How the Browns Beat the Ravens

When the Cleveland Browns take on the Baltimore Ravens this week, there are areas on both sides of the ball the Browns can try to exploit to win this game.

The Cleveland Browns are opening the season at a disadvantage on the road against the Baltimore Ravens, but they can certainly win this game. It won't be easy, but the defense has done what's necessary in the past and Kevin Stefanski's offense has the ability to put pressure on some weak points in the Ravens defense.

When the Browns have the ball

The Baltimore Ravens have a veteran, proven defense with the exception of two areas - linebacker and free safety. L.J. Fort, yes, that L.J. Fort was fine for them last year, but this will be the first game of Patrick Queen's career. DeShon Elliott is in his second season, but played just 40 snaps in 2019 and is now tasked with replacing Earl Thomas, who was released by the team a few weeks ago.

The best thing the Browns can do is try to get Queen moving as much as possible by running the ball, particularly to the outside. If they are running double tight ends, it should provide them the opportunity to get to the perimeter and potentially put pressure on their corners to come up and tackle. 

Beyond that, if they can keep Queen moving to try to stop Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, that can get him off of his spot when defending the play action and attack behind him. This also should facilitate ways to isolate Elliott in coverage.

Both of these are potentially great avenues to get the ball to Austin Hooper. The Ravens may want to try to keep Chuck Clark on Hooper as much as possible, though they are still likely to want to jam him or reroute him first. This could also be an avenue to get David Njoku or Harrison Bryant into advantageous matchups.

The gameplan will likely build toward a situation where they can try to get Elliott matched up with Odell Beckham to create explosive plays.

All of this is dependent on the Browns interior being able to do enough to slow down Brandon Williams and Calais Campbell in the middle. Matthew Judon is certainly a threat against Jedrick Wills, but that's easier to compensate for than interior disruption, which could short circuit the offense the way the Kansas City Chiefs did against the Houston Texans.

When the Ravens have the ball

The Ravens offense is going to do as much as possible to test the Browns unproven linebackers. Their running game and the threat of Lamar Jackson keeping the ball can extremely difficult to play properly because of his speed and quickness. On top of that, the Ravens have Mark Andrews, who has shown to be an excellent tight end. It's unlikely the Browns will ever put their linebackers in a situation where they are isolated in coverage against Andrews, either having help or rerouting before passing off to the safety, it's another area to potentially exploit.

Meanwhile, the Browns have played the Ravens offense really well in large part because of the defensive line. The Ravens offensive line is worse than it was in 2019 because they no longer have Marshal Yanda at right guard. Matt Skura is a talented center, but the Ravens are potentially vulnerable at guard with Bradley Bozeman and D.J. Fluker.

With Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon, the Browns had them attack up the field and take away the ability for Jackson to get outside the pocket, containing him. The interior of the line is then tasked with either collapsing the pocket or penetrating gaps to make it so Jackson can't step up and run. Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi can be really effective in taking away the space for Jackson to step up and potentially put pressure on him. It's important that players to stay in their rush lanes, so they don't create a hole for Jackson to exploit.

Joe Woods may also dial up some blitzes to not only try to catch Jackson by surprise, but also speed up his clock and cause a mistake. Sending pressure into the B gap seems most likely to further put pressure on the Ravens guards.

If the Ravens are able to create seams for Jackson to run, he becomes incredibly difficult to defend, because he's then able to operate as a dual threat. If defenders in coverage are now trying to account for Jackson's legs, it's easy to have breakdowns happen and Jackson able to find open receivers, particularly down the field.

The Browns were able to force Jackson to have to beat them with his arm, where they are at a distinct advantage, which happened in the 40-25 victory last year. In the second, head coach Freddie Kitchens had unforgivable tactical blunders that handed the Ravens the game after the defense was great in the first half.

Expect the Browns to play almost exclusively in zone against the Ravens to make sure they can have as many eyes on Jackson as possible in case he does run. They run a heavy amount of Cover-3 already and this is one of the games they will probably utilize it the most.

Special Teams

The Ravens are traditionally one of the best teams in the league when it comes to special teams. John Harbaugh was a special teams coach himself and puts a significant emphasis on being excellent in that area of the game. Not only are they sound there, but they will go for some big plays with blocks and fakes. It also doesn't hurt that Justin Tucker is the best kicker in the league.

The Browns should be good on special teams. Mike Priefer is returning most every player the team brought in last year, plus they've got a better punt returner in Jojo Watson. Their coverage units were excellent last year and it's about consistency for Austin Seibert and Jamie Gillan entering their second seasons in the league.

If the Browns can simply draw even with the Ravens on this front, that would improve their chances to win the game.