Cleveland Browns: Keys to victory against Bengals

Contain the rushing attack

A three-headed rushing attack that the Bengals will come in with presents Cleveland with a major dilemma. While the run defense has vastly improved under new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, they haven’t yet faced the likes of Jeremy Hill, Giovani Bernard and Joe Mixon.

The Browns did hold Le’Veon Bell to 32 yards on ten carries in the opener, but he was visibly not the same. The past two weeks, the Browns did not need to deal with elite running backs, and didn’t have the Cincinnati offensive line opposing them either.

The good news is, the Browns know that stopping the run is the key to this game defensively. Cincinnati struggles with pass protection, and quarterback Andy Dalton has just a 69.6 quarterback rating in the team’s first three contests. With this in mind, as well as the fact that the Browns have improved their pass rush, a heavy dose of rushing can be anticipated early on in this contest.

The Browns need to get Cincinnati into third-down-and-long situations to put as much pressure as possible on Dalton. Stopping the run is how the Browns will be able to do this.