As anticipated, the Cleveland Browns took care of business last week against the Colts, but it certainly wasn’t pretty at times. On a day when a lot of things weren’t working, the Browns managed to grind through it and come out with a win. The running game never really got going, and Baker must have had a five course Thanksgiving meal at halftime, because he was terrible in the second half of the game. He had 19 completions for 228 yards in the first half, and only 2 completions in the second half for a total of 33 yards, along with two interceptions. (Here is a great piece from Ellis Williams about the stark difference before and after halftime) Last week I espoused the value in looking at the bright side of the road, but despite moving to 4-1, my takeaway from the Colts game is how bad the second half was. The Browns offense put up a whopping 3 points and 106 yards of offense, and the team looked flat and disorganized. They had to sit and stew about that all week, and I think that the whole team is eager to get back on the field and rinse that bad taste out of their mouths. I still wonder if the best we can hope for with Baker is for him to just not be terrible, and not to lose games for us. His ceiling seems to be dropping, maybe that’s play calling to an extent, but I wonder about his decision-making at times as well. I admire the gunslinger mentality, but sometimes taking that 5 yard checkdown is a better option than double coverage 40 yards downfield. Nevertheless, he has guided this Browns team to their best start in decades, and by far that is the stat that matters the most.
In about six hours, the Browns will take the field in Pittsburgh, in what might be the most entertaining game of the week. Obviously everybody recalls Myles Garrett’s maniacal rampage last year, but what they might not remember is that it happened with eight seconds left in the game and Cleveland up by 14 points. It was truly one of the most bizarre sequences in Cleveland Sports history, and that includes people like JR Smith, Manny Ramierez, and Delonte West. Two weeks later, the Browns went to Pittsburgh and never really ever came out of the locker room, they lost 20-13 in a game that was never even that close. The franchise was reeling from Garrett’s indefinite suspension, Freddie looked even more lost than usual, and the Browns were on their way to losing four of the last five games.
Fast forward to today and we find the 4-1 Browns taking on the 4-0 Steelers This year, the Browns will be taking on the bane of their existence, Ben Roethlisberger. He’s 23-2-1 against Cleveland in his career and has never lost to the Browns in Pittsburgh. (Actually, until last week he held the record for the most wins at FirstEnergy Stadium.) For so many years, Ben has woken up twice a season and probably wasn’t too worried about eating a good breakfast, getting to the game on time, and he probably didn’t even go the offensive walk through the day before. However, the atmosphere tonight will likely be a little bit different, and I imagine that Mike Tomlin will have his team amped up and ready to go. We’ve already heard from Cam Heyward, who said he plans to inflict “good punishment” on the Cleveland Browns. The fracus from last year is still a pretty fresh wound for both teams, and a team that can maintain their composure will have a decided advantage. On our side of the ball, Stefanski has certainly preached that message, and I think the players recognize how important that will be. I do not think that Myles Garrett is approaching this game differently from any other. That is to say, he is incredibly prepared each week, and he has a physical intensity that can overwhelm an entire offensive line and force a team to scheme just for him. I think he looks forward to playing against Big Ben, he’s probably the hardest QB in the league to actually tackle, not because he’s elusive or quick, but because he’s built like a pyramid and weighs 240 pounds. He also gets rid of the ball quickly, so getting a sack on Roethlisberger is really quite an accomplishment.
Much has been made of the undefeated Steelers this season, but even a quick glance at the standings reveals that Pittsburgh has four wins, and their opponents are a combined 3-15-1. Early in the season it is really difficult to identify strong and weak teams, but that stat jumps off the page. In other words, they have played the dregs of the league so far, so they ought to be scoring 30 points a game. Roethlisberger has been sharp so far, ten touchdowns and one pick, but once again it isn’t against great defense. On the other side of the ball, it’s hard to assess the Pittsburgh defense, they’ve not played a good offensive team yet. But, the Steeler defense always seems to get up for a game against the Browns, and my sense is that they’re going to be stingy today.
The Browns, on the other hand come into the contest a little banged up. Baker has bruised ribs, OBJ was sick all week, Landry and the Scottish Hammer are both questionable. Wyatt Teller left the Indy game early on, but Chris Hubbard played well at guard in his absence, so hopefully the offensive line can give Baker some protection tonight. The Browns are ridiculously thin at safety, and in the secondary generally. I think Pittsburgh is going to try to exploit that, and I think we’ll know right away if this is going to be a shootout, or a conservative slog-it-out kind of game. I would feel a whole lot better about tonight if the second half last week hadn’t been so dreadful. And of course, the Browns routinely give up 30 points a game, so all of this points to the Browns really having their hands full on the road today. I do think that the Browns defensive line can cause problems for Pittsburgh, and hopefully get to Big Ben from time to time and keep their offense a little off balance. Also, hopefully this week the Browns can perform better on special teams, and just kick off into the endzone, that 101 yard kickoff return last week could have been a real killer for the Browns. We might be on our backup punter tonight (Cody Parkey) so that could prove troublesome as well.
All that being said, I believe that these two teams are not that far apart in overall quality. I think the advantage Cleveland has is at the skill positions on offense, I would rather have OBJ, Landry, and Kareem Hunt instead of Eric Ebron, Smith-Schuster, and James Conner. (I am totally discounting the performance last week of Chase Claypool, he’s from Canada after all, he should have been a hockey player) I like the Browns to win this game tonight on the last possession, 24-20.
Go Browns.
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