Four Issues the Browns Face Going into Pittsburgh

Five weeks into the season, the Browns have way too much drama and far too few wins.

The Browns' only victory didn’t really feel like one, the fanbase remains horribly split on who should be the quarterback, and everyone seems to hate head coach Eric Mangini.

The sad thing is that’s just scratching the surface, and now the team is headed to Pittsburgh to play the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers.

The Steelers have been the traditional rival of the Browns. Ever since the Browns returned to the league in 1999, though, they’ve been nothing more than a punching bag. It’s not much of a rivalry if one of the teams constantly loses.

There’s nothing more aggravating to a Browns fan than seeing the Steelers win, because Steeler fans are among the worst winners on the face of the planet. When the Steelers win, the fans all dress up in their black and gold, hoot and holler, and generally become as obnoxious as they possibly can be.

The flipside of that is it’s very difficult to find a Steeler fan after they lose. They don’t like to talk about the game when they don’t come out of it with a victory.

The Steelers have become a model NFL organization, and the results on the field prove it. Conversely, the Browns have had no consistency in their front office since their return to the league, and the results speak for themselves.

The questions that need answering are many, and Mangini isn’t the talking type.

Fan outcry has been loud. In some cases, their howls are justified, in other cases, groupthink has brought out the worst in Cleveland. Losing will do that. The constant losing definitely has made Cleveland fans shrill.

If the Browns are going to silence the hordes of Steelers fans out there and bring their own fans back to life, they have to rise above the drama of the last few weeks and build on what little promise they’ve shown since the season started.

Here are four issues, good and bad, the Browns need to focus on going into Sunday.

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