Happy Thanksgiving Browns Fans and welcome to week 13 of the season. Sunday the 3-8 Browns return to Huntington Bank Field for a match up with the 8-4 San Francisco 49ers. Game time is 12:00 CST and 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 4th victory of the season. Sunday, Shedeur Sanders will get his second consecutive start at QB for the Browns and he will be looking to become only the 5th Browns QB to win his first two NFL starts since the legendary Otto Graham in 1950. What a difference a week made for Sanders. Following his first regular season game action during the second half of the Baltimore game in week 11 when he completed just 25% of his 16 passes averaging 2.9 yards per pass yielding a paltry 13.5 QB rating, he improved significantly against the Raider in his first start, completing 11 of 20 passes for 209 yards with 1 TD and 1 interception for a 87.3 QB rating ranking him 16th among starting QB’s for the week. His 10.5 yards per pass average was 1st among starting QB’s during week 12 and his Average Depth of Throw (ADOT) of 9.4 yards per pass was 5th for the week. He also lowered his time to throw from 3.3 seconds in week 11 to 3 seconds last week. Sunday’s game against the 49ers will be a real test of his football IQ against a very disciplined and smart San Francisco defense that’s very good at disguising it’s coverages and pass rushers. With their 2 best defensive players, DE Nick Bosa and LB Fred Warner, sidelined with injuries, San Francisco’s defense relies on well disguised zone defenses 77% of the time to discourage long passes and confuse opposing QB’s especially young ones. Sanders will have to deal with the challenge of recognizing a variety of defensive pass rush and coverage packages both pre and post snap and remain disciplined and patient with his passes to move the ball and avoid turnovers. Sanders will still need to push the ball downfield to keep the 49er safeties back to open up rushing lanes for RB Quinshon Judkins who leads the NFL in rushing attempts against 8+ defenders at the line of scrimmage. The 49ers primarily use 4 defensive linemen to rush the passer and their 22% blitz rates is one of the lowest in the NFL along with their league low 13 sacks. However, they have 176 QB pressures, 37 passes defensed and 47 tackles for loss. With their heavy use of zone defense San Francisco has been very good against the rush giving up just 101 rushing yards per game 9th best in the NFL holding opponents to 4.1 yards per rush. Overall, the 49er defense is ranked 11th in scoring defense giving up 21.8 points per game and 22nd in total defense allowing 343 yards per game. The 49er offense relies primarily on 3 players, QB Brock Purdy, All Pro RB Christian McCaffery and All Pro TE George Kittle. Purdy, who was the last player taken in the 2022 draft, in many ways resembles what the Browns hoped to get when they drafted Dillon Gabriel. He has excellent processing and decision-making skills that earned him Pro Bowl honors in 2023 and his 68% career completion rate attests to his accuracy. The Browns #1 ranked pass rush led by Myles Garrett’s league leading 18 sacks and 26 tackles for loss (TFL) will need to keep consistent pressure on Purdy as his completion percentage drops from 78% with a clean pocket to 52% when he’s pressured and his yards per pass drops from 9 yards to less than 5 yards when pressured. Overall Purdy completes 68.7% of his passes averaging 7.5 yards per pass with 8 TD’s and 7 interceptions in the 4 games he’s played this season. San Francisco’s best player is arguable RB Christian McCaffery who’s in on 83% of the 49ers offensive snaps and leads the NFL in rushing attempts with 217 for 796 yards while ranking 2nd in the league with 81 pass receptions for 785 yards. Overall McCaffery leads the NFL with 1,581 yards from scrimmage. When Purdy gets pressured or can’t find a receiver downfield his primary outlet is McCaffery who’s caught 84% of passes thrown his way, averaging almost 10 yards per reception with 5 passing TD’s and 7 rushing TD’s and only 2 fumbles. Purdy’s other favorite receiver is TE George Kittle who’s caught 33 of 38 pass targets averaging 10 yards per catch with 5 TD’s, he’s caught 7 of 7 contested catches and averages 4 yards after the catch. The 49ers’ deep threat is WR Jauan Jennings who averages over 11 yards per catch with 4 TD’s. The Browns defense will need to know where McCaffery and Kittle are on every offensive play, between them they have over 110 receptions and 1,900 total yards of offense. San Francisco doesn’t beat themselves they are 2nd in the NFL in fewest penalties per game and third in fewest penalty yards per game. GO BROWNS…..GO CAVS