Browns play Bengals tough, I'm sorry to say. They don't seem to care if we have Burrow, Chase, Higgins, Boyd, Mixon. Browns have beat Bengals with Smash Mouth football. They hit us with Chubb and the other good RB's they have and they pound us in the trenches with their O Line and D Line. They play a rough Defense on us. Browns are all over our Dink Pass stuff and short pass stuff. Browns have Chubb and other RBs, but Browns have hit long passes on Bengals more than on other teams, Mayfield or whoever, and Watson will be no different. So it's a good mix of Smash Mouth with Chubb, and also long bombs air game.

Week One at Cleveland is no easy game. Cleveland will be out to punch Bengals in the nose. Plus Browns do a lot of pushing and shoving after the plays that refs never call. These teams don't like each other.

Starting the season at The Dawg Pound in Battle of Ohio means Bengals better be ready. Browns have beat Bengals a lot lately with Smash Mouth Football, and also hitting some wide open deep passes. They usually have a tough D, but their offense is like the 1950's or 1960's Browns of good tough RB's but the ability to throw the ball.

I hope Bengals win, but since Browns have been winning most of the Bengals vs Browns games lately, Bengals will have to be on their game to get out of Cleveland with a win.

Anybody that says Bengals will win easy, I hope so myself, but past games with Browns tell me this will be one hard Week One game for both teams. Browns love to hit Bengals in the nose and play Smash Mouth. Their O coaches love that they have a stable of RBs to go with Chubb.

A tough game right off the bat. I'm rooting for Bengals, but no way I would bet money on this one.

As always though, GO BENGALS. Can they win at Cleveland ? Yes. A hard rival game on the road though. Bengals better knock the rust off in preseason, and be ready for Dawg Pound Home Opener.

In 2021 when Bengals went Super Bowl, the worst Bengals looked that year was the first Browns game. Coach Taylor went pass happy never even trying to use Mixon. The Browns countered by being all over Bengals pass catchers and throwing Burrow on his rear end. One of the worst coached games ever as Coach Taylor tried to play Touch Football as Browns played Tackle Football. However Coach Taylor learned from that beating, and used the run more on way to Super Bowl. You can't try to play flag football or touch football with The Browns, they will pound you into the turf. If you do not mix the run with the pass against Browns, and try to pass every play, that's a good way to lose and a good way to lose your star quarterback for many games.

The Bengals will be ready. It will be a close game, but I think we prevail in the end. The Browns on paper are tougher than in reality. They seem to screw something up and let the opposing team win.

I think it's different now with Watson under center. They want to transition to more of a passing team. Which IMO is good news for the Bengals as Chubb seemed to kill us for the last several years.

Kind of hard to say how the game will go down. It's a long way away. I]m sure the coaches will have the team ready to play. Let's get thru TC first.

Would think the Browns try to soften the Bengals up with Chubb and then start challenging the safeties to see if they're up to speed.

Not worried though because Burrow broke that ice finally. Believe the Bengals will have a great game plan and destroy the Browns this rip.

Every year it's the same thing. "The Browns have to s of talent and this is the year they take the division." Meh, I'll believe it when I see it. Right now, it's Cincy and the Ratbirds, the other two are competing for 4th in the North.

I think the afc north is going to be very good this season. I think a lot of people don't realize how good the steelers were down the stretch last year and the Ravens just don't lose many games during the season. The Browns might have the biggest swing of any team in the NFL depending on QB play. I'm not really excited to play the Browns week 1 at least this far out mainly due to how they play us and the game being in Cleveland. I'm just hoping for a full off season for the offense. I really think they will need to be able to carry a lot more of the weight this year because I think the defense will be down at least compared to what we've grown accustomed to the last two seasons.

(07-09-2023, 11:14 AM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: I think the afc north is going to be very good this season. I think a lot of people don't realize how good the steelers were down the stretch last year and the Ravens just don't lose many games during the season. The Browns might have the biggest swing of any team in the NFL depending on QB play. I'm not really excited to play the Browns week 1 at least this far out mainly due to how they play us and the game being in Cleveland. I'm just hoping for a full off season for the offense. I really think they will need to be able to carry a lot more of the weight this year because I think the defense will be down at least compared to what we've grown accustomed to the last two seasons.

Believe the AFC North will be super strong this season as well. Think the steelers and the Ravens made great off seasons additions personally and of course the Browns have been loaded with talent and feature a great RB and a good QB too. 

That being said the Bengals are loaded as well plus feature an incredible leader at QB. If the O-line does its thing finally this year like we suspect it will. Then the  Bengals will be a steamroller that's tough to stop for any team and will still remain the King of the North. 

The North is going to be crazy strong but let's not sleep on the Bengals and their coaches. Will probably be the last year we keep this coaching staff together unfortunately and definitely some of our favorite players will have to be released to pay Joe as well. Enjoy every second of it. 

This is our year ! 

(07-09-2023, 09:14 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Every year it's the same thing. "The Browns have to s of talent and this is the year they take the division." Meh, I'll believe it when I see it. Right now, it's Cincy and the Ratbirds, the other two are competing for 4th in the North.

Agree

2019 watch out the Browns have added all these players they're a hot pick for Superbowl. They finished 6-10

2020 on boy this is the year, they got bounced

2021 oh they got Clowney now they're gonna clobber everybody. 8-9

2023 here comes Watson - LOOKOUT 7-10

Wake me up when they actually do something.

(07-08-2023, 08:39 AM)kevin Wrote: Browns play Bengals tough, I'm sorry to say. They don't seem to care if we have Burrow, Chase, Higgins, Boyd, Mixon. Browns have beat Bengals with Smash Mouth football. They hit us with Chubb and the other good RB's they have and they pound us in the trenches with their O Line and D Line. They play a rough Defense on us. Browns are all over our Dink Pass stuff and short pass stuff. Browns have Chubb and other RBs, but Browns have hit long passes on Bengals more than on other teams, Mayfield or whoever, and Watson will be no different. So it's a good mix of Smash Mouth with Chubb, and also long bombs air game.

Week One at Cleveland is no easy game. Cleveland will be out to punch Bengals in the nose. Plus Browns do a lot of pushing and shoving after the plays that refs never call. These teams don't like each other.

Starting the season at The Dawg Pound in Battle of Ohio means Bengals better be ready. Browns have beat Bengals a lot lately with Smash Mouth Football, and also hitting some wide open deep passes. They usually have a tough D, but their offense is like the 1950's or 1960's Browns of good tough RB's but the ability to throw the ball.

I hope Bengals win, but since Browns have been winning most of the Bengals vs Browns games lately, Bengals will have to be on their game to get out of Cleveland with a win.

Anybody that says Bengals will win easy, I hope so myself, but past games with Browns tell me this will be one hard Week One game for both teams. Browns love to hit Bengals in the nose and play Smash Mouth. Their O coaches love that they have a stable of RBs to go with Chubb.

A tough game right off the bat. I'm rooting for Bengals, but no way I would bet money on this one.

As always though, GO BENGALS. Can they win at Cleveland ? Yes. A hard rival game on the road though. Bengals better knock the rust off in preseason, and be ready for Dawg Pound Home Opener.

In 2021 when Bengals went Super Bowl, the worst Bengals looked that year was the first Browns game. Coach Taylor went pass happy never even trying to use Mixon. The Browns countered by being all over Bengals pass catchers and throwing Burrow on his rear end. One of the worst coached games ever as Coach Taylor tried to play Touch Football as Browns played Tackle Football. However Coach Taylor learned from that beating, and used the run more on way to Super Bowl. You can't try to play flag football or touch football with The Browns, they will pound you into the turf. If you do not mix the run with the pass against Browns, and try to pass every play, that's a good way to lose and a good way to lose your star quarterback for many games.

In that game with Cleveland we drove it down the field to the 1 but Joe threw a 99 yard interception to Denzel Ward.

We then took it 9 plays and 75 yards to score. Mixon carried 4 of the 9 plays and a 11 yard TD run for the score. Then Cleveland went and scored on a drive.

Cincy stalls the next drive and misses on a 4th and 3 at the Cleveland 40. Should have punted but Joe made the wrong call with an ill advised deep throw on 4th to Tee. First play Baker hits a 1 play TD pass. Cleveland 21-7.

Next series Chase fumbles on the fifth play on our 39. Cleveland kicks a FG it’s 24-7.

Next series 2 of the first 3 plays Mixon runs for 1 & 21 yards and later Perine 1. So down 24-7 we run 3 of the ten plays resulting in a FG. End of half.

Our first series of the second half Mixon carries first play and on the second play we get a first down on 11 yard pass to Mixon. Drive stalls after sack. Cleveland goes and scores it’s now 31-10 and then Burrow throws an INT. They kick a FG it’s 34-10.

Don’t know about running the ball getting down like that, yet Taylor still ran the ball down 24-7 on 2 of the first 3 plays in route to a FG.

If we could run the ball like Cleveland we would. That’s exactly what they want us to do. But when you have 3 turnovers to 0 and 5 sacks that’s your story. We did run it only 23 times and throw 42 but I think it was the nature of our early large deficit. We need to play our game and limit turnovers. Protecting Burrow is always the most important thing against Cleveland and stopping their run game.

(07-09-2023, 09:14 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Every year it's the same thing. "The Browns have to s of talent and this is the year they take the division." Meh, I'll believe it when I see it. Right now, it's Cincy and the Ratbirds, the other two are competing for 4th in the North.

This has to do with bengals not division,  we have lost 5 in a row in Cleveland and we have been slow starters out of gate, no way Watson went  from top 5 to bottom QB , he is going to be better this year, Browns have a good shot as continuing home dominance against us. Coin flip 1st game.

(07-09-2023, 02:27 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: This has to do with bengals not division,  we have lost 5 in a row in Cleveland and we have been slow starters out of gate, no way Watson went  from top 5 to bottom QB , he is going to be better this year, Browns have a good shot as continuing home dominance against us. Coin flip 1st game.

I think game wise Deshaun is still rusty.


Dawgs by nature:
PFF is not always positive on the Browns, as noted in their power rankings before the offseason moves began, but generally sees the team very positively. Many discard their grades towards Cleveland as biased so when they have a negative spin on things, we take notice.

In their simulation of the 2023 NFL season, PFF has the Browns win total at 7.96. Compared to Draft Kings, which set the total at 9.5, PFF is pretty low on Cleveland’s hopes in 2023. Their projections have them last in the AFC North once again with Cincinnati (11.36) with the highest total in the league, Pittsburgh at a surprising 9.19 and Baltimore coming in third (8.57).

I just don’t think Cleveland despite their recent success against us matches up well with us. Their run game slipped a tad last year and we can stop the run. Their receiving corp is average. The bottom line is it will be our first game with 2 new safeties and an OL that I bet doesn’t get a lot of preseason work.

(07-09-2023, 03:20 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: I think game wise Deshaun is still rusty.


Dawgs by nature:
PFF is not always positive on the Browns, as noted in their power rankings before the offseason moves began, but generally sees the team very positively. Many discard their grades towards Cleveland as biased so when they have a negative spin on things, we take notice.

In their simulation of the 2023 NFL season, PFF has the Browns win total at 7.96. Compared to Draft Kings, which set the total at 9.5, PFF is pretty low on Cleveland’s hopes in 2023. Their projections have them last in the AFC North once again with Cincinnati (11.36) with the highest total in the league, Pittsburgh at a surprising 9.19 and Baltimore coming in third (8.57).

I just don’t think Cleveland despite their recent success against us matches up well with us. Their run game slipped a tad last year and we can stop the run. Their receiving corp is average. The bottom line is it will be our first game with 2 new safeties and an OL that I bet doesn’t get a lot of preseason work.

That Steelers over under isn't that surprising. Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. They'll be right in that ballpark at worst. Baltimore had been crushed by injury the past few years. If that happens again Pittsburgh could very well be right on our heels.

(07-09-2023, 03:32 PM)jason Wrote: That Steelers over under isn't that surprising. Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. They'll be right in that ballpark at worst. Baltimore had been crushed by injury the past few years. If that happens again Pittsburgh could very well be right on our heels.

Mike Tomlin is better at constructing a team and preparing a team than he is on Gameday IMO. But I’m not sold on Picket. I think both them and the Browns hover around 8-9 games. Baltimore I think made a great choice with Monken as OC. But Lamar has played in only 2/3 of their games the last 2 seasons. I look for the Ratbirds to be around 10 games. I look for us to win 13.

(07-09-2023, 03:48 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: Mike Tomlin is better at constructing a team and preparing a team than he is on Gameday IMO. But I’m not sold on Picket. I think both them and the Browns hover around 8-9 games. Baltimore I think made a great choice with Monken as OC. But Lamar has played in only 2/3 of their games the last 2 seasons. I look for the Ratbirds to be around 10 games. I look for us to win 13.

That's pretty much how I see it. The Ravens are the only real threat.

(07-09-2023, 08:45 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: That's pretty much how I see it. The Ravens are the only real threat.

Well our health is a factor as it is for all teams. But I feel so much more confident in the full roster. It was awful when Zac took over. There were some good but aged players that were too used to losing and didn’t really buy in. The offense bought in more than the defense. Tyler Boyd and Joe Mixon liked the direction and the possibilities.

But now it’s on par with everybody but Philly and SF. If the OL can really perform and protect we have 4 dynamic receivers ( counting Smith). Good luck matching up. And I don’t care about the naysayers I listened to Zac speak to Solomon Wilcots about how good Joe Mixon was in the passing game. PFF confirms it. He’s got fabulous hands and if they can protect there are 5 players that can break huge runs.

Safety is the only question mark. But I think that Hendrickson and Hubbard get rotated out more and our pass rush much better with Ossai and Murphy subbing.

Note that in the second game we throttled the Stains offense and on our side while Garrett got a pair of sacks he did not disrupt the entire offense like happened in the first game. We also had a big running day on the Stains the second time out and with Brown we are actually better equipped to do it again.

I am dreading this game. I am being forced to watch with a bunch of Browns fans who have nothing to lose. Going to suck.

**** the Browns

Count me as one of the guys that thinks we lose this game. We always struggle with the Browns and it seems like we have started slow the last couple years.

That being said - last year could have been Joe's surgery and vastly reshuffled O-line.

The Browns are a poor matchup for us for some reason.