Week 1 Has Been Simply Nightmarish For the Cleveland Browns

There’s a number you will hear often on Sunday afternoon. It has to do with the futility of a team in the AFC that has had trouble winning for the most part for more than two decades. But getting the season off to a good start has been especially difficult for the Cleveland Browns.

The last time this club won its first game of the season was way back in 2004. The team’s head coach was Butch Davis and his team came away with a 20-3 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Since then, the Browns are 0-16-1 in their first game of the season dating back to ’05. There was a frustrating 21-21 overtime tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2018. The current losing streak in Week 1 is three consecutive years. Over that span, there have been losses to the Titans (43-13), Ravens (38-6) and Chiefs (33-29) by a combined score of 114-48.

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But Wait, There’s More

But it’s more than just the current winless streak. A reminder that the franchise returned to the National Football League as an expansion team in 1999. All told, there have been 23 opening contests for this team. The club has won just once and owns a combined 1-21-1 record in those 23 outings. That’s nothing short of mind-blowing. A breakdown of those games showed that the Browns are 1-15-1 at home and 0-6 on the road in those contests.

Over that stretch, there have been 10 different head coaches that have tasted defeat in their first outing as the club’s sideline leader. And more times than not, these losses have been a bit ugly. Of the 21 setbacks, a dozen have been by double digits.

But 2022 is yet another chance for the Browns to kick off the season with a win. Ironically, the team will be renewing acquaintances with one of their former starting quarterbacks in Baker Mayfield – dealt to Carolina this offseason. And the team will have Jacoby Brissett behind center as Deshaun Watson (acquired from Houston via trade this year) serves an 11-game suspension.

As if this opening-game streak of futility needed any more drama…