November Projects as Most Crucial Month for the Browns
As we sit today, the Cleveland Browns are 4-4 and are at a crossroads. The month of November will be their most critical stretch of games yet, and to remain in playoff contention, they have to play their best football.
The Browns are currently one game out of holding the eighth overall pick and one game away from a playoff spot. That illustrates how early we are in the season, but this next month will determine if they are playing meaningful football games in December.
At the beginning of a season, only a few teams are clearly out of playoff contention. The rest of the league has to wait a few months before the actual playoff teams emerge from the pack.
Cleveland was 5-3 after eight games last season, and while the context was different, the reality was the same: they had to play better football against the NFL's best teams. Through that eight-game stretch, they played two playoff teams and were humiliated both times.
Cleveland has played three teams with a positive win-loss record this season and is 0-3 in those contests. Again, the context of the two seasons is different, but they have things to clean up in both situations.
The Browns rattled off four consecutive wins in their next four games to put themselves in firm control of a playoff seed. Of the four opponents, only one made the playoffs.
Here are the next four games on the schedule for the Browns:
@ Cincinnatti
@ New England
vs. Detroit
@ Baltimore
These are winnable games for the Browns, and you have to come out of this stretch with a plus record if you hope to preserve your playoff hopes.
Sometimes teams have to struggle early in the season before beating up on inferior opponents and finding who they are. The Browns were run off the field in week six of the 2020 season by the Pittsburgh Steelers and went on to beat them in the wild card round.
Cleveland may not come out of this slump and could struggle during these next four games. Or they could rise to the challenge and come out of this stretch revitalized with a chance to make the playoffs.
That doesn't change that these next four games will determine if the Browns are playing for a spot in the playoffs come December. They have struggled early this year but, at times have given us glimpses of the 2020 team that re-energized the franchise.
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