Two in a row? 

It's hard to believe a National Football League franchise -- any NFL franchise --  in the last 23 seasons has not opened the regular season with at least two straight victories. Ladies and gents, meet the Cleveland Browns.

Ever since their rebirth in 1999, this perennially troubled franchise has never known successive successes in the first two games of any season. You have to go to the wayback machine to find when victories were strung together by a Cleveland pro football team at the beginning of a campaign.

All the way back to 1993 when the Browns -- the old Cleveland Browns -- under head coach Bill Belichick put together a three-game winning streak out of the gate only to finish 7-9. Ah yes, those were the good old days.

That brings us to Sunday's home opener against the New York Jets where the current -- can't call them new anymore in their 24th season -- iteration of the Browns will attempt to bash down yet another barrier after winning their first season opener since 2004 last Sunday.

That the Browns are riding the crest of a one-game winning streak at this stage of the season is quite foreign to fans of this team. Downright giddy to some. And the Jets are struggling to regain some sort of dignity -- six straight losing seasons and only one winning season in the last 11 -- which heightens the anticipation of another Cleveland victory.

As for the possibility of a letdown after the euphoric feeling following the Carolina victory that surely had to linger in the locker room throughout this week, all head coach Kevin Stefanski needs to do is constantly remind them how close they came to losing that game. They can't expect kicker Cade York to bail them out with long-distance field goals on a weekly basis. 

To that end, Stefanski and offensive coordinator in name only Alex Van Pelt need to come up with a game similar to the one against the Panthers. Why when the club barely won last week? Because it wasn't the offense's fault. That near loss was hung on the malfunctioning befuddled secondary.

The offense, although it stuttered on occasion, posted only two three-and-outs and points on six occasions in 11 possessions. It kept the Panthers' offense on the bench for 38 and a half minutes and wore down their defense to the point where they were able to get into position to kick the game winner.

That should not be the case this week. Jacoby Brissett should be a better quarterback this week. Under normal circumstances, that "should" would be "will," but these are not normal circumstances. Being careful here with the unpredictable Brissett.

His skill set is limited and he is not getting much help from a receivers corps that doesn't frighten many defenses around the league. To that end, Stefanski went right down the middle with the run/pass ratio against the Panthers.

Converting eight third downs in 18 opportunities helps, too. That's when the Nick Chubb-Kareem Hunt dynamic comes into focus. Stefanski did not hesitate at all to play either -- and sometimes both -- of his cards with extreme success.

Employing both on the field at the same time -- six times last week -- puts that much more pressure on opposing defenses. Who receives the most attention? You pick one and the likelihood of getting burned by the other rises.

Stefanski undoubtedly knows this. His reluctance to take advantage of it, though, is puzzling. Isn't he one (of many coaches) who says he strives to "put players in the best position to win?" With his best quarterback serving a long suspension, seems to me putting Chubb and Hunt on the field together puts the offense in the best position to win.

What better time to find out than against the Jets, whose defense limited a good Baltimore run game to just 63 yards in a loss last Sunday, including only 17 to master scrambler Lamar Jackson. The Jets know Brissett won't be troublesome. He almost always can be found in or near the pocket.

The Cleveland defense will see the ageless Joe Flacco -- he's 37 --under center while Zach Wilson nurses knee problems. The loss against his ex-team if nothing else proved that despite his age, there is nothing wrong with his arm. He threw for 309 yards against the Ravens, but it took 59 heaves to accomplish it. 

That won't happen Sunday because the Cleveland defense, with the added incentive to atone for the two huge brain farts that nearly lost the Panthers game, will shut down the Jets' offense. Flacco, who loves playing the Browns (he was 17-3 in his career against them with the Ravens), will have little time to throw. Hard to throw when you're flat on your back.

The winning formula this week replicates last week's. The offense pounds away again on the ground, Brissett limits his mistakes in the passing game this time and the defense up front will make it much easier on the back end. York is needed just once. The Jets scored only nine points last Sunday. Sounds about right. Make it:

Browns 24, Jets 9