Dawgs By Nature
This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns take on the Chicago Bears. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.
Temperatures are expected to be frigid for this Sunday’s game against the Bears, as it’s calling for 11 degrees (feels like -3 degrees). It shouldn’t be too windy, and there shouldn’t be precipitation. The goal for the rest of the season remains the same, though: I don’t really care if the Browns win or not, I just want to be captivated by Shedeur Sanders. We want to continue to see him take steps to put his best resume out there that he should be the Browns’ starting quarterback in 2026, as opposed to needing to draft a quarterback. For a fifth-round pick, that might sound ridiculous, but we all know Sanders is a different bird with respect to his draft story.
Sanders’ game last week wasn’t an in-game fluke. His throws were excellent, he recognized things better, and showed escapability. Now, there are much better defenses in the NFL, so the thing we’re seeing now is how does he do when there is a greater sample size? Or how does he do when opposing defenses sniff out some of his strengths and adapt to them better? Sanders really picked apart man coverage last week, but how would he do against more zone, or more pressure?
Defensively, last week’s game was a downer with the big run plays allowed. For records sake, we can still root for Myles Garrett to chase the NFL sack record, but those plays need to come naturally instead of really trying to show the wide rush in an attempt to force things. Cleveland’s lack of execution in key third down situations the past two weeks has also been pretty poor, and Chicago has been one of the best offenses in the NFL this season. This has the potential to be a fun matchup on paper, but with the way things have gone the past couple weeks and the Browns’ special teams unit continuing to be an issue, it’s hard to picture a road win here.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz talked about the two big run plays given up last week:
“Yeah, the run defense was really two plays. It was a 65-yarder, our longest play the whole year, where we looked like Keystone Cops on that one – we ran into each other on two different times, knocked each other off – just a really bad play for us. And then the 33-yarder, I think it was 33, which was a blitz, and we got cut out of the gap, and when you get cut out of a blitz, there’s nobody that can make you right, and we paid the price for that one. You know, when it was all said and done, the rest of the runs was something like, I think...
