How Can the Browns Still Make the Playoffs

The hard style, win out and go 13-3, is the piece of cake fashion for the Browns to attain the playoffs.

An easy case can be fabricated that all four remaining games will be hard.

Baltimore beat the Browns 38-6 in September and is an early 2-point favorite to win side by side Monday night at Cleveland.

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The New York Giants, who play host to the Browns Dec. 20, take won 4 direct games, most notably the virtually recent one, at Seattle.

The New York Jets are 0-12, but they led the Patriots 27-17 midway through the fourth quarter concluding calendar month and had a 28-24 lead over the Raiders earlier getting shell by a last-second bomb on Sunday. The Browns will face the Jets in MetLife Stadium a week after playing the Giants in that location.

Pittsburgh, which comes to Cleveland for the Jan. 3 regular-season finale, is know longer unbeaten later on a Mon surprise confronting Washington, merely the the Steelers did crush the Browns 38-vii on Oct. 18,

The Browns enter these terminal 4 games in groovy shape with their 9-3 record, buoyed by a quarterback who arguably had a career game Lord's day at Tennessee.

Heart J.C. Tretter, who saw what leadership from a quarterback meant when he spent iv years with the Packers, imagines Bakery Mayfield every bit a playoff quarterback.

"Baker has been a squad leader from when he first got here," Tretter said. "He has a magnetic personality. Guys want to exist around him. Guys want to follow him.

"Baker been a leader of the team all year. You lot never have playoff experience until yous get it, simply Baker has had plenty of experience at winning, going back to higher."

B.J. Goodson, who has been an every-down linebacker for the Browns this year, played for an xi-5 Giants team in 2006 and a xiii-3 Packers team in 2019. He started confronting the 49ers in the AFC championship game earlier this year.

On Monday, Goodson suggested his new team has tapped into the vibe that can make the Browns an effective closer.

"I'm in love with the fact guys are in the grind mode," Goodson said. "None of us are content with where we are. Nosotros've got things to work on, for sure. We need to continue our foot on the pedal."

Given the remaining schedule, information technology volition be a challenge for the Browns to go 3-i, simply if they exercise, that's another like shooting fish in a barrel fashion into the playoffs. They would be 12-iv. No 12-4 squad has ever missed the postseason, and it won't happen this year, with an extra team getting in.

A patently former 2-2 finish would be a letdown for a team that plowed its way to 9-iii and is on a iv-game win streak. Still, information technology would get the postseason job done.

Bill Belichick'south 1994 Browns got to ix-3, then went 2-two, and got in. The last 11-5 squad to miss the postseason was Belichick's 2008 Patriots. Again, with seven AFC teams reaching the tournament this year, 11-5 would be gilded.

Browns fans are optimistic but not presumptuous almost 2-2 or improve.

In the 21 previous seasons of the expansion era, the last four games have brought records of 0-4 8 times and 1-3 another eight times.

The simply iv-0 end was in 2009, when it didn't mean a whole lot because the get-go 12 games produced a ane-11 mark. The only two-ii end was in 2005, when Romeo Crennel's first team went 4-8 in the first 12 games.

It is worth noting that the Browns' three best teams of the era all went 3-1 in their final three games. That includes: The 2002 team, which finished ix-7 and made the playoffs; the 2007 team, which finished 10-half dozen merely missed the postseason; and the 2022 squad, which had a hazard to be eight-7-1 but lost a flavor-ending thriller at Baltimore.

The dream finish is iv-0, which seems inside reach after Sunday's landmark win at Tennessee. It besides seems achievable by reviewing the remaining foes in some other light.

The Ravens' recent 1-iv slip includes a home loss to Tennessee.

On Nov. 29, the Giants struggled to vanquish a Bengals squad using injury replacement Brandon Allen at quarterback. The terminal was 19-17.

The Jets are 0-12 and have been outscored 197-99 at home.

Pittsburgh won recent route games against the Titans, Ravens and Cowboys by a combined 11 points and trailed Dallas xix-9 going into the fourth quarter. On Mon, the Steelers fell to Washington, peachy open a door for the Browns to win the AFC North.

Meanwhile, nine other AFC teams are in the hunt for the seven playoff openings. The list, with remaining schedules (games against other AFC contenders in CAPS).

Steelers (11-one): at BUFFALO, at Cincinnati, vs. COLTS, at CLEVELAND

Chiefs (11-1): at MIAMI, at New Orleans, vs. Falcons, vs. Chargers

Bills (9-3): vs. STEELERS, at Denver, at NEW ENGLAND, vs. DOLPHINS

Titans (8-4): at Jacksonville, vs. Lions, at Light-green Bay, at Houston

Dolphins (eight-iv): vs. CHIEFS, vs. PATRIOTS, at LAS VEGAS, at BUFFALO

Colts (8-4): at LAS VEGAS, vs. Texans, at PITTSBURGH, vs. Jaguars

Raiders (7-v): vs. COLTS, vs. Chargers, vs. DOLPHINS, at Denver

Ravens (6-5): vs. Cowboys Tuesday night, at CLEVELAND, vs. Jaguars, vs. Giants, at Cincinnati

Patriots (vi-half dozen): at L.A. Rams, at MIAMI, vs. BILLS, vs. Jets

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

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Source: https://www.cantonrep.com/story/sports/2020/12/08/how-can-browns-make-playoffs-monday-night-football-ravens-steelers/3856744001/

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