Week 7 Preview and How the Browns Will Win

This week’s opponent – New Orleans Saints

Like we here at DPD and the national media as a whole have discussed ad nauseum this week, a certain former Texas Longhorn played much better than most would have suspected last weekend in Pittsburgh.  Can Colt McCoy keep it up this week?  Who honestly knows, but it will surely provide a nice story either way this weekend.

The Browns will head on down to Louisiana and square off against last year’s Super Bowl winners, the New Orleans Saints, who have been somewhat inconsistent so far this season.  The good news for the Browns is that the Saints will likely be without top RB Pierre Thomas, and back-up RB Reggie Bush. All this really doesn’t matter because the Saints will have QB Drew Brees and his assortment of receivers.  If the Saints do look to run the ball it’s probable that that responsibility will fall squarely on the shoulders of rookie RB Chris Ivory.

On defense the Saints runs a base 4-3 defense, and are ranked as one top of the defenses this season, with just over 301 yards allowed per game.

So what exactly will the Browns have to do in order to be partying on Bourbon Street, celebrating a victory this Sunday? For starters a repeat performance by Colt McCoy wouldn’t hurt, though he will have to find the end-zone earlier and more frequently.

Peyton Hillis will also have to return to his pre-Steelers game form.  And I feel like I’m beating a dead horse with this point, but for heaven’s sake Brian Robiskie, get open! Tight ends Ben Watson and Evan Moore have proven to be reliable targets so far this season, but it’s far too easy for opposing defenses to key onto them; the wide receiver play needs to improve for this offense to get to the next level.

Consider this little fact (those of you who get sick easily may want to stop reading): the Browns only have two WRs with more than 150 yards receiving – Chansi Stuckey and Josh Cribbs.