Browns inauspicious start joins just 2 other teams in Super Bowl-era

The 2022 season has been overwhelmingly negative for the fans of the Cleveland Browns. The team barely beat the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, blew a (seemingly) insurmountable lead to the New York jets in Week 2, had to hold on against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football, got beat by an undermanned Atlanta Falcons team and blew their Week 5 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, twice.

In all five of those games, the Browns went into the 4th quarter with a lead. Somehow, they walked out of those five games with just two victories.

It has been hard for fans to stomach. It may have been better for their stress level if their favorite team wasn’t in a position to win each game only to fail more often than they succeeded. If it feels uniquely rough to fans, it is:

Three times in the Super Bowl era! Three times!

Based on the above historical data, Cleveland should be 5-0. At worst, they should be 4-1 like 71 of the 85 teams that were in the same position as the Browns were in to start the 2022 season.

There may be a lot of reasons that Cleveland couldn’t finish things off but it is clear that the failure is unique and is a statistically unlikely thing to have happened.

Taking a look at the two other teams noted above, the 1999 Saints ended the year at 3-13 but the 2015 Seahawks turned it around to make the playoffs with a 10-6 record.

Will the Browns continue to fail like the Saints or turn the tide like the Seahawks?