Earlier this season, the Cleveland Browns were hit by season-ending injuries to star running back Nick Chubb and quarterback Deshaun Watson. At the time, it looked like they were therefore doomed to suffer through yet another lost season.
But the Browns have kept winning and winning as the season wore on. Over the last five weeks, their improbable success has been fueled by 38-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco, who was signed as a free agent in a desperate move.
Flacco hadn’t played yet this season to that point, but in his five games with Cleveland, he has thrown 13 touchdown passes and led it to a four-game winning streak. On Christmas Eve, he had three touchdown passes in a win over the Houston Texans, and he had three more when Cleveland downed the New York Jets 37-20 on Thursday.
Teammate Amari Cooper had two touchdowns and a Browns-record 265 receiving yards on just 11 catches versus Houston. He gave lots of credit for his performance to Flacco while being effusive in his praise for the signal-caller.
NFL News & Rumors: Amari Cooper, Joe Flacco, Cleveland Browns Updates
“To be completely candid, I would attribute most of it to Joe,” Cooper told Kelsey Russo of ClevelandBrowns.com on Christmas Eve. “He has an incredible feel for the game. He has an incredible arm. I think, obviously, with the relationship between a receiver and a quarterback, it’s a symbiotic relationship. The best way to explain it is that we mesh well together.”
It is easy to forget that about a decade ago, Flacco led the Baltimore Ravens to a somewhat improbable Super Bowl championship over the favored San Francisco 49ers. He has never made the Pro Bowl in 16 NFL seasons, but he has been playing like a Pro Bowler lately for the Browns.
As a result, their loyal fan base has been infused with the type of excitement that it hasn’t enjoyed in seemingly forever.
With their win on Thursday, the Browns locked up only their third playoff spot since their current iteration began play in 1999. They hold an 11-5 record, and they have a good shot at claiming the fifth seed in the AFC, which should give them a winnable matchup in the wild-card round against the winner of the AFC South.
