Commentary: If Joe Flacco doesn't return to 2023 form, season could get ugly in a hurry

According to most NFL scientists, the Browns are either the third-worst team in the NFL (30th overall), the second-worst team in the NFL (31st overall) or the worst team in the NFL (32nd overall).Thankfully, it is still too close to call, but not too close to imagine that The Fighting Stefanskis might even have enough of the wrong stuff to hit the finish line as the worst team in the NFL this season. Perhaps even the worst Browns team ever.Hey, who needs tanking?Stick around, kids. This could get historic, because we are not that far from wandering into Hue Jackson territory. Surely you remember him, right?Who doesn't? In 2016 the Browns lost all but one of their 16 games. They followed up that bravura performance the next year by losing all of their first 15 games, then they threw in a complementary season-ending loss, because if you are going to lose 15 games in a row, why stop there, right?Right!So the Browns went the distance, whiffing on all 16 of their so-called games.Now let's fast forward to 2025, which is more than we can say about the Browns. Team Haslam has opened the season by losing all two of its two games, but let's be fair. It's still early in the season and a lot can happen, but not necessarily. Remember, these are the Browns.A lot can happen in the next 15 games, but not necessarily. Remember, these are the Browns.If you think the NFL's cockamamie, unintelligible, indecipherable new kickoff-palooza is some sort of gridiron whoopie cushion, you haven't seen anything yet.The Browns are only two losses into the 2025 season, and the only thing that has gone wrong is everything.Quarterback Joe Flacco, who two years ago saved himself, his football career and the Browns' season, was a shadow of his former self in Cleveland's first two games.That's bad news for Joe and worse news for the Browns, who have been outscored by 25 points (58-33) in their first two games, not that anyone is counting, or anything.The Browns' first two games this season were losses to the Bengals and Ravens and with the Packers on deck it is not going to get any easier.It never gets any easier for the Browns, who had their lunch handed to them last week in Baltimore. Sunday, back at Haslam Acres, the opponent will be the powerful Green Bay Packers, with lunch optional.But at least the Browns will be playing at home.That is no small concession for a team that may lose its first six games of the season before securing its first victory pelt. Indeed, the Browns seem to be dead in the water, with or without one of the three or four quarterbacks on the team who may or may not be the guy who emerges as the quarterback du jour in the coming months.What the Browns need most now is what they haven't delivered very often, stretching all the way back to Flacco's first tour of duty with the Browns, when he seemed to have the magic elixir to lead a shaky team back into the football fray.Indeed, when all else fails, Flacco's presence counted for a lot. His presence brought a semblance of order to the huddle and the franchise.Given that, it was believed that Flacco would be the man again this year, but two games into the season, neither he nor this season has unfolded as expected.That is never a good omen for a football team embarking on another season with more question marks than certainties. With the Browns, of course, the unknown is the enemy as much as the opponent is.That reality was starkly on display last week, in the loss to Baltimore, a team that is miles ahead of the Browns in all the measurables that count for anything.Sunday in Cleveland, the Browns will have to regroup, which are marching orders the Brown and Orange historically have never really used as a rallying cry.It's also true that a last-place team with, in some cases, gaping holes in its personnel, doesn't exactly breed a feeling of comfort, particularly when playing one of the legendary NFL franchises that is adroit at making its opponent feel very uncomfortable on game day.How the Browns, how Flacco and how the other players on the underdog team respond to such a challenge remains to be seen. It's been a long time since the Browns drew an opponent of substance that offered a legitimate challenge to, in this case, a Cleveland team that, on the surface, is not one that should offer much resistance.But, of course, that's why they play the games.Upsets happen. Good fortune happens and sometimes Flacco happens.The post Commentary: If Joe Flacco doesn't return to 2023 form, season could get ugly in a hurry first appeared on BrownsZone with Scott Petrak.