Browns Vs. Saints: Expectations and Predictions

The Cleveland Browns face off against the New Orleans Saints in an hour. Last weeks game against the Steelers, as well as all the ups and downs of the Josh Gordon case, make previewing this game very difficult. The terrible Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson situations also put the sport in perspective of it’s priority in life, low.

Yet today’s games will be a reprieve from all of that. We get to actually enjoy the sport instead of having to deal with all the junk from the sport. Sports are supposed to be fun so I will be mostly ignoring all of the talk of Rice and Peterson, as well as Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald. Not because they are not important, I am glad a national audience will be forced to deal with these issues today, but because I have and will deal with them outside of the game time.

As for the game these are my expectations, in bullet form for simplicity of reading, going into today’s game of Browns Vs. Saints:

I expect the Browns to be a run heavy offense with great plays off of play action.
I expect the Browns to use play action early, 1st or second play, or a “trick play” to not throw a wrench into the Saints defensive plan.
I expect the Browns defense to clamp down on the Saints today, with rookie Justin Gilbert making a big play.
I expect the Saints to score on one blown coverage.
I expect the Saints to score on a special teams or defensive return.
I expect Terrance West will be bottled up a bit more than last week, while Isaiah Crowell gets closer to an even number of carries.
I expect a deep pass to either Andrew Hawkins or Travis Benjamin, possibly on one of those first plays, to excite the crowd.
I don’t expect Johnny Manziel to play more than 2 or 3 plays, if any.
I expect a big run by one of the Saints backs, after a missed tackle near the line of scrimmage.
I expect Brian Hoyer to throw his first interception in about 100 pass attempts.
I expect a few of my expectations to fail.