Both suffered season ending injuries in last week’s win over the St. Louis Rams. Their last game was a 30-9 blowout at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 10.
Advertisement
Though the Ravens surrendered 457 passing yards to the Browns in Week 5, their defense has bounced back and been tough against the pass in recent games.
The victory in Baltimore was McCown’s best game of the season on multiple fronts.
The injuries to the offensive line could be most troubling to Schaub. In their last game, Browns won 33-30 in overtime.
Cleveland is now a one point favorite over Baltimore. It’s also the first game where the Ravens won’t have running back Justin Forsett and more importantly quarterback Joe Flacco. If the Ravens are forced to rely heavily on the arm of Schaub, they will lose.
This was going to be Manziel’s coming-out party – on Monday Night Football.
Cleveland is a 3-point favorite and gets our call. Matthew Stevens of Ravens blog Baltimore Beatdown, and Chris Pokorny, executive editor of Browns blog Dawgs By Nature, strap on the pads and butt heads over which team will cover the spread Thursday: Baltimore or Cleveland? However, he’s very knowledgeable and good at reading defenses. Despite the lack of a marquee pass rush threat – Elvis Dumervil still has only 4.5 sacks as the season enters its homestretch – the Ravens have 25 sacks from 13 different players.
Forsett wasn’t playing almost as well this season than he did in the 2014 season, as this season, Forsett totaled 641 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, 31 receptions, and 151 receiving yards.
That will once again be the key to getting a win this week.
The Browns have been good at limiting tight ends from a yardage standpoint but have been vulnerable in the red zone.
With the Ravens unable to start anyone on the field without the seemingly increasing risk of an injured reserve designation, the Monday’s game has all the definition of a toss up.
Suitably jilted, the Browns responded with discipline that surely makes them the first team in National Football League history to change quarterbacks twice during its bye week.
Our take: On paper, the Browns might hold the edge in several positions as a result of Ravens injuries. “It’s all about effort, guys doing their job and sticking together as one”.
That means James Hurst will likely be the starting blindside protector in this game.
On what the Browns did during the bye week to address issues with the run defense: “Went back looked at – we always go back, it’s a weekly thing of building the cutup of the negative runs, why did they happen”.
In that game, Baltimore fielded just four starters on offense and defense from the 2013 Super Bowl winning team: quarterback Joe Flacco, left guard Keleche Osemele, right guard Marshal Yanda and outside linebacker Courtney Upshaw, and had just 12 players overall from that roster.
There’s no question Allen is going to be the X-factor of this game. McCown doesn’t expect to match those numbers on Monday night, but he hopes to put up solid numbers and help lead his team to a sweep against a division rival.
Despite all of this, this is a divisional rivalry between two hated franchises that would love nothing more than to inflict more misery onto the other’s already miserable season.
Advertisement
During the Ravens’ slump, Upshaw’s play had come under public criticism, leaving Harbaugh especially happy about the former Eufaula High School standout’s big play. Despite Baltimore’s problems, the Ravens still have more in the tank than their hosts as they continue to play in close games week after week.
