CLEVELAND — “Believeland” is cautiously living up to its name. For one more week, at least.
The hype that had surrounded the Browns leading into Week 1 — on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a trendy Super Bowl pick and the toast of the town in the offseason — took a hit after last Sunday’s 43-13 loss to the Titans, but it has not yet disappeared. This is a city that has experienced losing football seasons in each of the past 11 falls, and 18 of the past 20, but a season-opening loss has not set off all the alarms and whistles just yet.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel the ‘Oh no,’ ” Dwane, a Browns fan since 1980, said this week outside the team’s pro shop at FirstEnergy Stadium. “It didn’t feel like, ‘Maybe next year.’ That was our saying for years. I didn’t get that in my soul that it was maybe next year. I think everybody still believes they can do something.”
Coach Freddie Kitchens said early in the week that “what we have to refrain from doing right now is overreacting,” and most Browns fans seem to be complying. They finally have the talent for this year to be different, fans believe, even if the fear of another lost season is never fully out of their minds.
There are still Browns flags and signs flying outside restaurants and bars downtown, and fans earlier in the week were still purchasing jerseys from the pro shop, not returning them. A sampling of local sports talk radio gave the sense that the sky was not yet falling and that it was just one bad game — filled with 18 penalties against the Browns, who may have beat themselves as much as the Titans did.
“[Sunday] was probably a punch in the gut,” said Ryan, another Browns fan. “Brought us back down to reality. I think we got up on a pedestal that we hadn’t even gotten to yet. I think we were humbled, for sure. [But] the excitement is still there.”
The prospect of a win over the Jets on “Monday Night Football” offers hope and a chance to get the hype train back on track. It was the Jets, after all, that gave the Browns their first win in nearly two years last September.
Of course, if the Browns were to lose Monday, especially against a team missing Sam Darnold, those hopes might go plummeting, especially with the Rams on deck in Week 3 — not that the confident bunch inside the locker room is thinking that way.
“Look at the Patriots last year. They lost a couple games [early] and they still won the Super Bowl,” said wide receiver Rashard Higgins, not the only Brown to invoke the defending champs this week. “We can’t let that deteriorate us from the goal.”
Higgins sees Monday — in prime time and in front of a national audience — as an opportunity to quickly flip the script.
“Lights on, cameras on,” Higgins said. “We’re made for it.”
The Browns insisted they were not listening to the outside noise during the preseason when it was all in their favor. Now, after starting 0-1, they are taking the same approach.
“I feel a lot of confidence with this team,” cornerback Denzel Ward said. “We want to get all the haters and naysayers out of here. I hope everybody’s all gone now and we just focus on us. We go win together, we gotta stay together, stick as a team and everything else is going to take care of itself.”
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