Joe Flacco and the Browns front office should be commended for their playoff push.
Joe Flacco, the quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, attempts a pass during the Browns’ Sunday victory over the Chicago Bears.
The Cleveland Browns are surprisingly still in the top wildcard playoff spot with three games remaining, despite starting four different quarterbacks and suffering multiple season-ending injuries to their star players.
The Browns defeated the Chicago Bears 20-17 to raise their home record to 7-1. As a result, they are now 9-5 and atop the conference wild card playoff standings. Cleveland may also be able to overtake Baltimore for the AFC North championship.
Terry Pluto, a sports commentator for Ideastream Public Media, disputes the notion that the Browns’ five victories, in which they led by two minutes, were the result of pure luck.
“They’ve won, I think, three of them on field goals right at the end of games,” Pluto replied. “That’s not luck, that’s good kicking.”
Pluto gives Browns general manager Andrew Berry credit for making one of his two “crisis moves” by trading for veteran kicker Dustin Hopkins of the Chargers and releasing kicker Cade York, one of his draft picks.
“Then, of course, bringing in (quarterback) Joe Flacco, who was playing catch with his brother … and running around with his kids playing football,” Pluto continued. “Kicker and quarterback, you talk about winning close games, and that’s largely because of them.
became the starting quarterback for the Browns after joining the team, winning two of his first three starts, and setting a few passing records along the way, Pluto stated.
In his first three games, Flacco—a seasoned quarterback and Super Bowl champion for rival Baltimore—has thrown for 939 yards, the most ever for a Cleveland quarterback. In the victory over Chicago on Sunday, Flacco threw for 212 yards in the fourth quarter, which was a record for a Browns quarterback in the last 45 years. In a regular season game, Flacco becomes the oldest Cleveland Brown to attempt a pass and score a touchdown, having turned 38 years old.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski became the first Browns coach to have two winning seasons during his tenure with the team with the team’s ninth victory since Marty Schottenheimer in 1988.
Pluto thinks that figure, in addition to Stefanski’s handling of the team’s injuries and Andrew Berry’s roster building, will secure contract extensions for both players at the end of the current campaign.
On Sunday, the Browns will travel to Houston, Texas, to play one of the other playoff contenders. Their final two games are scheduled for January 28 at home against the Cincinnati Bengals and December 28 at home against the New York Jets.
