Browns All-Pro left tackle Joe Thomas provided a dose of cold, hard truth as he answered questions in the locker room this past week.
“Everyone knows in this business guys are fighting for their jobs every single Sunday and every single season,” he said.
Thomas was immediately asked whether Browns coach Mike Pettine and his staff are included in those fighting for their jobs.
“It includes everybody. We’re a 2-7 team,” said Thomas, who has played for five head coaches since the Browns drafted him third overall in 2007. “Everyone needs to get evaluated every single week, and that’s going to happen after the season no matter how we finish. But there’s extra scrutiny when you’re not making the playoffs and you’re not a winning team.”
This is the time of year when coaches of losing NFL franchises scratch and claw for wins in an attempt to strengthen their cases to remain employed.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam vowed Aug. 1 not to blow up the organization after this season, but Thomas is among the masses who realize nothing is written in stone.
Pettine began his tenure in Cleveland last year with a record of 6-3. Since then, the Browns have gone 3-13.
So the Browns are 9-16 under Pettine (7-9 last season and 2-7 this season) entering Sunday’s 1 p.m. AFC North showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers (5-4) at Heinz Field. The game is expected to feature a matchup of backup quarterbacks — Johnny Manziel for the Browns with Josh McCown recovering from injured ribs and Landry Jones for the Steelers with Ben Roethlisberger rehabilitating a mid-foot sprain.
“This game’s huge for us — huge,” Pettine said. “It being a division game, first time playing Pittsburgh this year, split with them a year ago, a win there would give us a road win at every division stadium in the last two years, which I think would be significant.”
The Browns haven’t won in Pittsburgh since Oct. 5, 2003. They’re 6-27, including 0-1 in the postseason, against the Steelers since 1999, but they won the most recent game. After losing 30-27 to the Steelers in their first game last season, the Browns won 31-10 in the rematch at FirstEnergy Stadium.
“Our guys are well aware of the history of the rivalry,” Pettine said. “They also know the amount of ground that we closed a year ago, and that gives us some confidence. ... Our guys aren’t going to go down there intimidated by Pittsburgh. We’re respectful of who they are and what they put on tape so far, but we’re not going to go down there intimidated.”
Free safety Tashaun Gipson believes nothing could cure the Browns’ four-game losing streak better than a win over the Steelers.
“This is the one game, we could be 0-15 and you win this game, and a lot of stuff is forgiven, so I know what this rivalry means,” Gipson said. “I definitely know, and for us to get a win at Heinz Field would be huge. It would be huge for this team, a huge momentum booster for this team, for the city, for this organization.”
For the Browns, it’ll be the second game in a four-game stretch against divisional foes. With a 33-30 overtime win on the road Oct. 11 against the Baltimore Ravens and a 31-10 loss on the road Nov. 5 against the Cincinnati Bengals, they’re 1-1 in the AFC North this season. After Sunday’s game, the Browns will have a bye, then host the Ravens (2-6, 1-1 in the AFC North) on Nov. 30 and the Bengals (8-0, 3-0) on Dec. 6. They’ll also host the Steelers, who are 0-2 in the division, during their Jan. 3 regular-season finale.
“These last seven games are very important for this organization to show that we’re going in the right direction,” Gipson said. “I know the city of the Cleveland, the fans, we’re tired of losing. The players are tired of losing. The front office and the coaches, we’re all tired of losing.
“This stretch, they just happen to be a bunch of division games ... and in the division, we know that that counts as two. As it stands right now, we’re 1-1 in the division. To win the division, I don’t think that that’s far-fetched or something that’s unattainable. I think that it’s very attainable if you ask me.”
Since the AFC North formed in 2002, the Browns have yet to finish a season with a winning record in the division. They’ve gone 3-3 twice — in 2002, when they went 9-7 and earned their only postseason berth of the expansion era, and in 2007, when they went 10-6.
“Closing ground on the division is a big part of our future success here,” said Pettine, who led the Browns to a record of 2-4 in the AFC North last season. “We won at Cincinnati a year ago. We won at Baltimore this year. It would be huge for us to go [to Pittsburgh] and post a victory. Our guys are going to go down there with that mindset.
“We talk about from where we’re starting from and moving forward that the most direct path [to the playoffs] is through the division. That’s why we focused a lot of our offseason prep on the division, and that’s why it’s such a big emphasis during the week.”
The Browns, who ended Pettine’s first season in Cleveland with a five-game losing streak, realize a strong finish could save the season as well as jobs.
“Last year, we were 7-4, [then] lost five in a row,” right guard John Greco said. “What’s to say we can’t rip off three [wins] in a row here and there and try to right the ship? No one’s going to go in the tank and quit. It starts with this one. This is the most important one.”
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.