Cleveland Browns | Photo by Erik Drost
If you’re a Browns fan, you’ve been disappointed for years by the team’s results. Through the 2015-2017 seasons, the Browns only won four games, with the team failing to win even a single game in 2017, with a record of 0-16.
Although 2020 was a bad year for the NFl, the Browns were able to squeeze their way into the playoffs.
It seemed the result had been decided before the day of the match. Their opponent in the playoffs not only was the dominant 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers, but their last two playoff appearances in 2002 and 1994 were both ended by Pittsburgh.
Against all odds, the Cleveland Browns got their revenge in one of the most dominant playoff games the NFL has ever seen, scoring 28 points in the first quarter alone. While the Browns did fall to the Kansas City Chiefs in their next game 17-22, their 2020 season points toward a promising future.
The team is young and hungry to play more, as right guard Wyatt Teller said, “I wish we were still practicing. We’re ready for some more football.”
The regular season
The Brown’s 11-5 regular season winning record is the first in a long time being this successful for Cleveland, as the last time they had that many wins in a regular season was in 1994.
A big part of that success has to be from their offense, with quarterback Baker Mayfield, running back Nick Chubb and specifically playing well all year.
Baker Mayfield had over 3,500 passing yards in the regular season, and while eight interceptions is a scary stat to look at, it’s near the bottom of the pack for all of the starting quarterbacks this season.
With over 190 rushing attempts and 12 rushing touchdowns in the regular season, Nick Chubb was the go-to start for the Browns offense, and it’s easy to see why. He averaged 5.6 yards per drive in those 190 rushing attempts, giving him over 1000 rushing yards in the regular season.
Not only did they play well throughout the whole year, they won six of their last eight games, where the steelers they beat started out 11-0, but lost four of their last five games, and were on the brink of collapse.
Overcoming obstacles
Due to positive coronavirus tests in their organization, the Browns lost eight of their rotational players and five coaches including Head Coach Kevin Stefanski coming into their first playoff game in 18 years.
Adding insult to injury was a tweet from Steelers’ wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster coming into their game by saying “the Browns are the Browns… They’re a bunch of nameless gray faces.”
On the first play after the kickoff, a terrible snap puts the ball bobbling into the endzone, and the Browns defense recovered it. They scored three more times in the first quarter, bringing the score to 28-0, breaking a post-season NFL record.
The Steelers tried to fight fate, but the Browns cruised to a 48-37 win, with Browns players and Mayfield repeating Smith-Schuster’s line “the Browns are the Browns.”
