CLEVELAND: Left tackle Joe Thomas wiped tears from his face as he and other Browns players surrounded coach Hue Jackson in the locker room after they pulled off a Christmas Eve miracle.
Tight end Gary Barnidge approached Jackson with a game ball and said, “For sticking with us through the whole year. It hasn’t been the way we wanted, but this one’s for you.”
Jackson accepted the ball as players patted him on the head, hugged him and yelled “Merry Christmas.”
There will be no historic 0-16 season for the Browns or a satirical parade thrown by a faction of their frustrated fans.
The Browns survived a field-goal attempt as time expired to prevail 20-17 over the San Diego Chargers on Saturday in the home finale at a third-full FirstEnergy Stadium. They won for the first time since Dec. 13, 2015, ending a 377-day drought, snapping their 17-game losing streak and giving Jackson his first win since he was hired Jan. 13.
The Browns (1-14) have one game left, the season finale Jan. 1 at the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But they no longer need to worry about joining the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams in NFL history to finish a season 0-16.
“It definitely felt like it was more than just a win,” Thomas said. “Obviously, everybody knew the gravity of the situation that we were facing going down the stretch trying to get a win. Finally getting that win and getting the monkey off of our back definitely felt amazing. You don’t want to say it was like our Super Bowl, but it really was. This was the biggest game of our year.”
The Browns had their cake and ate it, too. With the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Los Angeles Rams 22-21 to improve to 2-13, the Browns are still in position to own the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft.
The players and coaches, though, weren’t worried about draft position. They simply wanted to escape becoming just the fifth NFL team since 1944 to finish a season without a win.
“For us older guys that have been in this a long time and we don’t know how many years we have left, it feels good to avoid that,” wide receiver Andrew Hawkins said.
The Chargers (5-10) had no timeouts when they began their final drive with 1:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. They advanced to the Browns’ 35-yard line, and on second-and-10, quarterback Philip Rivers fumbled the snap and recovered for no gain as precious time ran off the clock. The next play, he completed an 11-yard pass to tight end Antonio Gates, setting the Chargers up for a field goal at the 27.
Kicker Josh Lambo and the field-goal unit rushed onto the field and scrambled into position. Lambo got his 45-yard attempt off before the game clock expired, but the kick missed wide right with no time left.
“When he kicked it, from my angle, I thought he made it, so I’m looking for my helmet to go to overtime,” said rookie quarterback Cody Kessler, who replaced starter Robert Griffin III after he suffered a concussion with 10:30 left in the fourth quarter. “And someone yelled out next to me that he missed it, and I looked over at the ref standing under the goal post, and he waved no good and it just kind of erupted. It was a cool feeling. It was just some emotion that came out that’s been wanting to get out this whole season.”
The clutch play defensive lineman and Parma Heights native Jamie Meder made with 3:45 left in the fourth quarter was equally important. As rookie defensive end Carl Nassib occupied right guard Kenny Wiggins, Meder wedged between Wiggins and long snapper Mike Windt, jumped and blocked Lambo’s 32-yard field goal attempt with his right hand extended over his head.
“It feels great,” Meder said. “This is what Cleveland should feel like every week.”
Cleveland has been euphoric this year with the Cavaliers ending the city’s 52-year title drought and the Indians advancing to the World Series before falling in Game 7.
But the Browns have been the oddball team, an embarrassment and a laughingstock. A “perfect season” parade had been planned to promote those narratives.
“I would’ve hated that,” running back Isaiah Crowell said of the parade idea.
Now there’s no need to sweat it. Nine NFL teams have gone 1-15, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. But those one-win teams are forgotten while the fate of the 2008 Lions is common knowledge for fans.
In other words, the weight of the burden lifted off the Browns shouldn’t be underestimated.
“It is a heck of a Christmas present to all involved because these guys worked so hard,” said Jackson, who hugged owner Jimmy Haslam as they celebrated. “They have given me everything they have. So I can’t thank this team enough for what they do every week to try to go out and win a game, and today we were finally successful.
“Most teams, as you guys know, they say forget it. It is done. Not this group. They have been fighting all year. For them to keep fighting for the staff, for the organization and for the fans, and then go out and make it happen when a lot of people think we couldn’t, it says a lot about the group.”
There were so many reasons to doubt. The Browns had lost their previous six games by double digits and had been outscored 170-62.
But Crowell’s rushing touchdowns of 8 and 4 yards, plus Cody Parkey’s 49-yard field goal allowed them to earn their fifth halftime lead of the season, a 17-10 edge. It was their first lead since they held a 7-6 halftime advantage over the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 10.
Parkey’s 27-yard field goal with 10:58 left in the third quarter and some clutch plays on defense and special teams in the second half allowed them to hang on.
“It validates the work, all the hard work that these guys put in,” Jackson said.
The players desperately wanted to win for Jackson.
“He is one of the best coaches in the NFL,” Thomas said. “He has been given a really difficult situation, but he has never lost his positive mindset. He brings energy and enthusiasm every single day. He motivates us during the week. I think most teams sitting in the situation that we were sitting into would have shut it down and would have started thinking about next year, but I think this team, if anything, rallied together and they got behind Hue.”
The Browns also fulfilled their promise. The first player to declare they wouldn’t go 0-16 was inside linebacker Chris Kirksey. He made the vow Nov. 6 after they fell to 0-9. Jackson, cornerback Joe Haden and rookie defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah eventually pledged the same.
“I just knew the fight in the guys that’s on the team,” Kirksey said. “It wasn’t coming out of being arrogant or talking smack. I knew these guys in here. They got a lot of fight in them. ... It speaks volumes to the type of players we have on this team.”
At last, those players are winners.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.