Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Browns fans welcome to week 16 of the season. Sunday the 3-11 Browns travel to Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium to renew the Battle for Ohio as they take on the 6-8 Bengals for the second time this season. Game time is 12:00 CST and of course the ChicagoLand Browns Backers/North Side Dawg Pound will be gathering at Burke’s Public House 5401 N. Broadway to cheer the Browns and celebrate the holiday season. Sunday’s game will also give you the chance to enter our raffle for 2 autographed Browns NFL footballs to be given out during the last 2 games of the season.
In week 7 the Browns lost at home to the Bengals 21-14. In many ways the game was a microcosm of the Browns QB problems this season, Deshaun Watson started the game and completed 15 of 17 passes averaging a season high 7.5 yards per pass for a 98.0 QB rating before tearing his Achilles midway through the second quarter. He was replaced by Dorian Thompson-Robinson who completed 11 of 24 passes for 82 yards with 2 interceptions for a QB rating of 19.8. DTR was then benched in the 4th quarter in favor of Jameis Winston who connected on 5 of 11 passes with 1 late TD pass for a QB rating of 95.6. The Browns defense held Bengals QB Joe Burrow to 181 yards and 2 TD’s. The difference in the game was a 101 yard TD return by the Bengals on the opening kickoff and the Browns never recovered.
The Browns had 2 major developments during the week. First, they announced that Dorian Thompson-Robinson would get his first start at QB this season. Last week DTR relieved Jameis Winston in the 2nd half of Browns 21-7 loss to Kansas City and completed 4 of 9 passes for 18 yards with 1 interception. The second and more dramatic development occurred during Myles Garrett’s schedule press availability on Friday during which Garrett challenged the front office and coaching staff to show him their plans for quickly turning around the Browns. In response to a report’s question about his thoughts on the offseason he vented his frustration stating “First of all, I want to win…I want that to be apparent, when the season’s over and we have those discussions, I want them to be able to illuminate that for me, illustrate that for me so that (winning) can be something that I can see in the near future…I’m not trying to rebuild”. Since joining the Browns in 2020 one of Kevin Stefanski main tenets has been “accountability” and now the Browns best player is announcing his intention to hold the coaching and front office staff accountable for how quickly they can return the Browns to playoff contention. Suddenly the Browns offseason moves have taken on an added bit of urgency that I’m sure all Browns fans are in favor of. Thanks Myles!!
Cincinnati enters Sunday’s game having won their last 2 games and needing to win their remaining 3 games to have any chance of making the playoffs. The Bengals feature one of the NFL’s best offenses ranking 5th in scoring at 28.5 points per game. QB Joe Burrow leads the NFL in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yards and TD passes with 36 against only 8 interceptions with 33 sacks. His QB rating of 107.1 is third among starting QB’s and his Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade of 91.8 ranks him second among QB’s. Since being drafted #1 in 2020 Burrow has had his share of difficulties against the Browns defense. For his career he’s 2-5 against the Browns, completing 63.2% of his passes, averaging 6.4 yards per pass with 12 TD’s, 5 interceptions and 23 sacks for a QB rating of 88.4. His favorite passing target by far is WR JaMarr Chase who leads the NFL in receptions with 102 catches, receiving yards with 1,413 and TD receptions with 15. Joining Chase are WR’s Tee Higgins who’s caught 50 passes averaging 13.4 yards per catch with 6 TD’s and Andrei Iosivas who has 28 receptions with 5 TD’s. The TE is Mike Gesicki who has 59 catches and 2 TD’s. RB Chase Browns who rushed 15 times for 44 yards in week 7 has carried the ball 36 times for 87 yards in 2 career games against the Browns, he’s yet to score a TD against the Browns. Myles Garrett, who has 12 sacks in 10 career games against the Bengals, will be looking to get his 100th career sack against a Bengal offensive line that’s given up 33 sacks this season. While Cincinnati has a league leading offense their defense has given up the second most points in the NFL. Opponents average 5.7 yards per play and are converting 44.4% of their third downs, 4th worst in the NFL. DTR will be facing the 27th ranked pass defense with the second fewest sacks. The Bengals best defensive player is DE Trey Hendrickson who leads the league with 13 sacks and is ranked 5th among DE’s by PFF. No other Bengal defender has more than 3 sacks. It the Browns can protect DTR from Hendrickson he has a chance to play much better than last week.
SEE YOU SUNDAY GO BROWNS….GO BUCKEYES…..GO CAVS