The Browns hit the bye week in 2020 after a feeble performance in a loss to the Raiders dropped their record to 5-3 on the season and the time off did them some good.
Cleveland went 6-2 the rest of the way to advance to the playoffs and the hope around the Browns right now is that this bye week can lead to the same kind of success. Sunday night’s 16-10 loss to the Ravens leaves them at 6-6 and in need of several wins to get back to the postseason.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield said the week off comes at a “pretty crucial time” for him as he tries to get closer to 100 percent after dealing with left shoulder, groin, knee, and foot injuries in recent weeks. Mayfield also spelled out what he thinks needs to happen for the Browns to use this bye week as a springboard to better days.
“For starters, everybody getting healthy,” Mayfield said, via Cleveland.com. “Last year, you know, with no preseason games or anything with anew system, that was kind of a crucial point for us with everybody kinda doing self-scouting and realizing what we were good at, what we needed to focus on. So I imagine that’s going to be kinda the same mentality. Get better, focus on what we’re good at, continue to grow in those packages and fix our weaknesses. Because, like I said, I think there’s a lot of plays to be made that we just haven’t done it. And we’re good enough to do so, but we haven’t shown that.”
The Browns will return to face the Ravens again in Week 14 and that game should provide a pretty good idea about whether post-bye lightning will strike twice in Cleveland.