Cleveland Browns look to sweep Battle of Ohio vs. surging Bengals

On Dec 11, 2022

Cleveland Browns cornerbacks Greg Newsome II (20) and Martin Emerson Jr. (23) celebrate during the win over the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium.

CINCINNATI − Winning a game in the NFL is a challenge. Even great teams will tell you beating a bad team isn’t easy.

Beating a team twice in one season only adds to the degree of difficulty. Beating a team that is playing its best football at this time provides one more factor to make it even more of a challenge.

All of that is what faces the Browns (5-7) on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. They’re not just trying to sweep the Bengals for the third consecutive season, they’re trying to do so as Cincinnati (8-4) is, yet again, finding its late-season stride.

“I mean it’s tough,” All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett said. “You come back a little bit differently. The first 15 is going to be different. They’re always going to have different plans for us, especially defensively. But I mean you can’t change who you are, you can’t change your DNA, what you’re good at. So just being able to, you know, weather the storm of the new plans they have for us, being able to attack them where we know they’re weak at.”

Garrett has been huge in doing just that for the Browns when the opponent has been Cincinnati, which has lost five in a row to Cleveland. The last time the Browns played the Bengals, back in Week 8 on Halloween, he had 1.5 of Cleveland’s five sacks in a 32-13 win.

That was only part of the formula that led to success for the Browns. They also ran for 172 yards, Jacoby Brissett completed an efficient 17-of-23 passes for 278 yards and forced a pair of turnovers − a first-drive interception and a second-quarter fumble − by Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.

However, so much has changed for both teams since the last day of October. It’s not just their record, either.

Both teams had a number of players who weren’t on the field the first time around. Cincinnati was missing star receiver Ja’Marr Chase due to a hip injury, while the Browns were without right guard Wyatt Teller, tight end David Njoku, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and cornerback Denzel Ward.

While all of those players are back this time around, the biggest new face on the field will be the Browns’ quarterback. Deshaun Watson returned from his 11-game suspension in last week’s win at Houston, completing 12-of-22 passes for 131 yards and an interception.

Watson has spoken this week of still battling the rust which accumulated over 700 days of not playing in a regular-season NFL game. However, he also spoke of a belief that the second time out will be better than the first one.

“Because I was able to get the feel of the game and the speed of the game and how defenses adjust, how we going to be able to adjust at the same time,” Watson said. “It’s my first time in a live action with (coach) Kevin (Stefanski), so he’s gotta feel how I feel. I gotta feel how he feels and we gotta be able to work on the same page and see the same thing through the same lenses. So it was fun to be out there, excited that we got the team win and we’re looking forward to try to get another one this week.”

The problem the Browns may have is their own loss of a star receiver. Amari Cooper is listed as questionable by the team due to a hip injury he sustained late in Thursday’s practice.

Cooper had a season-high 131 yards on five catches the first time the two Ohio teams met. If he can’t go, that only puts more strain on Watson to find a rhythm with the likes of Donovan Peoples-Jones, Njoku and David Bell.

“I just let the game come to me,” Watson said. “So if it allows me to make plays with my feet and my legs then I’m gonna do that. If I need to sit in the pocket and make the throws, I’m gonna do that. So I can’t go into a game thinking I’m gonna do one more than the other. I just gotta let the game come to me so we can try to be successful.”