Starting out the season 2-4 is not what anyone wanted for the Cleveland Browns, but the miserable start is not a death sentence to the postseason aspirations. Believe it or not, those playoff dreams are still very much alive.
Both recent history and the state of the conference make the Browns quest to return to the postseason for the first time in over 15 years a viable, albeit uphill, climb.
Just last season, both the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts made the playoffs after falling at least three games below .500. Houston started 0-3 and won the AFC South by getting hot. The Colts were 1-5 with the NFL’s worst scoring defense before ripping off nine wins in their final 10 games to earn a Wild Card berth.
That those two teams did it from the same division is even more unlikely, particularly when the Titans also finished with a winning record (9-7) in the AFC South.
This year’s AFC is still wide open. Every team except the Patriots and Bills has at least two losses. That includes the Ravens, currently on top in the North at 4-2. One of those Ravens’ losses is at home to the Browns, so the gap there is closer than it might appear.
Three of the Browns’ four losses are to teams from the NFC West. While those sting, losing to NFC teams doesn’t hurt Cleveland as much in the tiebreaker process as falling to AFC foes.
As they sit right now in the bye week, only the Oakland Raiders and Indianapolis Colts are ahead of the Browns in the race for the second AFC Wild Card spot. Both are 3-2, and the Colts have two conference losses already.
In short, the Browns are absolutely still alive in the AFC playoff race. But they cannot afford to give any more games away and will need to play better and smarter to make it happen.
