by What seemed like a meaningless season ending game in Cincinnati today for the Cleveland Browns became anything but. In what could be described as a milestone win in many ways, perhaps, will breathe new life into the franchise heading into the offseason at 5-12.
The Browns finished the season with back to back wins over divisional opponents, 13-6 last week over Pittsburgh and 20-18 today over the Bengals. Back to back wins for the first time since the 2023 season, not too mention against AFC North Rivals.
In the course of the win today, Myles Garrett broke the single season record for sacks with 23 while that nasty defense accounted for 12 of the teams 20 points. Not too mention the ultimate Cinderella story of placekicker Andre Szmyt who scored 8 points today himself. He had two extremely long extra points and went 2 for 2 on FG’s.
It was misses from Szmyt opening week against Cincinnati that cost the Browns the game, today, he had a chance to avenge that and did so! Despite that awful first week, the place kicker was absolutely clutch the rest of the season as he finished 24 of 27 on FG’s and 25 of 26 on XP’s. The Browns have found their next franchise kicker.
As for franchise QB, Sheduer Sanders was once again awful today as the much hyped rookie took 6 sacks, fumbled once and only completed 11 of 22 passes for a poultry 11 of 22 for just 111 yards. He was terrible and yet, it didn’t matter because when it came time to lead a game winning drive, he did so and that is something many before him couldn’t. That is what fans will take out of it.
Finally, Myles Garrett had one tackle all day and it was the biggest of his career. Is all of this enough to save the jobs of Head Coach Kevin Stefanski and GM Andrew Barry? We’ll know soon….
