It’s crazy what a win can do to the fan-base of a losing team.
The Cleveland Browns had been losers of seven straight games. In that time, fans determined troublesome quarterback Johnny Manziel was on borrowed time, while coach Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer were going to get the ax at season’s end. Some of this seemed justified at times, other instances were caused by overreactions from spectacularly miserable defeats.
However, the Browns snapped the slump this past Sunday, convincingly beating the San Francisco 49ers in a victory where they excelled on almost every aspect of the game. As a result, Manziel was suddenly a potential franchise quarterback, and Pettine was seen as someone who might deserve another chance (Farmer is still a dead man walking).
However, just as losing pushes fans to the far side of negative, winning has a tendency to sugar-coat a bad season. The jury is still out on Manziel, but barring the idea of Cleveland stunningly winning a couple more games this year, Pettine is likely still going to be fired.
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