The Cleveland Browns only managed to win one game last season, but it did come within their past four games played. They won the penultimate game of the 2016 season, but lost the final game, and have opened the 2017 season with a pair of losses.
In order to find the last time they won a game prior to that, you would have to go all the way back to Week 14 of the 2017 season, so they actually lost 17 consecutive games, and have only won one of their last 21 games in total, going 1-20 in that span.
And so it is that they take that abysmal record with them into Indianapolis with them to face a team that shares in their misery of having not yet won a game this season, that being the literally luckless Colts, who have been without their franchise quarterback Andrew Luck, so far this year.
Luck is not going to play this week, either, and the Colts intend to start the Patriots’ former third-string quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, whom they acquired via trade not long before the regular season got under way.
Brissett will be making the fourth start of his NFL career today, and the second of this season, while the Browns’ DeShone Kizer, their rookie second-round draft pick, will be making his third start, so both teams will be fielding relative neophytes, which should prove to be interesting.
Last week, the Colts quarterback completed only 20 of 37 passes for 216 yards, throwing no touchdowns with one interception in a 13-16 loss to the Cardinals. Behind the Colts’ porous offensive line, he was also sacks four times.
Kizer has not necessarily fared all that much better. Through two games, he is completing under 60 percent of his passes and has one touchdown to four interceptions, while taking nine sacks. Seven of those sacks came in the season opener against the Steelers.
Both teams will be rather shorthanded in a number of ways, with the Browns due to be without wide receiver Corey Coleman for at least half the season after he was placed on injured reserve with a hand injury. Linebacker Jamie Collins is also ruled out with a concussion, while first-overall pick Myles Garrett is doubtful to play.
Aside from Luck, the Colts will also be without Ryan Kelly along the offensive line, and Vontae Davis is also expected to be out, listed as doubtful. But it should probably go without saying that Luck’s absence is by far the biggest for either team—or for any team in the league.
The Browns stand a good chance of getting an ‘early’ win under their belts if they can travel well into Indiana today. Brissett is still getting used to playing in the Colts’ offense, and they as a team have not really played well at all to date.
