Playoffs? Playoffs.

 

You could tell the Browns fan base was excited by the sheer amount of lads without their shirts on by the end of the game.  I don't know why this is the action you take when your sports team is doing well.  It's sort of like when dogs run around in circles really fast when you get home.  In both cases it's a case of animals that don't know what else to do that just fall back to the ultimate lowest common denominator behavior.  I suppose the stadium employees should be excited nobody thought to toss their own excrement around like a mountain gorilla because that's where it was going.  That big fat guy shirtless with the luche libre mask they showed on TV every five minutes seemed like he might have gone overboard given how pink his skin became.  What can you do?  Seven to eight hours of tailgating isn't for everyone.  

The Browns are now in the playoffs and frankly look like they can beat anyone.  Of course, the exciting thing is that they also look like they can lose to anyone too, so there's no telling how this is going to shake out.  Joe Flacco is the guy that threw for almost 300 yards in the first half, but he's also the guy that tossed that bunny pick six too.  Somehow he is the most trustworthy QB the Browns have had in memory, which I am not sure is a statement about how great Flacco has played or how awful the forty quarterbacks have been previous to Saint Flacco's arrival from The Hand Of God.  The whole last few months are amongst the most interesting and confusing in Browns history.

The Browns were going to beat the Jets.  We all knew this.  The Jets knew this.  The Browns knew this.  They just had to fill in the details.  It is noteworthy how the national narrative about the Browns diverts from the local Browns fan perception.  Nationally the Browns are a great defensive team led by superstar Myles Garrett that has had life pumped into them via the Cinderella Story of Joe Flacco finding a home with a run first offense that he has turned into a high flying scoring machine.  It's the old "tough blue collar town with a tough team for the tough fans" bullshit.  TV shots of a smoke stack spewing and then a grainy shot of a closed up factory.  Cue up the Michael Stanley Band and cut to shots of America's ugliest fan base sitting in the end zone.  "These fans sure have been hungry for a winner Bob!"    

To anyone that spends a great deal of time observing the team the Browns are something else.  I see them as a resilient group led by a really good bend/don't break defense that is tough to pass on when Ward is on the field.  If Ward doesn't play, a 50/50 shot at this time of year, they have some real problems downfield.  Garrett is playing with one arm which had led to him becoming a smaller factor, but the rest of the D-line and linebackers are picking up slack.  On offense, the team cannot run the ball reliably and needs Flacco's steady stream of screens and TE passes in the middle of the field to allow Ford to break an occasional modest run.  Hunt can get you two yards regardless if you need one or four.  Third and three?  Pencil Hunt in for two.  Cooper and Njoku are the only real receiving options and Cooper is dinged up with a variety of injuries.  There are Browns offensive players on the field that even the biggest fans will not be able to name in a season or two.  I have no clue to how this team is moving the ball so easily.   

It seems that perhaps the NFL, in their pack mentality mindset, tossed a bunch of "mobile" QBs on the field to try and mimic the generational athleticism of Lamar.  It turns out that having a quarterback that can just stand there and throw the ball to the designated receiver might be the way to go.  Of the top 15 QBs in the league as per QBR, if you pull Lamar out of the mix, 13 of the 15 are essentially drop back QBs.  Goff, Cousins, Herbert, Stafford, Tua, Prescott and Purdy are right at the top.  So while the Browns chased the dragon of the elusive multi dimensional franchise quarterback, all they needed was a veteran guy that could read a defense and see over the linemen.  I'm thinking that Phil Rivers would have looked good in a Browns uniform a few years back, no?  Flacco isn't the long term answer, but the Browns don't need him to be.  The guy just has to keep going like this for another month.  

This team seems really shaky.  After jumping to that big lead I knew Stefanski would come out into The Stall in the second half.  Thank God they were playing the Jets or things could have gotten dicey.  Any NFL team can come back on you when you start taking a knee in the third quarter to run clock.  Well, any team but the Jets.  Each one of these wins seems like a minor miracle.  It sort of reminds me of those Bernie Kosar led teams in the late 1980s when it seemed impossible that the Browns would be able to beat any of the better teams they faced, but somehow managed to pull victories out.  At the end of the game fans would look up at the scoreboard, slightly stunned that the team won again. This team feels the same way to me.  It seems like at some point the lack of pedigree on the field is going to catch up to them, but you know what?  It hasn't yet.  Whatever magic pixie dust is swirling around this team has a shelf life, but I'll be damned if I know what that shelf life is.  

Go Browns.