Cleveland Browns: Keys to a victory over the Patriots

The Cleveland Browns will have their hands full on Sunday when they host the New England Patriots. What must they do to pull off the upset?

Sunday afternoon’s game is not the ideal matchup for the winless Cleveland Browns, as they play host to a hungry 3-1 New England Patriots team. While Browns fans have been anticipating their first win in each of the last three weeks, the Patriots have circled this game, as it marks the return of star quarterback Tom Brady.

The bad news for the Browns though is that since 2003, the Patriots are 38-6 in the regular season following a loss. It seems as if there could not be a worse time to run into Bill Belichick and the Patriots than right now. To make matters worse, the Browns have lost eight out of their last ten meetings with the Patriots since 1999.

Regardless, the game will take place on Sunday. It will still be sixty minutes long, it will still begin scoreless, and the Browns have still developed a game plan coming in with the intention of winning. As much of underdogs as Cleveland may be, this game serves as an opportunity for the Browns to pull an upset of epic proportions.

In order to even give themselves a chance to do this though, they need to play a sound game, get major contributions from many players and possibly a little luck along the way. The following are five keys to the game that the team must follow to keep themselves in this lopsided matchup.