Hi Browns fans, welcome to week 7 of the NFL season. Sunday the Browns travel to Baltimore’s M&T Stadium to take on the Baltimore “Ratbirds” in a battle for second place in the AFC North. The Browns (2-4) are hoping to break a 3 game losing streak against the 3-3 Ravens who are coming off a 24-20 loss to the New York Giants. Game time is 12:00 noon CDT and as usual the Chicago Browns Backers will be meeting at Burke’s Public House 5401 N. Broadway to watch the game and cheer our Browns to victory. If you haven’t been to Burke’s yet they have a full bar and food menu along with plenty of free on street parking. The Browns will be trying to beat the Ravens for the second times in a row after a 24-20 win in week 14 of last season. A win on Sunday will get the Browns to 3-4 and keep them in contention for the playoffs and a possible tie for first in the division depending on the outcome of the Bengal’s game against the Falcons. The Ravens like the Browns have had their own problems with 4th quarter defensive meltdowns, giving up an average of 10.7 points in the fourth quarter and their All Pro QB Lamar Jackson has 10 turnovers in 6 games this season. So come on out to cheer the Browns to victory.
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The Ravens 3-3 come into Sunday’s game needing a victory to stay in first place before facing the Tamp Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady on Thursday Night Football. The Baltimore offense begins with 2019 NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson. So far this year Jackson’s running and passing has been responsible for 1,728 total yards, he’s thrown for 1,277 yards completing 61.9% of his passes while averaging 7.1 yards per pass with 13 passing TD’s and 6 interceptions. He’s been sacked 11 times and has a QB rating of 93.2 good for 12th in the league. He’s also leading the Ravens in rushing with 451 yards which is 5th in the NFL while averaging 8.1 yards per rush. He has 267 more yards on the ground than any other Raven. In total Jackson is responsible for over 79% of the Raven’s total offense. Defending Jackson will be a huge challenge for the Browns defense. He’s been most effective throwing intermediate passes between 10 -20 yards where he’s completing almost 67% of his passes with a QB rating 135.5. Jackson loves the Baltimore run pass option offense so Browns linebackers are going to have to be extra alert and they’ll probably need to have a linebacker or safety spy on him every time he goes back to pass. He’s had problems completing deep passes this year, completing only 27.6% of his passes over 20 yards. The Browns defense will need to stay in their pass lanes as they rush Jackson, when pressured his QB rating drops 45 points from 105.9 to 60.7 and his completion percentage drops to 47.1%. Jackson’s ability to scramble and take off running will provide a unique challenge to the Browns linebackers as he is responsible for over 48% of the Raven rushing offense. The key to slowing down Baltimore’s pass game is to cover his favorite target, tight end Mark Andrews. Andrews has caught 39 of 57 passes thrown his way for 455 yards with 5 TD’s. Pro Football Focus ranks him as the second best tight end in the NFL. Over 31% of Jackson’s passes are thrown to Andrews and he’s caught 5 of Jackson’s 13 TD passes. Andrews has more than twice as many receptions as any other Raven. Remarkably Andrews has been on the field for 90% of Baltimore’s offensive plays. Starting running back J.K Dobbins has been ruled out for Sunday so most of the running back duties will fall to speedster Kenyan Drake. Overall the Ravens average 26.3 points per game which is 5th in the NFL and they score TD’s on 60% of their red zone possessions. They average 6.2 yards per play which is third in the league. The Ravens have probably the best field goal kicker in the history of the NFL in Justin Tucker, who is about as automatic as a kicker can be. On defense Baltimore gives up an average of 23.5 points per game. Interestingly at home Raven opponents are converting 80% of their red zone possessions int touchdowns. The Ravens are 31st in the NFL in 4 quarter points allowed just above the Browns who are last in the league in 4th quarter scoring defense. The Ravens are also giving up 267.7 yards per game through the air good for 28th. Overall the Baltimore defense has taken a step back with only 3 defensive players grading out on PFF in the top 20 at their positions. Over the past couple of weeks Browns QB Jacoby Brissett has fallen on hard times. His QB rating of 78.7 is currently 30th in the NFL and he’s thrown only 6 TD’s with 5 interceptions. His average of 6.4 yards per pass is 28th in the NFL. Brissett has had all kinds of problems throwing when pressured. With a clean pocket, Brissett has been completing 65.8% of his passes, however when pressured he’s completing only 43% of his passes and has a passer rating of 29.7 with 4 interceptions and no TD’s. When using play action, he completes 67% of his passes and averages 9 yards per pass attempt with a QB rating of 93.5. With no play action his QB rating drops to 74.5 with 4 interceptions. Unfortunately HC Stefanski has only called play action plays on 22% of Browns pass attempts.