Cleveland Browns 2008: Thank God it's Over

Well the 2008 season has come and gone.  The 10-6 Browns of last year were nowhere to be found this year.

The Browns started the season with high hopes and great anticipation for a successful season—a repeat of last season, plus more!

However, the Browns must not have gotten the memo.

Cleveland started off 0-3, not a great start for a team expected to lead their division.

But, the fourth game of the season was against the equally as bad Cincinnati Bengals.  The Browns prevailed in that match-up and got their first victory of the season.  This was going to be the turning point.

The next game was against division rival Pittsburgh Steelers.  The game ended 10-6 with Cleveland on the short end. 

So much for the turnaround. But hey, 1-4 is bad, but the season wasn't over.

The Browns then set up to face the Baltimore Ravens.  The Ravens showed up to play and took care of business 28-10.  So now the Browns are 1-5, it was not looking good.

The Super Bowl Champions from a season ago, the New York Giants came to Cleveland for the first Monday Night Football game in a long time for the Browns.

Cleveland DOMINATED the game and took care of the Giants 35-14.  Everyone played football and the Browns looked poised to rebound from their dismal start to the season.

The Redskins were next and the Browns seemed to forget what they had shown America the week before against the Giants.

Cleveland travelled to Jacksonville next and actually won.

But, like the rest of the season, Cleveland could not gain any momentum from the win and lost the next two to Baltimore and Denver.  They blew 13+ point leads in both of those games and were heading to do it for a third straight week accept Phil Dawson had other plans.

The third game would have been against Buffalo.  Cleveland had them on the run, they came back, and then Phil Dawson kicked the game winner in overtime to seal the win.

The Browns lost the next five, but more than losing games, they lost players.  Derek Anderson was placed on Injured Reserve with a leg injury, and, the golden boy, Brady Quinn broke his finger against the Texans, played the next game, and was forced to leave the game and have surgery.

The season ended on Sunday against the Steelers.  The game did not matter for either team because Pittsburgh had already clinched and Cleveland, well, they were done.

Cleveland set a record on Sunday for most consecutive quarters without an offensive touchdown as they went 24 consecutive without the offense getting into the endzone.

So here's to the 2008 Browns. Another season in the books for Cleveland. Romeo will be gone, hopefully Learner will be gone, and who knows what other kind of firings there could be before 2009 starts.

As they say in Cleveland, "There's always next year..."

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