Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
This all started when superstar running back Nick Chubb went down with a serious knee injury in the second quarter of the second game in Pittsburgh.
That’s when real adversity first struck. That’s when the realization sunk in that the Browns would have to be stronger than they’d ever been as a team to reach their goal.
So it was fitting that Chubb reappeared again at the start of playoff clinch night in the final Browns home game, as the celebrity pre-game, guitar-smasher, to not only rev up the playoff-starved crowd but also to re-inspire his teammates.
“Oh my God, I know the crowd went crazy. I went crazy,” said tight end David Njoku.
Chubb had charged his teammates in September to “go get it.” For him.
And so they did. Mission accomplished.
The Browns wrapped up their first playoff appearance since 2020 with their fourth win in a row, 37-20, over the New York Jets behind another 300-yard, three-touchdown game from godsend replacement quarterback Joe Flacco.
It moved them to 11-5 and secured the fifth AFC playoff seed, at the very least. They can win the AFC North with a win in Cincinnati in the regular-season finale only if Baltimore loses its last two games, both at home, against Miami on Sunday and Pittsburgh the following week.
If those unlikely events don’t happen, the Browns will surge into the playoffs on the road against the winner of the AFC South division. The Browns played all the possibilities – Jacksonville, Houston and Indianapolis – and beat them all.
All of which is fairly incredible considering Chubb’s injury – devastating in its own right – was only the tip of the iceberg.
Over the course this journey, the Browns lost quarterback Deshaun Watson; offensive tackles Jack Conklin, Jedrick Wills and Dawand Jones; safety Grant Delpit; and others, and still won 11 games, with one to play, for only the second time in 25 years of the expansion era.
Ultimately, they embodied the cliché – what didn’t break them made them stronger.
“You don’t know in this NFL,” said coach Kevin Stefanski, who became the first Browns coach since Bernie Kosar-era coach Marty Schottenheimer to win more than 10 games twice and make the playoffs twice. “My God, there are things that happen you can’t predict. So, for us to just stay the course throughout the season, I’m proud of this team.”
Even on their clinch night, the Browns had to overcome the loss of No. 1 receiver and new single-game receiving yards franchise record-holder Amari Cooper, who was a late scratch because of a heel injury, and the loss of No. 2 receiver Elijah Moore, who scored one touchdown and was on his way to his finest game with the Browns, to a concussion.
In addition, defensive end Myles Garrett played with a heavy heart following the surprise death on Christmas of a close uncle. Garrett broke his sack-less streak of five games, finally drew a holding penalty, caused two false starts, and had four quarterback hits.
“I just felt a little bit of lack of focus, like I was in a fog,” Garrett said, much to the surprise of Jets left tackle Mekhi Becton and quarterback Trevor Siemian. “Just trying to make sure that I was focused on the task at hand, but it was just difficult.”
Joe Flacco does it again -- a fourth straight win and fourth straight 300-yard passing game. (Cleveland Browns)
The other overriding storyline of this Browns season was the continued resurgence of Flacco, the one-time Browns-nemesis of the hated Ravens who rescued the team after Watson’s season-ending fractured shoulder injury in a season-changing road win, coincidentally, in Baltimore on November 12.
Flacco, 38, joined the team eight days later and now has strung together four consecutive wins in which he’s thrown for 300 yards or more. No Browns quarterback has ever done that.
Flacco whacked the Jets, his team of the previous three seasons, with 296 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone. By the end of the night, the crowd was chanting “Flac-co, Flac-co.” It was an unlikely tribute to a rival who had whipped the Browns in 18 of 21 meetings as an opponent prior to signing with them as their fourth quarterback on November 20.
“I mean, this is obviously a very unique situation for me,” said Flacco, who took his four young sons onto the field after the game. “So, a lot of different emotions are going through my head. The city has been so unbelievable. You can tell how hungry they are for good football and they’ve been getting it all year.
“And it makes a difference to go out there and play in front of a crowd like that week in and week out. This city, you can just tell they love football and it’s special going out there and playing for them.”
Flacco was strong from the start, as usual, and got tremendous support from Njoku (four catches for 113 yards in the first quarter, five for 128 overall), running back Jerome Ford (touchdown catches of 7 and 50 yards), and former Jets teammate Moore (five catches for 61 yards and one TD) before suffering a concussion in the second quarter when his forehead hit the ground hard after his last catch.
The Browns built a 34-17 halftime lead with the addition of a 7-yard touchdown run by Kareem Hunt and a 30-yard interception return by safety Ronnie Hickman.
The second half was a slop-fest contributed by both teams, filled with turnovers and penalties galore. The Browns and the crowd appeared anxious to celebrate the occasion of clinching the playoffs after the first half decided the game.
“It was a tough second half,” said Flacco (19 of 29 for 309 yards, three TD and a Pick 6 by Jets linebacker Jermaine Johnson). “I mean, you turn into a fan at some point when you kind of get up like that and you just want the clock to hit zero.
“So, you got to give a lot of credit to our defense. Our defense did a great job in the second half, not really giving those guys anything and making sure we won the game.”When Flacco was called off his couch in South Jersey to rescue the team, the Browns were 7-4 and had blown through three starting quarterbacks, with Watson, their franchise guy, undergoing surgery on his right shoulder. But Flacco said the players were not hanging their heads when he joined them."I heard nothing but good things as I was coming in from a couple of guys that I've played with here," he said. "And I really didn't feel anything but that, either. You could feel these guys had a lot of energy and still had a lot of belief.
"I think at that point they had aleady dealt with a pretty good amount this year and they had gotten through it. So that builds that kind of character and that energy around those guys. So it's a special group of football players in here and I think they've been holding their heads up high the whole time."
The Browns now can rest this weekend and enjoy their accomplishment, which seemed a pipedream as injuries to their major players mounted. Hunt matched his career-high with his eighth rushing touchdown. Chubb's best friend on the team was unsigned and not in the Browns’ plans until Chubb’s injury in Game 2.
“I thought [this was possible] when I was sitting on my couch watching them play against the Pittsburgh Steelers when Chubb went down,” Hunt said. “That’s when I thought the team could do it. We always had the players. Next man up mentality. We found ways to win without Deshaun.”
Njoku added, “Anything is possible. It’s just the will to not give up, the will to keep pushing through everything. Obviously, when Deshaun went down, it hurt a lot. When Nick went down, it hurt a lot. So many injuries this year that we have went through, but we didn’t quit. We rally together and push through. That is why I’m so proud of this team.
"But — we aren’t done yet.”
