The Browns haven’t enjoyed many victories in recent years, so the opportunities for a victory Monday were rare.
So interim coach Gregg Williams gave his suddenly successful team an extra couple of days off after Sunday’s win over the Falcons.
He told his players that if they lost, they’d have a day of training camp-style competition practice on Tuesday. But after they won, he canceled that as well as the planned Monday meetings.
“I told them going into the game, if we won the game — when we won the game — that I would cancel Tuesday and that they’d be out of here on Monday,” Williams said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I threw them a bone in the locker room after the game and cancelled [Monday],’’ Williams said. “They were off when we walked out of the locker room last night.”
Of course, victory Monday is rare around there for a number of reasons. It was just their second win on a Sunday in the last three years, as their lone win in 2016 was on a Saturday, and their first win this year was on Thursday.
Four of the final six games for the Browns are on the road, so having a little rest late is something they welcome.
“I really can’t remember in my career ever having a bye this late,’’ Williams said. “One of the first things that we think about would be that we have more information to analyze. We have more situational awareness things to take a look at. We have more time on task with some new players and even some old players in that fashion so hopefully, the information might be stronger in some cases.
“The bye week part of it specifically, especially this late in the season, is getting healthier, getting the body to feel better and stronger and getting the mind cleared up a little bit because we all need a little break away from some things. The pressures of the business and the pressures of the day, you have to go about a lot of things and then the distractions and the changes around here also cause a little bit of a distraction.”
Now they have an extra day to work though them, as they all come back to try to save their jobs.