A BUSY WEEKEND IN THE AFC NORTH

By STEVE KING

So many thoughts on what happened on Sunday in the AFC North. Here are a few:

*Had someone asked you before the season if you would have taken seven wins – with one game left – for the Browns, you would have signed off right then and there, correct? Of course, you would have. Well, following Sunday’s 26-18 win over the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium, the Browns are even-up at 7-7-1 heading into next Sunday’s regular-season finale at Baltimore. How cool – how totally unbelievable — is that?

*Speaking of that game at Baltimore, it should be a great one. At least it shapes up that way. With Saturday night’s convincing victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, coupled with Pittsburgh’s sloppy loss to the New Orleans Saints, the surging Ravens (9-6) are a half-game ahead of the slumping Steelers (8-6-1) in the division. If the Browns can beat the Ravens and sweep the season series, and Pittsburgh loses to Cincinnati on Sunday, the Ravens would still win the North at 9-7 and the Browns and Steelers would tie for second a half-game back at 8-7-1. Talk about a close race.

*If the Bengals are in any way thinking of firing/retiring head coach Marvin Lewis and replacing him with special assistant to the head coach Hue Jackson, then they ought to quickly get rid of those thoughts.  The Bengals have gotten worse offensively – much more so – since Jackson arrived at mid-season after getting fired as head coach of the Browns. And I don’t want to hear anything about Cincinnati’s injuries having a major role in that. Every team has injuries. They have to fight through it. And the Bengals aren’t fighting through it – at all.

*Back to the game against Baltimore. Having so much on the line, and with the revenge factor after the Browns beat them in the teams’ first meeting back in Cleveland over 2½ months ago, the Ravens are going to be loaded for bear. As such, we’ll get to see just how much the Browns have really improved this season.

LOOK WHAT’S UNDER THE TREE THIS YEAR

Browns fans should be happy – very happy – this Christmas, for they’ve finally gotten the gifts they so long have wanted in this Grinch-like expansion era.

First of all, they’ve gotten winning, something that’s been in real short supply. It is, after all, the most important thing. As Herm Edwards so famously said, “You play to win the game.”

They’ve gotten winning within the AFC North. All of a sudden, the Browns are far from the easy win – the homecoming opponent – that the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers would have scheduled every week if they could have.

They’ve gotten winning at home. No longer is FirstEnergy Stadium a home-field disadvantage. It is a home-field advantage, one that opponents now don’t want to visit because the team, the fans and the environment are, combined, tough to overcome.

They’ve gotten a general manager in John Dorsey who knows football, knows people and knows when to take calculated risks. After all, he delivered the player most needed — the one who plays the most important in team sports, the one without whom no winning can be sustained, no championship can be won.

They’ve gotten that player named Baker Mayfield. He has conjured up memories of Bernie Kosar, for, at the end of his first season, that is exactly who it appears he is. If only that proves out to be true.

They’ve gotten a core of talented young players, the likes of which the Browns have not have since, again, the Kosar era in the last half of the 1980s.  

They’ve gotten a head coach/defensive coordinator in Gregg Williams and an offensive coordinator in Freddie Kitchens who really know their stuff and are well-respected by their players.

And, finally, they’ve gotten the audacity of hope, as former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano likes to call it. There is – there are – many reasons to believe this is just the beginning of something really, truly special.

In any case, a very Merry Christmas to you and yours. May this day and this season be a touchdown in every way, shape and form.

IS WILLIAMS’ WORK ENOUGH FOR THE GUY WHO MATTERS MOST

Has interim Browns head coach Gregg Williams already shown enough?

That is, has he already shown enough in these past seven games, and perhaps also in the final one this season – the all-important one for a variety of reasons — on Sunday at Baltimore against the now AFC North-leading Ravens, to earn the job for at least the next several years?

Has he shown enough to you?

No offense, but more importantly, has he shown enough to Browns General Manager John Dorsey? Has he at least presumably shown enough to Dorsey? In the big picture, all that really matters is his opinion, for he will be the one making the call on who to hire on a full-time basis to replace Hue Jackson, who was fired at mid-season.

After a loss in his “opener” in game No. 9, Williams has guided the Browns to five wins in their last six games to boost their record to 7-7-1, which is the best they’ve had at this point in the last 11 years, when the 2007 team was 9-6 on its way to a 10-6 finish.

That’s impressive – very much so – as it already represents the Browns’ biggest one-year turnaround ever following the 2017 nightmare of 0-16. But, again, all that matters is if it’s impressive enough for Dorsey.

It would seem so, but it’s hardly a given. In Dorsey’s mind, Williams was not even on the radar as a long-term solution when the GM handed the reins to him. All Dorsey wanted was for Williams to get to the Browns to the finish line with as little embarrassment as possible.

Williams, of course, has done far more than that. He has well exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations. The players seem to love Williams and Freddie Kitchens, who was promoted to offensive coordinator from quarterbacks coach when all the other changes were made. And winning over the locker room is a big pre-requisite for any head coach.

It’s no secret that Dorsey has had his eye on high-profile candidates such as Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley. Has Williams’ work caught Dorsey’s eye enough to move it off Riley and his ilk?

Only Dorsey knows for sure, and he’s not saying and likely won’t say until he hires his guy.

However, those questions are all legitimate, and, with just one game – only a few days away – remaining, it won’t be long before we’ll find the answers to them.