Jacoby Brissett having a career game against the Chargers is one bold prediction. What others could we see for the Browns on Sunday to bring a victory?
After the Cleveland Browns suffered a tough loss on the road last week against the Atlanta Falcons, they return home to play the Los Angeles Chargers this Sunday. While the Chargers and Browns enter the game with identical records at 2-2, the Chargers got some momentum last weekend as they got a road win against the Houston Texans.
Additional trouble for Cleveland is that they’ve had very little success the last couple of seasons when they’ve played Los Angeles, especially since they added quarterback Justin Herbert. Last season, the Browns went out west to play the Chargers and grabbed a big lead early but were stunned in the fourth quarter of that game, giving up 26 points late and losing 47-42.
Herbert went for 398 passing yards and four touchdowns. Cleveland’s secondary was exposed a year ago and it feels like that may happen again in this game. Before we go that far, let’s consider some bold predictions that could sway the victory pendulum the Browns’ way.
5 bold predictions for Browns vs. Chargers
No. 5: Kareem Hunt has his best game of the season
Prior to this season, Kareem Hunt made it known he wanted to sign a contract extension with the Browns, and when they didn’t do that, he went on to request a trade. Despite that attempt, Hunt has returned to the team and gotten off to a good start.
Through four games he’s already rushed for 200 yards and caught 11 passes for 73 yards. Those are solid for the former All-Pro, now in his sixth season.
He’s not gotten a lot of attention so far this season because teammate Nick Chubb has been having the best season of his career. Chubb has already rushed for 459 yards and collected five touchdowns. But that won’t stop the Browns from putting Hunt out there on the field.
Now, Hunt will get a chance against a team he has had a good history against. Last year when the team traveled out to Los Angeles, he went for 89 yards in total offense and had two touchdowns.
That type of afternoon may be on tap for Hunt in this one. The Browns just missed on a few screen passes and dump-offs to Hunt last week and that will be a big part of the game plan in this one.
No. 4: Browns secondary shuts down Chargers air attack
The Chargers lead the NFL in passing yards with 1,250 yards. For comparison’s sake, the Browns have 830 yards throwing the pigskin around the yard. Justin Herbert has already thrown for 10,600 yards and 78 touchdowns in only two-plus years, and this season alone, he’s averaging 312.5 yards per game.
Cleveland is currently ranked in the middle of the pack having given up 851 yards passing to the opponent’s quarterback. The Browns have been embarrassed a few times this season by giving up big passing plays. It also happened to them last year when they played the Chargers.
With all the spotlight and predictions on this very same thing happening for this game, it would certainly be a reversal of misfortune and help the Browns gain back some respectability if they shut down the Chargers’ passing game. Stranger things have happened in the NFL. If players like John Johnson III and Grant Delpit can step up and take away the deep passes and the team can get better lockdown cornerback play from Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome then they should walk away with the win.
No. 3: Ward picks off another pass
Ward secured his first interception of the season last week against the Falcons. He’s never had more than three interceptions in any given season of his NFL career but he just signed his new contract with the Browns this offseason so this would be a good time to step up his game and play even better.
He’s been burned a few times already this season on deep passes, but he made up for some of those mistakes when he intercepted a pass in this last game and gave the Browns a chance to get back into the contest.
The Chargers will be throwing that football all over the field on Sunday. Ward knows that and he should try to anticipate his next opportunity. Since we’re talking about being bold, when Ward grabs this interception, he’ll take it back for six, helping ignite the fans at FirstEnergy Stadium.
No. 2: Brissett throws for over 300 yards
Jacoby Brissett’s been in the NFL since 2016 and has only thrown for more than 300 yards five times in his career. This season he’s been creeping upwards as he recorded 234 yards passing in this last game. If he would have connected on any number of bad throws in the last few weeks, he would have surpassed 300 yards easily in any of his contests.
The Chargers don’t have the best passing defense as they’ve given up 959 yards already. If the Browns utilize their screen passing game to players like Kareem Hunt, while also reestablishing the connection between Brissett and Amari Cooper, then the Cleveland quarterback could earn his sixth 300-yard passing game.
While Cooper wasn’t able to help out much in the Browns passing attack this past week, they were still moving the chains a lot as Brissett got tight end David Njoku and wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones more involved in the offense.
One would have to think DPJ and Njoku will continue to be involved a lot in this matchup. DPJ had virtually fallen off the face of the planet before last weekend’s nice recovery where he caught five passes for 71 yards.
No. 1: Cade York wins it with a field goal
Cade York has had a nice start to his rookie campaign as he registered a game-winning 58-yard field goal in Week 1. He followed that magical moment up with some less-than-ideal marks. He missed an extra point at the end of the New York Jets game that would have kept the lead at 14 points rather than 13 points. The Jets made a historic comeback and won by a point.
He’s missed two extra point attempts but has been a perfect eight for eight on his field goals through four games this season.
There will likely be a lot of points scored in this game and York will have to be able to convert those extra points. It may come down to who has the ball last in this battle and if the Browns get to that midfield area again at the end, look for York to nail another big field goal to give them a walk-off win.
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