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'It's been a crazy-ass year, huh?': Browns playing high-stakes games despite adversity
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- 'It's been a crazy-ass year, huh?': Browns playing high-stakes games despite adversity
BEREA — Allow Myles Garrett to explain what Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars means for the Browns with regards to the AFC playoffs.
"I mean, they all count, but now they all count for two, especially this one being an AFC opponent," Garrett said Friday. "Let's make it physical, make it grimy, make it ugly. We're not a team that plays pretty ball. It's got to be dirty, messy, sloppy. We've got to make it as physical and sloppy as we can for the picture for them so they can't just go out there and just air it out or have a clean way of doing things. When they operate like that, it's difficult for us. But when we make it a AFC North football, then it's our brand. It's just what we do and we're the best at it."
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It's one thing the Browns are good at this year. There's another thing, though, that's right on brand for them.
They've gotten quite good at, in the face of adversity, somehow finding a way to turn the tables.
The Browns are 7-5 as they come home from a two-game western swing . However, they also are on a two-game losing streak after said swing through Denver and Los Angeles .
"The camaraderie is present, but we have to use that time as, now that we're back here, as a way to focus in," Garrett said. "You're around your home, everything that's natural to your routine and things like that, they allow you to kind of get into your groove again. … As we mature and build more time with each other, that kind of stuff we have to do away with, can't allow road trips to get away from us for one reason or another.
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"But being here, there's no excuses. It's time to lock in, it's time to focus up and it's time to win these games."
David Njoku (85) celebrates after scoring during the second half against the Arizona Cardinals at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
In the course of the trip, the Browns had to switch quarterbacks — again — because their starter at the time, Dorian Thompson-Robinson , sustained a concussion. That opened the door for former Super Bowl Most Valuable Player and 16-year pro Joe Flacco , who wasn't even on the roster a week before Thanksgiving, to start a game and, maybe, even another one Sunday.
The Browns didn't finish either game with their No. 1 receiver, who may or may not play Sunday because of a concussion. Their top-10 defense, the backbone for so long, also didn't finish either game well, allowing both to turn into a double-digit losses.
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And, yet, the Browns, by virtual of the Pittsburgh Steelers ' loss on Thursday night to the New England Patriots , enter Sunday's game holding down the top wild card spot and No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs.
"It's been a crazy-ass year this year, huh? Four quarterbacks, huh?" tight end David Njoku said. "Honestly, speaking on that, it is a testimony to how tough this team is, and I really applaud this team for just facing all the challenges that we face this year. Starting running back ( Nick Chubb ) goes out for the year, starting quarterback ( Deshaun Watson ) is out for the year.
"We have to improvise. We have to figure out who we are again, adjust certain things. This is a big, big applause to the players and the coaches. Just to be able to hit that quick audible and still keep everything flowing."
The Jaguars (8-4) will be, record-wise, the best team the Browns have played since Nov. 12, when they played the Ravens in Baltimore . Of course, the Browns came back from a two-touchdown fourth-quarter deficit to win on a last-second field goal behind Watson, only to learn three days later that Watson would be lost to a season-ending broken glenoid in his throwing shoulder he sustained at some point in the first half of that game.
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Which led to Thompson-Robinson getting the starting job, which he lost by injury — quite possibly for the rest of the season — to Flacco. A rookie who was the backup and then wasn't, before becoming the starter before losing it to a guy fresh off his couch in New Jersey.
Los Angeles Rams coach Kevin Stefanski, right, celebrates with quarterback Joe Flacco (15) and other players after a touchdown catch by Jerome Ford against the Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 3 in Inglewood, Calif.
That's been how the Browns have remained in the playoff mix, despite a variety of haymakers that would've crippled even recent-vintage Browns teams. Even Njoku acknowledges that fact.
"I want to say yes just to sound cool, but I don't know, man," Njoku said when asked if he thought previous Browns teams would've held up. "I don't think so. It was just such a different mindset from then until now, and it just, it's crazy, but it's all a blessing end of day after life."
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Those blessings include the Browns winning more than their share of games they've lost in previous seasons. A game against the San Francisco 49ers in which the 49ers' game-winning field goal drifts just feet wide, followed by a shootout win over the Indianapolis Colts guided by backup quarterback … P.J. Walker .
However, Njoku said there's something much deeper behind the Browns' ability to maintain their composure in those games compared to previous years.
"It's everything," Njoku said. "It's people buying in. It's growing, it's developing, it's maturing, but it's more so a choice to want to do what we got to do. Whether it's pretty or ugly, we got to do it. I mean, that's just what we got to do."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns playing high-stakes December games despite plenty of adversity
