Dawgs By Nature
This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.
The Joe Flacco run in 2023 was incredible as a fan. Signed off the street after basically staying loose with his kids, I was in Los Angeles at the beginning of December that year for my first ever road game. After Cleveland had been struggling for weeks to muster anything offensively, Flacco delivered a strike to former Browns receiver Amari Cooper on the first drive, and then finished it off with a touchdown pass to an open Jerome Ford after that. It felt really weird having Flacco as the team’s starting quarterback before that game started, since he was a long-time rival with the Ravens. But everyone caught Flacco Fever, and I saw a quarterback who, at times, looked even better than many of his years with the Baltimore Ravens. He was free to sling it, for better or for worse.
The Browns ended up losing that first game that Flacco started, but led the team to victories in his next four starts to secure a playoff spot for Cleveland — against Jacksonville, Chicago, Houston, and the Jets. In each game, he had over 300 yards passing and was basically averaging 3 touchdown passes per game. He also threw at least 1 interception in every game. Unfortunately, it all came crashing down in the opening round of the playoffs (but it wasn’t all Flacco’s fault). He earned the comeback player of the year award, but the Browns never even offered him a contract in 2024, which goes to show you how much leeway the team was trying to give Deshaun Watson as they desperately hoped their investment would work out. It didn’t, and they finally gave up. Now, we’re back to Flacco Fever. Is the magic still there? He looked good this preseason again, and I’m optimistic that he’ll elevate the Browns’ offense again.
Flacco gets his first crack against a Bengals defense that looked pretty bad during the preseason, although they did get Trey Hendrickson re-signed for the regular season. Cincinnati’s run defense looked particularly porous, so Cleveland should no doubt try to bank on the Bengals keying in on the run, which can open up some big playaction passing opportunities.
The Browns’ defense opened the 2023 season with one of the most dominant performances you can get against the Cincinnati Bengals. As the 2023 season went on, despite their defensive ranking, there were some cracks in the armor for Jim Schwartz’ defense. In 2024, I was hopeful that Cleveland would dial back the aggressiveness to the point where teams couldn’t use it against them by baiting them up, but it didn’t really unfold that way. On top of that, there were just a lot of weird things that happened throughout the season,...
