Cleveland Browns: Dallas Cowboys defense primed for a whopping

The Dallas Cowboys defense is flat-out bad and that is all the Cleveland Browns need for a chance to move to 3-1 on the season.

The Dallas Cowboys do not have a good defense. The Cleveland Browns are 2-0 against teams with a bad defense. The Browns have a real chance to beat the Cowboys on Sunday. Heading into Week 4 of the NFL season, the Cowboys rank 4th in most points allowed through the season. Even the Browns, with their horrid secondary and linebacking corp, have not been that bad. That’s where we sit in 2020, the Browns are a better defense than the Cowboys.

Yikes.

The Cowboys are also 7th in the league in most yards allowed by their defense (the Browns are 9th in least amount of yards given up.) It’s safe to say the Browns defense is *gasp* better than the Cowboys.

Granted, the Cowboys offense with Dak Prescott is really good. Like, really dang good. Granted Ezekiel Elliot isn’t on Nick Chubb’s level and the playmakers Prescott has aren’t the best but he’s the threat. If Prescott is upright, the Browns have a problem.

So this could and probably will turn into a shootout of sorts. Here’s where the Browns have the advantage. Assuming both the Browns and Cowboys defense is about as strong as the tissue in Thin Ice (the board game), then that means the team with the better offense will win. If forced to choose, I think the offense is, at best, a wash. So that means you have to look beyond offensive efficiency to clock management.

The Browns are the better running team and can control the clock better. The Cowboys take more chances downfield and can really turn in a solid game with big plays. You can’t make big plays if you can’t get on the field. If the Browns offense can churn out long, time-consuming drives, that end in points, then the Cowboys will be forced to match the Browns offensive pace with big play attempts after big play attempts, and if just one Cowboy drive stalls, then the Browns can build an insurmountable lead.

That’s assuming the Cowboys defense doesn’t wake up on Sunday and start hitting people like the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.