The Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens square off this weekend in a key AFC North Division contest. Currently, every team in the division has a positive record, with Baltimore on top with a 4-1-0 record.
A Cleveland win would tie the Browns for the division lead. The Pittsburgh Steelers are on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while the Cincinnati Bengals are on their bye week.
RELATED: BROWNS, RAVENS LIST OF 36 INJURED PLAYERS
Cleveland has done well hosting Baltimore in the past five years,
going 3-2-0. So far this year, the Browns have not defeated a single team considered to be one of the league’s best teams, and essentially, the two contests against the Ravens are their only difficult challenges. Cleveland is playing the league’s “last-place schedule,” being pitted against the majority of division cellar-dwellers from last year.
A split with Baltimore will become an advantage later in the season.
The Ravens feature their usual ground-and-pound running game, featuring Derrick Henry, who is ranked #5 it total rushing yards this year. The Browns haven’t done well as far as stopping the run, so this may set up what this game is truly about. According to FOX Sports, Cleveland is ranked #18 against the run.
Can the Browns defeat the Ravens? Here are a few ideas:
Monken’s familiarity and the Browns’ receivers
Cleveland head coach Todd Monken had run Baltimore’s offense for the past three years successfully. He knows every nook and cranny of this side of the ball. He understands the advantage of Henry running the ball, and that WR Zay Flowers is a league menace.
But Monken has a few new tricks he can deploy. The Browns have a strong (enough) armed QB in Deshaun Watson. Baltimore’s defensive backfield can be beaten long, or spin the ball into intermediate zones quickly. The Ravens have given up 16 plays of 20+ yards and one that went for over 40 yards.
Monken has a trio of very good receivers that are able to stretch the field, plus tight end Harold Fannin. Test the Ravens’ defensive backs early and often. A quick note: Watson is 2-0 against Baltimore at home.
Ravens’ injury list
Hate to see a team win by default, but this may become a reality with the Ravens. Currently, they have 19 players on their first injury report going into Week 6, according to Nikhil Mehta of Baltimore Beatdown. That is an army of players.
The key players listed that remain questionable to play are QB Lamar Jackson, C Cam Jurgens, CB Marlon Humphrey, LT Ronnie Stanley, DT Calais Campbell, OG Andrew Vorhees, and LB Trenton Simpson.
They added a few more on Thursday.
Not great for Baltimore, but will take it. Last week, backup QB and former Brown Tyler Huntley played decently in Baltimore’s 30-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Home field advantage
For whatever reason, the Ravens struggle playing in Cleveland. Even in victory games, things just happen. Baltimore has a history of getting involved in unpredictable and sloppy games when they should dominate the Browns. Strange things tend to happen.
The “Factory of Sadness” is a real thing. Baltimore players getting hurt, defenders dropping interceptions, dropped passes, losing good leads going into the fourth quarter, and ugly losses.
Not to mention, the Browns fans get up for Baltimore because they realize they are always in the division title mix. In 2024, Cleveland went 3-14-0, but beat the Ravens at home 29-24. The 33-31 win over Baltimore at home in 2023 became the 11th win, which secured a playoff seed. A 7-10-0 record in 2022 included beating the Ravens 13-3 at home, just like the year before when Baltimore came into FirstEnergy Stadium and left town with a 24-22 late loss.
Do you think these 3 factors will lead to a Browns win over the Ravens in Week 6?
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