Breezing in Jersey

The following rant was posted before news was received that the Browns would play Sunday's game against the New York Jets Sunday minus their top four wide receivers and two linebackers, all placed on the COVID-19 reserve list Saturday. Please check out the updated rant.

Kevin Stefanski has faced -- and successfully handled -- numerous road blocks as a rookie head coach in the National Football League. 

It is not easy in your first year as a head coach at any level, let alone the top one, to conquer the impediments thrown his way during the pandemic and emerge surprisingly victorious. 

That he owns a 10-4 record --  easily the best of the three rookies in this season's coaching class -- and on the verge of taking the Browns to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years is somewhat of a miracle considering those impediments.

Such as no OTAs, no minicamps, no in-person access to the players, severely curtailed training camp, no exhibition games and new programs and philosophies to install on either side of the football. All successfully negotiated.

And yet, there lies at least one more obstacle to conquer. Despite the 10-4 record, the Browns have yet to clinch an invitation to the postseason. That could come as early as Sunday in the Meadowlands of New Jersey against the New York Jets, who drag a shiny one-game winning streak into the game.

Therein lies the next hurdle for Stefanski to clear. Until last Sunday, the Jets seriously threatened to match the Browns' embarrassing 0-16 season in 2017 by losing their first 13 games before stunning the 9-4 Los Angeles Rams on the road in the upset of the season in the NFL.

That said, this one should be a walkover for the Browns. The Jets can't match their talent. They are bad on both sides of the football. The Browns know this could be their easiest game this season. Even easier than their victory over the New York Giants on the same field last Sunday.

So how does Stefanski convince his men this will not be a walkover? That the Jets are, indeed, capable of winning this game? By showing them tapes over and over and over again of the Jets' victory over the Rams, pounding home the notion the Rams most likely were caught either looking ahead to the next game (against division rival Seattle Sunday) or flat out not taking them seriously. 

The Browns can ill afford to stumble and fall into that trap. Not with the postseason so agonizingly close to becoming reality. Way too much is at stake to misjudge the importance of this game, where every possession, every snap takes on significant importance.

There is no question thus far this team plays hard for its coach. There is not one game, not even the early-season blowouts by Baltimore and Pittsburgh, where the Browns have slackened to the point of mailing it in. That is to the coach's credit.

Stefanski appears to have firm control of his team's psyche. And Sunday, that will be put to its severest test of the season against a team that has absolutely nothing to lose. Mindful in many ways of most of Browns teams late in the season in the last two decades. 

The Jets have lived down to their abysmal record with an offense that averages an anemic 16 first downs and 271 yards a game, scored just 21 touchdowns and averages 14.7 points a game, and a defense that gives up 24 first downs on the average and nearly 400 yards a contest, allowed 47 touchdowns and yielded 29.5 points a game. The defense is on the field 33 minutes a game.

Sam Darnold, who  missed four games earlier this season with a shoulder injury, is the unfortunate quarterback (victim?) of the Jets' offense. In half of his his 10 starts, they have scored 10 of fewer points. He has thrown only six touchdown passes and been picked off nine times.

One would think then the Browns' secondary, fortified last Sunday by the return of cornerback Denzel Ward, might feast on Darnold''s erratic behavior when dropping back to throw. It should be noted, though, he's got two pretty good receivers in Jamison Crowder and ex-Brown Breshad Perriman, who have combined for 75 receptions and eight touchdowns. 

The Browns should dominate in the the trenches on both sides. The Jets' offensive line has permitted 38 sacks (Darnold 30 times), while the Cleveland offensive line has been stingy all season while protecting Baker Mayfield.

The Jets have surrendered only 113 yards a game on the ground, but that's because opposing quarterbacks have bombed them for 280 yards a game. Why run the football when it's so much easier to move the ball through the air?

The Browns' offense is versatile and capable enough to rough up the NewYork defense either way. Maybe both if that side of the ball arrives with the right mind-set. It is entirely possible Stefanski chooses to feature the ground game in this one, especially since Quinnen Williams, the Jets' best defensive lineman by far, is done for the season.

His main goal, however, is to make certain what happened out in Los Angeles last Sunday is not repeated Sunday in Jersey. The Jets, for whatever it might be worth, will be coming in on a season high emotionally. 

Adding up all the stats, this one should be a breeze for the Browns with Mayfield continuing his torrid pace in the second half of the season and Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt grinding their way toward 1,000-yard seasons. Don't get too worried, though, if the Jets take an early lead. They have done so eight times this season, including the last six straight. This one will be easy. Make it:

Browns 32, Jets 16