This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns take on the Baltimore Ravens. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.
Joe Flacco Returns ‘Home’
Joe Flacco is a rather beloved figure among Browns fans, despite spending the first 11 years of his career with the Baltimore Ravens. Unlike Ben Roethlisberger, I don’t know if I ever really hated Flacco; it was more like hate by association. What is hard to believe is the fact that it’s already been
seven years since he last played for Baltimore. And during those seven years in between, he has not played a game in Baltimore either.
Since leaving the Ravens, Flacco spent a year in Denver, three years with the Jets, a year with the Browns, a year with the Colts, and is now back with the Browns. Even though the wins-and-losses may not show it, Flacco still looks as good as ever when he suits up on Sunday, and is more than ready to deliver in the clutch.
I’m not viewing this as any type of revenge game for Flacco, but he’s been ready for plenty of AFC North battles in his career. For all the times he beat Cleveland as a member of Baltimore, it’d be nice to dish one right back at them. He’ll face a Ravens defense that allowed a league-worst 497 yards of offense in Week 1, although that was a shootout game against the Bills. Still, it should be noted that last year, the Ravens had the top-ranked run defense but nearly the worst-ranked pass defense in the NFL. New assistant coach Chuck Pagano bragged that it’s the best group in the secondary that he’s ever worked with, but they fell apart in the opening week, and that’s usually more of a telling sign as opposed to an anomaly. When it’s just one week and the defensive coordinator has to talk about accountability, maturity, and basically insinuating that people better not make the same mistakes defensively or they’ll be replaced, that sounds like a team that will still be thinking too much as opposed to reacting and having good chemistry.
There’s This Weird Pattern
For whatever reason, there’s this weird pattern associated with the Cleveland Browns being able to really lock down on some special players over the years, even if it’s a bad season. Three players immediately come to mind when thinking about it: Peyton Manning whenever he faced the Browns, Ja’Marr Chase whenever he faces the Browns, and then Derrick Henry whenever he faces the Browns.
I almost hate writing that about Henry, because it’s sort of a “knock on wood” situation. For whatever reason, though, the Browns have been able to stop him over the years, as DBN’s Thomas Moore highlighted this week. There was also a little bit of banter among players this week, when Browns safety Grant Delpit indicated that Henry isn’t that tough to bring down for a tackle. Henry responded by saying that we’ll see what happens on Sunday. The real key for Cleveland is to prevent Lamar Jackson from escaping, to prevent him from making those “hero” type of plays on the run. It’s just one week, but the Browns rank 2nd in the NFL defensively after having a very good second half against the Bengals in the opening week. Hopefully they can carry that momentum into this week’s game.
Quick Hitters
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz talked about how the defense didn’t start off well against Cincinnati, and he wants to make sure they are at the top of their game from the get-go against a good running team in Baltimore:
“I thought we left a lot of plays. Like, we certainly weren’t happy with the first drive of the game. We keep track of, like, not only different stats in the game, but whether you want a snap or lost a snap. A lot of different things go into it. But of those 14 snaps, we only won like two of the first 14. After that, we played really, really well. But it doesn’t erase that first drive. So, we need to get off to a faster start, and I think that’s probably the big thing. It did give a glimpse of what we can be, particularly the third and fourth quarter, but really started, I guess, the last drive of the first half. I mean, they had 20-some seconds left, a couple timeouts. See a lot of times around the league now because of these kicks people get in field goal position. I thought we came out to play there, and it carried over to the second half. But the carryover from last week, I mean, like I said, different players, different schemes, you know, everything there. For us to play well, we’re going to have to limit their run game. They’re the best run team in the NFL, and that’s Derrick Henry, but also Lamar Jackson with the scrambles and design quarterback runs, which, you know, everybody sees a lot of. You know, we’re going to have to do a good job on his scrambles, like I say, we’re going to have to tackle some of their playmakers, particularly Zay Flowers. They get him the ball a lot of different ways. If we do those things, regardless of what happened last week, if we do those things, we’ll set ourselves up for success on Sunday.”
Special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone was asked a lot about kicker Andre Szmyt, but what was cool was how Joe Flacco said he would try to spend more time with the rookie to help instill more confidence in him. Ventrone had this to say about that:
“I think that it’s great that all of our teammates are supporting one another. I think that’s important. And I mean, Kevin (Stefanski) said this after the game, right? You win as a team; you lose as a team. That was the message on Monday. Yeah, you win as a team, you lose as a team. There’s a lot of things that happen in a football game. A ton of things that happen in a football game that impact the game. Now, when you miss a PAT and a field goal, like, those are critical errors that need to be fixed. And it’s like, we understand that. He understands that you win as a football team, you lose as a football team, but there’s more impact at that position. That’s just what it is.”
Some other notes to look forward to:
- RB Quinshon Judkins was activated heading into this game, so he is eligible to play now. Reports are indicated that Judkins will also make his NFL debut against the Ravens. If so, it’s certainly a fast-tracked situation for Judkins, who was away from the team for all of training camp and the preseason. My colleague, Thomas Moore, can’t believe the team is rushing things with Judkins, and fears he’ll suffer a hamstring injury or something. If he is active this week, I think it makes no sense to activate him just to get his feet wet for a couple of plays. I don’t think he’ll have 20+ carries like the bell-cow back I think he’ll eventually be, but I’m thinking he’ll play 40% of the snaps, splitting time with Dylan Sampson.
- I like what I saw from Joe Flacco in Week 1. It may not have been the biggest plays, but look back at that game and see how he just found the open guys over and over again to help move the chains. It’s on our starters, Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman, to be better about executing. Flacco also did a nice job checking the ball down to Dylan Sampson, extending plays, and throwing the ball away at times. It was the version of Flacco that was low-risk, and put us in position to win multiple times.
- Carson Schwesinger had a solid opening game and has fans excited, but this will be a very interesting test for him to see how he reacts in situations when he needs to pursue QB Lamar Jackson. To his credit, LB Devin Bush was also great last week.
- Fingers crossed that Andre Szmyt can actually shake things off from the second half of Week 1.
Predictions
Here are predictions from multiple staff members at DBN:
Chris Pokorny: “Both teams will be looking to make amends for their Week 1 loss. I have optimistic visions about the Ravens thinking they will walk all over Cleveland, but the Browns’ defense steps up to deny the Ravens’ offense repeatedly, and then Flacco calmly delivers against his former team. However, I also have some worries that the Bengals were a really bad team, and Cleveland still couldn’t finish against them. I’m taking what I think is the safer pick here until Cleveland proves they can buck the trend.” Ravens 23, Browns 20
Jared Mueller: “I do not believe that the Browns will win this game, but I believe they can and that it will be much closer than the current spread indicates. In Week 1, Cleveland showed that it can control the clock despite very little run game success. They may have RB Quinshon Judkins back for this game, but that is far from certain and may not be in the team’s or player’s best interest. Baltimore’s versatile rushing attack is a concern, but the Ravens offense can sputter out at key moments. Expect the Browns to play with five defensive linemen on the field for much of the game and force Lamar Jackson to try to beat them through the air, and limit Derrick Henry” Ravens 20, Browns 17
Thomas Moore: “The Browns showed everyone how they will go about the season in Week 1. Do your best to run the ball and hit some low-risk passes to build long drives on offense, while the defense brings pressure in spots, and try not to turn the ball over or miss kicks.
Unfortunately, that may not lead to many victories, as we saw against Cincinnati. Still, it also will not make the Browns the unwatchable mess that many people feared/predicted prior to the season. The games will be close more often than not, even if the result is not a positive one.
Expect a similar script on Sunday in an emotionally charged game as Joe Flacco makes his return to Baltimore for the first time since 2018. It will be a close game, but ultimately the Browns will come out on the wrong side of the scoreboard.” Ravens 17, Browns 10
Barry Shuck: “If you watched the Bills-Ravens game last Sunday eve, you saw two of the best four teams in the AFC. I still can’t believe Baltimore blew that 15-point lead in the fourth quarter, but losing fumbles will do that. The Ravens have an awesome offense and good tacklers on the D. Difficult to believe a club can score 40 points and lose. Despite the loss, I believe Baltimore is the best team in the AFC. Now, the Browns beat the Ravens last year, so it can be done – just not this week. Cleveland has no running game, which means the offense has to throw it a ton. Both Browns tight ends look really good, and at times so do Jeudy and Tillman. The interior of the O-Line has issues, as both Pocic and Teller struggled last week. The Browns’ defense plays its heart out and is back. Will not be close” Ravens 38, Browns 10
Curtiss Brown: “On paper, the Ravens are probably better than what they were last year. However, for some reason this team can’t get over this mental hurdle that’s been plaguing them the past couple of years. Both teams should be 1-0 but mental mistakes are why both teams are potentially staring down the barrel of 0-2. The spread seems a bit disrespectful and the Browns clearly feel disrespected by it and you can tell by the questions that are being asked by the media and their responses. Cleveland’s offense has some issues (mainly in the run game) and Quinshon Judkins coming back will help those problems in some way. This game will be close because the Browns’s defense is capable of somewhat containing the Ravens offense as it’s prone to stalling out. It’ll come down to which team doesn’t get in their own way and make the plays when necessary. Close game, super physical and tense but Baltimore has Lamar and the Browns don’t.” Ravens 26, Browns 20
Ezweav: “Sorry I missed last week. I’m just not afraid of this Ravens’ team. We split with them about every year. Clearly we’ve built a team that matches up decently enough with the team they’ve built up. We won three games last year and they were one of them.
Yes I would like for us to run the ball better but the way we were working the intermediate passing game last week pretty much accomplishes the same thing. We had over twenty more plays than the Bengals, which is the real mark of ball control.
Of course Lamar is a problem, but so too is Myles. Our defense in totality looks to be back to top form; after fretting over slot corner all preseason it didn’t come up as a problem even once last week against possibly the most aerial offense we will face all season. Derek Henry has had like two good plays against us his entire career.
AND we’re crazy underdogs AND it’s ‘hey we stole your team thirty years ago lol’ celebration day over there, so I just feel like the good guys are going to bust up their good time.” Browns 20, Ravens 13.
Who do you think will win, Browns fans? Let us know in the comments section below.
