Experience wins out

If the Browns harbor any notions of knocking off the Tennessee Titans Sunday in Nashville, they must play a near-perfect football game. 

It is that simple.

That is what it is going to take. Anything less will not be good enough in what genuinely qualifies as the club's most important game of the 2020 season.

The number of signature games this franchise has played since reentering the National Football League in 1999 can be counted on one hand. This is one of them. Never before since that season have the Browns been in a position to play a game with this much importance.

They have never been a heady (for them) 8-3 entering week 12 in that period. Looking down in the standings at two teams in the AFC North and finally being taken seriously is definitely foreign territory.

The Browns had earlier opportunities this season to win important games against Baltimore in the season opener and Pittsburgh in week six and failed in embarrassing fashion each time, casting doubt whether they ready to be relevant. 

Playing one of the softest schedules in the NFL, however, has factored heavily in the current record. The difference this season is the Browns are beating the teams they should instead of losing and winding up in the North basement perennially.

Browns Nation, whose patience has been severely tested time and again during the last two decades, has dreamed of this moment. What makes this one different than the Baltimore and Pittsburgh games, though, is the month in which it is being played.

December games in the NFL is big boy football. Every game counts, Every series counts. Every snap counts. Winning takes on significantly greater importance. 

What exactly is a signature win? It is a victory against a team that is better than you and should beat you especially at this time of the season and especially in a game that carries so much importance. In this case, it elevates the winning team to a status that has eluded them for a very long time.

The Titans qualify. They are veterans of the signature game, joining the Steelers, Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC. They went to the conference championship game last season against the Chiefs. They have been down this road before and clearly have the edge on experience against the Browns.

As a result of their 8-3 start, the Browns have leaped to relevant status around the league after all those years of being nothing more than a punching bag and an afterthought. A victory over the favored Titans changes all that and elevates them into genuine contender territory.

Sunday, we will all find out whether they are good enough and ready enough to take that big step up and produce that signature victory. They owe the Titans payback for the 43-13 thrashing they delivered the Browns in the 2019 season opener that set the tone for the rest of the ill-fated 6-10 season.

They will face a Titans team that resembles them in many more ways than their 8-3 records. Both teams have dynamite running attacks, quarterbacks who do not throw the football to the opposition with any regularity, solid offensive lines and mediocre at best defenses. The Browns amazingly have allowed only one more point than the Tennessee defense this season.

Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt of the Browns, both en route to 1,000-yard seasons, are the best running tandem in the NFL. Period. Derrick Henry of the Titans is well on his way to repeating as the league's top rusher, averaging 114 yards a game with 12 touchdowns.

Chubb, who has averaged 128 yards a game since returning from the injured list three games ago, and Henry will get their yards in this one. That's a given. The key to this one lies in the performances by the two quarterbacks.

Ryan Tannehill ofd the Titans is not the same mediocre quarterback who played in Miami for six seasons. Since replacing Marcus Mariota last season, he is 15-6 with 45 touchdown passes and only 10 interceptions, just four this season. 

Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, on the other hand, has produced only 17 scoring passes this season in Kevin Stefanski's button-down offense, but hasn't thrown an interception since the second play of the second Cincinnati victory in week seven. He has gone a career-best 292 minutes and 27 seconds (19-plus quarters) since throwing the pick that ended Odell Beckham Jr.'s season.

The offensive line has been the best friend of both quarterbacks. Mayfield, probably because Stefanski has him rolling out more this season, has been sacked only 17 times in 11 games. Tannehill has been dropped just 15 times.

Tannehill will have a slight edge with better and healthier wide receivers. A.J. Brown and Corey Davis are big-play receivers who have produced 82 receptions for 1,257 yards and 11 touchdowns and will pose a big problem for the injury-riddled Cleveland secondary. 

However, he will not have the services of tight end Jonnu Smith, who injured his ankle last week. Smith is one of his go-to guys in the red one, hooking up with him for seven touchdowns. Anthony Firkser will get most of his reps.

With KhaDarel Hodge and Taywan Taylor out with injuries, the Browns are now down to Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins and Donovan Peoples-Jones as the top three wides. From a strategic standpoint, it wouldn't surprise to see Stefanski employ three tight ends and just one wideout quite a bit to enhance the ground game.

Defensively, the Cleveland pass rush will be decidedly better with the return of Myles Garrett, who sat out two games with COVID-19. That gives the Browns, who have booked 27 sacks this season, a slight edge over the Titans, who have only 14. Garrett will line up mostly against David Quessenberry, the Titans' third offensive left tackle this season due to injuries.

If defensive coordinator Joe Woods in his game plan decides to blitz to cover some areas of weakness, he should be aware Tannehill is one of the top quarterbacks in the league at handling that aspect of the game.

Overall, the Browns must play their best game of the season. In order to win, they must be smart and not beat themselves. Anything less than that will end their three-game winning streak and give momentary slight pause to thoughts of playing in the postseason for the first time since 2002. 

After considering all the elements of this game, its extreme importance at the head of the list, the Browns' time is coming. Just not now. The Titans have been through this before. That is the deciding factor. Experience is the main difference. That will change eventually. For right now, though, make it:

Titans 35, Browns 27