This Sunday morning, the Cleveland Browns take on the Minnesota Vikings in London. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions
for the game.
Dillon Gabriel and Changes Offensively
It kind of sucks that before the season started, fans were eying this week’s game against the Vikings and saying, “Well, at least Flacco will start those first several games, and then maybe it’ll be Gabriel time when Week 5 hits.” Browns fans are so used to dismal displays by the team that we can even predict our own pending failures. And that’s what Flacco’s first four games have been: a failure.
The blame goes around to a lot of people. The defense may have been built up very well, but the offense has been so utterly incompetent. Before the Packers game, I said that the team would be better offense having the offense literally do nothing to give them the best chance to win, and sure enough (even though it was a crazy outcome), they won that game. When they try to run an actual offense, almost everything is ugly. Passes are dropped, players aren’t open, Flacco has gotten a tick slower, and the tackle protection has been bad.
The Browns have scored 16, 17, 13, and 10 points in these first four games. They haven’t reached the 20-point mark once. That’s an average of 14 points per game; only the Titans (12.8) are worse. 23 teams are averaging 20.5 points or more per game, and Cleveland needs to get back to that range if they want to actually compete from week-to-week. Is Dillon Gabriel the answer? Not by himself; it’s going to take several changes toward improvement. He is one of them.
The one positive that has been in effect is the running of Quinshon Judkins. Check.
One effort was made this week to improve the protection by trading for Cam Robinson. The coaching staff was asked if he would start and were vague as usual, but he’d better start. If they did it in the past with Geron Christian, there’s no reason that Robinson can’t start.
It would help to get Jack Conklin back, but I’ve stopped assuming that he’ll be back each week. When he’s back, it’ll be a big help, but I won’t believe it until I see his name left off the inactive list.
At wide receiver, the biggest thing is for Jerry Jeudy to step up. I liked that he took accountability last week, and hopefully we can get back to him having some impactful games on the positive side; so far, he’s contributed to a lot of the mistakes.
I don’t know if Gage Larvadain or Malachi Corley will work out, but with Cedric Tillman sidelined, it’s possible that one of them sees significant reps this week.
And then comes Gabriel himself. He gets the ball out quick, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. We saw Flacco get the ball out quick in the first week with success, but the next three teams have expected it and shut it down. Minnesota will be thinking the same thing, so Gabriel will have to show more. He does have the ability to move a bit more, which adds an extra dimension that can always help. Will it be enough for a win?
Quick Hitters
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz talked about having Myles Garrett on the field, and Cleveland not getting a sack last week:
“Yeah, I mean, it obviously makes everybody better. It makes our coverage better. You know, all those different things. You know, there was a time…I can’t remember what point of the game it was. Maybe were down 17 in the fourth quarter and Myles was rushing and I was just, in my mind, I saw him reach, sack strip and pick it up and score and all of a sudden, you know, it’s just like the week before, it’s 10-point game and here we go. He was literally inches away from that play, you know, and, and again, he still played good against the run. He was playing banged up a little bit in that game, but still able to be productive. But to get those sacks, to get those lost yardage plays and then also the high percentage of turnovers when you’re hitting the quarterback. Like the interception that Denzel (Ward) had was a direct result of what the guys did up front. Shelby (Harris) cracked a stunt up front. Quarterback had a guy in his face, he had to elevate the ball high. Denzel did a really good job in the coverage. We did overlap and were rewarded with a turnover. So, it all really goes down to pass rush and even if you’re not sacking the quarterback, if you’re affecting the quarterback, making him throw before he wants to, or make him make errant throws, then it’s part of it goes. (Carson) Wentz has fumbled a lot in his career and we gotta be aggressive at the ball when we’re in the pocket there because there’s gonna be opportunities there.”
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees was asked about the offense getting used to a left-handed quarterback as opposed to the more-common right hander:
“Yeah, you’re so used to right-handed guys, you even think like, ‘all right, we want this going right’. So, you have to flip your mind a little bit on certain calls and certain things. But we do train our guys to have to do a keeper left, do a keeper right, right? Do some things that you typically wouldn’t ask a righty to do, we are going to ask him to do that so you don’t limit what the playbook entails. So, for Dillon, he’s done all these things. Are there certain things here and there that you got to maybe think about? Sure. But it really doesn’t change a lot in what you’re doing.”
Special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone talked about the punt for a touchdown allowed last week. Besides the punt by Corey Bojorquez being a bad one, players gave up on it because they assumed it was going out of bounds:
“Yeah. Honestly, like as a coach, it’s disappointing to see that effort on the play. Grant [Delpit] clearly felt like the ball went out of bounds. He stopped really early in the play, you could hear the crowd kind of like uproar. The ball was hit very close to the sideline, no excuse at all to stop on the play though. We got to finish that, and he understands that.”
Some other notes to look forward to:
- This Browns’ defense against Carson Wentz? Oh my goodness, this is one of those games that should absolutely favor our defense in a major way. There are certain styles of quarterback who Cleveland does particularly well against, and Wentz is one of them.
- Will a lefty quarterback throw some curveballs to our skill players in terms of how to catch the ball? Hopefully not; we need to have less excuses for why our offense struggles.
- The kickers didn’t get much time to prepare in the stadium.
Predictions
Here are predictions from multiple staff members at DBN:
Chris Pokorny: “Cleveland’s defense will clamp down on Minnesota, and I’m choosing to be optimistic about the changes the Browns deployed offensively. The Vikings’ defense has been touted as dangerous, but their run defense has been less-than-average. I think we see the Browns win the turnover battle and come away with a dominant overall victory.” Browns 20, Vikings 10
Jared Mueller: “Cleveland’s elite defensive line will dominate the game and keep Minnesota’s offense from doing much of anything this week. The Vikings could be starting practice squad and third team players on the offensive line this week with Carson Wentz’s history of turning the ball over, I’m predicting the Browns defense gets two turnovers this week, including a big fumble recovery.” Browns 20, Vikings 14
Thomas Moore: “The Dillon Gabriel era begins on Sunday, and if all goes well, because when does anything ever not go well for the Browns, this should be the start of a 13-game tryout to convince the team he has what it takes to succeed at the game’s most important position.
On the other side of the ball, Cleveland’s aggressive defensive front should be in line for a big day against a depleted Minnesota offensive line that will be starting its No. 3 center, No. 3 left guard, and No. 2 right tackle.
In a battle of quarterbacks who opened the season on the bench, Gabriel will do enough, Minnesota’s Carson Wentz will give the latest reminder of why the Browns were smart to pass on him in 2016, and it will be a happy flight from London to Cleveland for the guys in orange and brown.” Browns 17, Vikings 10
Curtiss Brown: “It’s hard to evaluate this current iteration of this Minnesota Vikings team if we are being honest. The team is 2-2 but the two wins are against the Chicago Bears (who are a huge question mark) and the Cincinnati Bengals (who aren’t a good football team). Two losses, one against the Atlanta Falcons (who are a mystery in many ways) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (despite being 3-1, aren’t as good as their record indicates). This team is also banged up.
We all know about Carson Wentz, he is what he is at this point in his career. He is about as turnover prone as can be. Despite that, he still has Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison so keep an eye out on those two. Minnesota’s offensive line isn’t healthy and playing a Browns defensive line the following week isn’t ideal.
For the Browns offensively, starting a rookie quarterback in Dillon Gabriel isn’t ideal going up against a Vikings defense that has defensive coordinator Brian Flores under the helm isn’t ideal. But it’s the NFL. I think Gabriel will struggle early on but he’ll eventually settle in. This game is a coin flip if we are being honest. Maybe Cleveland wins? I don’t know. It depends.” Vikings 19, Browns 17
Barry Shuck: “The Vikings are 2-2-0. Is that two losses against good teams? Is that two wins against the same? They defeated the Bears and Bengals, lost to a one-loss Steelers club, and got killed by Atlanta. The Falcons are horrible. So are the Bengals. Minnesota’s offense is middle of the pack in both passing and moving the ball on the ground. The Browns are ranked #4 against the pass and #1 against the run. Of course, last week the Lions were able to do both. The Vikings have a good pass defense, but are vulnerable to a good running game. Maybe Browns RB Quinshon Jenkins can get it going, as he had a pretty good game last week. If OT Jack Conklin is back and newly-traded Cam Robinson can be inserted at the other tackle spot, perhaps Cleveland can restore their prominence in the running attack. Maybe? Or maybe at least be respectable. Rookie QB Dillon Gabriel or veteran Joe Flacco could become the main factor in winning this game. I would be satisfied to see the Browns get past the 20-point plateau first.” Vikings 24, Browns 13
Ezweav: “There’s a lot not to like about all this. I’m legitimately excited to see Dillon Gabriel get his first start but on the road in Europe against a good defense is a tough way to go. I suppose it’s helpful that he hasn’t been a starter long enough to have developed a routine that’s being disrupted.
Offense has been terrible all season, but the erstwhile former starter – lovable though he may be, bares the vast majority of responsibility there. So at once, any kind of upgrade would be welcome, but we are talking about a rookie here (an unusually experienced rookie but still) going up against a seasoned coordinator. The whole proposition is quite precarious.
On the other hand, Carson Wentz versus our defense.” Browns 16, Vikings 3
Who do you think will win, Browns fans? Let us know in the comments section below.
