On any given Sunday . . .

It’s still too early in the 2019 National Football League season to be talking this way, but the way the Browns have played football this season, it somehow makes sense.

“Right now, the season can go either way,” said struggling wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. the other day as Sunday’s invasion of the Seattle Seahawks creeps  closer.  “We are at that fork in the road.

“It’s funny we’re all having these conversations where I feel like in the past this team might have been 1-4, 0-5 and now we’re all upset because we’re 2-3.”

Beckham is absolutely right. In the past, a 2-3 record at this point of the season would be reason to be joyous, overjoyed in fact, even downright gleeful. It’s a strange feeling that takes a little getting used to.

This season is teetering on one game. One game in a 16-game schedule, according to Beckham can conceivably be the determining factor in how the rest of the season unfolds. He called that kind of thinking “a good mind-set we have that we are upset we are 2-3 and know we’re capable of doing more. It’s just about doing more.”

Added fellow wideout Jarvis Landry, “We’re 2-3 and easily a couple of those games, our record again could be flipped to 4-1.” Well, 3-2 maybe, but not 4-1. Tennessee and San Francisco drilled the Browns. The only time they had a good chance to win and didn’t was the Los Angeles Rams game.

Landry admits the Browns aren’t playing up to their potential. “We haven’t been making enough plays, whether we’ve been put in position or not,” he said candidly. “Our playmakers haven’t really been given a lot of opportunities to make plays.”

A well-placed and not-so-veiled shot at coach Freddie Kitchens and offensive coordinator Todd Monken, the so-called masterminds behind an offense that has been inconsistent and spectacularly disappointing.

This pivotal game against one of the best teams in the league, if Beckham and Landry are featured, will go a long way in determining the path the Browns take not only in the immediate future, but the rest of the season.

They believe one of the best ways to succeed in taking the correct direction on that forked road is to maximize the reasons they were brought to Cleveland in the first place. In short, “doing more” translates to throw them the damn ball.

Upsetting the Seahawks is mandatory with the New England Patriots awaiting them after the bye week. Entering that game in Foxboro at 2-4 virtually guarantees a 2-5 start and a howling fan base bellowing for heads to roll.

Optimists say cool it. Better days lie ahead. They point to a much easier schedule in the second half of the season than the minefield that is the first half. And they play a stretch later on: Four out of five games at home, including three in a row.

Besides, the win-loss rhythm of this schedule suggests a possible Browns victory against the Seahawks. They are L-W-L-W-L in the first five games. Two of those Ls, however, were at home.

Okay, that’s a stretch. Ot is it? Moving on.

Two factors for this one: The Seahawks have lost only one game this season. And the Browns have yet to win a home game in two attempts.

The ‘Hawks are not overwhelming anyone this season from a statistical standpoint.  They just beat you with sound, fundamental, mistake-free football. Four of their five games this season have been decided by six points or fewer, including their lone loss to New Orleans.

They come limping in along the offensive line with tackle Duane Brown (biceps) and guard D. J, Fluker (hamstring) listed as doubtful as of Saturday, which means they won’t play. That’s 40% of an offensive line that right now can dress only six healthy men.

George Fant, who doubles as a tight end the closer the Seahawks get to the opposing team’s goal line, takes over for Brown at left tackle, while former Ohio State standout Jamarco Jones fills in at right guard for Fluker.

Which means the Cleveland defensive front, especially the pass rush, should have an enjoyable and productive afternoon, at least theoretically, chasing Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson and gaining a small measure of redemption from its sorry effort last Sunday night against San Francisco.

Keep an eye on how much of a push off the snap the defensive front gets. If they duplicate their effort 49ers effort against the Seattle, it will be a long afternoon.

The run defense, torn to shreds for 275 yards by the Niners, will get another severe test from the Seahawks, who love to run the football.

Myles Garrett, who has nearly half of the club’s 16 sacks, was held in check by 49ers rookie offensive tackle Justin Skule last weekend with just one sack and a couple of tackles. But he’s not getting much help from the rest of his linemates, except Larry Ogunjobi, who at least occasionally makes plays.

Newcomers Sheldon Richardson and Olivier Vernon have not played anywhere near what was expected of them. Richardson has been a cipher next to Ogunjobi, who at least puts some pressure on the quarterback. The seven-year pro, who played for the Seahawks  in 2017, has made no discernable contributions this season.

Vernon, who brought 51 sacks over a seven-year career to the Browns, checks in with just one this season from left end. He has taken no heat whatsoever off Garrett on the other side. Add in only 11 tackles, just seven solo, and it’s puzzling why Genard Avery is still tethered to the bench.

Keeping Wilson in check is a monumental task. The smallish Wilson – he’s about two inches shorter than Baker Mayfield – is still, at 31, one of the slipperiest quarterbacks in the NFL when escaping the pocket. He extends plays with the best of them.

The Seahawks run the football 47% of the time. They no doubt are licking their chops when they notice the Browns cough up 151 yards on game on the ground, Chris Carson coming back from a shoulder injury, and Rashaad Penny bear the brunt of the heavy load on the ground.

But it’s Wilson the Browns must pay close attention to.  He is quietly having the best year of his eight-year career – and that’s saying something with two Super Bowl appearances and a Vince Lombardi Trophy on his résumé  – with 12 touchdown passes, a 73% completion rate and no interceptions.

He is also the second-leading rusher with 120 yards, almost all on scrambles, and a pair of touchdown runs. On the minus side, he has been sacked 13 times and with Brown and Fluker out, that total could easily climb.

His favorite targets are wide receiver Tyler Lockett (three touchdowns) and tight end Will Dissly, who has 23 receptions, four of which wound up in the end zone. And with the Browns ‘ seemingly never-ending problem covering tight ends, look for him to be a major target Sunday.

The Seahawks, who barely squeezed past Cincinnati and Pittsburgh by a total of three points in the first two games of the season, are more vulnerable on defense.

Mayfield and & Co., who played with sloth-like speed against the 49ers, should, again theoretically, have more success against a Seattle defense that has allowed 351 yards a game, a 65% pass completion rate and intercepted only three passes.

Where the Browns might encounter trouble is when Mayfield drops back to pass. Maybe. The Seahawks’ pass rush has been the most disappointing aspect of the defense with only 10 sacks, which means they are due to erupt against some unsuspecting team with the likes of Jadeveon Clowney, Ziggy Ansah and Al Woods.

Try to run, though, and you find the defense’s strength. It has allowed only 80 yards a game, which means Nick Chubb undoubtedly, will draw a major portion of the attention.

It’s the weak secondary the Browns hope to exploit with the return of Rashard Higgins and Antonio Callaway, plus a concentrated effort to make Beckham and Landry a major part of the offense. Maybe the most major.

The first inclination when making a predication for this one is to consider the Seahawks are making a cross-country trip with a three-hour time difference and making that a factor. But the Seahawks are a surprising 14-12 when playing in the Eastern and Central Time Zones since 2014. So much for that.

Then I looked again at the Seahawks’ relatively underwhelming statistics and almost convinced myself there’s more to those stats than meets the eye. There is a reason they are 4-1. So much for that, too.

And then I looked again at the undulating record the Browns have put together thus far. The L-W-L-W-L season is somewhat intriguing. So much so, I thought why not? I remembered the meme uttered initially by NFL Commissioner Bert Bell nearly eight decades ago.

It goes like this: “On any given Sunday, any team in the National Football League team can beat any other team.” The Seahawks should win this game because they are the better team. But the better team does not always win. And this feels like an “any given Sunday” moment. The Browns even their record at 3-3. Make it:

Browns 24, Seahawks 22