Cleveland Browns: 3 Make or break games for a playoff berth

Three games that could decide the Cleveland Browns playoff fates

The Cleveland Browns are currently 7-3, with a good chance to move to 8-3 with a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars this week. Cleveland owns the sixth seed in the AFC at this point with six games to go.

The playoffs are certainly within reach for the Browns, especially with games against the New York Jets and New York Giants remaining on the schedule. However, there are three matchups that could dictate whether or not Cleveland qualifies for the postseason; they cannot afford to lose all three.

Browns at Titans, Week 13

The Tennesse Titans have to be one of the strangest teams in the NFL. They were the AFC runner-ups in 2019 and are also 7-3, one slot behind the Browns in the playoff race due to shared opponent tiebreakers. That’s because they’ve lost to the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals, whom the Browns are 3-0 against in total.

Tennessee has barely beaten the Jaguars, Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, and Chicago Bears. They’ve also lost handily to the Bengals and Colts. However, they have also soundly defeated the Buffalo Bills, nearly beat the 10-0 Pittsburgh Steelers, and were victorious over the Baltimore Ravens last week.

They have the ability to out-physical any team, as the Browns saw first-hand in Week 1 of last season. There’s also no telling which Titans squad will show up next week. This is a massive game because of where these two teams are in the standings relative to each other. A loss may not destroy all chances for Cleveland, but it would make the job much more difficult. A win makes 11-5 or 12-4 a strong possibility. But the Browns have to show up, and cannot get punched in the mouth as they have in their three losses this season.