The Athletic has live coverage of Browns vs Texans in the AFC wild card matchup.
Joe Flacco turns 39 next week. He hopes to be too busy preparing for a playoff game to celebrate.
Flacco’s revival has given Cleveland fans plenty to appreciate, and after an earned week off for most of the Browns’ starters in the regular-season finale, they’re back to work. The Browns play at Houston Saturday afternoon in the first of the AFC’s three wild-card games.
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How far can they ride Flacco’s big arm and a swarming defense that finished the season first in multiple statistical categories, starting with total yards allowed? We’ll see, but Cleveland signed Flacco to the practice squad in November in large part because of his big-stage experience.
He’s made for a pretty good emergency find. Flacco has thrown 13 touchdown passes in five games for the Browns, who won four straight before punting on Sunday’s finale.
Flacco, the MVP of Super Bowl XLVII, has a career postseason record as a starting quarterback of 10-5. His seven road playoff wins are tied with Tom Brady for the most in NFL history. Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, won three road playoff games in 2020 while helping lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a title.
Flacco wasn’t interested in talking about that record on Tuesday. His focus is on helping the Browns get just their second playoff win of the team’s new era.
“I think (winning in the playoffs) just goes back to doing the basics the right way,” Flacco said. “Not overthinking what it means to go on the road, just going and playing a good football game. And when the dust settles, you pick your head up and see where you are.
“I think when you get to be in the playoffs and get (the chance) to win football games, there’s some part of you that takes pride in that. No matter where it is. This is what we go to work for every day, is to be in this position and to play these types of games. So I think we should all hold our heads high. We earned the right to be playing this Saturday, and you should gain something from that. But once you lace them up and once you’re actually out on the field, none of that matters.”
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Not the same Texans
When the Browns won in Houston on Dec. 24, Flacco threw for 368 yards and three touchdowns. Amari Cooper set a franchise record with 265 receiving yards on 11 catches, and he scored twice. The Browns were up 36-7 early in the fourth quarter and briefly took their starters out before things got a little uncomfortable. Flacco and Cooper were then called upon to make a game-clinching connection.
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The Browns dominated that day, but the Texans didn’t have their rookie quarterback, C.J. Stroud, who was in concussion protocol. Stroud’s high-level play (63.9 completion percentage, 100.8 quarterback rating) helped Houston go from holding the second pick in the draft to winning the AFC South. Stroud and DeMeco Ryans became the first rookie quarterback-head coach combination in the Super Bowl era to lead a team to a division title.
When you size up Browns-Texans on digital paper, the turnover margin category immediately grabs your attention. A league-low 14 giveaways helped the Texans finish the season with a plus-10 turnover margin; the Browns finished at minus-9.
Stroud threw just five interceptions in his 15 starts. Flacco was intercepted eight times in five games, and avoiding the big turnover is an obvious key for the Browns on Saturday. Forcing a few would help, too.
Cleveland’s defense has thrived on creating pressure and speeding up opposing quarterbacks. A year after they had one of the league’s worst offenses, the 2023 Texans were No. 12 in total offense (342.4 yards per game) and No. 14 in total offensive DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average). The Texans had the No. 10 pass offense by DVOA.
Stroud lost one of his top targets, fellow rookie Tank Dell, to a broken leg in early December. Nico Collins has emerged as the Texans’ go-to guy and had a career-high 195 yards in Houston’s Week 18 win over the Indianapolis Colts. The Texans’ other veteran receivers, Noah Brown and Robert Woods, both missed that game due to injury. Their status for this week is uncertain.
Cooper has been dealing with a heel injury and hasn’t played since his record-setting day in Houston. He didn’t practice Tuesday, but he almost always sits out the first practice of the week. He said last week he’s been “working around the clock” to get back to full health. He plans to play on Saturday.
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A lingering calf injury figures to again keep Browns safety Juan Thornhill sidelined. Safety Grant Delpit was designated to return from injured reserve on Wednesday and is eligible to be activated by Friday.
Experience in the kicking game
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said it’s unlikely kicker Dustin Hopkins will play this week. Hopkins, a Pro Bowl alternate, is dealing with a hamstring injury he suffered in the first Houston game while giving chase on a kickoff return.
The Browns called kicker Riley Patterson on Christmas, and just after Patterson had his holiday dinner. A few hours later, he was on a flight to Cleveland and signed to the Browns’ practice squad. He kicked in place of Hopkins in the Browns’ last two games after kicking in 13 games for the Detroit Lions earlier in the season.
Patterson, 24, is in his third NFL season and figures to remain on the practice squad. In the playoffs, there’s no limit to the number of times he can be elevated for games. The Browns would love to get Hopkins back, but they turned to Patterson in part because he kicked in the postseason last year. He hit a 36-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Jacksonville Jaguars over the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round.
The Jaguars traded Patterson to Detroit last spring, and the Lions cut him after he missed two extra points. He missed an extra point in his debut with the Browns and is 41-of-44 on extra-point kicks this season. He’s 16-of-18 on field goal tries, 1-of-1 with the Browns.
“It’s been a little bit of a wild ride for me, but it’s awesome to be here and be in the playoffs,” Patterson said. “There’s nothing better than the playoffs. I’m really thankful to be with this team.”
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Keeping Flacco clean
In Week 16, Flacco generally had plenty of time to throw. The Texans do not want a repeat of that.
Houston had 46 sacks on the season, a franchise record, and its 15 sacks over the final four games were the most by any team in that span. But the Texans had only one against the Browns, and Flacco being comfortable in the pocket led to Houston getting torched on the back end. Flacco’s escape from being hit in the pocket by two Texans defenders before his throw to Cooper on the sideline to extend a second-half drive summed up how the day went in the first meeting. But most of Flacco’s throws came from clean pockets.
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The Texans played that game without rookie pass rusher Will Anderson Jr. (ankle) and most of it without their top pass rusher, Jonathan Greenard. Greenard, who led Houston with 12.5 sacks, suffered an ankle injury on the first drive against the Browns and has not played since. Both Greenard and Anderson were listed as non-participants on Tuesday by the Texans, who only held a walk-through. The Browns’ game was the second that Anderson missed, but he returned to play the final two weeks. Anderson finished his rookie season with seven sacks, six of which have come since the start of November.
By DVOA, the Texans were the NFL’s No. 23 pass defense and the No. 2 defense against the run. Pro Football Focus graded the Browns as the league’s best pass-rush team. The Texans were tied for 11th.
Ogbo is back
The Browns expect to have their pass-rush group at full strength. Ogbo Okoronkwo, who missed three games in December with what was initially feared to be a torn pectoral muscle, returned to action in a limited role in Week 18 and played with a protective harness on his left arm.
Okoronkwo said the harness was “no big deal,” but his homecoming this week definitely is. Okoronkwo signed with the Browns in March of last year after he had his breakout in the back half of last season while playing with the Texans. Okoronkwo played his high school football in Houston at Alief Taylor High.
After last week’s game, Okoronkwo said he had no real soreness and expects to feel more comfortable playing through the injury each week. The Browns signed Okoronkwo because they envisioned him being a disruptive force in big games, and assuming there are no setbacks, he’ll be in his pass-down role in his hometown Saturday afternoon.
“This is what you work for,” Okoronkwo said. “These are the days you dream about during camp. We were going 1-0 each week, trying to just be where our feet are. And it feels good to have worked to get to put ourselves in position to win the big one.”
The big stage
A 3:30 p.m. local time kickoff doesn’t qualify as prime time, but Browns-Texans will be seen by a national TV audience and begin Super Wild-Card Weekend.
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Saturday’s win-and-in regular-season finale was the Texans’ first non-Thursday national TV game since 2020. The Browns only played two standalone games all season, Week 2 at Pittsburgh on “Monday Night Football” and Week 17 on Thursday night versus the New York Jets, which became their playoff-clincher.
The NFL had not announced any scheduling plans for the divisional round as of Tuesday. The AFC’s No. 1 team, the Baltimore Ravens, will host the lowest remaining seed. If the No. 5 Browns win and the AFC’s other home teams (No. 2 Buffalo and No. 3 Kansas City) win this weekend, the Browns will play at Baltimore in the divisional round.
(Top photo: Troy Taormina / USA Today)
