Close with a cigar?

It sure appears as though the novelty of seeing the Cleveland Browns in the second round of the National Football League playoffs has captured the attention and imagination of those who ply the league's landscape for a living.

That the Browns even made the playoffs after spending two decades wandering the depths of the league's standings on an annual basis was, at best, a mild surprise. But after ending the Pittsburgh Steelers' season prematurely a week ago, they have everyone's attention. 

No longer are the Browns the league's punching bag, the butt of never-ending jokes. All of a sudden, everyone wants to know about this outlier, this interloper. Who are they? What are they doing here? And why, again all of a sudden, have they become the darlings of the postseason?

Pundits all over the country have discovered this is not a bad football team, at least on the offensive side of the football. And when they play takeaway on defense, winning games usually follows. Nine of 10 to be exact.

Have the newcomers to this team fallen in love? Some have. Even to the point of suggesting the Browns will end the Kansas City Chiefs' season Sunday afternoon and deny them a chance at back-to-back Super Bowl championships. Forget the 10 points the Browns have been spotted by oddsmakers. Straight up.

But many more prefer the chalk-favorite Chiefs and All-Universe quarterback Patrick Mahomes II. That makes perfect sense, especially when you notice Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is 25-5 after a bye week -- the Chiefs were off last week -- and 7-0 against the Browns.

At the same time, though, they have entered the world of Kevin Stefanski football and have come away with a greater understanding of what they are and who they are and have been impressed by the 180-degree turnaround in such a short period of time in the face of a global pandemic.

They see a young team that is extremely dangerous in every phase when in possession of the football. Very few weaknesses to exploit by the opposition.

If it isn't Baker Mayfield throwing with unerring accuracy -- only one interception in the last 10-plus games -- to a vast array of capable receivers, it's Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt providing the necessary power on the ground, all behind one of the NFL's best offensive lines now that Joel Bitonio has escaped COVID-19 hell.

That offense has generated 40 or more points on four occasions this season, including the wild-card victory in Pittsburgh last Sunday. The great Chiefs offense has produced just one. The Cleveland offense has logged seven of their victories when scoring 34 or more points..

The Chiefs will face a supremely confident football team that, for the first time in roughly two months, will be as healthy as it has been all season. They believe in themselves to the point where they don't hope to win games, they expect to win them.

It's the product of trickle-down from the head coach. Stefanski steadfastly believed in them. They returned that belief after the losing stopped. Sounds corny, but the proof lies in what this team has accomplished, winning more games this season than any since it was reborn in 1999. 

A winning culture, something this franchise has yearned for for way too many years, has finally taken hold in Berea. In some ways, it bears some resemblance to the winning years of the original Browns in the eras of quarterbacks Otto Graham, Frank Ryan, Bill Nelsen, Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar.

Like his famed predecessors, Mayfield has become the leader of this team, the spark that lights the flame. He is the antithesis of the quarterback who came out of college as a gunslinger. Under Stefanski, he has become the complete quarterback. 

Mahomes, on the other hand, is still a gunslinger in an extremely prolific sort of way. He's got great weapons in wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce. Their symbiotic football relationship has accounted for 192 receptions, 2,692 yards and 26 touchdowns this season in 15 games.

Like Mayfield this season, Mahomes makes few mistakes when throwing with only six interceptions -- three in one game -- in 588 attempts. That's 0.01% of his attempts. 

He is more quick strike than Mayfield, who has adopted the chains-moving, clock-milking approach Stefanski likes. Expect him to wear out the reasonably healthy Cleveland secondary with the return of cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Kevin Johnson. Look for Ward to shadow Hill.

Where the Browns have an edge is in the running game with Chubb and Hunt, who is extra juiced to face his former team. The Chiefs counter with ex-Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell, whom they picked up on waivers early in the season, and rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who is nursing ankle and hip injuries.

Defensively, the Chiefs have a decided edge from a talent standpoint. Whereas the Browns are, with the exception of Ward, talent-starved in the back seven, the Chiefs are stabilized there with the extraordinary talents of strong safety Tyrann Mathieu, a playmaker in the mold of ex-Steeler Troy Polamalu.

Mathieu, who no longer wants to be called the Honey Badger, has swiped a career-high six passes (of the club's 16), and is among the team leaders in tackles with 62. Like Polamalu, who bedeviled the Browns for many seasons, he almost always seems to be near the football.

Most of the pressure on Mayfield will come from defensive tackle Chris Jones and defensive end Frank Clark, who own nearly half of the club's 32 sacks. If the Cleveland quarterback is as quick to deliver the ball as he was against the Steelers, another no-sack game looms. 

The Browns' defense, minus a playmaker like Mathieu, has been hammered for 196 points in the last seven games (28 a game) and yet emerged with a 5-2 record. That's because the offense scored 218 points (31 a game) to rescue victory from defeat. That has been the main trend this season. 

Other facts to take into consideration . . .  

Mahomes and most of the Chiefs starters have not played a game for three weeks, having been given the week off in week 17 after clinching the top seed in the AFC and a first-round bye. It will be 21 days since they played. Rust is a convenient excuse if they get off to a slow start.

It sure seemed as the though the 14-2 Chiefs coasted in the second half of the season, winning many games by slim margins. Weeks nine through 16, they won games by 2, 4, 3, 6, 6, 3 and 3 points. Overall, they won eight games by 6 points or less. The defense, which had surrendered just 19 points a game in the first eight games, gave up 24.5 per thereafter. 

One last stat: These two teams have met 13 times at Arrowhead Stadium with the Chiefs holding a 9-3-1 edge. 

I lied. One more final important fact: The Browns' defense has created 26 takeaways in 10 games in clump-like fashion. They have produced at least two in seven of those games. They are 3-4 in games with no takeaways. Each team has turned the ball over 16 times. 

Now that the Cleveland attack is as well-rounded as it has been all season, it will interesting to see how Stefanski game plans this one. Does he go slow, but steady to nail Mahomes to the bench for long stretches? Or does he attack the Chiefs through the air -- they permit 236 yards a game against the pass -- as he did against Pittsburgh? Or perhaps allows the strong ground game to set up the pass?

This one most likely will turn out for the Browns much like it has during the regular season with the offense desperately trying to keep up with the leaky defense, this time against the best quarterback in the league. 

Like last week, my head and heart have had a raging argument all week. The heart, after what happened in Pittsburgh, said, "Why not two in a row?" The head, the wise one, retorted, "You got lucky last week. Sorry, not this week." After a coin flip, the head wins again, but it will be close. Make it:

Chiefs 42, Browns 35