NFL predictions: With the defense cooking, will the Browns-Titans matchup be put to bed early?

This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns (4-2) take on the Tennessee Titans (1-5). Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.

Browns’ Defense is Cooking…

…except for the start of football games. In four of their six games, including their last three games, this has been the result of the opposing team’s opening drive:

Week 1, Jaguars: 8 plays, 59 yards (Touchdown)
Week 4, Steelers: 17 plays, 73 yards (Touchdown)
Week 5, Jets: 8 plays, 90 yards (Touchdown)
Week 6, Ravens: 11 plays, 66 yards (Touchdown)

In that first game, the defense was just bad the whole first half. In the other three games, they did a pretty solid-to-dominant job the rest of the way. I’ve harped a bunch of times this season on how much I value the adjustments that Mike Rutenburg has this defense making in-game, which is something I thought I never saw from Jim Schwartz. We’re also seeing where a defensive front is not reliant on one guy (Myles Garrett) to save the day. Players are collectively stepping up and rallying together, and you’re also seeing great individual efforts out of the likes of Denzel Ward, Carson Schewesinger, and Maliek Collins. This week, the Browns get Mason Graham back, who looked like a beast to begin his second year before hurting his knee.

With the defense playing so well, it’s also encouraging this week that they are facing the 32nd-ranked offense in the NFL. Cam Ward hasn’t been able to muster much in the passing game. Also last year, RB Tony Pollard had his best game of the season against Cleveland, going off for 161 yards on 25 carries with 2 touchdowns. Hopefully, that element can be contained, especially with help returning at defensive tackle.

But the Offense Needs to do More

The fourth quarter, game-winning drives have happened four times this season, which is great on one hand. It almost happened a fifth time (the loss to the Jets). On the other hand, we’re starting to reach a bit of a tipping point on needing to see more productivity and points on the board in the rest of the game. Over those first few games of the season, the feeling was, ‘Alright, we’re seeing some encouraging things, maybe as the offense continues to build a rhythm, we’ll see better results.’ Instead, things have gotten pretty stagnant from an overall game perspective.

• Cleveland has scored 12 and 13 points in their last two games, fortunate to have gone 1-1 during that stretch. Over the last three weeks, Cleveland is the only team to have a victory on the board after scoring that few of points. The last team that won with that low of a point total was the Giants back in Week 3, when they won 12-7 over…the Titans. In other words, Cleveland was lucky to scoot by with a victory in that sense last week, and if their offense is not better, even against the Titans, you’re going to have teams beating you.
• What can get better? Last week, one of the adjustments seems to have been getting Jerry Jeudy more involved in the game again. The running game also showed some progress, but ironically enough, many fans feel that was becauseQuinshon Judkins was out, and Jaleel McLaughlin was back. I’m not trying to be a Judkins hater by any means — like I’ve said multiple times, I thought he looked very sharp last year, and this year, I think he looks as pedestrian as you can get. Dylan Sampson might also return this week.
• Something is off that KC Concepcion is six games in, and has 186 yards receiving (average of 31 yards receiving per game). I go back to what I saw from him in training camp, and I know that was just training camp, but my takeaway multiple times was, ‘This guy is something special.’ And it’s also not like I say that about every receiver that comes through the team because I’m a homer. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that about a receiver in camp. And during the regular season, I think he’s looked the part still — it’s just, tying in with the rest of the offense, the production isn’t there yet.
• Harold Fannin, also, has 2 catches for 13 yards in the last two games. The Titans have defended tight ends fairly well this year, so I don’t know if there’s a breakout to be expected this week, but the young tight end needs to get involved more.
• Tennessee picked up their first win of the season last week, but their offense didn’t find themselves. They were shut out 13-0 at the half, then forced a fumble, got an interception (which both led to field goals), and then blocked a punt for a touchdown, to generate points. That should be a talking point for the Browns this week, but if they protect the ball and are diligent about special teams assignments like they’ve been, Tennessee’s offense shouldn’t beat them.
• According to FanDuel, the Browns are 1.5 point favorites against the Titans. The over/under is 37.5.

Quick Hitters

Offensive coordinator Travis Switzer was asked about getting his top two running backs returning this week:

Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, it’s obviously our top two backs. So, yeah, those two are a big part of what we do on offense, run and pass. And they’re also, we talked about this last week too, a little bit of a one-two punch, if you will, whatever you want to call it. They have different skill sets that we can utilize for both of them. So, yeah, having those guys back is going to be huge.

Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg talked about Emmanuel McNeil-Warren getting a lot of action last week after Grant Delpit exited early:

I mean, he did a great job in the game. Was excellent with his communication, was excellent with his assignments, and then you saw his playmaking ability come to life. But that goes back to him continuing to build his confidence. You saw it earlier in the year on special teams, playing really, really well on special teams, getting more opportunities on defense, playing really well in practice, and him transferring that to the game. And he’s going to continue going this way because of, number one, just who he is. He wants to be coached, he wants the information, he wants to be challenged, he wants to be told when it’s good, when it’s bad. And then you can see his play continuing to rise because of who he is.

Special teams coordinator Bryon Storer was asked about Corey Bojorquez not having his best game last week:

“Yeah, I mean, we didn’t think it was, he could have…He had more opportunities that he could have taken advantage of. It’s the minus, the two minus-45 kicks, where you’re like, we’ve got to have those balls inside the 20-yard line. And that’s what I told him after the game, looking at it, it’s like, ‘we’ve got to get the ball inside the 20 on those’, because if you get the ball inside the 20 on those, you’ve got four inside the 20 for the game. And you only gave up, I think it was like 7.5 yards per return, and so if you handled those punts better, you’re looking at the game completely differently. But we talked about it, and really just trying to keep the ball from going out of bounds so early, because you leave it up to the official to mark wherever he thinks it goes out. Now, I

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.