The Cleveland Browns have the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football in their seasonal rematch. This is how the Browns can avoid another whopping.
The Cleveland Browns are Rocky Balboa. The Ravens are Clubber Lang. We all know how Rocky III ended. The Ravens lit up the Browns handily in Week 1. Yet, there were some huge issues with that game. Firstly, The Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski avoided the run for some reason and threw early ad often. That’s not a knock on Baker Mayfield, but an acknowledgment at how good the Ravens pass defense was in Week 1.
The Ravens defense, however, is not guided by stars but by the scheme. So many of the big additions this year, Patrick Queen, Yannick Ngakoue, and last year’s get, Marcus Peters, have not lived up to the expectations this year. The same could be said for the hydra that was their rushing game, with Lamar Jackson having one of the worst seasons a reigning MVP could muster, and Mark Ingram now third on the depth chart after having a huge year for them. This isn’t the same Ravens team as advertised.
Moving on with that same train of thought, this isn’t the same Browns team either. The offense is far more competent than even the most-diehard fan thought and they’re doing it largely in spite of their three biggest money makes (Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, and Austin Hooper) having injury-plagued, down seasons. So, what do the Browns need to do to win on Monday night?
Run, run, run.
This isn’t a hard concept. Give the ball to Nick Chubb early and often. Then get Kareem Hunt involved with a few draws and maybe a shovel pass or nine. When the Raven’s weak linebacking corp gets exposed,then go over the top with Baker Mayfield. It’s a foolproof formula to success, as Coach Herman Boone once said in Remember the Titans. “Just give it time, it always works.”