left in the Cleveland Indians’ season and the Cleveland Browns are 1-2 to start the season. If the Indians miss the playoffs and the Browns don’t get themselves figured out, this could be a pretty miserable fall for sports in Cleveland.
I could try to whip some overplayed metaphors about autumn being a season of wilting and decay and tying it to the Cleveland Browns. But the truth is, I’m just not that pessimistic on them yet. The Titans loss was embarrassing, and the Jets win didn’t mean a whole lot, but the Rams game felt like a true test, and the Browns failed their test. There are moral victories to be had2, but this season was meant to be bigger than moral victories. Sunday night was a chance to at least tie a big game, and the Browns failed. They couldn’t execute and they lost the game. So here they sit, 1-2. That’s not great. So why am I not worried about this more? Well, for starters, I kind of thought this could happen.
When I wrote about this upcoming Browns season back in the first week of September, I wrote the following:
“Having said all that, the Browns’ schedule could make this a pretty interesting season. If the Browns split their opening two games, there’s a worst-case scenario where the Browns are 2-5, or maybe even 2-6. Three of the Browns’ first five games are night games, where anything can happen.”
Well, here we are. The Browns split those opening two games and are now staring at a potential 2-5 start if they don’t turn things around immediately. That I saw this as a possibility doesn’t lessen the frustration of the product we’ve seen on the field, of course. It’s funny because I thought the Browns offense would be really good this year. It’s the defense that I was worried about. So, it shows how little I know, so even the things I could foresee probably don’t mean a whole lot.
I guess this is turning out harder than I thought to put into words why I’m not freaking out or panicking yet. Which, in itself is probably not a good sign and perhaps an indicator that I actually should be freaking out more than I am3. I guess I just think the Browns actually are getting better and they have been doing a lot of really good things4.
Week one, the Titans game got away from the Browns a bit in the end. But despite countless unforced self-inflicted mistakes, the Browns still were only losing 15-13 late in the third quarter. While penalties are still a factor more than I would prefer, the Browns have shown progress and are getting better in this area every week. Week two, the Jets were a clearly inferior team, but the Browns took care of their business and the defense did what they were supposed to do. Week three, the defense was simply outstanding. The Browns got their running game going pretty well and Nick Chubb clearly outplayed Todd Gurley in that game. The penalties and mistakes continued to get better.
It’s still nowhere near good enough, but the point is, I actually think the Browns are showing some areas of improvement. And despite the frustrations and the lack of desire for any kind of moral victories, the fact remains the same…the Browns showed they are extremely close to being on the level of a Super Bowl caliber team like the Rams. If Freddie Kitchens can start to get the offense all working on the same page, this is going to morph into a very difficult team to beat.
I also don’t think 2-5 is set in stone. The Ravens, 49ers, and Seahawks are all looking like very good teams, but you can’t tell me the Browns can’t beat any or all of them. The Browns have just as much talent, if not more, than these teams. But even if they do find themselves 2-5 or 3-4, the season is still far from over.
With the way the second half of the schedule shakes out, the Browns could go on a run similar to what the Colts did last year. Remember, the Colts started out 1-5 last year and people wondered if maybe Andrew Luck was finished (ironic). The Colts rebounded, fixed their issues, Luck started playing better, and they won nine of their last ten games to finish 10-6 and make the playoffs. So rather than freaking out about the slow start for the Browns, I’d prefer to focus on the things they can improve upon to turn this season around.
There’s some talk already of Freddie Kitchens giving up play-calling duties (I’ve even seen some call for his job already, which is ridiculous). Some are questioning if maybe Baker isn’t the franchise QB we all thought he was. Some have questioned if maybe Todd Monken and Freddie Kitchens aren’t gelling. Three weeks is way too early to start having these talks. The Browns need time to show that they are still working things out. Freddie Kitchens is a first-time head coach. There are often growing pains that come with that territory. Baker has still only started 16 games in his career. He has plenty of time to adapt and improve.
For now, it’s still early. But after this week’s game, the season will be a quarter of the way over already. So just because I think the team can still be fine, it doesn’t mean they don’t need to have a sense of urgency in figuring it out. A turnaround won’t just happen out of thin air. It won’t happen because the Browns have exciting top-end talent. The work will come from the coaches and players themselves. This is a sink or swim situation. We’ll find out soon enough if this team can learn to swim.
- Autumn is also the only season to have two names. What is the proper name of the season? Is it autumn, or fall? And why does it have two names? I see a deep dive into Wikipedia in my future! I have a guess, though. Autumn is when the leaves fall. So maybe people started calling it “fall season” and that eventually stuck and got shortened to just “fall”. [↩]
- If you would have told me at the start of last week that the Browns would be playing without their entire starting secondary, a starting LB, starting RT, and starting TE, and would still have the ball inside the 10 with a minute to go and three timeouts with a chance to tie the game, I’d have taken it 10 times out of 10. So that’s a moral victory if you want it. [↩]
- Wait, am I changing my mind in real-time? [↩]
- Yeah, ok, false alarm. I’m still not panicking. [↩]
