Dawgs By Nature
This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns take on the Buffalo Bills. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.
Things fell quick, and fast. For many of weeks, I saw a Cleveland Browns team that had that formula of a good defense, but was plagued by bad field position and occasional untimely drives allowed. Special teams has been so far below average most weeks that it is ridiculous. And the offense, which has been bad all season, gave a glimmer of hope with Shedeur Sanders taking the reigns. Ultimately, those things still combined for a loss more times than not, but at least there was reason to believe the team could pull off an upset.
Not anymore. Last week’s loss to the Bears was lifeless. The combination of a few more injuries, the offensive line being really out of sorts, and facing an actual good team, showed how this team has no shot of playing spoiler at this time of year. If it were earlier in the year, I think you could make the case that the defense holds Josh Allen in check for a decent portion of the game, and then you just hope for the best. Now, though, with the running threat that he and James Cook present, coupled with the fact that the secondary can’t stop anyone, the defense has fallen to below average in my estimation. The offensive line makes it so the ground game just can’t get any traction, and that makes things challenging for the passing game to really get going. And special teams is still horrific.
Why win now, anyway? Like last week, there are two things I’m still cheering for: Sanders to look good at quarterback, and Myles Garrett to get his sack record, however cheap the sacks may come. Those two elements alone aren’t going to beat a team like the Bills, and ultimately, better draft position is what helps the Browns from here on out.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was asked whether injuries are the reason the defense has struggled the past two weeks:
“No, I mean everybody’s got injuries. We don’t look at that. I mean anybody’s on the field; we expect to do their job and be able to play. I think probably the biggest thing, like I said the last couple weeks, has been run game. We held San Fran in pretty good check with Christian McCaffrey. And then we gave up a couple big plays against the Titans. And then last week it wasn’t big plays, it was more the consistency of the run game. And we need to be able to shed blocks a little bit better. We didn’t tackle very well in the Chicago game, particularly out on the perimeter and we paid the price for it. So, when it’s all said and done, defenses are judged by your...
