Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints looking to adapt to conditions
BEREA — The subject of a domed stadium in Cleveland, for obvious reasons, came up this week to Browns All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio.
Bitonio, being an offensive lineman through and through, was not a fan of the idea.
“I like the elements,” Bitonio said. “It adds a little different. When you’re playing a dome with 68 or 70 [degrees] every time, it’s perfect conditions and I feel like football’s an imperfect game. I know there’s some people that want, oh, the high-powered offense, you want to see the talent play, but sometimes it’s cool to have a little snow. I mean, we didn’t have that much of it last game (against Baltimore). The snow was falling. What was better than that? You’re out there just playing football, and it just reminds me of things you think about when you’re a kid and stuff. So for me personally I like playing outdoors.”
One can check in with Bitonio around 4 p.m. Saturday to see if his mind’s been changed. By that point, he and his Browns teammates will have spent three hours playing the New Orleans Saints in what is expected to be minus-20 wind chills and 40-plus mph winds.
Whether Bitonio and his teammates enjoy the actual elements they’ll be playing in remains in doubt. However, the kind of game Saturday’s contest turns into may be just the type that warms the hearts of offensive linemen such as Bitonio.
It’s not the cold itself that could turn the game into a figurative “roll-up-your-sleeve” running duel between the Browns and Saints. The winds, though, could make things quite difficult to throw the football downfield with accuracy.
“We will adjust and adapt to conditions,” offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said. “It is what it is. We are fortunate to get to play in it being from up here and facing a team from the south. We like that. If it is one of those days that you can’t even take a shotgun snap because the wind is blowing too hard, we will adjust and adapt.
“I think we have a good plan going in and contingency plans if it is one of those days where you just can’t really do anything but get under center and run the ball. We are ready for that. If we get lucky and it is not as windy as they are calling for, we are ready for that.”
The Browns certainly are equipped on offense to turn things into an old-school ground-and-pound football game. Nick Chubb, the league’s No. 3-ranked rusher, was cleared to play on Thursday after having missed the first two practices of the week due to a foot injury.
There was more good news to help that running game going into Saturday. Center Ethan Pocic, who was playing at a very high level prior to a Nov. 20 knee injury that sent him to the injured reserve list, was activated Friday morning to restore the Browns offensive line to full strength.
All of that comes on the heels of last Saturday’s game against the Ravens in which the Browns running game got back to it’s top-five-in-the-league form. Cleveland ran for 143 yards, including 99 yards by Chubb, against Baltimore’s No. 2-ranked rush defense.
“It felt good,” Chubb said earlier this week. “I thought our O-line blocked amazing all night. Our outside receivers blocked well, too. They worked hard all week for us to get back where we are as a running team. I thought we did some great things on the ground.”
Going against a Saints defense ranked 23rd against the run, such a game plan would’ve been a sound approach in perfect weather conditions. That’s exactly what New Orleans played in last Sunday in a home game inside the Caesars Superdome, yet it allowed the Atlanta Falcons to run for 231 yards in a 21-18 Saints win.
Of course, New Orleans ran for 134 yards in that game, its best rushing performance since a Week 8 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. That total is 0.9 yards behind the 133.1 yards-per-game average the Browns’ 24th-ranked rush defense — which did allow Atlanta to run for 202 yards in a Week 4 loss — is allowing a game.