Welcome to week 5 Browns fans. Sunday the 1-3 Browns travel to Maryland’s Northwest Stadium to take on the surprising 3-1 Washington Commanders. Game time 12:00 noon CST and the ChicagoLand Browns Backers/Northside Dawg Pound will be gathering at Burke’s Public House 5401 N. Broadway to cheer them on to victory. This week the Browns finally got some good news about injuries as offensive tackles Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills Jr. are expected to return to the starting line-up for the first time this season. TE Davis Njoku is also expected back which should give a needed boost to both the Browns receiving and offensive line play. All Pro Bowl RB Nick Chubb returned to practice this week from the injured list and he’s expected back into the line-up sometime over the next 3 weeks. The Browns are hoping that having their starting offensive line back will improve the pass protection for Deshaun Watson who’s been sacked a league leading 19 times so far this season. Last Sunday Watson, despite the loss, had arguably his best game this season completing 75% of his passes and improving to 5.5 yards per pass with a season high Pro Football Focus (PFF) game grade of 86.0. The Browns hope that the return of an intact offensive line coupled with the return of Davis Njoku will give Watson the tools he needs to get the offense back on track and the Browns back into contention for the playoffs. Sunday the Browns will need to improve in 3 areas if they are to beat Washington. Job 1 will be to improve their tackling, last week the Browns missed several tackles that led to Raider first downs instead of stops and tackles for losses and according to PFF the Browns have missed 36 tackles in their first 4 games. Washington QB Jayden Daniels loves to throw quick short safe passes toward the sidelines to his running backs and wide receivers giving them the opportunity to break tackles and gain chunk yards after the catch (YAC). Daniel’s average depth of throw (ADOT) to his running backs Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler is 1.5 yards behind the line of scrimmage with Robinson averaging 11.1 YAC and Ekeler averaging 15.1 YAC. Daniel’s short passing game has the added advantage of boosting his completion rate to a league leading 82.1% as Robinson, Ekeler and slot receiver Luke McCaffery have caught a combined 24 of 27 passes (89%). Daniel’s primary downfield threats are WR Terry McLaurin who’s caught 19 passes averaging 10 yards per catch with 2 TD’s and veteran TE Zach Ertz who also averages 10 yards per catch and has caught 15 of 16 passes thrown his way. Collectively Commanders receivers and RB have 1 drop pass over their 4 games. The second important area of need for the Browns is reducing their self-inflicted errors especially on offense. Through 4 games the Browns offense has been whistled for 23 penalties, had 3 passes intercepted while dropping a league leading 11 passes at least 2 of which could have led to TD’s. On defense the Browns have committed 10 penalties while collecting 36 missed tackles with no interceptions. Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett has 4 of those penalties while LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah leads the team with 7 missed tackles. Missed tackles and pre-snap penalties will be deadly against a Washington team that averages 30.3 points per game and 6.1 yards per play while converting an NFL best 53.5% of their 3rd down attempts and 100% of their 4th down attempts. Despite all the hype about Jayden Daniels record setting completion percentage, Washington is essentially a running team utilizing a run/pass option (RPO) base offense. Their 33.5 rushing attempts per game is 4th in the NFL, they are 3rd averaging 169 rushing yards per game while running the ball on almost 54% of their offensive snaps. They have 10 rushing TD’s against only 3 passing TD’s and their 26.5 pass attempts per game is 27th. RB Brian Robinson averages 4.6 yards per rush with 3.9 yards after contact, RB Austin Ekeler averages 6.4 yards per rush and QB Daniels has rushed 45 times averaging 4.8 yards per carry 3.3 YAC with 4 rushing TD’s. Washington’s RPO running game coupled with their highly effective short passing game keeps them in makable short yardage 3rd downs situations keeping their drives alive. They have punted only 4 times in 4 games and during one stretch over 2 games they scored on over 20 consecutive offensive possessions. The Browns defense will need to stop the run, tackle well, keep consistent pressure on Daniels and effectively disguise their coverage in order keep Washington’s offense in check. If the Browns can complete their third task of playing consistent offense avoiding drive killing penalties and dropped passes they have an opportunity to score enough points for a win against a below average Commanders defense. Washington’s defense is 30th against the run giving up 5.3 yards per rush and 29th against the pass yielding 7.9 yards per pass attempt with no interceptions. Opponents are completing 72% of their passes and converting an NFL best 54.7% of their 3rd down attempts. Opponents are also scoring TD’s on 71% of their Red Zone possessions. Washington’s starting CB’s Benjamin St-Juste (126.2 opposing QB rate) and rookie Mike Sainristil (144.6 QB rate) have combined to allow 6 TD passes and opposing QB’s have a 99.6 QB rating against the Commanders defense. Washington’s best defensive player is 13 year veteran LB Bobby Wagner who’s been to 9 Pro Bowls and been NFL Al Pro 5 times. See you Sunday GO Browns ……GO GUARDIANS