Cowherd converts, picks Cleveland Browns over Baltimore

Believe it or not, Colin Cowherd is picking the Cleveland Browns to win

This has been a wild year, and it is getting even wilder, now that longtime Baker Mayfield hater Colin Cowherd has been sufficiently impressed by recent performances to choose the Cleveland Browns over the Baltimore Ravens in Monday Night Football.

Hallelujah, amen. This may be the most shocking religious conversion since 313 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine decided to forego paganism in favor of Christianity. But there he was on The Herd (Cowherd that is, not Emperor Constantine), giving his Blazin’ 5 picks for Week 14, and darned if he doesn’t like the Browns over Baltimore to win outright, 26-24.

He feels that the Browns have their offensive identity as a run-first team with deep strike capability from Baker Mayfield, while the Ravens seem uncertain whether Lamar Jackson is going to continue to run or become more of a pocket passer, or so he says.

This writer and Cowherd have feuded for the past three years, with Cowherd generally taking a negative view of Mayfield and the Browns, and this writer usually taking a positive view of Mayfield, though occasionally offering balanced criticism of the team. Cowherd has questioned Mayfield’s maturity in pressure situations, ridiculing Mayfield for infamously getting arrested in college and his ill-advised move of planting the Oklahoma flag in Woody Hayes Stadium. No question, Mayfield has to live these incidents down, and as far as we can tell from the outside, he has.

However, this feud has — hopefully — always been about football, on a professional level, and never about personalities. Isn’t that why we are here, to talk about football and respectfully debate each other? This writer has always readily admitted to being a fan of The Herd and encouraged readers to tune into the show because it is entertaining, thought-provoking, and everybody is going to be talking about what Cowherd says, regardless of whether it is good, bad, or indifferent.

Some of the most widely read articles from this fan publication are the ones that crossed swords with Cowherd’s anti-Mayfield statements. So ignoring Cowherd’s negative opinions has never been an option. His opinions are among the hottest stuff in the sports world, even if they are not always right.

Cowherd is big enough to admit when he has made a mistake, and of course, it’s a free country, so if Mayfield makes three interceptions on Monday Night, Cowherd may change his mind again. No problem with any of that.

From this writer, the overriding message concerning any young quarterback is to not expect instant results; and do not expect positive results from the quarterback without building a team around him. The Browns have made these mistakes repeatedly over the past 20 years and there were some talented quarterbacks who seemed to be bad who actually were in the Browns’ system. In Mayfield’s case, he’s on his fourth offensive coordinator and fourth head coach in his three-year career. That’s not stable enough to build a real foundation.

Moreover, there was never any point in trying to make a judgment about a future contract extension by Week 6, or Week 9, or some other arbitrary cutoff. Irrespective of these arbitrary grading points, by Week 14 Mayfield & Co. are starting to become very comfortable with the Stefanski offense. Touchdowns are up, interceptions are down and Mayfield’s quarterback rating is on the rise as well. It’s clear to this writer which way Mayfield is trending, and Cowherd seems to be adopting a somewhat similar point of view, at least for this week.

Cowherd is exactly right that the Browns and their quarterback are improving.

As for Baltimore however, he is probably wrong that there is some sort of Lamar Jackson identity crisis. What has happened is that they have had injuries on the offensive line that have slowed down the running game somewhat, despite the addition of rookie running back J.K. Dobbins from Ohio State. Hence Jackson’s running stats look like those of a mortal this year, but Jackson has not lost any will to run, nor has he lost any running skill. He has lost a few offensive linemen since last season, however, which is why his running stats are less Asgardian than last year.

Thus, the Ravens will continue to use Jackson as a reliable runner, and they like his chances of throwing against an eight-man front most of the time. Lamar Jackson is the greatest two-way threat in NFL history, so the Browns absolutely do need to prepare for him on the ground. He and the Ravens are coming, and they are coming by land. Cleveland will have to win the ground war.

This Monday Night Football game is the most anticipated Browns game in years. It’s for real this time. There’s still a lot of football to be played, but it is fair to say that any team in the NFL should consider themselves in it until such time as they are mathematically eliminated, and the Browns or Baltimore are both in it.

They both have a chance to win it all because the home field advantage is substantially reduced this year due to the Covid attendance rules. Just get to the dance and hope that someone knocks off the Chiefs somehow, and the other teams all have a chance. This is for real, Cleveland fans. If Colin Cowherd is not pooh-poohing the Browns chances, no way should you be.