Really, it’s grasping at straws to even think about it, but we have to think about it.  The fifth game of the year for the Cleveland Browns is against the New York Giants, the defending World Champions.  Hey, the formula is there, and history can repeat itself, right?  A hapless Browns team can take this team behind the woodshed, and beat them like they stole something, just like last time.  It may not be a Monday Night game, but they’re getting CBS’s #1 announcing duo, so it’s pretty much the same.

The only problem with that logic is that it’s completely flawed; the Browns are playing this one in Jersey, and the Giants aren’t on a roll.  They were 4-0 with a few routs under their belt when they visited Cleveland Browns Stadium in 2008.  The Browns were in the midst of a disappointing start out of the gate, but because they were tagged with higher expectations; this time around, it’s only disappointing because they have not won some games they were in a situation to win.

In 2008, the Browns were coming off of a bye week, one which they entered with a victory.  There is somewhat of a similarity there, considering the Browns did have ten days to prepare for this one after their 26-16 loss in Baltimore last Thursday, but the obvious connection to the game four years ago is that the Giants are once again eight months removed from being crowned World Champions.

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After playing four games in the span of 18 days, the Cleveland Browns find themselves at the quarter-mark of the 2012 NFL season.

The Browns are 0-4 for the second time in the last four years and only one team has made the playoffs after starting a season 0-4 – the 1992 San Diego Chargers. Of course, the Browns were not making the playoffs this year anyway, but anytime a team is 0-4 people feel obligated to bring up the Chargers.

The last time the Browns started the season this poorly, in 2009, they were outscored by 69 points in the first four games (an average of 17.25 points a game); while this year the four losses have come by a total of just 25 points.

While 0-4 is not what you want to see from the guys in Orange and Brown, things are certainly better than they were in 2009 – maybe not playoff-caliber better, but better nonetheless.

Let’s see where the Browns are as they prepare to face the New York Giants on Sunday.

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As we struggle to survive another season with the new-era Browns, one way we can try to get through it (besides alcohol or heavy medication) is to look back at the best individual weeks of the Browns’ new era to remember times in recent memory when this particular week didn’t suck.

Y’know what the Steelers do to the Browns every time they play?

Completely dominate the game from the pregame show and make their opponent look physically handicapped, thereby creating an exhibition of bleak, meaningless football that makes all who watch it want to lay down and cry?

It’s a biannual tradition we’ve come to know as well as the summer and winter solstices. We no longer question it, complain about it, or expect anything different. We just accept it and take the necessary steps to survive.

But believe it or not, there was a game - indeed, since the Browns’ bloody rebirth - when the Browns did all of those things to the Steelers. There was an electric autumn night when the Browns stormed into Heinz Field, made the earth open up just like in The Dark Knight Rises, and then giggled with glee as the Steelers fell into the yawning chasm one-by-one.

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Our theme today is ‘change’. If you are familiar with the dynamics that animated the relationships involving Paul Brown, Art Modell, Jim Brown, and Blanton Collier in the early 1960s, you have an inkling of where we are going with this.

Change is inevitable, of course, and its desirability depends on one’s perspective. It can be fleeting or permanent; imperceptible or life-altering.

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