Hi Browns fans, welcome to week 11 of the season. Sunday the 2-7 Browns return home to Huntington Bank Field for an AFC North showdown with the 4-5 Baltimore Ratbirds in the NFL’s featured late afternoon game. Game time is 3:25 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 on to their third win of the season. Despite having lost in Baltimore 41-17 in week 2, the Browns have won 3 of their last 4 games at home against the Ravens. Baltimore comes into the game on a 3 game winning streak after starting the season at 1-5 with QB Lamar Jackson nursing a tender hamstring that kept him out from week 5 through week 8. Throughout the season HC Kevin Stefanski has stressed the need for the Browns to play complementary football in all 3 phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams. Unfortunately for the Browns only the defense has lived up to expectations with the offense and special teams contributing heavily to Cleveland’s disappointing 2-7 record. Last Sunday, according to ESPN Stats, the offense and special teams were responsible for the first loss by a team that held its opponent to less than 170 total yards with no turnovers since 1950. In looking back at the first 9 games of the season there are numerous reasons for the Browns poor play on offense and special teams including poor offensive roster construction, lack of discipline, special teams breakdowns and poor offensive execution. On special teams in week 1 a missed extra point and field goal contributed to a 17-16 loss to the Bengals, in week 4 special teams gave up a 65 yard punt return in a loss to Detroit, 2 weeks later a blocked punt led to a loss to the Steelers and last week punt and kickoff returns for 2 touchdowns directly led to a loss to the 1-7 New York Jets. On offense, poor performances by the quarterback, offensive line and wide receivers have led to a per game scoring average of 16 points per game third worst in the NFL. Rookie QB Dillion Gabriel’s 58.6 completion percentage is ranked 50th among QB’s and his 5.0 yards per pass is 54th in the league. While much of his ineffectiveness can be attributed to an offensive line that’s given up 20 sacks on the season and allowed QB pressures on 41% of his pass attempts. Gabriel’s throwing inaccuracy even when throwing from a clean pocket is a major concern. The Pro Football Focus (PFF) stat service tracks QB completion rates from clean and pressured pockets and Gabriels 62.8% completion rate from a clean pocket is 2nd worst in the league among starting QB’s with only Minnesota’s J.J. McCarthy having a lower completion percentage. With Stefanski’s offense stressing short low risk passes, Gabriel will have to step up his accuracy if he’s going to make this offense consistently effective. Adding to the offense’s woes are the 20 dropped passes by Cleveland receivers led by WR Jerry Jeudy’s 8 drops which are more than the team totals for the Eagles, Ravens, Texans and Seahawks.
Baltimore comes into Sunday’s game riding a 3 game winning streak with Lamar Jackson returning to the line-up 2 games ago after missing 4 games with a hamstring injury. In the 2 games since his return the Ravens scored 27 and 28 points with Jackson throwing for 5 TD’s with no interceptions. During the week 2 match-up against the Browns Jackson threw 4 TD’s and averaged nearly 8 yards per pass attempt. The Browns defense was able to hold RB Derrick Henry to only 23 yards on 11 carries and the Ravens offense to 242 total yards. In his 6 games this season Jackson’s QB rating of 127.1 leads the NFL while his 70% completion rate is fifth and his 8.5 yards per pass is 3rd in the league. The Browns defense will have to be especially alert when Jackson goes to play action passes, during which he’s completing 83% of his passes with 9 TD’s and no interceptions. Jackson’s favorite target is WR Zay Flowers who has 50 receptions averaging 12.5 yards per catch including catching 6 of 9 contested catches and 26 of 28 short passes thrown his way. The Ravens will likely be without starting WR Rashod Bateman who didn’t practice all week, but they will still have 3 time Pro Bowl TE Mark Andrews who has 5 TD receptions this season. The Browns defense will also have to pay attention to WR DeAndre Hopkins who’s averaging over 17 yards per catch while hauling in 6 of 9 contested catches. Despite the Ravens having the #2 rushing offense averaging 5.1 yards per carry, the Browns defense held Baltimore to just 45 yards on 21 carries in their week 2 game while sacking Jackson 3 times and holding him to 6.2 yards per pass and 13 yards on the ground. Raven opponents have been able to effectively move the ball through the air averaging 249 yards per game 27th in the NFL and the Baltimore defense has only 14 sacks on the season. If the Browns offensive line can protect Gabriel and the receivers can hold onto the ball Cleveland has a chance to take advantage of a vulnerable Raven secondary that will be without Pro Bowl CB Marlon Humphrey. Gabriel, however, will have to remain aware of Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton and LB Roquan Smith in the middle of the field. GO BROWNS…..GO CAVS