Browns are a 5-2 team, just ask Bill Parcells

By STEVE KING
I had to laugh and shake my head — not in a funny way, but in a disappointed and disgusted one — when I saw a writer asking in a piece if the Browns’ 5-2 record was “fool’s gold,” that the team might not be nearly as good as that mark would seem to indicate.
Really?
Really?!
Come on, really?!!!
I didn’t believe it when I first heard him say it years ago, but now I am a firm believer in Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Bill :Parcell’s belief about teams that, “You are what your record says you are.” That is, if a team is 5-2, then it’s worthy of being called a 5-2 team. And if a team is 2-5, then, like it or not, it’s nothing more than a 2-5 team.
Period, end of statement, end of argument.
The Browns are better than the four clubs they’ve defeated, the Cincinnati Bengals twice, the Dallas Cowboys, the Washington Football Team and the Indianapolis Colts. Colts fans may argue that point, but the Browns beat them by nine points and outgained them 385-308 in total yards, including 261-420 passing and 124-68 rushing, almost a 2-to-1 margin. So their argument holds no merit.
And the Browns are still trying to catch up to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, the two teams that handed them their defeats by the scores of 38-7 and 38-6, respectively.
That’s the Browns’ season in a nutshell as they get ready to host a team they should beat and are predicted to beat, the Las Vegas Raiders, on Sunday at FirstEnergyStadium. They are favored by 2 1/2 points. 
When the Browns had losing records, which is for all but two other seasons of the expansion era, they played pretty well against good teams in a number of those defeats, but came up short in the crunch time of the fourth quarter. It didn’t matter, though, in that they still lost, and no one — no one! — was claiming that they were a better team than their record. There are no style points handed out.
When the New England Patriots were winning all those Super Bowls, they were beating up on some pathetic teams in the AFC Least. But no one was doubting their standing as one of the greatest dynasties in pro football history.
Most of the games in the NFL, regardless of who is playing, and where, are close. They are decided by a few points on plays made — and not made — in the fourth quarter, and the Browns are a great example of that. Their game against the Raiders will likely fall into that category.
If the Browns win to improve to 6-2, then they will be a 6-2 team.
And if they lose to fall to 5-3, then they will be a 5-3 team.
Thinking any other way is, as Bill Parcells has so famously said, utter nonsense.