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Giving it up to the 3-1 Browns

By STEVE KING

Down to the wire. #CLEvsMIN pic.twitter.com/NKNDYUT1Lh

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 3, 2021

OK, so give it up to the defense — oh, my goodness, give it to the defense big-time for the second straight time — as the Browns held off the Minnesota Vikings 14-7 on Sunday in the nail-biter of all nail-biters, the game going down to the very last play when — drum roll, please — the defense forced an incomplete pass into the end zone from the Cleveland 32.

Give it up to Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods, whose group, after struggling all last season and the first two games this year, has, as mentioned, been lights-out the last weeks. Instead of making excuses, or lashing out at his critics, who was just about everybody on the face of the earth, this class act of a guy just fixed it, and his players just fixed it. “Take that, y’all,” is what he wants to scream so loudly, but won’t.

Give it up — again — to Woods, who, after the Vikings took the opening kickoff and marched downfield like a machine for a touchdown that made everybody back home in Northeast Ohio start to roll their eyes, made adjustments that enabled the defense to pitch a shutout the rest of the day.

Give it up to the pass rush of ends Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney, who played as well as advertised, putting heat on quarterback Kirk Cousins from every angle.

Give it up to the Browns linebackers, especially rookie Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, whose impressive speed was evident throughout — and … well, extraordinarily impressive.

Give it up to the Browns defensive backs, who were all over the Minnesota receivers all day, without getting flagged.

Give it up to the defense — overall – for helping to bail out Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield, who was absolutely awful — and that’s being nice.

Give it up to Browns’ Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, the best set of running backs in the NFL, who helped bail out Mayfield, too, by pounding on the Minnesota defense.

Give it up to Browns kicker Chase McLaughlin, who once again boomed long field goals, this time two of them. The 52-yarder was last seen heading toward International Falls as it disappeared over the horizon. Does anybody remember his predecessor, Cody Parkey?

Give it up to Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who, despite the fact he was returning home to his old stomping grounds, had ice water running through his veins all afternoon. How? Who knows? But you’ve got to like it. A coach who keeps his head when everybody else is losing theirs — isn’t that how the poem, “If,” by Rudyard Kipling, starts (and y’all thought I was just a sports guy, right?).

Finally, give it up to the Browns — as a team — for circling the wagons, working through the issues and winning a tension-filled game on the road. It’s the mark of a talented young team that continues to grow and mature.

And it’s the mark of a winner.

Well, what else would you call a team that is 3-1 after finishing last season 12-6. I’m just a public-school product, but I think thst’s a combined mark of 15-7, which, in a league whose framework tries to steer evert team into finishing about /500 every year, is pretty darn good, wouldn’t you say?

Yeah, I would, too.

And so, for the third straight week, it’s a Victory Monday in these parts. Let the party begin, or, should we say, let it continue?

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