Thanks to Stephen Gillenwater for writing these up! Want them emailed to you? Let us know and we’ll get you on the list!
Happy Holidays Browns fans and welcome to week 14 of the season. Sunday the Browns travel to Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium to battle the Cincinnati Bengal (8-4) in an important AFC North showdown. Game time is 12:00 CDT and as usual the Chicago Browns Backers will be gathering at Burke’s Public House 5401 N. Broadway to cheer on the Browns to their third straight victory. Sunday’s game takes on even more significance when you realize it may be the toughest game against the toughest offense that remains on the Browns schedule. Following Sunday’s matchup against the Bengals with QB Joe Burrow who’s thrown 25 TD’s against 8 interceptions and a 103.7 QB rating the Browns will face Baltimore with Tyler Huntley at QB (0 TD’s 1 interception 77.7 QB rating) subbing for the injured Lamar Jackson, New Orleans with Andy Dalton at QB (15 TD’s 7 interceptions and a 96 QB rating), Washington with Taylor Heinieke at QB (9 TD’s 5 interceptions and a 86.3 QB rating) and Pittsburgh with rookie Kenny Pickett at QB (4 TD’s 8 interceptions and a 75.1 QB rating). If the Browns can win Sunday and Deshaun Watson can quickly return to his past form the Brown will have a chance to win their final 7 games and finishing the season at 10-7 with a outside chance of making the playoffs. But first the Browns will need to beat the Bengals who have not defeated the Browns since December 28, 2019. Despite going 0-4 against the Browns including a 32-13 beatdown on Halloween night Bengals QB Joe Burrows heads into Sunday’s game as the NFL’s second ranked passer in QB rating (103.7) TD passes (25 TD’s), yards passing (3,446) and completion percentage (69.1%). Burrow leads an offense that’s ranked in the top ten in points per game (26.0 points #7), yards per game (372.4 yards #5), yards per offensive play (5.7 yards #10), third down conversions (48.3% #3) and red zone TD scoring efficiency (66.7% # 4). To beat the Bengals the Browns will probably need to replicate their game plan from their October 31st win when they sacked Burrow 5 times, held him to 4.8 yards per pass, rushed for 172 yards and controlled the ball for 31 of the last 45 minutes of the game. The Browns are also hoping that Deshaun Watson has rubbed off some of the rust from last week’s game when the Browns offense failed to score a TD for the first time this season and the first time in a game started by Watson in his career. Watson will benefit from the return of TE David Njoku from a leg injury and a relatively healthy offensive line with the exception of OT Jack Conklin who didn’t practice on Thursday but may play on Sunday. On defense the Browns will have Denzel Ward back to match up with Cincinnati’s Pro Bowl receiver JaMarr Chase.
See You Sunday
The reigning AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals come into Sunday’s game riding a 4 game winning streak including wins over the 7-5 Tennessee Titans and 9-3 Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals’ offense led by NFL second ranked QB Joe Burrow is 7th in scoring at 26 points per game although over their 4 game win streak they are averaging 31.5 points per game. Cincinnati is heavily dependent on their passing game for their offense. They throw the ball on almost 61% of their offensive snaps and their base offensive formation is the shotgun with 1 running back 3 wide receivers and 1 tight end. Joe Burrow rarely lines up under center and when he does it’s almost always for a running play. Burrow is exceptionally accurate on short passes completing 81.7% of his throws of 9 yards or less with 10 TD’s and only 4 interceptions and he loves to connect with his receivers on the run over the middle of the field. Over 54% of his 304 completions have come on passes of less than 10 yards and 48% of his passing yards have come from passes between the hash marks. Burrow’s favorite receivers are Tee Higgins 60 catches 861 yards and 5 TD’s and JaMarr Chase 76 catches for 702 yards and 6 TD’s. The slot receiver Tyler Boyd and tight end Hayden Hurst also have at least 45 receptions apiece, although Hurst is out injured for Sunday’s game. Burrow also makes good use of his 2 running backs Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine in his passing game. Overall the Bengals have 6 players with 38 or more receptions on the season. When the Bengals run the ball they rely on Joe Mixon who averages 3.8 yards per rush with 6 TD’s and Samaje Perine who averages 4.4 yards per carry. When Cincinnati gets in the red zone the Browns defense will need to pay close attention to Burrow running the ball, on the season he’s run 37 times with 5 rushing TD’s. The Browns will need to continue pressuring Burrow and stay in their rush lanes to keep him from rolling out where he’s highly effective either running or passing. In their first meeting this season the Browns sacked Burrow 5 times and held the Bengals to only 36 yards on the ground. On the season Burrow has been sacked 34 times, 5th most in the league however over their last 4 games he’s been sacked only 6 times. The Bengals’ defense is fairly average, giving up 21.3 points per game which is 13th in the NFL. Opponents are converting 41% of their third downs and scoring TD’s on 52.6% of their red zone possessions. Deshaun Watson could face less pressure Sunday as Cincinnati’s defense has only 24 sacks on the season and their sack percentage of 4.6% is 29th in the league. Edge rushers Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson have 15 sacks between them while no other Bengal has more than 3 sacks. Safety Vonn Bell leads the team with 4 interceptions. In their last meeting Nick Chubb ran for 101 yards and the Browns as a team rushed for 172 yards and on the season the Bengals are giving up an average of 4.4 yards per rush. With Deshaun Watson still getting used to playing after 2 seasons of inactivity the Browns will need to lean on their ball control running game to keep Burrow and company on the sidelines. In their first game the Browns controlled the ball for over 36 minutes limiting the Bengals offense to only 24 minutes on the field. A win Sunday will set up the Browns for the late season run they’ve been looking forward to since the announcement of Watson’s 11 game suspension. Fun fact, the Browns are 0-4 against the AFC East and 5-3 against the rest of the league. See you Sunday at Burke’s Public House. Go Browns…..Go Cavs…..Go Buckeyes