Three reasons the Cleveland Browns will win or lose against the Baltimore Ravens
The Cleveland Browns will square off against their half-siblings on Sunday, as the Dawg Pound heads over to Maryland to face the other sons of Art Modell, the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens and Browns are forever tied together through their history, with Modell moving the team he purchased to Baltimore, making them their own franchise.
While the Ravens were the Browns, they had their history taken away and given back to the city of Cleveland, making 1996 the first year the Ravens ever existed, at least in the eyes of the NFL and the world. This has caused some resentment and has helped build the Ravens and Browns into a must-see rivalry.
The rivalry is steeped in stolen clubs, stolen identities and at times, stolen wins, and that bloody, family feud will be restarted come Sunday once again. This time around, however, things are not where they should be. The Browns are supposed to be leading the division with a commanding record, the same as the Ravens, but neither team is.
The Browns are 2-4 and are lucky not to be 1-5. The Ravens are 3-3 and are falling apart in the two areas the team wasn’t expecting; on defense and at quarterback. To say this is an early must-win for both teams would be a huge understatement.
The two teams can both easily win and lose this game. There will be no underdog or upset, as both teams are looking at the same future regardless of who loses. So what do the Browns need to do to avoid that fate?
Three reasons the Cleveland Browns will win
Lamar Jackson has fallen apart
Firstly, fully guaranteed contracts in the NFL are a great thing but they’re also an issue. No one deserves $40 million in the NFL, as this is not a one-position sport like the NBA. So while I fully agree that players deserve as much as possible, not to that extent. Not when you have a player like Lamar Jackson, who can’t seemingly carry the team without high-priced talent and simultaneously wants to carry a contract that will be so restrictive that they’re forced to get guys like DeSean Jackson. Jackson has fallen apart. He went from scoring 12 touchdowns in three games to scoring just three touchdowns over the next three games. He’s also doubled the number of interceptions thrown, while also seeing the rate of fumbles increase as well.
If this were Week 17, ok, fatigue sets in. We’re not even at the half way point and Jackson looks exhausted. It’s unfair that the offense only goes as far as he goes, I admit that, but if you want a fully guaranteed, record-setting contract, you don’t get that excuse. The Ravens are doing their very best to get the most out of Jackson but we may have seen his peak already.
The Baltimore Ravens’ defense has fallen off
The Ravens GM Eric DeCosta is no Ozzie Newsome and that’s obvious. DeCosta has not had the same success at building a defense as Newsome has and most of DeCosta’s picks are either guys who are middling average at best or outright busts at worse. It certainly doesn’t help that their All-World cornerback Marlon Humphries was last seen on missing posters. The Ravens’ defense isn’t the squad it used to be and the Browns can do work against it.
The talent isn’t there as in years past
John Harbaugh is probably going to get fired sooner rather than later because DeCosta can’t get talent on the team. The Ravens’ offense is devoid of any real stars and even traded away one of their better receivers. The team hasn’t been a threat in the playoffs during the Lamar Jackson Era, and now, thanks to DeCosta’s management, the team isn’t even a regular-season threat anymore. This is not the same Ravens teams that we’re used to seeing.
Three reasons the Cleveland Browns will lose
The offense is one-dimensional
The Cleveland Browns have proven time and time again that they are not a good offense, they simply have a good running back that can carry a team. Nick Chubb is someone who does a lot of damage, but as we saw against the New England Patriots, take him out of the equation and the Browns’ offense is bad. It’s not just bad because of Jacoby Brissett, who by the way, is still playing better than expected, but the offense is bad because of bad coaching and bad player acquisition. The Browns are wasting spots on four running backs, Demetric Felton and Anthony Schwartz. Why? Bad management.
No one on defense is playing up to their reputation
Myles Garrett is either proving that sacks and big-money deals to players like him are pointless because he can’t elevate a defense, or he’s proving that Andrew Berry is so bad at his job, that the defense as a whole has sapped Garrett’s ability to meaningfully play make and change the course of the game. Denzel Ward has fallen off so much he’s starring in Cliffhanger 2, John Johnson likes to talk, which reminds us he’s still on the team because he disappears on the field for large chunks of time. Jadeveon Clowney has proven he’s not worth the money he was given, and the defensive tackle situation is so bad I’m actually wondering if St. Eds can loan the team some defensive tackles because the Browns have no one to rely on.
Kevin Stefanski is easily out-coached
I’ve never seen a team, so steeped in Ivy League education, be so terrible at so many facets of the game. Analytic-driven gameplans are a proven fraud. Kevin Stefanski has lost so many games this year, and in previous years, because he listened to number crunchers. The Browns could be 5-1 had Stefanski trusted his kicker more. They lost three games by six points. That’s unacceptable. Stefanski has dedicated three full years to only coaching the offense, and when he can’t get his simplistic offense rolling, the entire team falls apart. Say whatever you want about Joe Woods, but keep in mind, Stefanski has total control over the team. He can tell Woods to change the game plan or change his address, but he hasn’t. Why? Because Stefanski believes in the defensive ideology that Woods is running. Of course, he does. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be implemented. Stefanski is constantly outthinking himself. He’s costing himself wins by leaning on an unproven methodology.