Thanks to Mike Tomlin, the Browns may not have to worry about this scene unfolding on Sunday. Edge rusher T.J. Watt is expected to be held out of the game. (Associated Press)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
We are held captive, helpless as all hell breaks loose in Berea.
This is how 2021 begins for Browns fans.
Excruciating.
Just like old times.
Who’s in for the Steelers game? Who’s out? Are you kidding me?
After a generation of dysfunction, the Browns are relevant again, inflicting heartbreak rather than mere headache.
Get used to it, newbies. This is how it is when the Browns are good. There is always something keeping their fans on edge, in fear of something screwing it all up. There is always an untimed down with this team.
It’s a thrill ride. Terrifying. Exhilarating. And then comes a kickoff and the emotions reach a higher level.
Nothing is given
It started a week ago when a few players recovered from the week’s last practice, relaxing in the hot and cold tubs, not knowing one of them would later test positive for Covid-19. An unforeseen lapse in the team’s seemingly airtight adherence to Covid protocols.
Eight players were hurriedly pulled from travel plans to New Jersey for a mere formality – beating the 1-13 Jets to virtually wrap up the Browns’ first playoff berth in 18 years.
With their top four wide receivers left home, along with an offensive line weakened by the loss of two starters, it was up to Kevin Stefanski, the cool, calm, collected mastermind of the Browns’ cultural turnaround, to cobble together the most sensible, low-risk plan to score one more point than the 1-13 Jets.
And the cerebral coach promptly lost his marbles.
The Browns threw 53 times and asked their heart and soul, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, to run 15 times.
Actually, Baker Mayfield dropped back intending to throw 57 times. Four of those drop-backs resulted in sacks, and he lost the ball on two of them. And then in the midst of a frantic comeback from a 20-3 deficit, Mayfield, practically flawless in the past five games, lost the ball a third time on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-inches.
The Browns were 15 yards away from the taken-for-granted triumph.
But … no worries.
Keep your enemies closer
The Steelers, of all teams, did the Browns a huge favor.
Browns-nemesis Ben Roethlisberger, of all people, kept the Browns’ playoff hopes alive with his own furious comeback against the Colts forestalling a trip to the glue factory.
The Pittsburgh win set up a win-to-get-in mulligan for the Browns in the final game Sunday on their home field against the Steelers. Moreover, the outcome would mean nothing to the Steelers, other than for pride – of which they have plenty.
With bigger fish to fry, Mike Tomlin announced that Big Ben, holder of a 24-2-1 record against the Browns, would sit the game out to rest his weary 38-year-old bones. Later in the week, reports came out that other Browns tormentors would also not play – monster edge rusher T.J. Watt, brick wall run-stopper Cameron Heyward, and savvy center Maurkice Pouncey, to name a few.
And then they started happening again back in Berea. The news alerts.
Tight end Harrison Bryant and free safety Andrew Sendejo banished to the Covid-19 reserve list.
Strong safety Karl Joseph banished to the Covid list.
Then a practice squad player. Then an unidentified coach tests positive.
Facility locked down, everybody out. Zoom meetings in session. Practice on hold.
Hours passed. Without notice, the lights were turned on and the doors re-opened.
Mainstay rookie left tackle Jedrick Wills was back from illness. Road grader right guard Wyatt Teller was back from a three-week ankle injury. Practice was on.
Mayfield arrives “in a little bit of a surly mood” and was “incredible” in conducting a “perfect practice,” according to offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
“He was very sharp … laser focused … locked in and ready to go. He ripped every ball he threw and bounced one off of a helmet that was just absolutely fired. We did not have a long practice, but he was perfect, and yes, statistically, yes,” Van Pelt professed.
More good news flowed from there.
The receivers were back, led by Jarvis Landry. Landry’s first missed game in his career, because of the Covid protocols, left him disappointed and hurt “more so than you can probably can put into words,” said Mayfield.
Having Landry so motivated, having Baker so surly, having Chubb and Hunt and Teller reunited, what more could the Browns ask for against the Steelers’ JVs?
Beating the ball drop
And then it happened again, several hours before the ball dropped from a subdued Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration to formally ring out dreaded 2020.
Lights out, doors locked, practice canceled.
Shutdown cornerback Denzel Ward, aka the Warden, placed on Covid-reserve. Worse, reports were that he tested positive and was not merely exposed to someone who did. That means Ward possibly could miss the playoff game – if there is one.
A few other players conceivably could not make it back in time, too – linebacker B.J. Goodson, Sendejo, Bryant – but Ward’s absence figured to be felt most.
So the Steelers, who are still the Steelers, will arrive in FirstEnergy Stadium Sunday with a chance to do their nastiest deed yet – slamming the door on the Browns’ return to the post-season after opening it themselves.
And they will have Mason Rudolph at the helm, a stand-in tormentor for Ben.
The same Mason Rudolph who inadvertently submarined the Browns’ 2019 season when he incited – whether he said something or just physically challenged – Myles Garrett to lose control and bop him with his helmet and be suspended for the final six games with playoff hopes still flickering.
We thought nothing could top that. But the pandemic lapped the field.
On the first morning of the New Year, Steelers tight end Vance McDonald appeared on Good Morning Football on NFL Network. He was asked about the incongruity of losing to the Browns and punching the post-season ticket for their long-time rivals. In effect, reviving them from an 18-year slumber.
McDonald dismissed the notion.
“It’s a critical game for us. Obviously, as a football fan, you want the best for the Browns, but they had their chance. I’m sorry," he said.
Hours later, the Browns were permitted back to work by the Covid police.
The game is on. The Browns are back. You feel it now.