5 Biggest Browns Storylines to Watch Against Steelers in Week 2
- Jim Schwartz might destroy the Steelers locker room from the inside out
- Does Dawand Jones even want to make his first start?
- The Browns can make history with a win
- Cleveland is getting way more respect than we're used to
A Historic Start for the Browns?
This one's kind of sad, but hopefully it ends up being sad in a "start of a heroic redemption story arc" kind of way.
The Cleveland Browns as we know them today, the "re-joined the NFL in 1999 and have been the butt of jokes for most of that time", have never started a season 2-0. The last time we did it was way back in 1993, when over two thirds of the current Browns roster was not even born yet.
That stat is especially surprising because it's not like we haven't had winning seasons in that time.
The 11-5 season in 2020? Started with a brutal 38-6 blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens before we went on a four-game winning streak.
The “wait, is Derek Anderson the future!?” season when we went 10-6? A 34-7 beatdown from the Steelers gave the Browns an 0-1 start before recovering to 1-1 and eventually falling to 1-2 (we didn’t even eclipse .500 until Week 8, after our bye).
It's not like starting 2-0 guarantees success. That 1993 team even made it to 3-0 before losing, but Bill Belichick, Vinny Testaverde and co. ended up finishing just 7-9 and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
But not guaranteeing long-term success doesn't mean it's not important. You can't go 20-0 without finishing the regular season 17-0, and you can't finish the regular season 17-0 without starting 2-0.
And if you have more sane expectations, you're still pretty happy to see your team get on the board with some early success too.
Have I said enough about this now that I've definitely jinxed it?
Time will tell, but the betting markets think Cleveland can overcome any bad vibes I'm causing here.