We are officially 4-1 for the first time in 16 years. We took care of business at home and dominated one of the worst teams in the league as good football teams do. Jayden was once again named Rookie of the Week and became the first quarterback in NFL history to record 1000 passing yards and 250 rushing yards in their first 5 career games. He took over the record for most quarterback rushing yards ever through 5 weeks and currently holds the most passing and rushing yards among all rookies, running backs included, this year. With stats like that, it is to no surprise the media has brought him into the MVP conversation. After last game, he once again dropped from +2500 to +1000 odds. Another big performance this weekend would knock his price down into the triple digits. We ended up pulling him at the beginning of the 4th quarter for being too good. Prior to this season, I could not tell you the last time we pulled our starters because we were winning by too much. After last game, we are a consensus top 10 team in the power rankings and sit at 2nd place in the conference leading up to the most anticipated match up the season.
Before getting into our performance, I must say I feel for the city of Cleveland. Deshaun Watson’s contract may be the worst contract in the history of professional sports. He is guaranteed $230 million dollars and is arguably the worst quarterback in the entire NFL. They are in a strait jacket for the next three years. Their position is unparalleled by any team in major sports. If they choose to cut him, they are giving up 10s of millions of dollars in cap room for the next three years. All they can do at this point is just keep him on the roster and hope the guy they are paying for eventually shows up again. It’s clear Stefanski wants to bench him but ownership won’t let it happen. Either way with him on or off the roster, the Browns are absolutely screwed until the contract expires. If I was Stefanski, I would be calling up New York begging them to get me the hell out of Cleveland.
I can’t believe our line to win was only 3.5 points. It is likely time to start betting against the Browns every single week until Deshaun gets benched. The crazy thing is they actually do have a good roster on paper. Their defense is a legit unit but it’s tough to do much when your offense goes three and out almost every single drive. This was a bad game for the “They haven’t played a good defense yet crowd.” It took a half of football for Jayden to shut them up. We could have very easily dropped 50 in if we kept our starters in and two plays went our way. Terry could’ve had a 2 touchdown, 130 yard game. He catches that ball in the corner of the end zone 9 times out of 10. Also, would have been awesome if he scored on the play Jayden channeled his inner Josh Allen throwing the bomb on the run.
It is truly so much fun watching and rooting for a duel threat quarterback who can make plays in so many different ways. A conversation came up watching Derek Carr on Monday night. Anytime he got pressured he either threw the ball straight at the ground or to the other team. With Jayden, we don’t have to deal with that anymore. I stated any game plan centered around limiting the impact of Myles Garrett was a good one for me. This past weekend was the second time in his career he did not record a single stat. Going back to the highlights, there are multiple plays he stormed into the backfield but our guy just ran away for positive yards every time. Bill Belichick stated on air that the best chance of stopping players like Jayden is to keep them in the pocket. To all opposing defenses, I wish them the best of luck.
It’s become a weekly thing to shoutout to the running backs and offensive line because of how good they’ve been so far. I found a stat comparing this offense to last years that blows my mind. In 17 games last year, we ran the ball 359 times for 1,592 yards and 14 touchdowns. In 5 games this year, we have ran the ball 168 times for 892 yards and 13 touchdowns. Within 5 games, we are already 1 touchdown away from tying last season’s total. I can’t believe I thought Eric Bienemy was some offensive guru and at one point actually wanted him to be our head coach. Everyone has bad takes but I think thats the worst one I’ve had in the past year of football. It’s very satisfying seeing how all of my bad takes so far this season are ones related to us not being a good football team. Like I said last blog, I love eating my words when it’s bad opinions about us.
Thanks to Deshaun, we are no longer statistically the worst defense in the league. For the second week in a row, we nearly doubled our season sack count getting to Deshaun 7 times and strip sacking him once. We would have had our first interception of the year if Quan Martin had been able to hang onto to the ball in the first quarter. It is worrisome knowing we don’t have a single interception this year. If there was ever a good opportunity to grab our first, this Sunday is the one. Frankie Luvu played like a Polynesian monster and received a much deserved game ball. Frankie gave a big shoutout to DQ and JD in interviews this week. It’s clear he is having a lot of fun in DC and wants to be around for the long haul. Of the 7 new starters on the defense, I think he has settled into being the best addition. It is amazing our linebackers went from David Mayo and Cody Barton to Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu. While talking linebackers, does anyone know the deal with Jamin Davis? I have a feeling his time in DC is coming to an end. Another performance to note was Emmanuel Forbes contributions in his return. He played a total of 4 snaps. With his abilities, he helps this team more from the bench than he does on the field. He can keep doing his handshakes as long as it’s from the sidelines. Love closing out a paragraph on the defense by mentioning two of Ron’s first round picks that have amounted to absolutely nothing.
We successfully navigated our way through the fraud watch game and now must look to this weekend. We are going down to Baltimore to face off against a consensus Super Bowl contender. The public is currently on the Ravens ML, our spread, and the over. I have gone down a rabbit hole known as the transitive property to convince myself 7 points is far too many. Let me explain. The Ravens lost to the Raiders who beat the Browns by 6 points. We beat the Browns by 21 points so technically we are 15 points better than the Raiders who beat the Ravens by 3 points. I’ll let you do the math.
The amount of hype this game is getting for a regular season out of conference matchup is unlike any game we’ve had in years. All the hype videos have been great to watch. Fox attempted to flex the game into the Sunday night slot but it was protected by CBS because they assumed all of America was just dying to watch the Bengals and Giants. At least I’ll be able to go to bed early because theres a slim chance I stay up for that one. We will end up being the most watched game at 1pm. It is the the new kid on the block against the two time MVP who can’t get past Patrick Mahomes. I expect their offense to give our defense a lot of issues. It will be a game similar to the Bengals. There will be a lot of points scored and it may come down to one mistake. Hollywood Joe played a perfect game besides one mistake in the 4th quarter which was all the Ravens needed to take it to overtime. Interceptions in the red zone are plays that lose you games against teams like this.
Our defense has started to look like a competent unit. Back to back weeks holding teams to 14 or less points is something I didn’t think we were capable of. It’s going to be a lot tougher handling the two running backs on Sunday. It’d be ideal if Lamar continues his inability to catch snaps. We’re gonna need all the breaks we can get. Derrick Henry will be the biggest problem our defense has seen this season. I would really not be surprised if he rushes for 200 yards and 3 touchdowns. If we can somehow find a way to limit him, then I think we actually have a very solid chance. After thinking of all the possibilities, the outcome that would upset me most is watching Mark Andrews catch 8 passes for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns. It’d be very on brand for his breakout game to come against us. That would be a blow to the new era narrative.
This will be the best defense we’ve played all year. Roquan in the middle worries me. He needs to stay far away from my quarterback. I don’t know who the Ravens use as a spy but I assume JD will be a lot faster than him. It is going to be really annoying watching Kyle Hamilton make plays against us. If any competent human was drafting for the past 4 years, he would be on the roster right now. It’s not like we could use an All-Pro safety on our roster anyways. Why would we need one of those? They are the number one rushing defense in the league holding teams to 60.4 yards per game. It should be fun to watch the trenches considering we have the second best rushing offense in the league. I just read a tweet stating BRob will be a game time decision. That would be a massive hit to our offense. If I had to take a guess, he’ll be playing. He got shot.
I have a thought in the back of my head that it is probably better kept off the blog for the time being. It has something to do with if we win this game. I am not going to say it because it is the definition of getting too ahead of myself. But, just know. There’s a very, very optimistic thought that could be put into writing next Friday depending on the outcome of the game. To be honest, even if we lose this game but put up a good fight, I will still be optimistic moving forward. For example, I can live with losing this game 31-38 and just not being able to stop Derrick Henry. It would be awesome if they laid an egg like their Raiders game. I am definitely rooting for another one of those performances from them. However, it seems like they finally realized giving the ball to their star running back can help them win games.
I was cold on the bets last week. The only prop I offered was the lock of the week mentioned 17 games a year. Other than that, it was all a bunch of losers. I emphasized caution on the over which did not hit. I will give give myself props for missing one pick in 2 of the 3 weeks leading up to this blog. The picks this week are Ekeler anytime (BRob if he plays), JD anytime, Ertz yards, and the over. It’s the number one and two highest scoring offenses in the league leading me to believe we may have a trap line on our hands. I know everything I stated earlier in the blog, but the idea of it being a trap just makes too much sense. However, I still fully advise everyone reading to fall for. it BRob/Ekeler and JD are all plus money and one of them will run it in when we make it down the goal line. The Ravens have given up the most yards to tight ends in the league so far this year and Zach’s line will close around 30. For these reasons, Ertz’s has also been chosen as the “He’s due” player of the week. Maybe, we’ll even see Sinnott catch his first regular season ball. Lastly, the most obvious pick; we will win the football game. No explanation needed.
We are going from playing one of the worst teams in the league to the best in a 7 day period. Back to back weeks of disrespectful gambling lines proves that Vegas doesn’t think we are for real. You would think 5 weeks was enough time for the line makers to realize. I was made aware a few days ago that I have Monday off work. So because I can afford to stay in bed hungover on Monday, I will be traveling down to Baltimore for the game. I will not be attending because I don’t want to pay $300, but I will be tailgating then walking over to one of the local bars. We haven’t won 5 games in a row since 2006.
It’s an opportunity that doesn’t come up often around these parts. It’d bring me a lot of satisfaction if we took advantage of it. Wishing everyone a great Friday and long weekend to those who acknowledge the day. Looking forward to writing back next Friday about our 5-1 football team.
Photo Credit: Nick Wass (AP Photo)