Welcome back Browns fans to week 10 of the season. Sunday the 2-6 Browns travel to Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford New Jersey to take on the 1-7 New York Jets. 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 on to victory.
During the bye week HC Kevin Stafanski decided to turn over the offensive play calling responsibilities to first year offensive coordinator Tommy Rees who spent the 2023 season calling plays as the offensive coordinator for the Alabama Crimson Tide under HC Nick Saban. Rees also called plays for Notre Dame from 2020 to 2020. After taking a week to adjust to his new role as play caller we’ll get to see how much of Nick Saban’s offensive philosophy of finding out what your players do well and relentlessly calling plays to take advantage of their strengths has rubbed off on Rees. So the Browns may try to reverse their current trend of throwing the ball more than any other team in the NFL.
The Browns come into Sunday looking to get their first road win of the season and break a 12 game road losing streak while the Jets will be looking to get their first home win of the season. A big key to the game will be whether the Browns #2 rushing defense allowing 3.6 yards per rush can stop the Jets #2 rushing offense that averages 5.2 yards per rush. The Jets are last in the NFL in passing offense averaging just 156.5 yards per game through the air and they are 30th in pass protection giving up sacks on 11.6% of their passing attempts so stopping their running game is job one in stopping New York. On offense the Browns rushing attack led by Quinshon Judkins’ 4.1 yards per carry including 3.7 yards after contact will be looking to take advantage of a Jet’s defense that’s 23rd against the rush giving up 4.5 yards per run and 18th against the pass giving up 7.1 yards per pass attempt. New York’s defense has yet to get an interception and the team is last in turnover margin giving up 1.3 turnovers per game. During their bye week New York further weakened their defense by trading away 2 of their best defenders in 3 time Pro Bowl and 2022 All Pro DT Quinnen Williams and 2022 Defensive Rookie of the Year and 2 time All Pro CB Sauce Gardner. Over their first 8 games, the Browns defense has exhibited a troubling split personality giving up just 11 points a game at home as opposed to giving up 30 points a game on the road. In their 5 road games the Browns have given up 41, 34, 23, 17 and 32 points. Admittedly a significant portion of those points were the result of turnovers by the offense and special teams breakdowns and according to Pro Football Focus the Browns continue to grade out as the #1 defense still the trend is troubling as they face a desperate 1-7 team searching for their first home win. The Jets have been playing coy all week about who will start at quarterback. New York HC Aaron Glenn has refused to announce whether dual threat QB Justin Fields or back-up QB Tyrod Taylor will start forcing the Browns to prepare for both QB’s. The Jets, as of Friday, also decided not to fully announce their injury report listing 9 players including Tyrod Taylor with unspecified playing status for the game. The Browns listed WR Isaiah Bond as out for the game. TE Harold Fannin Jr., LB Carson Schwesinger and WR Cedric Tillman were all listed as questionable for Sunday’s game. Jet QB Justin Fields is completing 64% of his passes averaging 6.5 yards per pass with 5 TD’s and no interceptions for a 92.6 QB rating while back-up QB Tyrod Taylor has completed 62% of his passes averaging 5.5 yards per pass with 3 TD’s and 3 interceptions. Fields is also the 2nd leading rusher on the team averaging 5.4 yards on 53 carries with 3 TD’s and 4 fumbles. If Fields starts the Browns may need to play more zone so DB’s can keep an eye on Fields or keep a LB in the middle to spy on Fields to limit the damage he can do on the ground. The Jets leading rusher is RB Breece Hall who’s averaging 5 yards per carry including 3.3 yards after contact with 2 TD’s. Regardless of which QB starts, the Jets best receiver is WR Garrett Wilson who has 36 catches on the season for 395 yards with 4 TD’s and 3 drops. TE Mason Taylor is 2nd on the team with 29 receptions averaging 8 yards per catch with 1 TD. RB Breece Hall has 21 catches averaging 8.5 yards per reception. Despite their problems passing the ball the Jets average 21 points per game so the Browns offense with Tommy Rees calling the plays will probably need to put up more than the 13 points they are currently averaging on the road to get the win. GO BROWNS…….GO CAVS