Oller: Cleveland fans get day 'off' to sing praises of their playoff-bound Browns

Cleveland Browns fans don’t know what to do with their frustration this weekend, because they don’t have any. For the first time since 1994, the Brownies enter the final week of the regular season having already made the playoffs.

Believeland, indeed.

How is this possible? Well, mostly thanks to quarterback Joe Flacco, a strong defense and a reimagined coach Kevin Stefanski, the season remains alive when it looked DOA eight weeks ago.

When Cleveland shut down injured quarterback DeShaun Watson for the season in mid-November, leaving the offense in the hands of fifth-round pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the Dawgs looked set for another season of sitting home during the playoffs. Thompson-Robinson was not awful, but also not a suitable solution.

Enter Flacco, who having suffered in a purgatory known as the New York Jets, showed up in Cleveland as a 38-year-old savior who in a little more than a month with the Browns is 4-1 as a starter.

Flacco, who has thrown for 300 yards in three consecutive games, has been music to the ears of Browns fans, who are returning the favor by writing love songs about him. No joke. There is “Joe Flacco’s Our Hero,” which parodies Foreigner’s “Jukebox Hero,” and “Flacco Fever,” a takeoff on the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever.” It doesn’t even matter that the hard rock capital of the world chooses a disco song to celebrate a quarterback’s ascendance. The point is that “Wacko for Flacco” is as real as it is spectacular.

Even more fantastic? When the Brown and Orange line up against the Bengals on Sunday in Cincinnati, Flacco will be on the bench. Not because he is hurt. But because Cleveland doesn’t need him to win the game. Come to think of it, the Browns don’t need anyone to win the game. Because the Browns don’t need to win the game. They’re already in.

Think about that for a moment. If you took all the ridiculously painful moments from Browns history and inserted them into Sunday’s game – the Drive, Fumble, Dwayne Rudd’s helmet toss, yada, yada – and the Browns lost 127-0, they still would live to play another day.

The last time they wrapped up a playoff spot before January happened Week 15 of the 1994 season, a Saturday, when Cleveland defeated Dallas 19-14. The Browns clinched a wild card berth the next day when the Broncos lost to the Raiders, two weeks before the regular season ended.

Cleveland has made the playoffs twice since then, in 2002 and 2020, but both years needed to win on the final week to secure a spot in the postseason.

This is new territory for Dawg Pounders to explore. Fans tuning in at home will not need to throw anything at their TVs. Hard to imagine, but not hard to enjoy, considering prior angst.

There was a point this season when despair was in the air. Some fans deny doom ever entered the room, but that’s to be expected. Anyone who knows anything about Cleveland sports understands the only unshakable tenet of Browns fandom, besides tailgating in the Muni Lot, is maintaining blind optimism.

What I know is Browns fans in my corner of Columbus were flatter than a three-day-old glass of beer when Nick Chubb tore knee ligaments Sept. 18 against Pittsburgh. Even those who remained upbeat after Chubb’s season-ending injury could not hide their hopelessness when Watson was lost about two months later.

A hard-luck season was at hand, but then a very un-Browns thing happened. The team kept winning, despite a dozen injuries to starters, including both starting offensive tackles. When Flacco arrived, he was Cleveland’s fourth starting quarterback this season.

Adversity can bring people together, which appears to be the case in Cleveland. But if you want something more concrete to explain how the Browns rebounded, look to the basics of football: competent quarterback play, above-average defense and coaching. Any team with those three elements can compete in an NFL built on parity, where a .500 record is the league’s goal for every team.

Flacco has been sensational, the defense ranks first in opponent yards per game (266.6) and 11th in points allowed (20.7) and Stefanski has done such a top-notch job guiding the team through injuries he deserves serious consideration for coach of the year.

Stefanski has his faults, including some suspect situational play-calling, but he deserves huge credit for a) hiring defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz; b) still winning with nearly 25% of his salary cap sidelined; and c) proving to teams such as the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings that you can still win when your starting quarterback gets hurt. And we’re not talking just Flacco; the Browns beat San Francisco after making quarterback P.J. Walker the starter off the practice squad.

So make music, Browns fans. Serenade Flacco. Sing about Stefanski. Belt out a diddy about the defense. And enjoy a day off against the Bengals. You deserve it.

roller@dispatch.com

@rollerCD

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cleveland Browns fans get to enjoy not sweating against Bengals