The Texans don't go to Cleveland much. The last time was 2014 and the quarterback match-up was Ryan Mallett vs. Brian Hoyer. The Browns were 6-3 and having their best season until…now.
Right after that game they went into a tailspin that really hasn't ended until this year, and the jury is still out. They are 5-3 but have some key injuries and issues and no one living near Lake Erie is really sure that the second half of their season will bring them to a place they've only been to once since coming back into the league in 1999: the postseason.
The lone year the new Browns were in the playoffs was the Texans inaugural year of 2002 (Kids, we say 'new' Browns because the old Browns left town after '95 and became the Ravens, a team that has won two Super Bowls since. Ouch!).
In'02 David Carr and friends went to Cleveland and lost 34-17. The game had personal meaning for me because, well, every game does... and Butch Davis was in his second year coaching the Browns. I had worked with him at Miami. After the game I went to the Cleveland locker room to say hello and he was very complimentary of the McNairs and wished me well.
Later that season the Browns would finish 9-7 and make the playoffs. But this was not their best regular season. That was 2007 when Romeo Crennel would lead them to a 10-6 campaign that somehow wasn't good enough to qualify for the playoffs (Again, ouch!).
Here we are in 2020 and it's the second ever match-up between Deshaun Watson and Baker Mayfield. The Texans won the first one in 2018 when Watson was in year two and Mayfield was a rookie. Now they're at the Dog Pound and they're both vets fighting to get the back half of the season started right.
Another thing that happened in the last game up there was J.J. Watt catching a TD pass. Oh, and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – a must for any music fan. However, how can Pat Benatar not be in the Hall of Fame!? That's crazy (there are many other all-time snubs but this one immediately came to mind).
I digress, let's look forward to a good one on Sunday as the Texans go for back to back wins for the first time this season and try to get on a roll.
Check out some photos from the last time the Texans played the Cleveland Browns.