So you’re saying the Browns still have a chance?

After the Week 12 16-10 Sunday Night Football loss against the division rival Baltimore Ravens (who I would argue are a bigger rival currently than the Pittsburgh Steelers) in Maryland, I said that we should stick a fork in the Cleveland Browns. But, perhaps I spoke a little bit too soon.

When you play the same team twice in a three-week span, with a bye week in between, you should get at least one win. This is exactly what the Cleveland Browns did by defeating the Ravens 24-22 at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday, December 12.

Cleveland is now sitting at 7-6 going into Monday’s matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. If I remember correctly, if the Browns beat the Raiders and the Green Bay Packers (Cleveland’s opponent the following week) beat the Ravens, then magically Cleveland would be tied with Baltimore for first place in the division. But the Ravens would own the tiebreaker, most likely because of a better division record and a better conference record.

The Browns were scheduled to face Derek Carr (who could be Cleveland’s quarterback next season) and the Raiders on Saturday, December 18 for an important game in the shaping of the AFC Playoffs. However, the coronavirus had other ideas.

Several players from the Browns ended up on the Covid list including starting quarterback Baker Mayfield (who shouldn’t be starting right now anyway) and backup quarterback Case Keenum (who should be starting right now).

This meant that the third-string quarterback, Nick Mullens, was in line to start. However, the game has been pushed back to Monday at 5:00 pm EST, so that might give Mayfield or Keenum time to test negative and start the game.

Cleveland Browns still have hope

After going 11-5 and making it to the AFC Divisional Round last season, fans and media members alike were putting high expectations on the Browns. Unfortunately, the Browns have been able to live up to one expectation, which is that they don’t live up to expectations. Remember 2019?

But here’s the thing, there’s still a very slim chance that they can get back to the playoffs and perhaps live up to the expectations that were placed on them before the season began. As stated earlier, the Browns are 7-6 which is good enough for second place in the AFC North. They’re right on the bubble in eighth place in the conference. Meaning that they would be on the outside looking in.

But if the Browns win all 4 of their remaining games or 3 out of their final 4 games, they might just have a chance. Their final 4 games are home against Las Vegas, at Green Bay (on Christmas), at Pittsburgh (Monday Night Football), home against Cincinnati (high likelihood this game gets flexed into Sunday Night Football). Now I don’t know about you, but none of these games can be circled as an automatic win. Not even the MNF game at Pittsburgh.

But if they really want to have a chance at this, they have to take it one game at a time. That means getting a win on Monday against the Raiders.