The curse of the Cleveland Browns as winless NFL streak continues
The Browns face the Jets, live on Sky Sports Action and Main Event from 12.30am on Friday morning
Thursday 20 September 2018 15:28, UK
It's not easy being a Cleveland Browns fan.
Following on from an 0-16 2017 season - becoming only the second team in NFL history to lose every game of a 16-game season (the 2008 Detroit Lions the other) - the Browns are still winless in 2018.
It all means Cleveland now have not tasted victory in 19 games and 20 months of football, though they have come agonisingly close to ending that run through the first two weeks of the season.
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Firstly, kicker Zane Gonzalez had a game-winning field goal blocked in the final seconds of overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers, then he missed another, and failed with two extra point attempts, in a slender defeat to the New Orleans Saints.
Agonisingly close. It's a familiar story for a long-tortured fan base.
Over the last decade, the Browns comfortably have the worst record in football, going a combined 38-122 over that span, winning five games or fewer in nine out of 10 of those campaigns. The next worst are the Jacksonville Jaguars, a whole 14 wins better off than them at 52-108.
But, the Cleveland curse extends far beyond the last 10 years. The Browns have not won a championship since 1964, have never yet been to the Super Bowl, they have no divisional title since their re-entry to the league in 1999, no playoff appearance since 2002 and no winning season since 2007.
Compare that to the fortunes of the Baltimore Ravens, who took their spot in 1996 after a controversial relocation, and their head coach sacked at the end of the 1995 season, Bill Belichick, and it's no wonder Cleveland fans have a complex. The Ravens won a Super Bowl in only their fifth year as an NFL franchise, and now have two to their name, while coaching GOAT Belichick has just the six from his tenure with the New England Patriots.
Not helping matters are a number of near-misses before then. In 1981, the Browns lost in the AFC divisional playoff game to the Oakland Raiders after a last-minute interception when within game-winning field-goal range, trailing by only two. In the late 1980s, it was the John Elway-led Denver Broncos' turn to give the Browns faithful nightmares.
Cleveland suffered season-ending defeats to Denver in 1986, 1987 and 1989 when only one win short of a first Super Bowl, most famously succumbing to 'The Drive' in the first of those as Elway and the Broncos drove 98 yards down the field and to a game-tying score in the final five minutes, before then clinching victory with a field goal in overtime.
Given the team's immense struggles since the turn of the millennium, however, such heart-breaking playoff defeats seem like heady days. So why haven't the team been able to replicate the 'success' of the 80s?
Well, there are a number of reasons (too many to mention in this article alone, certainly) but it is most commonly believed that the costliest errors have come with poor coaching decisions - Belichick's dismissal the most notable example - and questionable drafting, particularly at the quarterback position.
On their re-entry in 1999, the Browns selected Tim Couch with the first overall pick. The current incumbent, Tyrod Taylor, is Cleveland's 28th different starting quarterback since Couch, with Johnny Manziel, Brandon Weeden and Brady Quinn among the QB wall of shame.
Former Buffalo Bills QB Taylor certainly has not been the problem through the opening exchanges of 2018 - indeed it was his 47-yard home-run touchdown pass to Antonio Callaway late on against the Saints that gave them the chance of winning, only for Gonzalez to fluff his lines with the go-ahead extra point - but you would imagine it will not be long till there is a 29th post-Couch signal-caller under centre.
Baker Mayfield was selected No 1 overall in the 2018 draft, the highly promising and hugely talented QB out of Oklahoma. There have been numerous false dawns before, but the general consensus is that the Browns may finally have hit on their quarterback of the future.
As strange as it may sound, there are reasons for optimism in Cleveland, and Mayfield as one of them. Also, aggressive offseason moves have seen star wide receiver Jarvis Landry arrive from the Miami Dolphins and running back Carlos Hyde from the San Francisco 49ers.
That optimism has translated to no wins in two. BUT, Cleveland are getting closer to that oh so elusive W, securing a hard-fought tie against the Steelers and falling on the wrong side of a three-point loss to the Saints.
Gonzalez is gone after his errors in both, that issue quickly addressed, and the Browns have a favourable Week Three match-up ahead of them, taking on the New York Jets on Thursday Night Football - live on Sky Sports Action from 12.30am on Friday morning.
Jets fans are similarly battle-hardened following decades of underachievement. Since famously winning Super Bowl III, when 18-point underdogs, the Jets have claimed only three divisional crowns since - a year later in 1969, 1998 and 2002 - while they have not been to the playoffs since 2010, left behind in Tom Brady's shadow.
The Jets too have a new saviour, by the name of Sam Darnold - taken two picks after Mayfield in the 2018 draft - but, unlike Mayfield, the USC alumni has been thrown straight into NFL action.
As you would expect with a first-year quarterback, there have been flashes of brilliance mixed in with rookie errors, including being intercepted with his first pass in the league.
Can Cleveland capitalise? Can they find a kicker who can kick? Can they finally regain that winning feeling? Can it save head coach Hue Jackson's job?
Since taking over the team in 2016, not only has Jackson presided over their winless 2017 campaign, but he has secured just one win total in his 34 games in charge.
"It will be an interesting game on Thursday night," former NFL coach Rob Ryan told Sky Sports News. "Hue Jackson needs a win - his seat has got to be burning up, on fire!
"Each time you look down that schedule as the losses keep mounting, you think who do they have a chance to beat?
"There are no easy games in the NFL, but the odds are that they're going to have to win a game eventually."
Will that win come on Thursday night and lift the Cleveland curse once and for all?
Watch the New York Jets @ Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football, live on Sky Sports Action and Main Event from 12.30am on Friday morning.
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