For what it's worth

As it stands now, the Browns are on a playoffs course that could propel them to a third game this season against the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens. Of course that would require a few other eventualities, but the way this season has unfolded, just about anything regarding this team is possible.

Here is how it could all come down.

The fifth-seeded Browns' opponent in the wild-card round on the road will be the winner of the AFC South, which is locked in a three-way tie for the lead heading into the final week of the regular season this weekend. The Jacksonville Jaguars hold the tie-breaker over Indianapolis and Houston.

Cleveland swept the division during the regular season, knocking off Tennessee and Jacksonville at home and Houston and Indy on the road. They did it mostly with offense, averaging 29.5 points a game with Deshaun Watson and P. J. Walker helming the first two games and Joe Flacco in charge of the final two.

What follows is presupposing a Browns victory. 

Flacco stays on course with his sizzling Cleveland career and advances the Browns to the divisional round against the highest-seeded AFC team. That would be the top-ranked team in the AFC: Baltimore, which drew a bye in the opening round.

The Browns and Ravens met twice duding the regular season, each winning on the road. The Ravens humbled the Browns' defense, which stormed through the first three games of the season in historic fashion, with Lamar Jackson throwing for two scores and running for two more in a 28-3 victory.

The Cleveland offense had no chance with Dorian Thompson-Robinson, subbing for an injured Watson, looking very much like a fifth-round rookie quarterback making his first National Football League start.

The two teams met again in week 10 in Baltimore in a game that was pretty much a microcosm of the season because of the manner in which the Browns became relentless, demonstrating a never-give-up-approach to games that turned potential losses around.

The Ravens jumped out to the lead when safety Kyle Hamilton picked off Watson mere seconds into the game and romped 18 yards for the touchdown. They built the lead to 24-9 early in the third quarter on a Jackson-Odell Beckham Jr. connection and pushed it to 31-17 on a short Gus Edwards run with nine minutes left.

Just when it appeared it was going to be yet another Ravens victory, in this lopsided series, the Browns pulled off the kind of comeback Browns Nation has seen all too often from opponents. It began with Watson and Elijah Moore, who had been somewhat of a disappointment this season, collaborating on a 10-yard scoring strike to culminate a seven-play, 75-yard drive.

Minutes later, Greg Newsome II picked off Jackson and returned it 34 yards for the score to pull the Browns to within a point, but the usually reliable Dustin Hopkins shockingly missed his first point-after of the season. Nothing comes easy with this team.

The Cleveland defense stiffened on the next possession and forced a punt with 4:55 left. It took 11 plays to move the football to the Baltimore 22-yard line, bleeding the clock along the way with a variety of short to medium throws and the running of Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt. Hopkins gained his redemption with a right-down-the-middle field goal from 40 yards as time ran out.

That was the last time this season the 13-3 Ravens have been on the wrong end of the final score. That was six games ago. Since then, they have defeated several elite teams rather handily behind an elite defense and a dangerous offense led by the spectacular Jackson.

And now the distinct possibility exists that Flacco will get a chance to face his old team in Baltimore in what would be one of the wonderfully dramatic games of the season considering what he has done for not only the Browns, but the city of Cleveland this season.

It would be the second time he faced the Ravens, and the first in Baltimore. He was in his third season with the Jets when he faced them for the first time in the 2022 season opener, a 24-9 loss in New Jersey in what turned out to be a very busy afternoon. He attempted 59 passes and completed 37 for 309 yards, one touchdown and one pick. 

What Sunday's regular-season finale in Cincinnati with regard to who plays and who sits in that game is anybody's guess. There's nothing to gain or lose. The guess here is head coach Kevin Stefanski starts his regulars for a possession or two and then gives the bench big minutes.