The Cleveland Browns have the tools to win, but they need several key positions and players to step up if they want to dethrone the Chiefs.
The Cleveland Browns are staring down a ready Kansas City Chiefs team. Both teams are coming into the game with high-powered, destructive offenses that have led them to this point in their season. The Browns aren’t being given much of a chance, which is fine, because that’s what everyone has been doing all year. What people won’t accept, or can’t accept, is that offensively; they’re as good as anyone in the NFL.
They rack up points, they dominate the time of possession and they can beat you any way they want. If Patrick Mahomes gets in trouble for the Chiefs, do you really think they’re going to have the same level of confidence in the rushing game as they do in their passing game?
Clyde Edwards-Helaire is a good rookie but he’s not on Kareem Hunt’s level, let alone Nick Chubb’s. The Browns a real threat, but that doesn’t mean they can take this game lightly.
These are the two players and one position that need to step up.
The Defense
It’s either Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers as to who’s the best quarterback in football. Either way, you need to find a way to slow them down. With Denzel Ward looking more and more likely to play, the Browns may have caught a break. Now if only Myles Garrett could return to form or anyone else on the defense can all of a sudden turn into Superman, so the defense can take down the Chiefs offense.
Here’s hoping they can force a turnover or two.
Nick Chubb
Asking Nick Chubb to step up this year hasn’t really been a mandate. He may have made one of these lists but usually, this has been reserved for people with something to prove, and that hasn’t been Chubb. We know he’s great. He may not have the known versatility of Alvin Kamara, Saquon Barkley, or Christian McCaffrey but Chubb is the best pure runner in the game, and on Derrick Henry, we don’t acknowledge fake kings here.
Yet, for Chubb, the challenge on Sunday will be for him to be good enough to move the chains, while also able to kill the clock and keep Patrick Mahomes off the field.
The Browns will need to rely a lot on short offensive plays like slants, screen-plays, and handoffs throughout the early portion of the game. Use the offense to keep the Chiefs off the field and their stars then can’t put points on the board.
A lot of that is going to fall on Chubb to balance breaking off big games while also doing just enough to stay on the field while making moves. This is traditionally how this year’s team has won games against high-powered offenses; keep them off the field, score, and then put the pressure on them to keep up.
Since the Chiefs are going to air it out far more often than the Browns, the opportunity for an error to occur will be a lot higher than if they ran the ball. Not that it’ll be easy to put pressure on Mahomes physically or mentally but if you can it’ll be by making him match the Browns beat for beat.
Baker Mayfield
Obligatory Baker Mayfield selection. While it’s obvious that he has done more than enough to warrant not just a fifth-year option but a new contract, there’s still more for the third-year quarterback to prove. He went back-to-back with wins over the Steelers, so that’s a darn fine start to his post-season career, but why stop there?
The last Browns quarterback in an AFC title game was Bernie Kosar. If Mayfield can get to that game, with the awful defense he has behind him, then that would put Mayfield in air so rarified, it’d actually be more impressive than anything Kosar or Brian Sipe ever did.
Not only that, but Mayfield going up against a fellow Big XII quarterback, one he has history with. Defeating Mahomes wouldn’t just be a huge win for this team, but it’d be huge for his career. While the Steelers win is a statement game, where the monkey finally got tossed, a win over Mahomes and a birth in the AFC title game would make him one of the top quarterbacks in the league.
Made even more interesting is the fact that if Mayfield can play well, and get the team to the next round, then he’ll have the opportunity to face off the other two quarterbacks from his draft class that are worth a darn.
A win over them would be Earth-shattering and would propel Mayfield to a top-five conversation. It all starts with taking it to the Chiefs, however. Not turning the ball over, extending plays, and being pinpoint accurate is Mayfield’s bread and butter. The Chiefs aren’t known for their defensive prowess, and that means that Mayfield could very well carve them up.
This is a game that could rewrite the book on Mayfield, he just has to come through again for the team.