BROWNS GETTING MOST FAVORED STATUS

By STEVE KING

OK, the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t very good.

Any team that has Marvin Lewis (head coach) and Hue Jackson (assistant to the head coach) as they’re two highest-ranking coaches, is not going to be very good. And the Bengals aren’t.

As such, then, the Browns, who beat the Bengals at Cincinnati in the teams’ first meeting this season far worse than the 35-20 score would seem to indicate, are favored by nine points in Sunday’s rematch at FirstEnergy Stadium.

It was eight points earlier in the week, but now it’s up to nine.

Nine points! That’s nearly the equivalent of a touchdown and a field goal.

Now, nine points might not seem like much in the big picture – that is, from the perspective of the entire NFL – and I can certainly understand that, but it is a big deal to the Browns. In fact, I can’t recall when the Browns have been favored by nine points in a game. It sure hasn’t been any time recently.

It is another of the clear, unmistakable signs that the Browns are getting better. They’re not anywhere close to where they want to be, where they need to be – after all, they’re just 6-7-1, and they had to get red-hot, winning four of their last five, to do it – but considering this team was 0-16 last year and a combined 1-31 over the previous two years, it’d pretty darn good.

In fact, if they beat the Bengals – and they should — then the Browns will be .500 (7-7-1) after 15 games for the first time since 2007 when they went 10-6 and just missed the playoffs.

When the Browns finished an encouraging — or so everybody thought — 7-9 in 2014, they were 7-8 after 15 games en route to losing their last five.

And one other – definitely encouraging – thing about the Browns is that they are ranked No. 16 in the sportsillustrated.com poll this week. Yes, that’s right, they are indeed in the top half of the league – at the tail end, but still in the first half – for the first time in who knows how long.

As long as the Browns keep doing things so good that no one recalls when, exactly, the last time they did it, they’re going to be right on schedule with this total rebuilding project.

NO ENGINE OVERALL NEEDED THIS TIME

Usually at this time of the year in this nightmarish expansion era, the Browns are spent.

They are like an eight-cylinder car running on about half a cylinder, coughing, hacking, wheezing and sputtering to the finish line, much to the dismay of their loyal fans, all of whom deserve so much better than that.

But it’s different – tremendously so this season. The Browns are purring along. All cylinders fully engaged, on their way to a much, much, much more impressive finish, and, on top of that, they’re saving their best for last.

Winners of four of their last five and sporting a 6-7-1 record that’s already five wins better than they had the last two seasons combined, they host Cincinnati at 1 p.m. Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium in their home finale with a chance to sweep the Bengals for the first time since 2002, the first – and only — time they’ve qualified for the playoffs in the expansion era.

In that’s not eye-catching enough, the Browns have two other areas that stand out.

For starters, if they beat the Bengals – and again, they should, being solid nine-point favorites after pounding them in Cincinnati by 15 points a month ago – they will improve their AFC North record to 3-1-1 and assure themselves of finishing with a winning mark within the division.

In addition, also with a victory, they can finish with a home record of 5-2-1, their best since they were 7-1 in 2007.

This is not brain surgery. It’s not hard at all to figure out. A team’s best chance – by far – to make it to the playoffs is to do well both at home and within the division. It works nearly every time it’s tried.

That the Browns have improved so dramatically in both those areas this year seems to be a clear indication that they’re taking steps – big steps – toward becoming more than just a one-year success story.