Hi Browns fans welcome to week 3 of the season. Sunday the 0-2 Browns return to Huntington Bank Field to take on the 2-0 Green Bay Packers. Game time is 12:00 noon CST and as usual the ChicagoLand Browns Backers/Northside Dawg Pound will meet up at Burke’s Public House 5401 N. Broadway to cheer the Browns onto victory. Both teams come into the game with starters dealing with injuries. For the Browns, guards Joel Bitonio (back) and Wyatt Teller (elbow) along with kicker Andre Szmyt (left calf) are listed as questionable. Green Bay’s leading receiver Tucker Craft, 8 receptions for 140 yards and 2 TD’s, is also listed as questionable with a bad knee. Head Coach Kevin Stefanski constantly talks about playing complementary football with offense, defense and special teams all contributing to a winning effort. Unfortunately, after 2 games, the Browns are the antithesis of their head coach’s philosophy. Cleveland’s defense is one of the best if not the best defense in the NFL. The Browns are #1 in total yards allowed (191.5 yards per game), yards per rush (2.1 yards) and rushing yards per game (45.5 yards) and #2 in yards per play (3.8 yards) and #3 in passing yards allowed (146 yards). In weeks 1 and 2 the defense held the high powered Bengals and Ravens offenses to a combined 383 total yards leading to the Browns outgaining both teams by 266 yards. The defense held Pro Bowl QB’s Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson to 225 yards and 113 yards respectively and limited Baltimore’s rushing attack to just 2.1 yards per carry. While the defense has been playing lights out the offense has stumbled and fumbled their way to 3 interceptions and a fumble returned for a touchdown on their way to scoring only 16.5 points per game ranking 27th in the league. Meanwhile the special teams have missed a field goal, an extra point and had a punt blocked which led to a touchdown along with averaging a pedestrian 22.1 yards per kick-off return and 10.3 yards per punt return. All this led to the Browns outgaining their first two opponents 649 yards to 383 yards while being outscored 58-33.
Sunday the NFC North leading Green Bay Packers invade Cleveland’s Huntington Bank Field. The Pack are led by 5th year QB Jordan Love who’s 120.0 QB rating is currently 4th in the league. Love is completing 66% of his passes averaging 9.1 yards per pass good for third in the NFL with 4 TD’s and no interceptions and only 2 sacks. His favorite targets are TE Tucker Kraft who’s caught 8 of 10 passes for 140 yards and 2 TD’s and WR Romeo Doubs who’s averaging 19.2 yards per catch. Love rarely throws to his running backs who’ve only caught 5 passes for 33 yards. Three-time Pro Bowl RB Josh Jacobs handles most of the rushing duties, averaging 3.6 yards per carry with 2 TD’s and 1 reception for 4 yards. Jacobs is primarily a power back, averaging 3.0 yards per rush after contact and his longest run this season has been 15 yards. The Packers offense runs the football exactly 50% of the time and uses their smashmouth running game to set-up play action passes that allow Love to attack downfield, 51% of his passes go for 10 yards or more including 20% that go for 20 yards or more. In contrast only 27% of Joe Flacco’s passes cover 10 yards or more. The key to containing the Packers offense will be the Browns front 7 stopping the run and the front 4 consistently pressuring Love in the pocket. When throwing from a clean pocket Love completes 83% of his passes, averaging 11.3 yards per pass for a QB rating of 151.7. When pressured Love’s completion percentage drops to 33.3% averaging just 4.8 yards per pass for a QB rating of 49.8. His average time to throw also jumps from 2.6 seconds to 3.6 seconds when pressured. Overall, the Packers offense is 6th in scoring, averaging 27 points per game and 12th in total offense averaging 335 yards per game. The Packers defense is every bit as dominating as the Browns, they are 1st in yards allowed per play at 3.7 yards 2nd in rushing yards allowed at 48.5 yards per game and 1st in yards allowed per pass at 5.2 yards. Green Bay has an excellent front 4 led by Micah Parsons who has 2 sacks and 10 QB pressures in his 2 games as a Packer. In the middle of the line, they have DT Dejonte Wyatt who has 11 QB pressures and 2 sacks. On the season they have 10 sacks with 7 different players having at least 1 sack. Keeping Flacco upright will be job #1 for the Browns offensive line. Green Bay plays a lot of zone pass defense and they are terrific at disguising their coverages. You will frequently see them in 6, 7 or even 8 man fronts pre-snap and then drop 2-3 linebackers and 4 defensive backs into zone defenses post snap. Their zone coverages are very good at discouraging downfield passes while keeping offensive players in front of them and rallying to the ball after short completions. You’ll frequently see their linebackers take deep drops of 7 to 10 yards from the line of scrimmage in order to cover slants, short crossing patterns and check down passes to running backs while their defensive backs run various zone schemes aimed at keeping opposing receivers in front of them. Joe Flacco and the offense will need to avoid turnovers while being content with patiently working their way down the field with short passes and effective runs, something they’ve had all kinds of trouble doing in their first 2 games. The addition of RB Quinshon Judkins should help, after 1 game he’s taken the team lead in rushing with 61 yards on only 10 carries. If the Browns can catch Green Bay in man coverage they would do well to attack CB Javon Bullard who’s allowed 15 catches on 18 targets for an opposing QB rating of 92.4. With kicker Andre Szmyt nursing a sore calf the Browns have to hope he will continue the consistency we saw in week 2.
See you Sunday GO BROWNS…GO GUARDIANS