The Cleveland Browns put a bow on the holiday weekend with a 13-6 win over top rival Pittsburgh Steelers
The Cleveland Browns had one final gift to deliver Browns fans to close out Christmas weekend. It arrived three days late, without ribbons, tags or bows. In truth it was as ugly a gift as anyone could wrap. But it came nonetheless, in the form of a 13-6 win over their arch-rival.
Any self-respecting Browns fan considers a win over the Steelers one of the most enjoyable moments of any football season in Cleveland, regardless of things have gone in the weeks prior.
Not only that, but over the last two years these fans have suffered through six wins over the previous 33 games. It's safe to say they deserved this one. When the dust settles on it, though, it will only serve as a fleeting mask over the reality of things in Cleveland.
Those in charge remain on the hot seat, however, it's clear the team hasn't quit on their head coach down the stretch. Maybe that's worth enough to save jobs. We'll see.
Anything good about the 2025 Cleveland Browns season (and there wasn't much) has started to feel much more hollow of late.
The defense, so brilliant throughout most of the season and again on Sunday against an inept Steelers offense, has been wasted. It's a championship-caliber group, reduced to carrying the team to ugly, meaningless wins in late December. This win was just the latest reminder of what could have been, had someone assembled a competent NFL offense.
Myles Garrett's quest for the single-season sack record has been part of that unit's story as well. A few weeks back it felt inevitable he'd break it. Now, it rolls into the final week of the regular season, where doubters will claim it's not the real record because he needed 17 games to get there, should he break it.
There's also a possibility he won't get there at all, which would be a massively disappointing ending to one of the only feel-good stories of the season.
A promising rookie class suddenly suffered some devastating injury luck as well. Last week, it was Quinshon Judkins suffering a season-ending fractured fibula against the Buffalo Bills. This week, the epidemic claimed Harold Fannin Jr., who left the after catching the only touchdown of the day in the first quarter due to a groin injury.
He entered the day questionable after sustaining a groin injury during practice on Friday but was cleared to play. It didn't take long for the issue to flare back up enough that he had to leave the game.
Carson Schwesinger was also laboring through an ankle injury that has bothered him since suffering a sprain against the New England Patriots back in Week 8. Sunday against the Steelers is the most hobbled he's looked in a game, though. He still managed to play every snap.
The Shedeur Sanders' experience continues to be a roller coaster ride, filled with twists and turns and ups and down, and no definitive answers as to whether or not he can be the franchise QB. That was the case again on Sunday, where there were some more promising moments, but still plenty of glaring inconsistencies and mistakes for the Browns to put all their eggs in Sanders' basket.
A win over the Steelers complicates the team's quarterback dilemma even further. A fourth win slides Cleveland out of the top three picks of the draft, where they would potentially be in prime position to draft a franchise QB, should they decide Sanders isn't it.
That's not something the players care about. But the fans who desperately wanted this win, also desperately want a QB. They can't have their cake and eat it too, though.
This particular win over the Steelers felt eerily similar to the moment Thanos snapped his fingers in the movie Avengers Infinity War, where the villainous Titan is asked in a dream sequence what finishing his mission cost. His answer..."everything."
Beating the Steelers cost the Browns a lot too. But at least, for a moment, this team and these fans have something to feel good about. Whatever bad comes next will be sorted out in the weeks and months ahead.