Games are not created equal

By STEVE KING

Everyone — with the Browns and otherwise — seems to be explaining away the Browns’ 38-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday by saying, “It’s just one game.”

Just one game?

Yes, that’s true, in a sense at least, that it’s just one game. It’s not two games or three games or more. It’s just one game.

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But on the other hand — a much bigger hand, really — it’s not really “just one game,” for while they all count the same in the standings, they don’t come anywhere close to counting the same in what they mean for a team positively or negatively going forward. Games are not created equal.

For instance, the win over the talented Dallas Cowboys — in their building — boosted the Browns’ self-confidence and maturity and development levels much more than the victory over a bad Washington Football Team.

At the same time, the loss to the Steelers counted, in a negative way, much more just a normal defeat. The Browns not only lost to their arch rivals, but they did so with first place in the AFC North on the line, and in a completely one-sided, humiliating way. They were completely non-competitive, It looked like the eighth-grade team playing the varsity, When the Steelers went up 10-0 in a blink of an eye, in a game that was supposed to be so close, and in a game that was going to provide a true indication of just where the Browns stood in their upward mobility, it was over. Just like that, the Browns were hopelessly out of the game. You could just feel it.
What a letdown. What a demoralizing afternoon.

How do the Browns respond from this? I don’t know. But what I do know is that, emphatically, no matter what anyone might try to tell you, these games aren’t all created equally, and that goes especially for that debacle in Pittsburgh on a show-me afternoon.