Cleveland Browns have no room to take the Miami Dolphins lightly

The Cleveland Browns will face the ‘tanking’ Miami Dolphins for Week 12, but they have no room to take the Dolphins lightly and think it’ll be an easy game.

The Cleveland Browns are on a two-game winning streak during a stretch when they needed to string multiple wins together. After an awful start to the season, the Browns need to go on a long win streak if they want to have any hopes of reaching the postseason.

At 4-6, the Browns currently see themselves on the back-end of the playoff picture. Not only will they need to accomplish a long win streak, but they will also need some help and the teams in front of them in the AFC playoff picture to lose.

Luckily for the Browns, they have the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, which includes their upcoming Week 12 matchup with the Miami Dolphins. During the early part of the season, the Dolphins were viewed as the ultimate-tanking team. But after losing their first seven games, Miami has won two of their last three games.

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Even when they were losing, Dolphins head coach Brian Flores had his team playing hard, which is what helped them win their two games. They do not have much talent on the roster, but Flores has motivated his team enough to have some success on the field.

This game was expected to be a lay up for the Browns because of the talent discrepancy. With all of the weapons on Cleveland’s roster, it would be hard for them to make enough mistakes to keep Miami in the game.

However, as the Browns have shown all season, they have shot themselves in the foot enough to cause them to lose games they easily could have won. That trend has continued to this point of the season and Cleveland is still an incredibly undisciplined team.

With the Browns seemingly getting in their own way and allowing opponents to stay in games, they have no reason to take an opponent lightly. Until they can clean up their own play, no opponent should be viewed as an easy win for the Browns.

Not only is the Browns making their own mistakes an issue, they need to be playing at peak performance for every game the rest of the season. They have no more margin for error if they want to keep their postseason hopes alive, easy schedule or not. So even if they are playing one of the worst teams in the NFL, they need to prepare as if they are facing the Patriots.

The Browns put themselves in this position because of their poor start to the season. And now that they have to win practically every game the rest of the way, they do not have the right to take a team lightly. Especially a team like the Dolphins, who have managed to hang around in some games this season. This week may be viewed as a lay up for the Browns, but they should be preparing like it is the biggest game of their season.