Both young teams are coming off a week one loss to try and bounce back on the short week in prime time.
For the Bengals, it was a crushing 13-16 loss to the Chargers with a missed FG in the dying seconds costing them the opportunity to level the scores. They also had a key touchdown called back for a somewhat questionable OPI. For the Browns, an embarrassing 32-point demolition at the hands of the best team in the division, and perhaps the entire league.
Cincinnati will come in to the game with all the momentum. Their young team performed admirably against a more talented and experienced LA Chargers outfit, almost coming away with the upset. The Bengals allowed 362 yards total, without recording a turnover and only recording two sacks, but they kept the Chargers in check when it mattered most and kept the score low.
Their first overall quarterback Joe Burrow looked good on debut. He was efficient with the ball and played with confidence and a firm grip of the offense, although their play calling was undoubtedly custom to try and protect the young man from himself. It wasn't a perfect debut, but there were a lot of reasons for optimism in Cincinnati.
Burrow finished 23/36 for 193 yards and 1 interception with 8 carries for 46 yards and 1 TD. The numbers don't quite reflect how well he did play in spots on a team clearly rebuilding from the worst record in football last year.
For the Browns, such a promising season was quickly overcast with doubt as everything went wrong. In all three phases of the game, the Browns failed to impress as the reigning division champs had the game sealed before half time.
For both teams this is a big opportunity. For the Bengals to show they can quickly build upon last week and are well positioned for a bright future. For the Browns, well, I don't really know. At this stage it feels like *one of the most talented rosters in football* is just trying to keep their heads above water and prove they're not actually a bunch of busts.
Keys to the game:
For the Bengals, shutting down the Browns rushing attack is key. The Ravens didn't shut down the Browns with Kareem Hunt rushing 13 times for 72 yards and Nick Chubb rushing 10 times for 60 yards. That's a great day but both backs weren't allowed to take over the game - they were held to two yards or less on almost one third of carries (8) and in almost every instance this led to Stefanski pushing to pass on second down or an uncomfortably long third down passing attempt. This forcing of the ball in to Baker Mayfield's hand was a big part of the Browns failures on offense.
On offense, they need to avoid negative plays. As it stands, it feels like the Browns offense will struggle to generate points and put themselves in difficult positions with negative plays. Baltimore consistently benefit from mistakes and failures which prevented Cleveland from ever posing a threat offensively en route to just six points scored and four points missed - which doesn't mean much when you lose by 32.. The Bengals need not pressure Joe Burrow to do too much, but instead move the ball efficiently. The Browns haven't proven they can win, but they have proven other teams can beat themselves.
For the Browns. where to begin? It has to start with Mayfield. He needs to clean up the mistakes, take opportunities as they come to him, stop forcing passes where they don't belong, stop bailing on clean pockets, stop holding on to the ball for an eternity, find some accuracy and, in general, look like an NFL quarterback. It's a long list on a short week but winning without decent quarterback play is almost an impossibility in the NFL.
Limiting mistakes is the first step.
Mayfield stared down his receiver so heavily on 3rd down on the opening drive it allowed a 6'8", 34-year-old DE read the quarterback and tip the coverage for an interception. This gifted the Ravens territory to drive for an opening touchdown. The following drive stalled immediately and Stefanski panicked, leading to a fumble on a punt fake which Baltimore turned in to a FG.
That's spotting maybe the best team in the NFL a 10-0 lead in the first quarter by stacking mistakes, and it cannot happen.
Taking advantage of opportunities is the next step.
The Browns quietly got themselves back in to the game. The third drive was successful and the Browns powered their way down the field for a nice TD on blown coverage by the Ravens. Baltimore's following drive resulted in a fumble on a great play by Larry Ogunjobi. The Browns followed this up with a promising drive and a golden opportunity to take a 14-10 lead and build momentum. This quickly resulted in punting on 4th and 41. An opportunity left on the field, Baltimore quickly extended their lead and any chance at getting back in to the game was over.
On defense, overcoming injuries is the magic ticket. Each player filling in for an injury was a main culprit for the loss. Sendejo turned in a performance so bad that I kinda missed Randall as he gave up consistent plays, Tav Thomas got burned for a touchdown and dropped an interception. B.J Goodson just didn't do anything out there. This is a next man up league, and our next men up can't get burned so badly.
On a side note, Stefanski needs to do a lot better. Do we remember him bragging about running or passing from every set? He proceeded to run empty backfield shotgun on 18% of Mayfield's passing attempts. His play calling was uninspired and nothing was drawn up to help Mayfield. No clever wrinkles which opened an intended receiver, no moving pocket to help Mayfield and very little creativity to help get Mayfield back in the groove. Not even the vanilla package of mesh, rubs and well-executed screens. For all the mockery of his predecessor, Kitchens never got blown out that badly, and Stefanski has far more talent to work with.
Cincinnati are vulnerable. They didn't do a good job of protecting Mayfield and our DL is very good, consistently pressuring Lamar Jackson, although he was utterly incredible in the face of that pressure. We should be able to get after Burrow on a four man rush with consistency if we can shut down the shallow offense and force him to hold the ball.
The run game looked decent but there were too many nothing plays and it's all for nothing if Stefanski can't get through to Mayfield.
Prediction: I'm going to say the Browns bounce back in a 26-10 thumping of the Bengals.
One thing I didn't emphasize enough this week is holy crap are Baltimore a great team. It was poetry, and even when they Browns did good they still made plays and just couldn't be stopped. The loss wasn't entirely Cleveland being awful, but Baltimore just being so unbelievably good. I think I counted just two plays in which Lamar Jackson didn't do well - a sack and a dropped interception. That was it. Meanwhile, the Bengals are just starting out and a clear vision of attacking them is already opening up. They can't block for their quarterback, he hasn't impressed downfield and he can get rattled by pressure.
At this stage, it's already a must-win game for the Browns. Another collapse will result in this thing getting ugly. Especially for Mayfield.
I see the keys as
Browns on Offense - Run the ball, run the ball, run the ball...and use the TE's. TE's for LAC had 6 catches for 83 yards. Also, more emphasis on play action. The Browns ran play action only 21.4% of the time. That is simply not enough for a team built around the run. Use OBJ as a deep decoy and hit them short and hard all the way down the field.
Bengals on Offense - get back to the basics. Why was MG on the opposite side all game? Get him back in his natural position. Move Ogunjobi around. He had a very nice game in Baltimore...use his inside speed to disrupt the pocket. Shut down the running game (again, LO is big in this). Get Tae Davis and Harrison on the field.
This is going to be the kick-start the Browns need:
Cleveland 31 Bengals 10
Baltimore consistently doubled our tight ends and worked hard to take them out of the game. I'd expect Cinci to try and replicate that given the success in throwing Mayfield off. I agree on running more and using play-action. I am stunned at how little play action we used, how consistently we passed from an empty backfield, that we didn't move the pocket and how often we lined up a running back or tight end at x or z. Just utterly bizarre from Stefanski but it's Kitchens-esque but, obviously, Kitchens did a much better job against Baltimore.
I also agree on moving the guys around. I don't understand Garrett playing left end the entire game, and even more so when they lost Ronnie Stanley. To be honest, I thought Vernon was complete trash. They had a back-up guard playing tackle and we were like, "Don't think Myles Garrett would do any good over there." It is strange to be so vanilla while we're already at a disadvantage in the secondary.
And, yeah, Davis and Harrison should get a run. Especially Harrison. I don't understand Goodson playing on 3rd and long situations, for example, while we've got far more talented guys to cover.
If I'm the Bengals, I'd make Mayfield earn it. Treat him like a skittish rookie and go after him relentlessly.
However, the last thing the Bengals wanted is a Browns team with it's back against the wall after an embarrassing loss with something to prove. We still have a ton of talent.
BTW, Jordan Elliot had a super nice game vs the Ravens. Our DL is clicking.
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I really did think we were okay in our secondary. Wow, just wrong.
PFF CLE Browns @PFF_Browns
18m WK 1 team coverage grades:
1. NE - 77.5
2. BUF - 77.2
3. CIN - 70.4
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30. HOU - 45.7
31. CLE - 43.9
32. NYJ - 41.0
Our DTs were clicking... I am hopeful that our DEs were told to contain Lamar otherwise they were unremarkable.
Myles is taking too much heat, in my opinion. He had a bunch of pressures and was pretty disruptive. He can still be a little overzealous, which creates lanes to bail, but otherwise I thought he played well.
Olivier Vernon was the only weak link on the DL, in my eyes. Sheldon Richardson was pretty solid, Larry Ogunjobi was a monster and Jordan Elliot was solid on debut. Olivier, however, didn't do a whole lot. Didn't get much pretty, lost contain a few times and didn't seem to be a factor - which is somewhat understandable against Stanley, but the fact he spent half the game on a back-up guard playing tackle makes it even worse.
Hate to say it, but I can see why the Browns made an aggressive push for Clowney. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we see a little more of Clayborn in the rotation moving forward unless Vernon can turn it around.
But, for sure, the DL wasn't too bad considering Baltimore have a fantastic OL and a quarterback who is really difficult to trouble without hurting yourself in the process.
As Ocon mentioned, however, the secondary is cause for concern. I'd be nice to get some guys back from injury and stay healthy. I wonder if we're possibly going to see Redwine play some FS because the opener couldn't have gone worse for Sendejo.
So. Many. Injuries.
Landry, Conklin, Wills, Tretter, Hubbard and Vernon are all questionable.
Johnson, Phillips, Williams and Wilson are all already ruled out.
For Cinci, they've already got Atkins, Daniels and Williams out. That should help the run game.
I can't believe that list of injuries already with Delpit and Njoku on IR. That's brutal.
It pains me to write this but: it feels a lot like 2019 already and that HAS to end tonight.
Stef has to be better, and smarter, about not trying to win in the first quarter. Baker has to simply complete passes. He still looks like he's trying to make a TD happen on every pass. It's a legit issue.
The defense needs to play keep-it-in-front and force Burrow to be above average. That's a lot to ask of a rookie. Make him earn it.
Overall, the Browns need to play with discipline, aggression and patience. They have to be confident they're the better team, and that they'll just wait for the Bengals to be the Bengals. Y'know, like teams do to us, LOL.
He needs to plant and throw. Get in rhythm. I said it elsewhere, but I hope he saw what the world saw, a dozen open first looks and he just couldn't get the ball out. It's a horror show on Twitter, I have to admit.
Also again... not his MO. Not how he's known. I'd love to hear him and Stef explain it, assuming it gets fixed. I know Cousins went through a similar few games.
And take what the defense gives him. Of all the crap from week one, Baker is a totally different quarterback if his footwork is consistent and he takes what the defense gives him. He too often passes up an easy gain because he wants to win the game on every play.
Just take the opportunities as they come. Even if it means living four yards at a time. That's how you earn the big plays.
How pumped are you, Trent?
Super pumped.
This is one of the easiest opponents we'll play all year. They are not in a good position to win this game. They struggled with a meh offense last week who despite being meh and not playing great still put up 360 total yards. Their OL can't block for the quarterback who completed just 30% of passes when under pressure and our DL put Lamar Jackson under pressure on 48% of his passes despite being the most athletic quarterback in the NFL and having a great OL. Cinci's DL doesn't generate great pressure and is now missing two starters including their best pass rusher, while our OL looked really good last week. Their best chance is to run the ball but Baltimore couldn't run the ball on us and they really did try. And they're on a short week travelling away.
This should reminiscent of week 2 last year. We beat the Jets by 20 and didn't even play well. This is that type of game. It's a great opportunity to build a little momentum, not be under so much pressure on the scoreboard and just get the little things right before an 11-day break prior to facing another rebuilding team. It doesn't get much easier than this, and the chance is there to perform and wash away all the pressures which have festered this week.
Am I worried we'll fall flat on our faces and embarrass ourselves? Totally. But it shouldn't happen unless something is really, really wrong.
Last year the Titans started 2-4 and still went to a championship game. As disappointed as I am after opening week, this season isn't even close to over. It isn't even over if we lose to the Bengals. But this is one of the best opportunities a team can get to get back on track and get it right.
I predicted we win 24-10 and I stand by it. So I'm excited for the game.
I’m totally stoned off my arse on Valium ahead of a lumbar puncture, but vaguely erect about the orange pants...
GO BROWNIES!!!
LET'S GO! IT'S GAMEEEEETIMMMMMMME!!!
The defense did not look good on that drive. Glad we held them to 3. Let's see what this Browns offense has got now.
Good stop by Clayborn, but the defence needs to lift.
Love Clayborn starting over Vernon but Garrett already having multiple reps at DT? Don't love that.
THIS Baker Mayfield. Decisive. Taking what is given. Not holding the ball. THIS is the young man whcih makes me stand erect like a conservative misguidedly thinking symbolism is patriotic.
Excellent initial drive.Great job by all involved. TOUCHDOWN BROWNS!
What a drive!! Baker looked great! Chubb looked great! Go Browns!!!
Sheldon Richardson came to play tonight!
Burrow is going to regret thinking he could get around Richardson. And Garrett was right there too. So far, so good, although the D is giving up too many easy plays already. We've gotta stop them cold.
Beating themselves counts as stopping them cold. Nice play. Does that count as a second sack for Clayborn?
Loved that drive. Bout time to see them work well. Btw... any OBJ targets?
I AM FUCKING ERECT! HOLY SHIT! HOW IS THAT FOR A DAMN CONNECTION!?
Odell burned that defender! And what a throw by Baker!! Beautiful!
Aw man, not a TD. great play none the less. Just gotta punch it in here.
Aw man, BDU is wrong. First time for everything. What a fucking TD! That was a phenomenal drive. Great throw by Mayfield, great catch by OBJ.