NFL Browns hope to miss history

If Cleveland loses, the team will become the first to go winless in the AFC North.
BEREA (AP) -- They're a distant fourth in a four-team race, the southernmost residents of the AFC North.
With one game remaining in yet another dreadful season, the Cleveland Browns are winless in their own division, which with Cincinnati's rebirth, Pittsburgh's pedigree and Baltimore's reputation, has become one of the NFL's roughest neighborhoods.
It's a place where the current Browns don't feel comfortable. It's a place where they don't look like they belong.
"We have to pretty much catch up to everybody," Browns running back Reuben Droughns said.
The Browns' abysmal showing in a 41-0 loss to the Steelers at home last weekend may have underscored the expansive gap between Cleveland and the rest of the division. The Browns are 0-5 in the North this season and just 16-38 inside their division since 1999.
Never winless in division
However, the Browns never have gone winless in their division since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
If they don't beat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, the Browns (5-10) will make more unwanted history. In that respect, it's a must win.
"I can't stress how important it is," said Droughns, voted the Browns' player of the year by Cleveland's football writers. "It's the last game, it's a division game and it's somewhat of a rival game. We need to end the season with a win so we finish on something positive."
That would be a welcomed change for the Browns, who have won their season finale the past three years -- the last two on the road -- but have had little momentum or anything else to build on in the offseason.
A division win won't erase all of 2005's ugliness, but it would give the Browns some hope that they are catching up to the Ravens, Steelers (10-5) and Bengals (11-4) -- more talented and more established clubs.
Not on their level
"We're just not good enough in the division overall," Browns coach Romeo Crennel said. "We get measured by Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Cincinnati has clinched and it looks like Pittsburgh is going to be a playoff team. You have playoff teams that you are competing with and we're not there yet."
Nope, not even close.
Not only are the Browns the only team without a division win, but they were also shut out in Pro Bowl balloting for the sixth time in seven years. Cincinnati (5), Pittsburgh (4) and Baltimore (1) all have at least one player getting on a flight bound for Honolulu next month.
The talent divide excuses part of Cleveland's inability to beat any of its division foes this season. But the Browns also have failed to make big plays, and seem to make mistakes at the worst times possible.
Cornerback Daylon McCutcheon, though, is at a loss to explain the continued AFC North losses.
"I'm not sure, man," he said when asked for a reason. "I think we played well against Cincinnati (a 23-20 loss), we just weren't able to pull it out at the end. Pittsburgh has kind of had our number, and I don't know what it's going to take to beat those guys.
"And with Baltimore, we just haven't played up to our capabilities. Of all of those teams I think Baltimore is definitely the team we are capable of beating, we just haven't gotten it done."
McCutcheon and kicker Phil Dawson are the only Browns still around from the horrible 1999 squad coached by Chris Palmer that went 2-14, but managed a 16-15 victory at Pittsburgh.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.