The Cleveland Browns saw their surprising season come to an end in the AFC World Card round against the Houston Texans. The Browns lost, 45-14, and the Cinderella story that was the return of Joe Flacco saw its final chapter. However, after all of it, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff made sure to shout out Kevin Stefanski and the Browns for the success (h/t Ryan Lewis of The Akron Beacon Journal).
“It's tough when it ends the way it ended, but when you sit back and you think about all the things that happened to them, you talk about injuries to Nick Chubb, Deshaun Watson, four starting quarterbacks — it would have been very [easy] for the players to give in [while playing] a sport that's grueling…A ton of credit to Kevin for him and his leadership of keeping that group together.”
The Browns had all sorts of injuries. It began with Nick Chubb tearing his ACL in the first month of the season. Then, Deshaun Watson was ruled out for the year, and the Browns quarterback carousel began from that point on.
So, while everyone was counting out the Browns, Stefanski and his team found a way to get it done: “You heard all the noise, ‘It's over, it's this, that, and whatever,'” Bickerstaff said. “But they never heard it. They continued to fight, continued to scrap and made it to the playoffs, which isn't easy to do.”
They finished the year with an 11-6 record, second in the AFC North, and won four of the final five, with the last game full of reserves as they prepared for the playoffs. With the difficult circumstances and a ton of injuries, the Browns somehow found a way to sneak into the playoffs, and that's something to be proud of.
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