The Cleveland Browns don’t get featured often on Monday Night Football. Spots on the NFL’s marquee game of the week are reserved for popular teams or playoff contenders, or at least teams perceived as those when the schedule is made before the season.
Cleveland has not fit any of those criteria very often. Monday night’s game against the Ravens will be just the ninth time the Browns are featured on Monday Night Football since coming back to the league in 1999.
The Browns have gone 3-5 in those eight games. Since winning two of the first three, Cleveland has dropped four of the last five.
The one win in the latest stretch, and the only Browns’ Monday Night Victory since 2008, came in Week 2 of last season. The Browns overwhelmed the New York Jets, 23-3.
There are two Monday night losses to the Ravens mixed in there, too. Baltimore won in Cleveland in Week 10 of 2009 and again in Week 12 of 2015. The Browns did not play on Monday night between those two losses, either.
Browns fans probably don’t want to remember the last national spotlight game, either. The 49ers blistered the Browns, 31-3, in Week 5 last year in one of the most discouraging games in recent times for any Cleveland team.
The Browns get a shot at altering the recent history. Coach Kevin Stefanski and his team can right a lot of historical wrong with a win over the Ravens.