So, just how significant is it that the Browns finished the preseason with a 4-0 record?
A little. Not a lot, mind you, but just a little. And that’s OK.
If the Browns had been Super Bowl contenders for several seasons and were going to be so again this year, then it wouldn’t matter at all that they were perfect in exhibition games. The talent – and the ability to know how to win, especially in big games – would already be there, so the preseason games would serve as mere tune-ups for the games that actually count in the standings.
But in coming off a 1-15 season and the fact they’ve posted nine consecutive losing records, the Browns are obviously far from being that kind of team now. They want to get to that point someday, but it’s going to take some time.
As such, winning – plays, series, practices, days and games, even in the preseason – count for something as the Browns learn how to have success, inconsequential though it may seem at times.
That’s how their 4-0 mark this year has to be viewed. It’s not going to propel them to the AFC Championship Game, but it’s a whole lot better than being 0-4, which they were in 2016 in Hue Jackson’s first year as head coach. The losing just kept on going once the regular season began as the Browns, whose horde of young, inexperienced players had no idea how to win on the pro level, dropped their first 14 games before finally defeating the Chargers on Christmas Eve.
As such then, yes, it matters that they went undefeated for no other reason than it puts the Browns at the opposite end of that spectrum as they go into the regular-season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 10. At least the Browns have a little momentum, for however much that counts. They feel much better about themselves. Their confidence is a lot higher.
And that’s as it should be, for the Browns have been unbeaten in the preseason just five times in their NFL history, the last of which came with another 4-0 mark in 1986, a whopping 31 years ago. The other four occasions, in addition to 1986, were in that first season in the league in 1950 (5-0), 1962 (5-0) and 1982 (4-0).
The defense, of course, has led the Browns in this year’s preseason. The defense turned in a shutout, 25-0, over the Chicago Bears on Thursday night in the finale.
For what it’s worth, that’s just the sixth preseason shutout the Browns have recorded in their NFL history, and the first since 1992 – 25 years ago – when second-year head coach Bill Belichick’s club defeated the Atlanta Falcons 7-0 in the opener.
Two of the previous five shutouts heading into this year were in the College All-Star Game, so Thursday’s effort represented just the third blanking of a NFL team in Browns preseason history.
In addition, to further illustrate the success of the defense this preseason, the 29 points the Browns allowed this year is, by far, the fewest they have given up in their three 4-0 finishes. They surrendered 70 points in 1986 and 66 in 1982.
But all of this – the winning and the points allowed – will all start meaning considerably more in a little over a week. In the meantime, fans need to have a tempered appreciation for what the Browns did in the preseason.
