Contrived or not Briean Boddy-Calhoun Jersey , the Cleveland Browns using former coach Hue Jackson as fuel was exactly what they needed to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12.Jackson coaching in Cincinnati probably doesn’t really bother the Browns locker room that much. But, for whatever their reasons, the Browns player leadership used him to energize their team to help embarrass their hosts in the first installment of 2018’s Battle of Ohio.The second edition should be a spectacle when the Bengals travel to FirstEnergy Stadium with Jackson on their sideline. And the fans won’t, and we certainly won’t forget about it in the build-up to the showdown.And Jackson’s dreaming if he’s expecting a warmer reception in Cleveland. Like the players, Browns fans were not happy with their team’s futility for Jackson’s two-plus seasons, or the way he continually skirted responsibility and finger-pointed his way out of town and through the media rounds after his dismissal.“We weren’t losing that game,” one Browns staffer told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “No way in hell were we losing that game.”There are probably more concrete reasons for Baker Mayfield “cold-shouldering” Jackson before and after that game. He did call his former coach “fake” on Monday after taking backlash from ESPN’s “First Take” program commentator Damien Woody for his comments about Jackson jumping aboard with a divisional rival after his termination.Mayfield responded to a FirstTake Instagram post video clip from the show. In the clip, Woody criticized Mayfield’s comments about Jackson considering he transferred from Texas Tech to Oklahoma, and the fiery rookie quarterback replied on the website with the following:“Not even comparable... I didn’t lose 30(-plus) games be fake and then do that... I wasn’t gonna have a scholarship. Good try though buddy.”Whatever. The two situations are miles away from being similar situations. Mayfield might be a little off-base for going so hard at Jackson Joe Schobert Color Rush Jersey , but it’s not because he’s a hypocrite because of his own situation.And Damarious Randall’s hilarious “game ball” offering seemed a little too fated rather than any conscious or pre-planned effort to stick it to Jackson.But the Browns’ response to Jackson’s dismissal, both positively in the win column and negatively in the petty—albeit hilarious—response to trouncing his new team on their home field, has been a clear signal that his team simply didn’t respect him. Contrary to popular belief that Jackson is an elite and appealing coaching candidate—ideas perpetuated by his nice-guy attitude, his media buddies (mouthpieces) like Mike Silver, and his past accomplishments—it’s becoming more and more clear how over his head he was when asked to lead an entire football team. And despite the popular sentiment around his name, he just never earned his locker room’s trust.Hiring Todd Haley was a last-ditch effort to save himself. Instead of helping solve his team’s issues, though, he continued deflecting blame and reportedly clashing with his coordinator. It was his feeble attempt to preserve his “good” name, and it backfired https://www.brownsfanshop.com/Ricardo-Louis-Jersey , big time.And to be perfectly honest, it’s not surprising he went crawling back to Marvin Lewis’s waiting arms. After he embarrassed himself on every media outlet in the country, it was hard to imagine any other franchise employing him or affording him any kind of role in the near-term.The Browns have plenty of reasons to act the way they have towards their former coach. No one outside their locker room, especially media folks with no access like Damien Woody, gets to criticize them for it, either.It doesn’t matter why they don’t respect him, or why they wanted to beat him so badly. They used his contrived betrayal to come together to stick it to their former coach.And it worked.The Browns hadn’t won a road game since 2014. They ran the Bengals, with Jackson on their sidelines, off their own field in one of the most decisive road wins by a Browns team that I’ve ever seen.If that’s what it takes David Njoku Jersey , then contrive some more controversies, please.Apologize to no one. This week, SB Nation is highlighting rivalries in the NFL. Cleveland Browns fans were polled last week on who they consider to be the team’s top rival. 83% of the fans said the Steelers, 13% went with the Ravens, and 4% said our Ohio counterparts in the Bengals.That’s not the issue. The issue comes when you look at the other teams in the division. If you look through the images below, you’ll see that the Browns received 0% of consideration from Ravens fans and Bengals fans. Even more insulting, we didn’t even appear on Pittsburgh’s ballot! Their site manager made the conscious choice to exclude the Browns in favor of Pittsburgh and Jacksonville. Grid View And the sad part is? At first, I thought about getting all pissed and riled up. “This is Steelers-Browns; how dare they not even consider us a Top 4 rival?” But one tie in the beginning of the season isn’t going to cut it. The Steelers and the other teams in the division have been contending for the playoffs for so long, while Cleveland has been penciled in for one or two guaranteed wins on their schedule.For the Browns to change those numbers and become a rival Larry Ogunjobi Color Rush Jersey , all they need to do is win. And not just win, but win with that confidence and swagger that gets under opposing fanbases’ skin — to where a reality check hits them that “the Browns are better than us now.” And it can start this Sunday, coming off of the bye week, against the Cincinnati Bengals. There is plenty of fuel to go off of — the Browns are hungry for their first road win in forever, and I think more than a handful of players on the team want to especially stick it to Hue Jackson.Who do you consider the Browns’ top rival?[Click here to join FanPulse, our weekly Browns survey]