With Sunday’s 35-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the Cleveland Browns are 0-9, over halfway to the dreaded 0-16 mark. Linebacker Christian Kirksey promised after the game that a bizarro perfect season wasn’t in the offing.
When are the Browns going to get their first win?
Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey promised that his team wouldn’t go 0-16.
Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports
“We’re not going to go 0-16,” Kirksey said. “Things are going to get on a roll, and we’ve just got to keep fighting.”
Very encouraging words, but at this point, the Browns getting their first win of the season probably has more to do with good luck than how they play on the field. That’s part of what makes it so hard for an NFL team to go completely winless for an entire season; from time to time, the ball is bound to bounce your way.
Only the 2008 Detroit Lions have gone winless for a full season since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule.
So when are the Browns going to get their first win?
They play their next game on Thursday night, giving them exactly four days to plan for the Ravens. They did beat the Ravens in overtime last season in Baltimore ... last season.
The rest of their schedule looks like this:
Week 10 - at Baltimore
Week 11 - vs Pittsburgh
Week 12 - vs New York Giants
Week 13 - BYE
Week 14 - vs Cincinnati
Week 15 - at Buffalo
Week 16 - vs San Diego
Week 17 - at Pittsburgh
That’s not exactly a murderer’s row of elite teams, but the Bengals are the only one below .500. Cleveland played a fairly competitive game against Cincinnati back in Week 7 too, competitive for a half anyway, or most of one.
I’m legitimately rooting for the Browns to win at least one game this season. They’re just too much fun to watch, way more so than the ‘08 Lions or the nine teams that have finished 1-15.
Of those nine teams that went 1-15, six of them got their lone win in the second half of the season, four of them in Week 11 or later. Only one of the nine teams got their only win of that season against a team with a winning record.
The Dallas Cowboys beat their rivals on the road in Washington (and Washington won 10 games that year) by a final score of 13-3 in Week 9 of the 1989 season. Maybe one of those upcoming division games is the magic one for the Browns.
We hope.
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