The Cleveland Browns rolled into the playoffs with a ton of confidence as they rattled off four straight wins behind QB Joe Flacco and were in position to rest starters the final week of the regular season. The team battled through a ton of adversity with QB Deshaun Watson, RB Nick Chubb, and several other key players suffering season-ending injuries throughout the year. Despite the adversity, they finished the season strong and even became a trendy pick to make a playoff run.
Their dominant defense was meant to be the catalyst for the run, but Flacco appeared to have turned back the clock 10 years and was playing lights-out. In five starts he went 4-1 and completed 123 passes on 204 attempts for 1616 yards, thirteen touchdowns, and eight interceptions. His veteran presence at quarterback provided significant hope that the team could make a run despite all odds.
In the Wild Card round of the playoffs, the Browns came crashing back down to earth in a 45-14 trouncing at the hands of rookie QB C.J. Stroud and the dark horse Houston Texans. DE Myles Garrett spoke to the media following the loss and detailed the sting of defeat, ending the Browns’ 2023 season.
“We fought through a whole ton of adversity this year, and this is just another step of it,” Garrett said in a video of the postgame press conference posted on the Browns’ website. “Something you gotta use as motivation for next year. This [is] the most painful loss I’ve had in my career.”
Garrett is a front runner for the defensive player of the year award, but when it mattered most, he had just three total tackles and was held without any tackles for loss or sacks. Really, that was the story of the end of his season. Over the final seven games that he played in the regular season, he registered just 15 total tackles, six tackles for loss, and one sack.
Teams obviously pay him a bunch of extra attention, but earlier in the year he was able to overcome that and make a huge impact. His slow end to the regular season carried over into the playoffs.
“We just came up a little bit short,” Garrett continued. “We know that wasn’t ourselves, that’s what makes it the most painful.”
The Browns will have to navigate a tricky salary cap situation moving forward, as they have unprecedented guaranteed money locked up in Watson as their franchise quarterback. They still have a lot of pieces to be highly competitive next season, but will have some tough personnel decisions to make ahead of free agency.
The brutal feeling of a 45-14 defeat will live on with them into the offseason.
