Dawgs By Nature
Red-hot Joe Burrow and new starter DTR will decide Browns vs Bengals
The Cleveland Browns season is rapidly approaching its conclusion. It’s been a season of lows and highs but Cleveland will travel down to Cincinnati for their last divisional tilt with in-state rival, the Cincinnati Bengals.
Originally, this game was scheduled for Thursday night but it was flexed out to a Sunday afternoon kickoff. Game starts at 1:00 PM. Originally the game was supposed to air on FOX, but it was flexed back to CBS. Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta and Aditi Kinkhabwala will be on the call.
Here are the three things to watch for that could decide this week’s Battle of ohio
The Browns have made another QB change. After struggling the past couple weeks, quarterback Jameis Winston was benched in favor of Dorian Thompson-Robinson. It was inevitable, as Winston continued to struggle (mainly due to his inability to stop turning the ball over). Thompson-Robinson has shown flashes in his sporadic appearances, but in most of the performances he has been inconsistent.
DTR is going up against a porous Bengals defense this week but he should consider the next couple of games as an audition. If he performs well, he could be a bridge quarterback option for 2025, if not he will likely be relegated to the backup role. DTR’s time to shine starts on Sunday.
If you haven’t been paying attention lately, Cincinnati’s offense has been on an absolute heater lately. Quarterback Joe Burrow has been playing at a high level, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase has been very productive as has his running mate Tee Higgins. Stopping this offense won’t be easy, but there are ways to slow them down.
Despite a productive outing last Sunday, Burrow wasn’t too pleased with how the operation looked.
The Bengals offense has some weak points to exploit (the offensive line struggling in pass protection) but for Cleveland to prevent this game from going south, the defense must keep Cincinnati’s offense in check.
You can’t contain the offense but you can slow it down.
Cleveland’s offense has looked completely different throughout the entire season. At one point the offense looked unwatchable to the point where it was difficult to evaluate the entire group due to quarterback Deshaun Watson looking inept.
Watson goes down, Winston comes in and the offense looks better despite the high turnover rate from Winston. Now that Winston is benched, how will the offense look now under DTR?
If we are being honest, it won’t be as bad as it was with Watson under center but it won’t be as explosive as it was with Winston. Thompson-Robinson has a dual-threat ability that Winston lacked but he doesn’t have the big play capability Winston possesses. Thompson-Robinson will take what the defense gives him but he will also have moments in which he tries to do too...
