Saturday, December 24, 2016

Browns avoid winless season, beat Chargers with late Christmas Eve miracle

A Christmas miracle!
The Cleveland Browns delivered their fans — most of whom did not bother to show up to FirstEnergy Stadium on Saturday — a most unexpected gift.
A win. Of any kind. Do you believe in Santa Claus now?
It had been more than a calendar year since Browns fans enjoyed the spoils of victory, 0-14 and 17 straight losses entering the day (21 if you count the 0-4 pre49season), but they held on for a win over the San Diego Chargers, 20-17.
“I am happy for players,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said. “They deserve it.
“You find a way to win a game. I give all the credit to our veteran leadership: Joe Thomas, Gary Barnidge, Joe Haden, Andrew Hawkins, all the guys. … Today, it’s about those guys. It’s a heck of a Christmas present for all involved because those guys work so hard.
“Today we were finally successful … today was a good day for the Browns.”
The Browns’ Jamie Meder blocked a field-goal try with just under four minutes left, and though the Browns defense almost broke down late, Chargers kicker Josh Lambo missed a 45-yarder wide right as time expired. A 1-14 record never sounded so good.
The Chargers had to race to get the kicking team on the field, and Lambo’s try sailed wide right. With that, the 2008 Detroit Lions put their dusty bottle of Cold Duck back on the shelf. The NFL’s last remaining winless team must wait another year for someone to push them off their perch.
The victory means avoiding the ignominy of a winless season, and it appeared the sacrifice was possibly losing the No. 1 pick in the draft to the San Francisco 49ers, who had one win entering Saturday and a lower opponents’ win percentage. But by virtue of the 49ers’ victory over the Los Angeles Rams, the Browns are back in possession of the top choice heading into the final week of the season. Through a miserable season, that’s two beams of light — in one day!
But Jackson wasn’t thinking about the draft when he delivered an emotional address to his Browns team in the locker room afterward. Don’t tell him or the team this one didn’t mean something special.
Browns quarterbacks were sacked nine times, and Robert Griffin III — who played maybe his best game of the season — left the game early in the fourth quarter while being monitored for a possible concussion and did not return. But still, Cleveland had just enough offense to win it with Cody Kessler coming in to replace Griffin. Isaiah Crowell ran for two TDs in the victory in front of a sparse but hopeful crowd that erupted as Lambo’s kick missed.
They had suffered long enough in “Cleveveland.” (Click the link, folks. It’s funny. Especially now.)
Philip Rivers and the Chargers rallied from a 10-point deficit in the late third quarter, and he finished with 321 passing yards. But he also threw a pick and couldn’t come up with enough big plays — with no run game to speak of — against one of the NFL’s worst defenses.
It has been a strange sports year in Cleveland. A Cavaliers championship. An Indians Game 7 heartbreaker. And an awful Browns season … that turned out pretty well on this day, anyway.
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