The Browns have a chance to make another statement – an even bigger one than a week ago — when they visit the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium.
The Browns made a statement in last Sunday’s season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers. A win would have been a declaration that the Browns had taken a quantum leap forward after last season’s 1-15 disaster. It would have been a key moment in their total rebuilding effort.
They came close to doing just that, taking the Steelers – clearly the team to beat in the AFC North – to the end of the game. But they ended up losing 21-18, so they had to settle for that statement being simply that they are getting better.
To a little lesser degree, the Browns have that same kind of opportunity on Sunday. The Ravens aren’t the Steelers – with just one winning season since 2013, including a dismal 5-11 finish in 2015, head coach John Harbaugh went into this year with significant questions about his job security – but they made their own statement last Sunday. In crushing the host Cincinnati Bengals 20-0, they showed some signs that may be getting back to being the tough, physical defensive team that they were for nearly every season from 2000-12.
So with the possibility that the Bengals won’t be a factor this season – more on that in a bit – the Ravens appear to be the only team in the division that has a chance to challenge Pittsburgh.
Saying that, then, if the Browns, a decided underdog (the spread is eight points) can top Baltimore, then they will have taken a big jump forward. That’s not a quantum leap, but it’s still pretty good.
Can the Browns do it?
Even if they can’t – even if they have to settle for another close loss in a game in which they performed pretty well and made their opponents play all 60 minutes – they will still walk away with the knowledge they are on the upswing.
Remember, the key to getting better is consistency, to give a good account of yourself week after week. The Browns can’t make the Steelers sweat and then lay an egg against the Ravens. That would be a big step, too – backward, that is.
There’s also something else at stake for the Browns on Sunday, and it is that by defeating the Ravens – and possibly even just by taking them to the limit – they will provide some evidence that they might be able to supplant the Bengals as the third-best team in the division. The Bengals, who lost 13-9 at Houston last Thursday night, are 0-2 and are the first team since the 1939 Philadelphia Eagles to not score an offensive touchdown in their first two games.
By the way, the Browns host the Bengals in two weeks, on Oct. 1.
