Browns: Cleveland ironically mauls the Bears on both sides of the ball

The Browns stepped up in a one-sided slaughter of the Bears

The Cleveland Browns defeated the Chicago Bears 26-6 on Sunday after dominating both sides of the line of scrimmage. Cleveland moved to 2-1 and had easily the most impressive outing defensively. While the Bears’ defense has been awful under Matt Nagy, the defense more than earned their keep this week.

The Browns certainly started off this game on the wrong foot offensively, however. Some questionable play-calling hurt Cleveland in the first quarter, limiting them to just zero points in the first two drives. Issues with the offensive line also hindered them throughout the first half, with the Bears getting to Baker Mayfield three times before the first half ended.

The half did end with Mayfield connecting with Austin Hooper for a touchdown and gave the Brownies a comfy lead.

The second half went much better for the Browns, with the rushing game coming to life, and Kareem Hunt having a stellar run to the endzone to start the fourth quarter.

This also marked the return of Odell Beckham Jr., who had a nice return after missing nearly a year of action due to a torn ACL. It’s unclear if this is the best Beckham is going to look, but if he doesn’t improve to his pre-Cleveland days ever again, what the fans got from him on Sunday should be good enough.

The defense was gifted an easy game with rookie Justin Fields starting and looking absolutely terrible. The Browns’ defense was all over the Bears and racked up a season-high number of sacks for the day. Most of the Bears’ biggest gains came off of penalties the Browns committed.

Myles Garrett and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah had huge games for the defense and really asserted themselves. While the Bears’ offense was expected to be this bad, the Browns still had to perform and execute, which they did.

Next up the Browns travel to Minnesota to face the Vikings and then continue to travel by going to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers.