CLEVELAND — For the 17th consecutive season, there will be no playoff appearance for the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns officially were eliminated from postseason contention with their 31-15 loss to the AFC North Division champion Baltimore Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland Sunday, a game that allowed Baltimore to clinch home-field advantage for as long as they remain in the playoffs.
The Browns (6-9) last qualified for postseason play during the 2002 season and have the longest active playoff drought in the National Football League.
“It comes back on us, us not doing our job,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said. “You don’t ever want to have to rely on somebody else to help you get into the playoffs. We have to do our job, first and foremost, and we didn’t do that today.”
In addition to missing the playoffs for the 17th straight time, the Browns will finish the 2019 season with a sub .500 record for the 12th consecutive year. The best the Browns can do record-wise is 7-9 if they beat the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati next week, which is a half-game worse than the 7-8-1 mark they posted in 2018.
The Browns last finished above .500 when they had a 10-6 record in 2007.
“We set the bar high for ourselves,” Mayfield said. “Our expectations were extremely high, and we didn’t meet that, so that’s the most disappointing thing. In the big-picture mindset, it’s a process to turn around what this once was to where we want to go and where we should be at right now.
“It’s a process. There’s a lot of room for improvement and progress to be made.”
Sunday’s loss to the Ravens was particularly disheartening because despite having a less than one percent chance to make the playoffs heading into the game, the Browns got a lot of help in other matchups around the league.
During the early slate of games, the New York Jets defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey and the New Orleans Saints rallied to beat the Tennessee Titans in Nashville, while the Indianapolis Colts handled their business against the Carolina Panthers at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Had the Browns beaten the Ravens, they would have played a meaningful Week 17 game for the first time in more than a decade.
“We knew there was a great opportunity for that to happen,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said.
“We had to go out and play well, and we did in spurts. We just didn’t play well the whole time. Baltimore’s a good football team. That’s 11 in a row, so they’re a good football team. We just didn’t make enough plays to win the game.”