Cleveland Browns: Week 10 win essential to culture shift
For two decades, the Cleveland Browns have been trying to change their football culture. A huge win over the Atlanta Falcons may give the Dawg Pound the paradigm shift they’ve been looking for.
The Cleveland Browns have not had a winning football culture since the “Old Browns” of the early 1990s. So, in a sense, the “real” Browns have never had a winning culture, since their inception in 1999. That was, until the Cleveland Browns took down the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 11, 2018.
This may sound cheesy, but it’s very easy to think that this was finally the turning point for the Cleveland Browns. Rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield and rookie running back Nick Chubb both played tremendously in Week 10. The defense was studly, and overall, this was the most complete game seen from the Browns in years.
The most impressive part of the win over the Falcons, however, is that everything was set up for the Browns to fail.
If you know the Browns, you know that this would have been the perfect game for them to roll over, die and pack it all in. Going right into the bye week, at home, in the midst of coaching dysfunction against a white-hot team. Everything was set up perfectly for the Browns to shut down in Week 10. But, somewhat amazingly, none of that happened.
Instead, Mayfield and the Browns ran over the Falcons in their biggest win since 2014. The young nucleus of the Browns came to play against Atlanta and, under interim head coach Gregg Williams, they scored their third win of the season. It may seem like a minor feat, but the Browns not lying over and dying could mean that the winds of change have finally arrived on the shores of Lake Erie.
Next. NFL Power Rankings, Week 11: Titans stun Pats, Chargers roll. dark
At the risk of sounding cheesy once again, the Cleveland Browns may have flipped a switch in Week 10. Everything lined up perfectly, but Baker Mayfield led the Browns against the grain, to a great team win before the bye week. The Browns finally have a franchise quarterback, and they may have finally found their ever-elusive culture change as well.