Bengals Keys: Change the Narrative
Credit: Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Cincinnati Bengals are coming off a 17-7 win against the New York Giants, giving them their precious two victories out of their last three games. They will now hit the road to face the Cleveland Browns, who are arguably one of the NFL’s worst teams this season. It’s the second divisional game of the year for Cincinnati, and Joe Burrow and company will look to take home their first divisional win of the year after falling at home to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 5.
What are the keys to victory for the Bengals to defeat the struggling Browns?
Rinse and Repeat Last Week’s Defense
The Bengals’ defense did an exceptional job at containing Daniel Jones last Sunday night. They limited the Giants’ signal caller to exactly five yards per passing attempt and zero touchdowns. Jones’ meager production, in addition to the first-quarter interception he threw, led to him putting up a dreadful 57.5 passer rating. A big reason for this was Jones’ occasional ineptitude, which was heavily aided by the fact that he did not have WR1 Malik Nabers to throw to, nor RB1 Devin Singletary in his backfield.
The Browns are in an eerily similar situation.
Deshaun Watson has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league in 2024. Among qualifying quarterbacks, he has the worst QBR (21.7), the second-worst passer rating among quarterbacks who have started six games (76.6), and has taken 11 more sacks (31) than any QB in the league. To make matters worse, he has third-fewest yards per attempt (5.0) among qualifying quarterbacks, and the two people below him (Mason Rudolph and Bryce Young) are no longer starters.
While we’re on the topic of “no longer,” Watson no longer has his top target Amari Cooper, who has departed for the broken folding table capital of the world.
Josh Allen and Amari Cooper already have chemistry 😊 pic.twitter.com/UldaXLqSPG
— . (@GoatPoint30) October 15, 2024
With Cooper no longer in the mix, Watson has a deeply depleted receiver corps headlined by Jerry Jeudy, who is the only pass-catcher currently on the Browns’ roster with at least 100 receiving yards on the season. He has 248 yards, ranking 56th in the NFL.
Essentially, all the Bengals need to do is take their Week 6 game plan of pressuring Daniel Jones and repeat it for Watson. Watson performs worse, has a worse receiver corps, and plays behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. It should work. It has to work.
Ride Chase Brown
Chase Brown has begun to set himself apart from Zack Moss, who was the RB1 to begin the season. He has been the more agile and explosive running back of the two, and he has a prime opportunity as the hot hand to go off against Cleveland’s below-average run defense, which ranks in the bottom half of the league in rush yards and yards per carry allowed. The Browns are tied for the third-most rushing touchdowns allowed and are tied for the most 20-plus yard rushes allowed.
“I think we’ll be able to run the ball well on Sunday. I like the run game plan,” Burrow said. “We’ll see how it plays out. We’ll be ready to drop back 50 times if we need to just like always, but [it would] be nice to have a big-time game on the ground.”
Involving Brown would give the Bengals a major advantage in terms of dominating the clock and keeping the Browns’ defense on the field. It would also give the team as a whole the opportunity to see what the agile running back is capable of in a bell-cow role.
Change A Bunch of Narratives
Listen, the Browns are bad. They are also about to get worse now that Cooper is no longer in the mix.
However, since the beginning of the Baker Mayfield era in Cleveland in 2018, the Browns somehow hold a 9-3 record against the Bengals, including a 6-0 record in Cleveland. Even with the Bengals winning two out of their last three and Cleveland crumbling to the ground by losing their last four games, the Bengals must take this history into account.
“It’s terrible,” defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said of the Bengals’ record in Cleveland. “I made everybody aware of it this morning in our defensive meeting room that we have yet to get on the bus happy. They are aware of what that building presents, what that team presents to us and the challenges. We have to step it up and do better.”
The last time these two teams squared off on the road, it was a deadly concoction of two of the Bengals’ kryptonites: Week 1 games, and playing the Browns. The result was an ugly, rain-soaked 24-3 loss in which the Bengals had 142 total yards of offense. However, Cincinnati is now on the mend after their early season slide, and the Browns are going from bad to worse. The Bengals not only have a very good opportunity to change the course of history, but they can give Browns fans nothing to say on Sunday except “Hey, at least we’re getting a new stadium!”
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