Cleveland Browns Week 2 Predictions: Looking to stay undefeated
By Randy Gurzi
Writer: Matt McFatridge
Game: Cleveland Browns at New Orleans Saints
Summary: Week 1 was painful for Browns fans. While they did see their team overcome a 14 point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game, they were unable to capitalize on six Pittsburgh turnovers and had their game-winning kick blocked in the waning seconds of overtime.
Just not able to get over the hump, a sight all too familiar to fans of Cleveland. It was a sloppy game, albeit the weather didn’t help anything. Playing in monsoon-like conditions, Tyrod Taylor was unable to help his offense make Pittsburgh pay for their mistakes.
Week 1 was also quite painful for New Orleans Saints fans, who saw their team give up over 400 yards passing to a backup quarterback and lose 48-40 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Granted, Ryan Fitzpatrick has played for just about every team in the league up to this point in his career. He has just about seen it all to this point, but the showing from the Saints defense was enough to make NFL offensive coordinators with New Orleans on the schedule salivate.
In this matchup, you can fully expect better things from both these squads. Cleveland’s offense will have plenty of chances to score, and will welcome the opportunity to play in a dome. New Orlean’s defense will be licking their wounds, but will look to force issues with this offense while they still try to find cohesion as a unit.
I think the key to the game, however, will be how Cleveland’s defense matches up with New Orleans’ offense. That matchup pits Browns’ defensive coordinator Gregg Williams against his old boss in New Orleans Sean Payton. Williams was the defensive coordinator when Bountygate was in action, and caused Payton to miss the entire 2012 season for it happening under his watch.
Payton has obviously not forgotten, and probably never will, and appears to have held a grudge. The last time these two met in 2016, when Williams was the defensive coordinator for the Rams, his defense was torched, and they lost 49-21. Payton did everything he could to embarrass Williams, and you can bet he will try to do the same Sunday when they square off again. While this Browns defense is much more skilled than that Rams defense of 2016, Drew Brees will still be able to have his way in this one.
Next. Williams vs. Payton, a grudge match. dark
The Browns keep it close for a bit, but eventually, Brees and Payton will exploit this young defense.
Final Score: New Orleans defeats Cleveland 41-21