The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Ravens: Ghost of Christmas future
Interim coach Gregg Williams has put the win against Cincinnati in the past, is focused on Ravens as ‘our playoff game’ and a winning record
It takes, what, two hours to smoke and savor a really good victory cigar?
Whatever it is, before noon on Dec. 24, interim head coach Gregg Williams and his staff at Browns headquarters in Berea had turned their attention away from the 2618 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals a day earlier and began focusing on the Ravens — their opponent on Dec. 30 in the 2018 season finale in Baltimore.
Williams gave his players a “victory Monday” for beating the Bengals. They will get Christmas Day off, too, but then it’s back to work on Dec. 26 with the goal of putting the finishing touches on what already has been the biggest turn-around in franchise history.
“We’re on to the Ravens,” Williams said Dec. 24 on a conference call. “They’ve played well all year long. They’re playing great team complementary fashion. We have our work cut out for us.
“It’s going to be a fist fight. It’s going to be a tough, hard-nosed battle.
“It reminds me of a lot of the old-school games that have been in this league a long time.”
The Ravens (9-6) will capture the AFC North if they win. The Browns would love to spoil those plans, even if it means the Steelers win the division, which will happen if the Browns beat Baltimore and the Steelers beat the Bengals in Pittsburgh on Dec. 30. Kickoff in both games is 4:25 p.m.
“This is our playoff game, and we’ll treat it that way,” Williams said. “That’s how intense the game is going to be. They’re going to be that intense. We have to be that intense. It’s going to be fun.”
The Browns, 7-7-1, are 5-2 since Williams replaced fired Hue Jackson on Oct. 29. But Williams still has that word “interim” attached to his title. It’s a sticky word and gets in the way, like getting maple syrup on your fingers.
A few weeks ago, when the Ravens were 4-5, word spread that John Harbaugh was finished as head coach in Baltimore. They won four of their next five games and then at 7 p.m. Dec. 21, the Ravens announced Harbaugh would return as head coach in 2019. The team responded by pounding the Chargers, 22-10, on Dec. 22 in Los Angeles.
Williams was asked whether he would like Browns owner Jimmy Haslam to make a similar
announcement before the season finale about his own coaching status.
“That’s a very good question that you know that I can’t answer because we’re on to the Ravens,” Williams said.
Consider what the Browns have already done:
• Until going from 0-16 to 7-7-1 this season, the Browns biggest turn around was going from 3-11 in 1975 to 9-5 in 1976.
• They have already clinched their best record since 2007 when they were 10-6 and will have their first winning record in 11 years if they beat the Ravens. Their seven victories with one game to play matches their win total of 2014, but they lost their last five games that year to finish 7-9.
• Beating the Bengals gave the Browns their first season sweep over Cincinnati since 2002. They beat the Ravens (with Jackson as head coach) 12-9 in overtime on Oct. 7. They have never swept two division foes in the expansion era that began in 1999. That will change if they beat the Ravens.
Still, even if Haslam wanted to name Williams head coach based on what he has done as interim alone, he could not.
Technically, Haslam could not name Williams head coach before complying with the Rooney Rule, which means interviewing a minority candidate first.
But that is the future, and Williams is making it abundantly clear that the focus in Berea is on the here and now: beating the Ravens and finishing with a winning record.