Browns now media darlings – look to ace major exam
By Steve King
The Browns had become the punch line for jokes in recent years.
That’s what all that losing will do for you.
Now they’ve become cool, chic, popular and respected as opposed to disrespected.
That’s what winning – even just a little of it — will do for you.
That change has been evident in any number of media places, the most recent of which nobody in Northeast Ohio heard late Friday afternoon.
It was on Detroit’s sports radio station, WXYT-M, 97.1 The Fan. Host Mike Valenti, who pulls no punches, telling it exactly like he thinks it is, has been big on the Browns, and rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield, in the last month, and he was that – and then some – as he and his co-hosts discussed this weekend’s NFL games.
Calling the Browns “one of my favorite teams,” Valenti was quick to jump on them in their game against the host Houston Texans on Sunday.
“Take the Browns getting those 5½ points,” Valenti said.
This type of thing is going on all over the country. The Browns have won two in a row – by lopsided margins, at least by today’s NFL standards — and are 4-6-1. The Texans are red-hot, having won eight in a row after a nightmarish 0-3 start to improve to 8-3. They have become one of the AFC’s best teams heading down the stretch.
In the past, that kind of match-up would have been a death knell for the Browns. They would have been given no chance to merely compete against, let alone to beat, a team such as the Texans. But now it’s merely a challenge. The Browns don’t have to back down from anyone.
And now even people – sports media people — in other markets see that and have no problem pointing it out.
For Browns fans sitting back and watching this transformation, it’s really cool – and real satisfying.
BROWNS LOOK TO ACE THIS MAJOR EXAM
The battle with the Houston Texans at 1 p.m. Sunday at NRG Stadium will really test the ever-improving Browns both individually and collectively in a variety of ways, providing a great measure of just where, exactly, they’re at, at this stage of their development.
Collectively, the Browns, who have won two in a row for seemingly the first time since Paul Brown was in knickers to improve to 4-6-1, will try to keep up that momentum. A signature victory like this over the 8-3 Texans, who are the hottest team in the NFL with an eight-game winning streak, would validate Cleveland’s position at the tail end of the AFC wild-card playoff picture.
Just think, the Browns, at possibly 5-6-1, still in the postseason hunt – if only mathematically – with just four games left? That’s hard to grasp, for in both of the last two seasons, they were winless after 12 games.
All this after former Browns head coach Hue “Benedict Arnold” Jackson was set out on the curb with the trash, which, in this case, is a spot on the coaching staff of a team in total disarray, the Cincinnati Bengals. That tells you all you need to know about Jackson’s value – or lack thereof – as a coach.
And speaking of head coaches, the man who replaced Jackson, Gregg Williams, is one of the three Browns who have the most to gain individually by a big performance at Houston. Previously viewed as only a stop-gap measure when he got the job on an interim basis about a month ago, his standing as a legitimate candidate to get the job full-time in the offseason, has been gaining steam with each passing week. That would only be helped – immeasurably so – by defeating the best team the Browns will play in the second half of the season.
Then, of course, there’s quarterback Baker Mayfield, a leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year Award. The defenses of the Bengals and Atlanta Falcons, the teams the Browns have beaten during this winning streak, aren’t that good. The Houston defense, though, is extraordinarily good, so if he can do the Texans what he did to Cincinnati and Atlanta, then his star will burn even brighter – a lot brighter, really.
Much the same can be said for Freddie Kitchens, who became offensive coordinator in the head-coaching shake-up. His play-calling has been superb and he has gelled nicely with Mayfield. Even if it’s not in Cleveland, he could well become an offensive coordinator somewhere.
Whatever the case, no one on the Browns, from Kitchen to Mayfield to Williams to the 53rd man on the roster, is daunted by the challenge at hand. That, in itself, is a good indication of just how far this team has come.
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