by Here the Browns went again to start the season with some hope, but not much. The countdown clock was on for Romeo to be fired, and Quinn to eventually start at quarterback at some point. After the Week One drubbing at home to rival Pittsburgh in a 34-7 loss, it didn’t seem like either would take long to occur. It mirrored the original home opener to Pittsburgh back in 99 when they lost 41-0. Just plain awful football.
Charlie Frye went 4 of 10 with 5 sacks and a pick before being benched in favor of Derek Anderson. Joe Thomas played his first and worst game as a pro with several false starts, holding calls and missed blocks. Little did we realize on that day, how incredible he would become, starting with that very season!
Phil Savage and the Browns front office wasted little time reacting, shipping Frye off to Seattle and promoting Anderson to full time starter. The move was looked at as being temporary, and the actual plan was to have Quinn starting by Week Eight in another rebuild of a season. Again, little did any of us realize just how good of a move the Anderson promotion would turn out to be.
Starting the very next week against Cincinnati where Anderson put up a 5 touchdown, 328 yard performance, the new starter would go on to have one of the greatest seasons in Cleveland Browns history. He was tremendous and led the Browns to 10 wins for the first time in decades, as he threw for 3787 yards and 29 touchdowns. The only problem with Anderson seemed to be the 19 interceptions he threw where almost always directly to the other team. It wasn’t a case of tipped balls or bad routes, he was giving it right to the opposition.
Even with that said, it was easy to ignore because of the incredible success Anderson had. As I said, he helped the Browns take down the Bengals in a shootout 51-45 in one of the most high scoring games in First Energy Stadium History. From there they rotated 2 home wins over Miami and Baltimore around two road losses to New England and Oakland to enter the bye week at 3 – 3.
Still early into the season, it was the bye week, and the first time since 2002 where the Browns entered a bye week and the fans were still talking playoffs. They were right to do so as the Browns took off following the bye week with back to back wins over the Rams, and an overtime win over Seattle. The win over the Rams came on the road and saw them overcome an early 14-0 deficit. The win over Seattle was one of the most dramatic and loudest wins in First Energy Stadium history as well. It went overtime, and was the first time that season that fans really started to buy in.
The 33-30 overtime win against Seattle brought on every emotion possible for Browns fans. They saw the Browns overcome a 21-6 hole, to battle back and take the lead 30-27 on a Lewis touchdown run with 2:17 to play. Seattle would hit a field goal as time ran out in regulation to send it to overtime. The old Browns of the early 2000’s would fold in overtime and lose, but this was the 2007 Super Browns and they were a different breed. Anderson led a drive that resulted in a 25-yard game winning field goal as the crowd came unglued and you could hear the cheers miles away. Anderson threw for 364 yards that game.
The albatross that season, like many others, remained Pittsburgh as the Browns lost to them 31- 28 the following week on the road. They would respond by wining 4 of their next 5 in the zaniest of ways. This included a last second field goal win against Baltimore that was originally considered a miss, before the refs reviewed and said Dawson nailed it for the win. A dramatic last second win on the road against the Jets and an 8-0 Blizzard game victory over Buffalo at home. All of this ran their record to 9-5 as they traveled to Cincinnati for a Week 15 showdown. Quite frankly, it should have been 5 straight wins had the Browns not gotten ripped off by the officials in a loss to the Cardinals that saw them take away a last second touchdown catch from Winslow that would have won the game.
Still, they were 9-5 and just needed a win at Cincy to clinch a playoff berth. With the way everything lined up, this would have given them enough conference wins to clinch the berth in the playoffs. They simply needed to beat the lowly Bengals, who saw their season go down the drain after losing to the Browns week two. Cincy was currently 5-9 at the time and had nothing to play for but revenge.
Apparently, revenge was enough to motivate them as they jumped all over the Browns and led 19-0 at halftime. The Browns would rebound with two second half touchdown passes to Braylon Edwards to pull within 5 points at 19-14 with a little over 5 minutes to play. The Browns would get one more crack at a game winning drive, but Derek Anderson and the Browns couldn’t get it done. It was an awful game for Anderson that saw him throw 4 interceptions.
Because of this being their 6th loss of the season, and their 5th AFC Conference loss, it made their final game meaningless the following week at home against San Francisco to close the season. It was a strange situation as they needed the Titans to lose to the Colts, and it wouldn’t matter what they did against the 49ers. It was as odd as it gets. Sadly, for Cleveland, Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy pulled all of his starters early into the game, and the Titans won 16-10 on Sunday night football, effectively ending the Browns season.
Despite missing the playoffs, 2007 will go down as one of the most fun and also successful seasons in Cleveland Browns history. Nearly a dozen players made the Pro Bowl, and young sensations like Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards finally met their full potential. Winslow finished with 1106 yards on 82 catches with 5 touchdowns. Edwards caught 80 balls for 1289 yards an incredible 16 touchdowns. Had it not been for the magical season Tom Brady and Randy Moss had that year, Edwards would have had the best receiving stats in football along with Terrell Owens of Dallas. He was that good!
Jamal Lewis found the fountain of youth as they hoped he would, with 1304 yards and 9 touchdowns on 298 attempts. Lewis also had two touchdown catches as he did it all when called upon. One unsung hero of the 2007 team was Joe Jurevicius who had 50 catches for 614 yards, but every single one of them was big. He was the chain mover and was counted on third down to get the yards needed each and every time. He had hands of glue, and was a calming leadership presence in the locker room.
The Browns had gone 10-6 and 7-1 at home. They swept the Ravens and it was their best record since returning to the league in 1999. Everything looked perfect and the talk of Super Bowl in 2008 was not far-fetched.
Sadly, for Cleveland, early into the 2008 season, everything went wrong and they never recovered. On the very first drive of their first preseason game against the Jets, Anderson led them on a touchdown drive that saw Edwards make an incredible touchdown catch. It was only preseason, but everything was looking great. That is when the weather Gods took over and unleashed a severe thunderstorm only moments after Hollie Strano had told everyone the skies would be clear. Players rushed off the field as fans ran for cover as well. Just like that, it was over in Cleveland.
Derek Anderson came back down to reality, only starting 9 games and throwing 9 touchdowns before being benched for Brady Quinn who ended up being a bust. Braylon Edwards only caught 55 balls and had a paltry 3 touchdowns. Kellen Winslow had a combination of injuries and attitude problems that held him to just 8 starts and 43 catches. He would end up trying to blame the Browns medical staff for his Staph Infection. The Browns had seven cases of staph infection in the last few years prior to this and Winslow was convinced Savage as hiding more.
Speaking of Savage, he was gone by seasons end as well, when he responded to a fans email by using a cuss word and telling them to go root for Buffalo. Crennel was gone shortly after the seasons end as well. The Browns closed out the year with a 31-0 loss to the Steelers which began a longstanding tradition of firing the coach after a loss to Pittsburgh that would last for years.
The biggest knock on Crennel was the loose locker room that he ran. Allowing Winslow to openly watch and partake in porn in the locker room an even on the team plane. He had little to no discipline which was evident during training camp when highly touted free agent signing Donte Stallworth stepped on and injured the foot of fellow wide receiver Braylon Edwards. Leading to stiches, and Edwards to miss a good chunk of time early into the season.
Stallworth had signed a seven-year, $35 million deal with the Cleveland Browns and was supposed to be the missing piece to lead them to the Super Bowl alongside Winslow and Edwards. However, he had just 17 catches for 170 yards and one touchdown for the Browns in 2008 and then missed the entire 2009 season after being suspended by the NFL following his conviction on manslaughter charges from drunk driving.
Still, even with Camp Romeo, Winslow and his attitude, the stone hands of Braylon Edwards and the inconsistency of Derek Anderson, 2007 goes down as one of the most fun seasons in recent Cleveland Browns memory.
