For what it is — a possible step in the right direction, but with still a very long, long way to go — the Browns are in a good position as they get ready to play the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
The Steelers, as they always are at home, will be tough to beat. They are 3-1 and, in Aaron Rodgers, have a real quarterback for the first time in a long time. Unless something unforeseen happens, they will almost certainly win the AFC North championship, in part because of who they’ve become — that is, a rising star in the conference and a team that is a legitimate contender to go to the Super Bowl — and also in part of what the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals have become — that is, once well thought of teams that, because of injury problems at quarterback and getting exposed as not having nearly as much talent elsewhere as everyone believed, are crashing and burning and falling to the ground like they have an anvil tied to their waist.
With all that, then, the 1-4 Browns, who went into the season in a rebuilding mode and were never mentioned in the same breath with the division’s other three teams, now have a chance to leapfrog both Baltimore and Cincinnati, if not immediately, then certainly by year’s end.
But for that to have a chance of happening, their young players, especially three rookies in quarterback Dillon Gabriel, running back Quinshon Judkins and linebacker Carson Schwesinger, must continue to improve and develop. Indeed, this team’s best days are ahead of it, but it’s just going to take time.
That starts with this game at Pittsburgh. The Browns can’t get outclassed, embarrassed and routed, as they did in Week 2 at Baltimore before the Ravens began to implode. They have to take it well into the fourth quarter and perhaps even get themselves into position to win it at the end.
A victory? That would definitely give the Browns a tremendous boost going forward, as this represents the end of their brutal six-game stretch to open the season.
The Browns could best do this if they commit to run the ball, primarily with Judkins, just as they did so well last Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. That would help Gabriel, who could supplement that with short passes to beat the big Pittsburgh rush.
Defensively, the Browns can do much more than just hold they’re own if they’re not forced to spend a lot of time on the field because of the offense having too many three-and-out possessions, which was a real problem earlier in the year.
We’ll see, but the Browns can’t afford to get down by a lot early, for that would let the crowd into the game and take away from their ability to pound the ball with the run.
*NOTES: As pointed out to me the other day by former longtime Browns beat writer Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repositoty, this is Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s 15th season. That’s just two years less than founding head coach Paul Brown spent in Cleveland. Brown got summarily fired, but Tomlin won’t suffer the same fate. Though he will never have the team named for him, he can stay in Pittsburgh as long as he likes. . . . The Steelers may have already privately started thinking about re-signing Rodgers at the end of the season if he continues to play well and wants to stay. The Steelers have no other competent quarterbacks on the roster, and it appears that he likes it in Pittsburgh and has some gas left in the tank. The problem is, Rodgers takes his good, ol’ time making decisions, so this issue, if it ever becomes a thing, may not be resolved until next summer.
Steve King
