Browns on the Bye: Week 9 NFL predictions – Imagine how close Cleveland was to a 4-4 record

The Cleveland Browns are on the bye with a 2-6 record. For as frustrating and bad as this football team has been, it’s also unbelievable how two moments could have drastically shifted the mood of the season.

• In Week 1, the Browns are losing 17-16, due to a missed extra point earlier. Still, they are in clear field goal range with a first down in the red zone near the end of the fourth quarter. A sack ultimately sets up a 36-yard field goal for rookie K Andre Szmyt, and he misses it with under three minutes to go. The defense forces a three-and-out, and Joe Flacco gets picked off near midfield with 1:30 to go. The Bengals set a record for having negative yards in the second half and still winning the game. The odds of the Browns losing in that circumstance were historically low.
• In Week 5 against the Vikings, the Browns played a relatively clean game and were in control for most of it. But in the fourth quarter, the offense blew several opportunities to close out the game, and then when it came time for the defense to get the game-winning stop, Carson Wentz, who we now know was playing with what’s now a season-ending shoulder injury, led a game-winning touchdown drive.

If the Browns had won both of those games, the team would be 4-4 at the bye, just a half game out of the AFC North lead. Granted, we can’t play that game in the NFL often, because one could just as easily point to the Browns’ victory over the Packers and how much of a fluke comeback that was. But still, the fact that at 2-6, and if the Steelers lose to the Colts this weekend, Cleveland could still just be two games out of the AFC North lead? That sounds a bit insane, but it’s the reason why Kevin Stefanski is sticking with Dillon Gabriel, in my opinion. I think he thinks Gabriel can be the better game manager to win some of these winnable games upcoming, and that Shedeur Sanders isn’t ready yet for the speed of the game. If he thinks he can polish some things with Gabriel and the offense, he’s going to try it before giving up and seeing what Sanders has.

Below are our Week 9 NFL staff picks: