A season prediction, and here come the J-E-T-S

Everybody calm down. Yes, it's true that the Browns won a game in the first week of the season for the first time in literally decades. I guess that’s worth celebrating, but let’s at least acknowledge it was against a terrible team, and that the Browns needed a last second field goal to win. For Pete’s* sake, this is not a win that will propel the Browns to the superbowl, so let’s curb our enthusiasm a bit. But for whatever reason, the schedule makers gifted Cleveland some terrible teams to start the season; Panthers, Jets, Steelers, and Falcons. So if you think you’re excited now, save a little something if the Browns start 4-0. After that, the next seven games are a gauntlet of playoff teams, and it isn’t inconceivable that the Browns lose all seven. So people of Cleveland, maybe go ahead and celebrate a little right now, because wins will be much harder to come by in October and November.

Usually I write a little season preview on the Browns, but I didn’t really get around to doing it this year. That’s partly due to the fact that organizationally, the Browns are sort of “ewwww… gross”. I wish I was surprised that Browns fans can overlook the Watson trade so quickly, but this is a fan base that is so desperate for a winner that I guess no cost is too high. Enough about that, let’s make some broad generalizations about this team in bullet point form.

• The defense is great. Myles Garrett is like a superhero coming around the end, and the secondary is very difficult to throw against. Team will try to run on Cleveland, but without a ton of success. This unit is good enough to hold teams to 16-20 points a lot of the time.

• The offense only needs to be ordinary to win games. That might be possible with Chubb and Hunt smashing teams in the teeth when they carry the ball. The passing game won’t be great, and lots of weeks won’t even be good. It’s just a very average group of guys actually catching the ball.

• Here’s the problem: Today’s NFL is all about passing and scoring, so there are likely to be a lot of weeks when the Browns need 27-30 points to win, and I think Cleveland could have a tough time doing that, even when their billion dollar predator quarterback returns in week 12.

To me, this all adds up to a very underwhelming year for the Cleveland Browns. At worst, I think they go 3-1 to start the season and the brutal seven game stretch in the middle likely could be 2-5. Then Watson comes back for the last six games of the season. He hasn’t played football in two years, so surely he’ll scuffle a little, I think they’ll be very lucky to go 3-3 in that stretch. That adds up to 8-9, and missing the playoffs and once again fans are talking about next year in Cleveland.

Here are a few quick notes about today’s game. Starting QB for the Jets is geriatric Joe Flacco who threw the ball last week 59 times at the age of 37. He’s likely to have a very long day in Cleveland because the pass rush is going to be better than what the Jets saw last week, and the Ravens managed to pressure him 14 times. The Jets are a little better on defense than most people think, and remember that Jacoby Brissett can barely throw a football. I do think the Browns are going to win this game 23-16, but I think it will be a tied game at some point in the fourth quarter.

* Who is this "Pete"? Why does only his first name live in infamy? Poor guy.

What a difference a year makes...

A year ago, the excitement across northern Ohio was palpable. The Browns were coming off their first playoff win in literally a lifetime, and the mood across Cleveland was superbowl or bust. At the time, it wasn’t wildly optimistic to suppose that Cleveland would not only make the playoffs, but go on a run and earn a chance at history. In week one, Baker Mayfield gave the Browns a chance to win a huge game against the defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, and we were all talking about locking him up for 5 years with a big contract. Of course, everything unwound (as it tends to in Cleveland) and the Browns limped their way to a 8-9 finish, missing the playoffs and leaving the fans with more questions than answers.

After a turbulent off season, the Browns made a run at Deshaun Watson, only to be initially rebuffed. Owner Jimmy Haslam dug a little more money out of his couch cushions, and offered Watson 230 million dollars, fully guaranteed. This offer, of course, was way too much to turn down and low and behold, a serial sexual predator became the face of the franchise. (You can read here my full opinion on the signing, how I think it will cripple the Browns in the near future, and why I don’t care if this signing somehow results in a superbowl victory.) This of course meant that Baker had to go and finally the Browns convinced the Carolina Panthers to take him, even going to the great lengths of agreeing to pay 10.5 million of Baker’s salary. So in a way the Browns are paying Baker mayfield to beat the Browns in week one later today. Such a Cleveland scenario.

Which brings us to today’s game. Since the aforementioned criminal quarterback is suspended for 11 games, it will be journeyman Jacoby Brisset under center for the Browns today. He is now playing for his fourth team in seven years, and by all accounts isn’t that terrible. He seems like the perfect guy to be a backup quarterback, his claim to fame is his incredibly low number of interceptions compared to pass attempts. That’s great and all, but one has to wonder why he has bounced around for so long in the league. Since the new broke about Watson a couple of months ago, I have moved the Browns way down the list of things to read about, so I can’t really say much about how Brissett and the offense looked in preseason. I listened to a little of the Orange & Brown report today, and my sense is that the passing game is terrible in Cleveland right now, despite having acquired pro-bowl receiver Amari Cooper. The number 2 receiver for the Browns is Anthony Schwarz, who did nothing but drop passes throughout the entire preseason. I think it could be a long afternoon for Jacoby Brissett throwing the ball.

Of course, the Browns have a very good offensive line, and Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt can go the distance every time they touch the ball. But I think we’ll see Carolina do what some teams did last year against the Browns and stack the line of scrimmage to slow down the run game. Theoretically, the Browns pass catchers should have some single coverage opportunities, but then you’ve got to count on Brissett getting rid of the ball quickly and accurately. I’m not very optimistic that the Browns will have much going in the air today.

Fortunately for the Browns, the defense ought to be awesome this year and definitely should be able to overwhelm the Carolina Panthers when they have the ball. Rookie left tackle Ikem Ekwonu will be lining up against Myles Garrett much of the day, and I think we count on a couple of sacks resulting from that match up. The wild card in this game is none other than Baker Mayfield, who has major beef with every aspect of the Cleveland Browns. (He probably would try to fight the peanut vendor in section 236 given the opportunity.) Baker in his career at times has been brilliant (2018 and 2020) and at times has been terrible. (the rest of the years) My opinion is that we can largely disregard last year because of the nature of that shoulder injury, but nonetheless it is hard to predict how his year will go this year. His supporting cast (outside of Christian MacCaffery) is very “meh” and Baker's task is going to be to make those guys look good. Without a doubt, nobody wants to win this game more than Baker Mayfield, but I’m not sure that will be enough.


Predicting NFL in week one is really more like throwing darts, it’s not as if the preseason is any indicator of what we might see happen. The Browns are historically bad to start a season losing 17 straight games in week one. I for one think that’s relevant, whereas most pundits do not agree. I think this game is going to be low scoring, and I bet dollars to doughnuts it will be tight midway through the fourth quarter. Despite my disappointment with the front office, I am not going to actively root for this team to lose, I’m just indifferent. The Browns are the team I know the most about, and I am going to continue to write about them, but with a much different tone this season. Anyway, I think Baker Mayfield is going to come out on fire today, and lead the Panthers to a win, something like 20-19. The city of Cleveland will promptly implode, and it will be a very difficult week in Berea for everybody in the organization. Including the peanut vendor in section 236.

Time to Press Pause on the Cleveland Browns

It really wasn’t a difficult decision to make. Maybe an outsider would think it would be more painful for me to put almost 40 years of fandom on a shelf for a few seasons. People that know me well can testify to my stalwart support of this team, even with infuriating decisions, terrible signings, and horrific coaching hires. I survived the team moving to Baltimore as well as a 1-31 stretch over two seasons. I have watched 30 different starting quarterbacks since 1999. If anybody has fan credentials, it’s me. I even wrote a blog about the Browns that was read by about six people each week. But, because the owners have decided to make serial predator Deshaun Watson the face of the franchise, I’m going to have to sit out the next few seasons.*

For those unfamiliar with the story, Deshaun Watson has been accused by 24 different massage therapists of things ranging from harassment to assault. While it’s true that no criminal charges were filed, there is extensive corroborating evidence that support the allegations of these women. I don’t really want to write about the specifics about the lawsuits, but here is a good read from Deadspin about the entire situation. (Caution: it’s a very detailed account of the allegations, and also contains some of the interviews with two accusers.) In my mind, there isn’t a question of whether or not these things happened, there’s just too much smoke for there not to be fire. Yes, I know it’s a slippery slope to assume guilt in this type of situation, but I did a lot of reading from Cleveland writers, Houston writers, and national media and there is a very clear pattern of behavior from Watson. I also think it is meaningful that he tried to settle out of court with these women over a year ago, and only recently is trumpeting his “victim” status. Anyway you slice it, Deshaun clearly has victimized dozens of women and yet seems to have zero remorse for his actions, or even an understanding that what he did was wrong.

The Browns claimed to have done their due diligence, that they interviewed all sorts of people close to Deshaun going all the way back to his days at Clemson. But you know who they didn’t interview? The attorney representing the women is these cases. It seems like that’s one of the first phone calls you would make, even though it would likely be rebuffed because it’s an ongoing situation. I think one of the most disturbing aspects of the signing was the bizarre press conference where Deshaun Watson said he “doesn’t regret a single thing” over the past few years, and that he is eager to get to work on “improving his brand”. He made it very clear that he has no qualms about trampling on people and moving on without an ounce of accountability.

I think it is safe to say that the world of sports was shocked when he was rewarded for his behavior with the largest ever fully guaranteed contract (230 million dollars) nearly a quarter of a BILLION dollars. The NFL has had monster contracts before, but they are often loaded with incentives and options for either party to end the contract. For example, the total value of Patrick Mahomes’ contract could be 502 million dollars, but only 141 million is fully guaranteed. To add to the sleazy nature of the signing, the contract is structured in such a way that Watson’s salary for the upcoming season is just over one million dollars. The Browns are anticipating a suspension, and bent over backwards to soften the penalty for Watson as an enticement to come to Cleveland. For example, if the suspension is 6 games, it will cost him about $350,000. If his salary was on par with other quarterbacks, that 6 game suspension could be as much as 10 million dollars. That fact, along with such a huge amount of guaranteed money, has other NFL owners beside themselves because the Browns just shifted the entire market of the NFL.


Aside from the aforementioned issues, this signing is problematic in many other ways for the Cleveland Browns organization. For example, in 2023 Deshaun Watson, Myles Garrett, and Amari Cooper will count for 107 million dollars toward the salary cap. The Athletic predicts that the 2023 cap will be 225 million, so these three players will account for a little less than half of the money that can be spent on an entire roster. So how in the world can the Browns afford any other decent starters? They will have a little over 100 million dollars to spread amongst 19 other starters, and it is difficult to see how they can structure contracts to get a high level of talent on both sides of the ball.

To me, I think this means the Browns are going all in for the 2022-2023 season and they truly think they can win the Superbowl. They are counting on the fact that winning a title will override 4-5 years of upcoming salary cap hell and very few draft picks. (It cost them 6 picks, including 3 first rounders, to get Watson.) Some aspects of the Cleveland Browns will certainly be better; Watson is a far better QB than Baker, Amari Cooper is a dangerous receiver, and the defense should be very good in the second year under Joe Woods.

However, we’ve seen star receivers disappear when coming to Cleveland, it’s difficult to predict how the offensive line will play, and special teams was a dumpster fire last year. And of course, the likely suspension of Watson means that Jacoby Brissett could start the first 6 games, and quite frankly… he stinks. Not to mention that the AFC North is a tough division with superbowl runner-up Bengals and the perennially good Baltimore Ravens. (Nothing to fear from the Steelers, they’re staring at a 6-11 season.) I’m also anticipating a tremendous amount of attention will surround this team, and I don’t think this team is well-equipped to handle the constant questions about Watson, especially if they get off to a poor start. All of this points to my unequivocal opinion that there is no way possible the Cleveland Browns even get to the Superbowl. A much more likely result would be a 10-7 season and that’s really only likely if they get lucky and avoid injuries. So this team will have sold their soul for Deshaun Watson, only to end up a few games better than last season and still without a Superbowl trophy.

While I won’t be supporting the Cleveland Browns this season, I will keep tabs on them, mostly in a “I told you so” sort of way. And I’ll be counting down the days until Watson goes somewhere else. If management and ownership ever seem to be committed to doing things the right way, I’ll gladly dust off my Browns gear and return to being a fan. Maybe I’ll fill the Sunday evening gap with some other sport; cricket, rugby, or extreme pogo sticking. Continue to visit this space for my rambling thoughts on the world of sports.

* I’m not the only one taking a break from the Browns, Cleveland Royalty Jim and Andrea Thome canceled their season tickets. I wish we could access the critical emails, voicemails, faxes, letters, and telegrams that the Browns received in the wake of this signing. I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who feel the same as I do.

The Dream's in the Ditch*

Wow. That was tough. Like dropping a huge can of beans on your toe kind of tough. Like two hours after gas station sushi kind of tough. Like a medieval blacksmith kind of tough. Everything in the world had lined up against the Browns this week; a couple of dozen players on the COVID list, no head coach, and some bad-luck injuries. But plucky Nick Mullens gave his all and put this team in a position to win this game, only to have the defense in the last 60 seconds of the game play softer than 800 thread count Egyptian cotton bed sheets. (Side note: I’ve been to Egypt and I don’t recall anything special about the sheets. However, crystallized in my memory are the after effects of drinking the water in Egypt.) Anyway, you can take your pick at the actual point the game was lost. It might have been running Chubb three straight times and not accumulating 10 yards late in the game, Zay Jones’ easy 15 yard catch putting them in field goal range, or maybe the Browns going three and out five times in the game. At the end of the day, the Browns only managed to put up 14 points, and that’s rarely enough offense to win a game. And certainly that futility is not unique to this game, it’s been the theme of the season for the Cleveland Browns.

While it’s probably true that with our starters and coach we would have won this game, I by no means would have assumed we would beat the Raiders. Derek Carr is a far better quarterback than anybody Cleveland has had since Bernie Kosar (not hyperbole), the Raiders have a great pass rush, and the Browns are offensively anemic. I’m sure the Browns would have been favored by a touchdown, but how could anybody in their right mind have confidence in the Browns looking at the last 6 weeks? My point is, this loss probably knocked Cleveland out of the playoffs, but really the Browns didn’t beat a good team all season. (Maybe the Bengals could count as a “good win”.) You can point to a lot of moments, decisions, and mistakes that all made that playoff window this season a little more narrow. Coming off a season that produced 11 regular season wins and a playoff win against a rival, this season is an abject failure, and that sentiment could be seen on the players faces after the game. And that failure harkens from a series of missteps along the way in 2021.

There will be plenty of opportunities to assemble a long list of things to fix before September of 2022. (quarterback, receivers, play-calling, a new peanut vendor in section 236, etc.) But for now, the Browns are on a super-short week as they get ready to play the Packers, in Green Bay, on Christmas Day. That would be a tough assignment if you knew which players are available, but the COVID list is still in flux for the Browns, so the coaching staff are planning in the dark, so to speak. Frankly, there aren’t a lot of options to shake things up when you’ve got 4 days to prepare, let alone prepare for the best team in the NFC with all-world quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Once again, the Browns will have to lean on their shorthanded defense, and try to keep it close into the fourth quarter. Stop back later in the week for a more detailed preview of the Christmas day clash as well as my thoughts on all things Wisconsin including bratwursts, The Bodeans, and ice fishing.

Go Browns.

*Thanks the band Deer Tick for providing the current soundtrack for the Cleveland Browns

The Playoffs Are Here!!!!

November 7, 1999, a date that certainly does not live in infamy. The Baltimore Ravens made their first ever trip to play in the hostile confines of Cleveland Browns Stadium. It’s hard to believe that that game wasn’t a primetime nationally televised contest, who wouldn’t want to watch a 1-7 team take on a 2-5 opponent. Must see TV for sure. The Browns came into the game red-hot (sarcasm intended), coming off their first win of the season against the Saints by a score of 21-16 one a last second touchdown pass from Tim Couch to Kevin Johnson. Having finally gotten off the schneid, the Browns were prepared to vanquish those poetic bastards from Baltimore. However, three hours laters, Baltimore delivered a 41-9 beatdown and the chance for an actual win streak went up in smoke. Like 14 other times that season Cleveland Sports Radio erupted on a Monday morning about all the things wrong with the Cleveland Browns. Alas, the Browns would have to wait another year to try and beat the Baltimore Ravens. (Actually they had to wait 2 more years.)

Anyway, it is the year 2021, and for all intents and purposes (or intensive purposes, or in tents with porpoises) the Cleveland Browns are in the playoffs right now. Granted, it would be better to play win-or-go-home games in January rather than week 14. But the Browns very squarely have their collective backs against the wall. Really, the only route to the playoffs is to win the division, and they have to win today in order to do so. Although they’d never admit it, I think the team and coaches are pleased to be completely and singularly focused on just this game. The list of things to be concerned with just got a lot shorter, and it is as simple as one play at a time, do your job, all that cliched football stuff. The entire organization (including the peanut vendor in section 236) are aware of the importance of this game. So much hangs in the balance; the possibility of the real playoffs this season, Baker Mayfield’s status with the team, and the mental health of all of Northern Ohio.

I wrote last week about how Browns-Ravens in week 12 wasn’t the disaster that many would describe afterward. Yes the offense was terrible, and we were the first team ever to get 4 interceptions and lose. But, despite all that, we were in a position to win that game, and with one tiny piece of luck the outcome could have easily gone the other way. So in a way, the Browns can carry some confidence into this game. The defense was great, right now Baltimore is reeling and seems to have no answer for a strong pass rush. (our strong suit) Also, the Browns finally had a bye week, and I’m sure Stefanski and his crew went back to the drawing board to design some offense that will actually function. Hopefully that means we see some sets with Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb on the field together, it seems like that unpredictability could pay dividends. The Browns don’t need to score 35 points to win today, really 20 points might do it considering the way the defense has been playing. So it is really a question of figuring out how to get enough going in the passing game so that the Browns can lean on their running game. Last week, Baltimore loaded up against the run, and effectively shut it down. With no downfield passing game from Cleveland, the Ravens could afford to put 8-9 guys on the line of scrimmage and bottle it up. (And they did that very effectively, the Browns averaged only 24 yards per carry)

I’m not sure what to expect from Stefanski and offensive play calling today. My confidence in him has wavered in recent weeks, but what I am sure of is that he will roll out something different today, things that Baltimore hasn’t seen us do this season. I’ve been critical of his conservative nature this season, but I’m sure with the week off, he will work in some creative plays and make the Ravens respect the passing game a bit. Also during the bye week, presumably some of Baker’s 17 different injuries improved. I expect that today Kareem Hunt will be a lot more involved, and I think he’ll catch 6-7 passes. There are some problems at tight end for the Browns today (Njoku and Bryant are both out) so that will be a challenge for the Browns as well as trying to bolster the offensive line now that Jack Conklin is out for the season.

Despite the problems facing the Browns, I believe the Browns are going to come out like a house on fire and overwhelm the Ravens early. They just watched the Steelers sack Lamar Jackson last week 7 times, and they are confident they can disrupt that Raven offense. I hope the Browns win the coin toss, and take the ball first to try to score right away and set the tone. Whatever happens today, I hope the Browns come out and do something unexpected, whether it’s a fake punt, some direct snap stuff, whatever. The sense of urgency is at an all-time high for this team, particularly for Stefanski and Baker, and I think that will translate to a high energy performance today. I would love to make a prediction that the Browns win by double digits, but it feels like it’s going to be a close game in the fourth quarter. I like the Browns to win something like 23-20, and keep the dream alive of winning the AFC north.


Go Browns.

In Cleveland, things are never as bad or as good as they might seem

There is a special kind of knee-jerk reaction that only occurs in Cleveland Ohio. Recency bias doesn’t even begin to describe how quickly fans and even sportswriters can vacillate between “we’ve got a championship caliber team” and “we’re in the toilet”. It’s a town that only cares about what you’ve done for them lately, as in yesterday. Forget about last week, last month, and god forbid you consider past seasons as reference points to evaluate a current organization. My point is that for the better part of two decades, the Cleveland Browns did not play a meaningful game in the month of December. This is a team that averaged four wins a year over the span of 15 seasons. This is a team that Terry Pluto would optimistically pick to go 6-10 every year. We all craved relevance more than anything, we wanted to see the Browns in the first couple of stories on Sportscenter as Christmas approached. The 2017 season is not ancient history, and nether is that stupid 0-16 parade at the stadium. So take a second, recognize the Browns are 6-6 and in the hunt for a playoff spot.

I get that it’s difficult to objectively assess a team after an inexplicable loss like last week to Baltimore. It’s mind boggling that the defense had four interceptions, held a team to 16 points, and still managed to lose. The Cleveland offense was terrible, and there’s a litany of columns you can find on cleveland.com about all of the details about why that was. The game was a huge opportunity for Cleveland to stick their toe in the playoff door in the AFC, and instead they stepped in a St. Bernard-sized pile of dog poop. 

So of course it was all doom and gloom across the sports landscape in Cleveland last week. Granted there are some valid concerns; Baker’s creaky shoulder, dropped passes, and the complete lack of a downfield threat, and the paltry 2.4 yards per rushing attempt. However, I wonder how the conversation would have gone if just one play had gone the other way. (Like if Lamar Jackson doesn’t make that crazy TD pass to Andrews, or if Austin Hooper actually catches a pass.) Listening to Cleveland sports radio this week, you would think that the Browns were completely outplayed in every facet, and that it was totally a one-sided affair, when in fact it was not. The Browns were in position to win the game, and very nearly did, although that’s not the takeaway you would get from any article or podcast. It is true that the offense was anemic, and the play-calling bizarre, but with all that went wrong, it’s not a stretch to say the Browns could have won that game. I can only imagine how that would have been on Monday morning across Cleveland. This team is gritty, they’d say, they didn’t play well but they gutted out a road win against a rival. Or something like Baker played hurt, was willing to put it all on the line for a win. It would take about 12 seconds to jump right into playoff talk, Hey we won at Baltimore, we can beat them again, and be in the mix to win the division. But the thing is, it’s the same players, the same coaching, and 56 of 57 plays would be the same. So the outcome of a single play changes the narrative by 180 degrees. Such a fickle bunch, these Clevelanders. I heard everything from cutting Baker, firing Stefanski, to replacing the peanut vendor in section 236. There are five games to go, and three are in Cleveland, the situation isn’t as dire as some would have you believe. The bye week couldn’t come soon enough, and although the fan base didn’t take a deep breath and relax, hopefully the coaches, players, and peanut vendors did.

The truth is that this team is definitely good enough to beat Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, there is no question about that. We are not going to be overmatched in any of those games, and we match up well with those teams and I expect that games will all be close in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, we get a play that goes our way late in the game, and we keep the playoff hopes alive one more week. I’m happy to go into this last stretch with the defense playing out of their minds, and with Stefanski using the bye week to reinvigorate the offense. Regardless of how it shakes out with the playoffs, the Browns are probably at worst going to finish 9-8, and for how many seasons would we have all been delighted at finishing over .500?

Go Browns.

 

Off to Baltimore for a Primetime Showdown

Way to go NFL schedule makers. It’s absurd to play the same divisional opponent in back to back games, I’m not sure I can ever remember that happening in the NFL. Turns out that it hasn’t happened since 1991 and maybe I was too busy waiting in line for tickets to Silence of the Lambs to pay close attention to the Chargers schedule that year. Granted there is a bye week sandwiched in between the games, but what a “Cleveland” thing to have happen to us.

Regardless, Cleveland heads to Baltimore for a primetime game against the Ravens tonight, kickoff at 2:20 AM CET, so I’ll be reaping the benefits over the overpriced NFL gameday package in the morning. What a wild ride it has been for the Browns this year. Like many people across Northern Ohio, I had sky high expectations coming into this season. Not the superbowl necessarily, but I felt like it was reasonable to expect the Browns to make it into the AFC championship game. I thought the defense was retooled, a proper training camp would help this season to get off to a good start, and they would build on the momentum from last year. I thought the offense could be counted on for at least 28 points a game. But here we are with a team that hasn’t scored more than 17 points in five of the last six games. We’ve got a war-torn quarterback with a cranky attitude, a head coach that hasn’t been rolling out great game plans as of late, and every other week we seem to give up 40 points. And we even had a resounding chorus of boos at home last week in a win (albeit anemic) over the Lions. Suffice to say, this season hasn’t gone like we anticipated.

With six games remaining on the schedule, the Browns have work to do to try to win 10 or 11 games to try to squeak into the playoffs. In addition to 2 games with the Ravens, the Browns have tough road games at Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Green Bay. The point is, we’re sort of behind the eight ball right now, our backs are against the wall, or whatever cliche you prefer. I think the silver lining in all of this is that the Browns are absolutely forced to play each week like a playoff game, they can be singularly focused for a week at a time. That keeps the to-do list short in a way, and maybe they can filter out a lot of the noise and focus on what is right in front of them.

The Ravens are a tough team to figure out. They have great wins against the Chiefs and the Chargers, but they’ve also lost to the Dolphins and Bengals. The defense is nothing special, and actually they are dead last against the pass. They are no longer the unit with Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, and you can see that some teams have taken advantage of that. Of course, I thought Baker Mayfield and the offense were going to feast on the Lions and run up the score, but they couldn’t sustain drives, and Baker threw a couple of interceptions. (And followed up a shitty performance with middle school behavior by skipping the post-game press conference.) On paper, the Browns ought to be able to move the ball against Baltimore, plus Kareem Hunt and Jack Conklin are back tonight and that could inject some much needed energy into the offense. On offense, Cleveland ought to be able to control the ball with its power running game, and keep Lamar off the field. I think if they can stay committed to the run, and spice it up just enough with deeper throws, the Browns have a chance at scoring on this Ravens defense. As far as slowing down Lamar Jackson, it sure seems like a ton of blitzing and pressure is the way to do that. Miami blitzed him 35 times and completely derailed the Baltimore offense a few weeks ago. However, the Browns are not a team that blitzes all that much, but I’m sure Joe Woods is aware of how crucial that could be in this pseudo-playoff game tonight.

When the dust settles, and the Browns leave that awful city, I think we will have seen an inspired Cleveland offense, and a defense that was just barely good enough to contain the Ravens . It’s probably a stretch, but I like the Browns to come out a winner by a score of 27-24 tonight, and then enjoy a much needed week off to heal up and get ready to play the Ravens again.

Go Browns.