Cleveland is a hungry team playing in a hungry town
The Cleveland Browns are young, confident bordering on cocky, and maybe a little naive. Maybe a lot.
Following the lead of their brash, rocketarmed rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield, who is getting better by the week, the Browns believe in more than themselves and each other. With three games left in a National Football League season they’ve turned from being another Cleveland calamity into a stunning success, they haven’t given up on making the playoffs.
They’re alive, barely. But they’re alive, mathematically.
“You are looking at a hungry team,” wide receiver Jarvis Landry said after scoring two touchdowns in Sunday’s 26-20 win over Carolina. “You are looking at a hungry town.”
Although they’re facing nearly impossible odds — several websites give them a one per cent chance — of winning out and reaching the post-season for the first time since 2002, the Browns (5-7-1) haven’t lost faith. Not an ounce.
The Browns have won three of their past four games under interim coach Gregg Williams, whose one-meeting-at-a-time, one-practice-at-a-time, one-game-at-atime mantra has convinced his players they can beat anyone.
Williams has instilled an attitude and edge into all his players, who are feeding off the energy and giving the demanding defensive co-ordinator reason to smile.
“It’s fun for me to be involved with these young guys here getting a chance to believe in themselves,” Williams said Monday on a teleconference. “And it really kind of sparks me to see the flash in their eyes, the strut in their step and the confidence in their body language when they get a chance to put everything together.”
They did on Sunday, starting with Mayfield’s 66-yard completion to Breshad Perriman on Cleveland’s first snap to safety Damarious Randall intercepting Cam Newton in the final minute.
And while Williams’ leadership has been invaluable, Mayfield’s the one leading Cleveland’s charge.
Before Sunday’s game, Mayfield told Randall the Browns might score on the game’s first play and Perriman nearly did.
“I didn’t pay attention to what he said until after I saw the first play and I saw 19 (Perriman) running free,” Randall said. “And I’m like, ‘Baker’s funny.’ We’re just having a lot of fun.”