The Cavaliers are reigning NBA champions, the Indians are flirting with conquering the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and the Browns are counting on Josh McCown to rescue them from a slippery slope to a winless season.
One of these things is not at all like the others.
“We’ve got to get a win for our fans. We’ve got to,” wide receiver Terrelle Pryor said. “Our backs are really against the wall.”
As Cleveland’s other professional sports teams bask in glory, the Browns are wondering when they’ll finally prevail under coach Hue Jackson.
The conventional wisdom is their best chance to win this season will be when they host the New York Jets at 1 p.m. Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium.
There’s also a popular belief that McCown, for now, is the quarterback on the roster who gives them their best shot.
So perhaps the planets are aligning for the Browns with McCown returning to the starting lineup after sitting out the past five games with a fractured left collarbone suffered Sept. 18 in a 25-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
The Browns (0-7) hope so. The Jets (2-5) have the worst record of their remaining opponents. In order, they’ll host the Dallas Cowboys (5-1), visit the Baltimore Ravens (3-4), host the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3), New York Giants (4-3) and Cincinnati Bengals (3-4), visit the Buffalo Bills (4-3), host the San Diego Chargers (3-4) and visit the Steelers (4-3).
ESPN Analytics gives the Browns a 39.3 percent chance to beat the Jets. Of their eight remaining games after this weekend, their best chance to prevail would be in a rematch with the Bengals (35.7 percent) coming off a bye.
“It is human nature to sit and look at a schedule and go, ‘Oh, maybe that one. That one is going to be tough. This one …’ ” McCown conceded. “When you are in it and you are in the locker room, the next game is the game. You are focused on it, and that is the one you are planning on winning.
“We talk about that, expecting to win. That is part of the culture that Coach Jackson is building, and that is what we are trying to create. There is a lot of adversity right now with that because we have not won, but I think it is special when you see a group of guys come to work and continue that mentality when it has not happened.”
Jackson’s “expect to win” mantra will ring hollow, though, if his team does nothing but lose.
The Browns are in danger of losing eight consecutive games within a single season for the first time since 2004, when they had a nine-game drought. They’re also in jeopardy of beginning a season 0-8 for the first time since 1975, when they started 0-9.
With their 31-17 loss to the Bengals last week, they fell to 0-7 for the first time since they had the same horrendous start as an expansion team in 1999. That team finished 2-14 and set the franchise record for fewest wins in a season.
Rookie quarterback Cody Kessler suffered a concussion in the second quarter against the Bengals and has been ruled out against the Jets, thereby ending his streak of five consecutive starts. Although Kessler has performed well and given the Browns reasons to further explore whether he could develop into a long-term starter, McCown’s 14 years of NFL experience and ability to consistently threaten a defense with the deep ball probably makes him better suited to win right now.
“It is a comfort for us because we know we have a veteran back there who has been through so many different battles,” run game coordinator Kirby Wilson said. “He is tried and tested. It definitely eases you from a standpoint of, ‘Will we have control of the game? Will we have a complete understanding of what they are doing to us when they are going to do it?’ When you have a veteran, he can anticipate those things and relay that to the rest of the offense.”
McCown’s leadership can’t be understated, as Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall can attest. Marshall played with McCown in 2013 when he went 3-2 as a starter for the Chicago Bears and threw 13 touchdown passes with one interception.
“Even when he wasn’t starting, he was the glue to the locker room, the glue to the organization,” Marshall said. “No one worked harder than him.”
McCown’s record of 18-40 as an NFL starter, including 2-18 in his past 20 starts, doesn’t support claims about him giving the Browns their best chance to win. However, his statistics since he signed with them in 2015 tell a different story.
He went 1-7 last season but completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 2,109 yards and 12 touchdowns with four interceptions, posting a rating of 93.3 before a broken right collarbone ended his season. In the 2015 regular-season opener against the Jets, McCown led the Browns on a long drive during their first possession but suffered a concussion while attempting to dive into the end zone for a touchdown.
Quarterback Robert Griffin III suffered a fractured left shoulder in the 2016 regular-season opener Sept. 11. Then McCown started the next game and helped the offense score three touchdowns in the first quarter against the Ravens. He also suffered a fractured left collarbone in the opening quarter but stayed in the game, finishing 20-of-33 passing for 260 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions and a rating of 80.4.
After blowing a 20-point lead, the Browns marched into Ravens’ territory in crunch time. Pryor was called for a controversial taunting penalty, negating a 20-yard reception to the 10-yard line. On the next play, McCown was intercepted to end the game.
“It was frustrating because we lost the game and in the manner in which we did,” McCown said. “We got the ball down there inside and then we get the penalty. I just wish we could have seen that defense differently. All those things, when you are injured, you have a lot of time to think about that. It fuels your fire for whenever you can come back, and it gets you excited about the opportunity to get back out there again.”
Now McCown is back.
“When I saw him out on practice on Wednesday, there was a jolt of energy basically for everybody because he’s a guy that you love to have on your team,” cornerback Joe Haden said. “He loves the game. He’s such a competitor, so smart, he runs the offense very, very well. So when you have him under center, you feel like you definitely have a really good chance to win.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.