The bad injury news for the Browns is that Karl Joseph, Ronnie Harrison, Wyatt Teller, and Jacob Phillips are all ruled out.
And that IS bad news vs the Steelers especially:
Rodney Redwinefield is one of the next men up (which is good), but the silly-ass petitioners lobbying for Gramps Sendejo's removal will be disappointed (no offense you clowns).
Moffat is a 2020 UFA, and that's all we got left at Safety DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
The good news (from the injury report) is that OBJ looks a-ok, while David DeCastro and WR Diontae Johnson are also out.
Landry, Ogunjobi, and Vernon are questionable. My inner fan wants to call this good news, but my inner analyst is neutral:
The Browns' coverage suckdom at Safety BEFORE Joseph and Harrison went down was pretty extreme, and Big Ben can't wait to throw Smith-Schuster, Washington, and Claypool into that massive breach in the Browns' secondary.
With Mitchell and Ward, Joe Woods can play press/man outside (until one of them also gets injured anyway) on the outside WRs (the Steelers don't have a Njoku or Hunt).
This is good, but the 3 healthy Stoolers’ Wide Receivers are bad, as ANY of them can line up in the slot, and also go deep.
I'm sorry, Browns fans, but this is a terrible matchup for the homies receiver-wise with Big Ben at QB. They will go intermediate and deep between the hash marks all game long, because Sendejo sucks, and Harrison is out.
On the OTHER hand, the Steelers' Offense will no doubt zero in on stifling Myles Garrett even more than they would normally, while Larry Ogunjobi and Olivier Vernon will probably be there, along with Porter Gustin, Adrian Clayborne, and Jordan Elliott;
The Browns can put heat on Big Ben, and blow runs up in the backfield:
I keep telling you people, Myles Garrett can stunt (or line up) inside. Vernon can stand up and cover, or stunt inside himself.
BS aside, a “run blitze” is really just any inside blitze, and Big Ben aint exactly Micheal Vick or Lamar Jackson here, so...
The Steelers’ running backs are physical, and not good when chased outside (or nailed in the backfield btw).
Joe Woods is as aware of his Defense’s weaknesses as Tomlin and company are, and I expect him to blitze inside a lot to blow up runs and deprive Big Ben of time to throw deep.
If he doesn’t do this, he is a blockhead.
The Squealers’ Defense is more vulnerable to the pass than to the run:
I’m much more confident that Comrade Stefanski will open the Offense up somewhat this sunday (than I am that Joe Woods will adapt his impaired Defense to this opponent).
I expect lots of dink-passes (including screens).
Two Tight Ends can slow the Edge rush, but the Stoolers are happy with that, since Baker Mayfield has been HORRIBLE vs inside pressure this season, and isn’t a major run threat outside.
Expect even more of those long, looping rollouts that I’ve described in pervious Blogs.
The Defense can expect this, but not when it will happen, and then not if Mayfield will curl forward to his left or right.
Mayfield’s Offensive line does know, so these big uglies can (ah screw it read previous posts if you don’t get this already!)
Err...you get that this works off play-action (from under center or pistol) right?
While the Squealers’ Offense is going to give the Browns’ Defense hell, the Stoolers Defense hasn’t faced this Offense yet.
I hereby predict that the first team to score has a 50% chance of winning, the team whose Defense surrenders the most points has an 87.5% chance of losing, and that whichever team that scores more points will win.
You can quote me on this. I HAVE SPOKEN.
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