The Cleveland Browns have plenty of areas to improve on in their Week 11 game against the Buffalo Bills and if they do, they might pull off the upset
The news just dropped that the Cleveland Browns will be playing the Buffalo Bills on Sunday in Detroit. The two teams were scheduled to battle in the snow up in Buffalo, but the NFL decided to move the game due to the storm.
Buffalo was already an 8.5-point favorite in this matchup and the line now has moved to 9.5 since the game will be played in a domed stadium. Clearly, being indoors gives one of the best teams in the league an even better chance to score points on one of the worst defenses in the league.
The Browns were picked apart a week ago down in Miami when they played the Dolphins. They were able to move the ball at will and crushed the Browns morale along the way. Can Cleveland regain any respectability this season and will that start in Detroit?
It doesn’t look like a favorable matchup as the Browns face one of the best offenses in the league. Stranger things have happened though in this rich NFL, so stay tuned. Here are three areas that if the Browns make an effort to improve on, they may give themselves a chance at a win.
3 areas the Cleveland Browns need to improve on immediately in Week 11
No. 3: The defense
It’s gotten very bad this season for the Browns defense.
The biggest issue comes down to a visible lack of effort. There are countless plays throughout the season that have that show numerous players on defense giving up on plays or trying to tackle players with terrible techniques. The defense, in general, is simply bad.
They’re giving up a ton of points every week and haven’t corrected much this season to counter the poor play. They’ve given up more than 30 points in four games already. In those games, they’ve been run over with teams racking up the yardage. They gave up 491 yards a week ago to the Dolphins which included 195 rushing yards.
With defensive players such as Myles Garrett, Jadeveon Clowney, Denzel Ward, and John Johnson III one would expect to see some better production. We just got word on Friday that cornerback Greg Newsome suffered a concussion in practice, so he’ll be sidelined on Sunday. His absence will hurt the team’s chances in secondary. The backside of the unit is already a mess.
A year ago, this team’s defense was considered a top-10 defense by the end of the season. However, they’ve fallen off that ranking in a big way in 2022. How they turn things around at this point is a mystery.
Adding to the issue, are team leaders Garrett and Johnson who continue to try and throw their team under the bus with their comments to the press periodically. Garrett recently discussed how their team wasn’t prepared to play the Dolphins and that Miami knew almost every move that the defense was going to make ahead of time.
Myles Garrett said that he was shocked at how detailed the Dolphins plan of attack for the Browns was. Said it was specifically tailored to them and the exact things they do. Said it was like the Dolphins knew what adjustments were coming and exploited every facet of the game.
— Hayden Grove (@H_Grove) November 18, 2022
The bellyaching and pointing fingers at each other could really take a rest as the team flounders. If they can try and play better together on Sunday maybe, they can pull off the upset over the Bills.
No. 2: The run game
This next improvement might seem a bit out of the ordinary because the running game seems to be one of the strengths of this team. They’ve had one of the best running backs in the game with Nick Chubb and they’ve had a reliable second option in Kareem Hunt. However, the team’s run game has come to a halt in recent weeks. They’ve been outrun in five of the last six games.
Opposing teams are stocking the box and forcing the Browns to try and beat them in the passing game. But is Cleveland abandoning the run game too soon in many of these matchups? They might just be. While the idea that the team can create more space for their run game by throwing first isn’t the wrong move, maybe it’s time to reevaluate where that’s got their team so far this season.
This isn’t an idea that is suggesting that Chubb needs to be handed the ball 30 times in a game. He’s never carried the ball more than 28 times in a game but once, but it does suggest that Chubb be a more consistent presence on the field.
The other part of the run game improvement comes with the offensive linemen doing a better job in their run-blocking techniques. There continue to be mistakes made by the linemen where they pick up unnecessary penalties which set this team backward. Taking a more focused effort by the offense to win the battles at the line need to take priority as this season moves into the final stretch
. Who wants to win the battle more in the trenches? Right now, the Browns are losing these battles and the run game has suffered.
No. 1: Playing a complete game
The Cleveland Browns have played plenty of games this season where they’ve been able to hang with their opponents in the first half but then have faltered down the stretch and lost games. The battle against the Dolphins last week was a relatively close first half but that disintegrated in the second half.
Back in Week 7, Cleveland stuck with the Baltimore Ravens in the first half and then let the game slip away after the break.
In the first half of the season, it was of the Browns taking leads but then squandering them late as they did in both the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers games. They were bailed out in the Week 1 showdown with Carolina when rookie kicker Cade York hit a 58-yard game-winning field goal.
They weren’t as lucky against the Jets who pulled off a late win or the Falcons, who also won it in the end. They also had a shot to upset Baltimore in the final minutes, only to let another opportunity slip through their fingers.
With all that being said, Cleveland has struggled to put forth a full 60-minuted performance this season. Time is running out on them in 2022 but they can still find something positive, especially if they learn how to play until the final whistle.
3 reasons the Cleveland Browns can beat the Buffalo Bills
The Cleveland Browns take on the Buffalo Bills in Week 11 and while it won't be easy, there are reasons to have hope they can pull off a win