The victory last Thursday night cemented the Cleveland Browns as the fifth seed heading into the playoffs. The team will now have to debate whether to play their starters or to rest them in the final game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Browns have battled injuries during the season, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give the team their first bye week since the first week of October. The game will not affect the team’s standings in the playoffs or their rankings in the analytics sphere.
After 17 weeks of football, we know who the Cleveland Browns are and where they rank across the league. The offense has started hitting its stride under the command of Joe Flacco. Unfortunately, it took the team too long to find him as the team had missteps from their backup quarterbacks. The defense has been the saving grace of the season, keeping the Brown competitive in every game, and winning quite a few of those games.
The defense is a historically elite unit, perhaps the greatest regular season defense in NFL history. In this week’s penultimate Data Dump, we will examine how the team has played this season.