Browns – Ravens: Where FoS was Right, Wrong: Week 1
Sep 15, 2013; Baltimore, MD, USA; Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson (33) runs for a gain before being tackled by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Josh Bynes (56) at M
Prior to every game FoS previews the matchup between the two teams by units as well as predicts the outcome of the game with a short narrative. Every Monday following we will look at what we got right, what we got wrong. Here we go:
Matchup Preview: Offensive Lines versus Front 7s
In that article we matched up each offensive lines versus the opposing Front 7s. We gave the advantage to both defensive Front 7s as we saw limited offensive lines and pretty dominate defenses.
Where we were right: Both Front 7s did have the advantage in this game. The Ravens pressured Brandon Weeden into 5 sacks while the Browns were credited with 2 sacks of Flacco but also had a number of pressures and hits on the quarterback. Both teams struggled in the run, which given the talent of Ray Rice and Trent Richardson is a sign of Front 7 dominance.
Where we were wrong: We expected a more dominant showing from the Browns front against everyone except Ray Rice. What we got was a dominant performance against Rice, holding him to 45 yards total and forcing a fumble, but a less then stellar performance from power back Bernard Pierce who ran for 57 and a touchdown in backup duties.
Matchup Preview: Offensive Weapons versus Their Defenders
Here we previewed the matchup between offensive skill players and their expected defenders. We also compared QBs in the matchup. We saw advantages at QB, at their linebackers versus Trent Richardson, Ray Rice versus Browns linebackers, and their Wide Receivers versus Browns’ DBs, . We saw advantages for the Browns’ on both sides of the tight end matchups and Browns’ wide receivers versus Ravens DBs. Overall we gave the Ravens 5 of the 9 advantages. The day after we weren’t off as the Ravens ended up with advantages in 5 of the 9 categories.
Where we were right: The Ravens advantages proved to be true at quarterback, against Richardson and their wide receivers. The Browns advantages at tight end on both sides was also true as Jordan Cameron almost had 100 yards and Ravens TEs were held to 2 catches for 26 yards.
Where we were wrong: Ray Rice did not win the battle against the Browns’ linebackers, and while Pierce had a good day, overall the Browns stopped a strong running team, holding them under 100 yards rushing. The Browns receivers should of taken advantage of the Ravens’ secondary but failed to do so. Whether it was mis-throws from Weeden, inability to separate or drops the Browns receiving core looked like it needed Josh Gordon in a major way (Randy Moss, Jerry Rice and others would be helpful as well).
We predicted a win for the Ravens 20 – 14. We predicted a low scoring affair dominated by the defenses and a few big plays. In the end we expected the Browns to not be able to pull it off on a last minute drive.
Where we were right: It was a low scoring game. We predicted a big pass play on the first Browns’ play of the game, which went for 53 yards to Cameron. We expected both running games to struggle. The Browns lost by 8 points, very close to our guessed 6 point spread. Predicted a Ravens win.
Where we were wrong: Predicting a screen pass to Richardson, no screens were run by the Browns. We saw one big run from Ray Rice that never materialized. We expected the Browns to use some underneath throws to chip away at the Ravens weak secondary, late in the game no receivers seemed to run anything underneath or any hot routes.
All and all this week FoS was on point with many of our predictions. One day soon we will predict a win for the Browns and it will come true. What did you expect to happen that either did or did not happen yesterday for either team?