Baltimore Beatdown
Fresh off their most convincing victory of the season, a 32-14 trouncing over the Ravens on Thanksgiving, the Bengals will look to sustain momentum this coming Sunday. It won’t come any easier, as they’ll have to take on an eight-win Buffalo Bills squad who need a win for playoff hopes and positioning.
The biggest developments from last week’s win for the Bengals was their defensive improvements and the return of quarterback Joe Burrow. Cincinnati’s much maligned defense forced five turnovers against the Ravens, had a 70% success rate on third downs, and allowed just 14 points — their mark of the year. Burrow got into a groove as the game progressed and threw two second-half touchdowns with no turnovers and 261 passing yards.
The Bengals were without the services of two of their most important players on each side of the ball, too, in Trey Hendrickson and Tee Higgins. To pull off another upset in this week’s matchup with the Bills, the Bengals will need to prove up to the task defensively against another one of the league’s top quarterbacks in Josh Allen.
Forcing five turnovers again is a tall, unlikely task, but Allen has been turnover-prone at times in recent weeks — presenting some hope for the Bengals to come up with a takeaway or two. Burrow and the Bengals’ passing attack are potent, but they’d be well-served to challenge a vulnerable Bills’ rushing defense by establishing the ground game. Chase Brown has 284 rushing yards over the past three games while averaging 5.4 yards per carry and has 73 or more rushing yards in five of the past six games.
The Browns were unable to start a win streak last week and dropped a 26-8 game to the San Francisco 49ers. It was Shedeur Sanders’ anticipated first start at home, but the Browns found little success offensively. After scoring a touchdown and two-point conversion to take a lead late in the second quarter, the Browns could not manage to put any more points on the board for the remainder of the game.
Cleveland’s offense averaged only 4.2 yards per play they converted on 3-of-11 third down attempts, while also failing on all four of their fourth down tries. Defensively, although they allowed 26 points, the Browns ceded just 251 yards overall and were stingy on the ground, giving up 2.7 yards per rush. As has been the case for most of this season, the Browns’ defense significantly outplayed their offense.
The Browns are better suited for success this coming Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, who are one of the only teams with a worse record than the Browns this year (2-10). Cleveland’s defense could feast against the Titans’ dismal offense and rookie quarterback Cam Ward, who has experienced his share of struggles this season with a shaky infrastructure around him.
Kevin Stefanski has made an effort to feature Quinshon Judkins heavily in most games this year, even when it’s...
