Dawgs By Nature
This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns take on the Baltimore Ravens. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.
Joe Flacco is a rather beloved figure among Browns fans, despite spending the first 11 years of his career with the Baltimore Ravens. Unlike Ben Roethlisberger, I don’t know if I ever really hated Flacco; it was more like hate by association. What is hard to believe is the fact that it’s already been seven years since he last played for Baltimore. And during those seven years in between, he has not played a game in Baltimore either.
Since leaving the Ravens, Flacco spent a year in Denver, three years with the Jets, a year with the Browns, a year with the Colts, and is now back with the Browns. Even though the wins-and-losses may not show it, Flacco still looks as good as ever when he suits up on Sunday, and is more than ready to deliver in the clutch.
I’m not viewing this as any type of revenge game for Flacco, but he’s been ready for plenty of AFC North battles in his career. For all the times he beat Cleveland as a member of Baltimore, it’d be nice to dish one right back at them. He’ll face a Ravens defense that allowed a league-worst 497 yards of offense in Week 1, although that was a shootout game against the Bills. Still, it should be noted that last year, the Ravens had the top-ranked run defense but nearly the worst-ranked pass defense in the NFL. New assistant coach Chuck Pagano bragged that it’s the best group in the secondary that he’s ever worked with, but they fell apart in the opening week, and that’s usually more of a telling sign as opposed to an anomaly. When it’s just one week and the defensive coordinator has to talk about accountability, maturity, and basically insinuating that people better not make the same mistakes defensively or they’ll be replaced, that sounds like a team that will still be thinking too much as opposed to reacting and having good chemistry.
For whatever reason, there’s this weird pattern associated with the Cleveland Browns being able to really lock down on some special players over the years, even if it’s a bad season. Three players immediately come to mind when thinking about it: Peyton Manning whenever he faced the Browns, Ja’Marr Chase whenever he faces the Browns, and then Derrick Henry whenever he faces the Browns.
I almost hate writing that about Henry, because it’s sort of a “knock on wood” situation. For whatever reason, though, the Browns have been able to stop him over the years, as DBN’s Thomas Moore highlighted this week. There was also a little bit of banter among players this week, when Browns safety Grant Delpit indicated that Henry isn’t that tough to bring down for a...
