Post by Krauser on Oct 20, 2022 0:19:47 GMT -6
Steelers were the home team, won the division as the AFC #3 seed. Browns were 3rd in the North that year, haven’t won the division since the franchise was rebooted (last version of the Browns won it in 1989).
Playoff wins all count, and I’m not knocking the quality of opposition, but that particular game came down to the Steelers playing terribly in the 1st quarter — it was 28-0 almost instantly and the Browns hadn’t even had to do anything impressive to put up that huge lead.
It’s understandable that Browns fans would be hopeful after that season (their first playoff win in franchise history), but I don’t know if the team (or their coach) was actually that great, let alone almost on the Chiefs level as the final score in the divisional round game the following week might have suggested.
Cleveland were a bit of a sentimental favorite for quite a few fans, and they’d been early adopters of some of the analytics stuff so were considered a smart team by the PFF crew, so I think a lot of people wanted to declare victory heading into 2021 — this is how you build a team right: invest in the OL, draft the top QB (PFF’s analysts famously loved Baker and hated Josh Allen in the 2018 draft), etc. But those victory laps were premature.
I don’t hold any of this against Stefanski, hope he has a good career. I would’ve been on board with firing Zimmer after 2019 and promoting Stefanski to HC. Might have saved Spielman’s job to do so.
... and neither is this Chris guy.