Open plea for Baltimore Ravens to smash the Browns back in their place

After an embarrassing loss at home to the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens fans haven’t heard the end of it. Now we want some good old-fashioned revenge.

There is plenty at stake for the Baltimore Ravens this week as they travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns. The top seed in the AFC is a big deal, as is clinching home-field advantage throughout the course of the playoffs. Winning that 13th game of the season is also a nice pelt to hang on the wall over at Ravens headquarters. I want all of those things. Every one of them.

I also want the Ravens to send the Browns and their fans back to where they belong — complete irrelevance.

I’m a little old school, and, to be fair, I could have probably ended that sentence with “old” and been just as accurate. I feel you have to earn your way in this thing called life. The Cleveland faithful, with an assist from some easily-swayed in the national media,  took it upon themselves to crown the Browns the cream of the AFC North after a 7-8-1 record and some big-name additions.

Sure, it had to be exciting for them to almost have a .500 record last year. And wasn’t it great to see them add players like Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon to that roster — even if some conveniently forgot that they lost players like Jabril Peppers, Kevin Zeitler and whoever could have been had with the first- and third-round picks that went east in the process? And naming Freddie Kitchens to be head coach, though he was only a coordinator for a little longer than myself, was a masterstroke, right? That’s Baker’s guy. They were going to set the football world on fire.

Oh, Cleveland was ready to throw a parade, right? A crushing opening loss to the Titans was just because they hadn’t jelled, right? A resounding 40-25 win over the Ravens that made them 2-2 was the best thing to happen to Cleveland since Ernest Byner carried that ball right over the goal line to topple the Denv… oh, right. That didn’t work out so hot, did it?

Regardless, at 2-2, the city of Cleveland was beside itself. Why shouldn’t it have been? They were 1-31 over a recent two-year stretch, so this had to feel like climbing the mountaintop, even if it just means they were sitting firmly in the lap of mediocrity.

A losing streak just meant that the Browns were getting through the tough stretch of the season, while Lamar Jackson and the Ravens were just coasting through cupcakes. Surely, when the schedule changed, the Browns would make their move.

I think someone should maybe poke them with a stick. They’ve yet to move.

Big picture, this game really only matters to the Ravens in terms of playoff seeding. They want it. They want either of these last two games that can make the playoffs roll through Baltimore. But they’re going to the Dance. They’ve won the North. They have an MVP candidate at quarterback.

But I want more. I want a destruction of the Cleveland Browns. It’s time the Ravens throw dirt on this Browns season and send them packing with their Dawg Pound tails between their legs. The North is Baltimore’s. And it will remain so until further notice.