The Browns open the 2009 season at home for the 11th year in a row.
The opponent will be the Minnesota Vikings, a team the Browns have not defeated in 20 years. The Browns also are 1-9 in those home/season openers.
Starting in week two, the Browns head on the road for four of the next five games, and five of the next seven.
Welcome to Cleveland, Eric Mangini and George Kokinis. The NFL did your team no early favors with its 2009 schedule.
And good luck with those first couple months — those five road games are at Denver, Baltimore, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Chicago. Add in the opener against Minnesota and things are not easy right away.
The Browns have two night games game — on Monday night against Baltimore on Nov. 16, and on Thursday night on the NFL Network against Pittsburgh on Dec. 10.
The silver lining: If the Browns have any success the first nine weeks, they have a chance to make a playoff run.
Eliminate the Steelers and the Browns will face six teams in the final seven weeks that combined to go 24-72 in 2008. Aside from Pittsburgh, the Browns close the final seven weeks against Detroit (0 wins in 2008), Cincinnati (4), San Diego (8), Kansas City (2), Oakland (5) and Jacksonville (5).
Four of the last five games will be at home — with the sole road game in December in Kansas City.
Teams change from year to year, so guessing a schedule's difficulty can be tough. But the problem with the finish is that it could come too late to make a difference. The start hardly seems to be a very favorable early schedule for a team trying to find its footing with a new coach and new system.
Here's the game-by-game:
Sept. 13: Minnesota, 1 p.m.
Sept. 20: at Denver, 4:15 p.m.
Sept. 27: at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Oct. 4: Cincinnati, 1 p.m.
Oct. 11: at Buffalo, 1 p.m.
Oct. 18: at Pittsburgh, 1 p.m.
Oct. 25: Green Bay, 1 p.m.
Nov. 1: at Chicago, 1 p.m.
Nov. 8: bye
Nov. 16 (Monday): Baltimore, 8:30 p.m.
Nov. 22: at Detroit, 1 p.m.
Nov. 29: at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.
Dec. 6: San Diego, 4:05 p.m.
Dec. 10 (Thursday): Pittsburgh, 8:20 p.m.
Dec. 20: at Kansas City, 1 p.m.
Dec. 27: Oakland, 1 p.m.
Jan. 3: Jacksonville, 1 p.m.
{ 11 comments }
Early season sounds very tough but the second half looks much easier. Sure would be a nice surprise if we could have a winning season. No pressure of any high expectations! Maybe the Browns will shock the world!
When the real Browns won the NFL championship in 1964, the championship game was on December 27. Now, just the regular season isn't even done by December 27. Can't wait until they extend the regular season to 18 games so we can finally get around to watching the championship game sometime around Flag Day.
I hope Eric Mangini is a majic were going to need it we have totally dismanled our team
I'd be happy with 3-5 by the bye week. But I'm guessing 1-7.
This is why they play the games, Last season OUR TEAM the BROWNS couldn't tackle, run the ball let alone complete a pass. The team was soft!! Now it's time to man up, MANgigi wants men, tough men. When camp starts, they will be hitting, not like last year. This team will be better prepared and the winning will come. So expect the unexpected! 8-8
Hee hee. Pat, my "first thoughts" were: WHO GIVES A CRAP?
I keep waiting for the NFL to finally schedule a game for the Browns in Tampa so I can actually see them in person for the first time since I moved away from Cleveland. I guess I will have to wait another year.
they could schedule all 16 games in cleveland and it wouldn't help the browns. no team looks worse at home than the expansion browns.
It's always better to get hot late in the season than to start off well and slump at the end. The past five years have had an average team catch fire at the end of the season and ride it in the playoffs. This schedule is very favorable for that. Everybody's got to play hard teams eventually. It's also best to have it at the beginning of the year when you are likely the heathiest and not on your third string QB.
GO STEELERS!
Pat:
From the standpoint of a season ticket holder, this schedule is obscene. Half (4) the home games occur over the first 12 "Sundays", from mid-September, through all of October and all of November when weather conditions are prime for football. The last 4 home games are crammed into a 5 week period in December and January, when the weather is the worst, and the season might already be 'over', in which case interest in the Browns will be non-existent.
On top of that, our biggest rivalry games are both on week nights which are a terrible nuisance to attend if you work for a living and have a family.
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