At 6-3, the Cleveland Browns are now tied with the team they blew out 31-10 for first place in the division, though the Pittsburgh Steelers are on fire and are almost guaranteed to get their seventh win of the season when they face the New York Jets this week. The Browns clearly had a much more difficult Week 10 matchup, but they pretty much made the Cincinnati Bengals look like the Jets, and Andy Dalton certainly earned himself some Geno Smith comparisons after a truly putrid performance that was one of the worst in recent memory.
Before the game, I highlighted stopping Bengals No. 2 wide receiver Mohamed Sanu as a key to victory, and the Browns definitely made good on that. After getting roundly beaten by rookie Mike Evans in Week 9, No. 2 cornerback Buster Skrine tightened things up against the Bengals on Thursday night, though he did get plenty of help from Dalton, who completed just 10 of 33 passes for 86 yards and three interceptions.
Factory of Sadness
Below are some more numbers from the Browns impressive TNF victory, and there’s an unsurprising focus on the team’s stout defense.
1. After a bit of an up-and-down start to the season, former Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Paul Kruger has come on strong for the Browns in recent weeks, and he saved his best performance for their critical, intrastate rivalry game. Kruger mortified former Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Marshall Newhouse in front of national audience, exposing the Bengals weakest link in front of Dalton to the tune of a QB hit and four pressure, per the Pro Football Focus. Kruger vs. Newhouse is always going to be a huge mis-match, and Kruger did what needed to be done by taking full advantage of it.
2. Kruger was the most consistent pass rusher on the Browns, but it was the steady Desmond Bryant who picked up the most big plays, recording two sacks and six tackles to fill up the stat sheet. Bryant now has three sacks on the season, and I think he’s bound to get hot as the season continues.
3. So how about Skrine, huh? He led the Browns with three passes defended, and that’s impressive considering that superstar CB Joe Haden defended two passes, and K’Waun Williams added two PDs. Both Skrine and Williams really turned it around in Week 10, and Haden, of course, more than held his own against Green, winning yet another marquee WR-CB battle.
That said, Skrine was the true star of the night and deserved to take home the figurative “Game Ball”, as Dalton was just 2-9 , per PFF, when throwing it into Skrine’s coverage, and those nine targets went for a measly ten yards. He was simply fantastic in coverage, and he managed to come up with two of Dalton’s three interceptions, but I still think the coverage stats are even more impressive than the ball skills. He played a huge role in stopping Sanu, and he clearly rose to the challenge with a lot riding on that WR2-CB2 matchup with Haden and Green locked in a duel. Like Haden, Skrine won his matchup.
4. Brian Hoyer was 3-6 for 63 yards on deep passes, averaging 10.5 yards per target on such throws, and he targeted Travis Benjamin three times and Gary Barnidge twice on those passes. Barnidge turned both targets into 46 yards on two catches in a surprise performance, and he also gave the Browns some credible blocking.
5. The Cleveland Browns are going to continue to use their three-headed monster in a committee before rolling with the hot hand, and it looks like they are favoring Towson rookie Terrance West the most after once making him a healthy scratch this year. None of the three running backs averaged four yards per carry, but West did get 26 attempts and was six yards shy of triple-digit rushing yards. The Browns racked up 170 yards on the ground, compared to 198 yards through the air, as they ran the ball a whopping 52 times compared to just 23 pass attempts.
6. Hoyer didn’t throw the ball often, but he was efficient in his usual game manager role when asked to throw. He completed a little over 65% of his passes, averaging a very efficient 8.6 yards per attempt. Per Advanced Football Analytics, Hoyer finished with a game-high in “Expected Points Added”, and he continues to do what is asked for him. He made the Bengals defense look bad in coverage, and he did a nice job of working without top weapons Jordan Cameron and Andrew Hawkins. That can’t be ignored, and the Browns have built a winning formula behind a tough defense, a deep and steady rushing attack, and an efficient passing attack that doesn’t need “wow” throws.
7. With three receptions for 46 yards on five targets, Travis Benjamin provided some of the playmaking with Hawkins and Cameron out, but it was veteran wide receiver Miles Austin who may have played the most important role in replacing Hawkins, as he did a nice job of moving the chains for the Browns offense. Austin, who has 31 receptions this season, caught five passes for 48 yards on six targets. While he averaged less than ten yards per reception compared to Benjamin’s average of over 15, Austin led the team in receiving yards and did a nice job against whoever the Bengals threw at him in coverage (including former teammate Terence Newman).
8. Dalton tried to connect on some deep shots with the game getting out of hand, but the Browns literally didn’t let anything get past them. On deep passes, Dalton was 0-8, as he was o-3 when throwing it to A.J. Green and 0-3 when throwing it to Mohamed Sanu on deep throws.
9. How good was the Cleveland Browns secondary and how bad was Dalton on TNF? Well, the Browns defended 13 passes as a team, which means they had more PDs than Dalton had completions (ten).
10. The Bengals averaged 2.6 yards per play, while the Browns averaged 4.9. 130 total plays were run in this game, so if both teams were given 65 apiece, the Browns would have outgained the Bengals 318.5 to 169 in an even setting. Their matchup clearly wasn’t an even setting, as the Browns ran way more plays and outgained their opponents 368-165.