Cleveland Browns schedule: How do they fare against the NFC South matchups?
Week 10: Cleveland Browns vs. Atlanta Falcons
An early November matchup with the Atlanta Falcons comes right before the week 11 bye for Cleveland. This matchup could very well make or break the season. Going into the bye week with a win could spark something special the last half of the season, while a loss could lead to another disappointing year and bring more changes to northeast Ohio, just not pleasant ones this time.
Atlanta comes off a season in which they were a few plays away from winning the NFC South. The offense struggled to live up to the expectations built after their record-setting offense in 2016 under former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, current head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Steve Sarkisian was often the man blamed for the 2017 struggles of Matt Ryan and the disappearing act of Julio Jones in the red zone.
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Truth be told, however, Ryan was the biggest reason for Atlanta’s decline in 2018, often forcing the issue with passes that shouldn’t be made. That led to games against weaker opponents being much closer than they should be and forcing the defense to step up big time.
The playmakers on Atlanta’s defense will make the week 10 matchup with the Cleveland Browns a very interesting one.
At this point in the season, the Browns will know what they have in both quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor and rookie first overall pick Baker Mayfield. If Taylor or the team is struggling, Hue Jackson may feel pressured to let Mayfield see some action.
Doing so right before the bye week would make sense, even if it would be against one of the better pass rushing defensive lines they’ll face this year. The only way Mayfield will learn is to get experience in live game action.
Regardless if Taylor or Mayfield is seeing action at quarterback, Atlanta provides some unique challenges. If Cleveland wants to prove they are really taking a step forward, however, this would be the time and team to do it against.
Atlanta made improvement in the offseason, but Cleveland made more improvements. Look for this matchup to be a sneaky good game, with Cleveland giving the home fans something to cheer about with their new playmakers in the secondary forcing Ryan into making a few too many mistakes to recover from.
Prediction: Browns win 24-20