Browns won’t go 0-16, and that’s a beautiful thing

The Cleveland Browns are 1-14, but there may not be a happier team in the NFL this week. Offensive tackle Joe Thomas called their 20-17 win over the San Diego Chargers “our Super Bowl” — which, yes, that’s a little sad, but when you’re staring down the specter of an 0-16 season, it is a legitimate thing to feel.

Losing without redemption is a brutally hard thing to do. The Browns were close several times, losing by three points to the New York Jets, two points to the Tennessee Titans, and six points in overtime to the Miami Dolphins. The worst might have been in Week 2 when they led 20-0 over the Baltimore Ravens and bled their lead away to lose 25-20 at home.

It was right to expect the worst Saturday. The Browns held just their third fourth quarter lead of the season, and first since they played Washington in Week 4. The Chargers were at the Browns’ 35-yard line with a 43 seconds left, and it seemed perfunctory that the Chargers would find a way to tie the game or win right then and there because that’s the sort of doomed thinking an 0-14 team inspires.

But then the worst never happened. The Chargers bumbled the next two plays, failing to stop the clock, and missed a potential game-tying field goal that they had to rush to even execute.

The Browns held the lead — you know, like good teams do. And no, the Browns are not even close to being a good team, but for a sweet three-and-a-half hours on Christmas Eve we witnessed everything that is actually good about these Browns.

Six players have played significant snaps behind center for the Browns this season. As in, “you’re playing quarterback right now because we think you’re the best we can do.” That includes Charlie Whitehurst, who played 2.5 quarters for the Browns before getting hurt and subsequently cut.

Robert Griffin III took seven sacks Saturday, and eventually left with a concussion. Cody Kessler played essentially two drives and took two more. But despite the beating, both quarterbacks hung tough. They went a combined 19-for-28 for 175 yards — no scores, but no turnovers, either. Griffin picked up 42 yards on the ground and led four scoring drives. Kessler completed a 9-yard pass on third-and-6 to get a first down that burned the Chargers’ final timeout and allowed the defense to win the game.

The Browns have had no bigger issue than inconsistency at the quarterback position this season, and on Saturday, Griffin and Kessler managed to be a net positive.

The Browns still have the No. 1 pick

The Browns almost played themselves with the win, because this so-not-a-playoff team also gave up the virtual No. 1 pick to the 1-win San Francisco 49ers on tiebreakers. The 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams in the second slate of games to move back to the No. 2 pick, which means that the Browns still have the pick of the litter.

But picking No. 2 wouldn’t even be all that bad.

Texas A&M outside linebacker Myles Garrett is, probably, the best prospect in the Class of 2017, and he’d fit a major position of need for the Browns. But if they lose the No. 1 overall pick to the 49ers — and the 49ers would be very interested in Garrett as well — then they’d still be able to take, say, Notre Dame quarterback Deshone Kizer or UNC quarterback Mitch Trubisky. Or hell, Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen would do just fine, too.

The draft is a crap shoot, but the top five-or-so players seem pretty set at this point in the process. The Browns are going to get what should be a great player, no matter where they pick.

Saturday was a full slate of meh NFL football. There were a lot of blowouts, and some close games between teams you didn’t want to watch. Two of the most promising young quarterbacks in the NFL — Derek Carr and Marcus Mariota — suffered broken fibulas doing their jobs on a day when most of the rest of the world gets to take some time to hopefully worry about nothing.

Football over Christmas is stupid, but at least the Browns are happy for once.

Yes, left tackle Joe Thomas is handsomely paid for his service, but good lord no one player has so bravely stuck by his crappy team. The 10-year veteran and future Hall of Famer has yet to even miss a snap, much less a game. Once, Browns head coach Mike Pettine tried to take him out and Thomas put his foot down.

In 2014, the Browns were beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, manhandling them, actually, when then-coach Mike Pettine told backup Vinston Painter to go in and replace Thomas; the coach didn’t want his best player getting hurt in mop-up duty. Pettine was in his first year, and didn’t know any better. Thomas did a double take when he saw Painter.

“Get the f--- out of here,” he told Painter.

The poor backup went down the line to see whether anyone else wanted to be spelled before sadly heading back to the sideline.

Thomas has stuck by the Browns despite his aching body, despite the losing, and despite an occasionally fractious relationship with an organization that has dealt away a lot of his friends over the years and almost traded him last season. He might be the toughest guy in the NFL for all those reasons. And he’s enjoying the hell out of this.

Here he is again, after the game:

I kept telling myself, ‘I shouldn’t be this happy. This is not that big of a deal. We just won a game and it doesn’t even matter.’ It definitely felt like it was more than just a win. ... This was the biggest game of our year because it was our next opportunity to get that first win — for coach, for the teammates, and for the fans. You could feel it in the stadium today how excited everybody was.

Thomas felt so good because the Browns have been so obscenely bad this season in just about every way. No, he isn’t happy in the grand scheme, that things got so low that he’s celebrating a win over a 5-win team like it’s the Super Bowl. He’s happy because for once in the last three months there will be no hurt come Monday, and because one part of his otherwise overwhelmingly incredible legacy won’t be the black mark of an 0-16 season.