Might be a tight one

For starters, a few facts regarding the Browns' Sunday night game in the New Jersey Meadowlands against the New York Giants , , , 

The Browns have put together a pair of four-game winning streaks this season. Prima facie fact. In each case, that streak was snapped by an AFC North opponent (Pittsburgh and Baltimore last Monday night). 

The Browns have also lost four football games of the 13 they have played. Prima facie fact. Of the first three losses, they have come back to win the very next game. Also a prima facie fact. Number four arrives Sunday night on national television against the Giants.

The Giants lost their first five games of the season. Prima facie fact. Then lost two of their next three to fall out of sight in the NFC East. 

Then they woke up, won four straight, including one of the season's most stunning upsets in Seattle, to almost miraculously climb back into the race for first place in that embarrassingly awful division. Prima facie fact.

Nine of the Giants' 13 games have been decided by eight points or less. They are 4-5 in those games. Prima facie facts. 

One last prima facie fact: The Browns' defense in the last three games has allowed 107 points while winning two of the three. That computes to nearly 36 points a game. 

Given all those facts, the bottom line reveals the Giants at 5-8 are confoundingly hard to figure out. Just when you think the Browns can safely put this one in the victory column before even playing the game, what the Giants did in Seattle makes you think.

The Browns run the football as well as any team in the National Football League. The Giants' strength on defense is against the run. A stingy 100 yards a game. Ergo, a trench battle looms. Maybe.

In last Monday night's loss to Baltimore, the same situation arose and head coach/playcaller Kevin Stefanski chose to turn Baker Mayfield loose and he came damn near close to avenging the opening-game drubbing against the Ravens with a strong passing performance.

Now the question is whether Stefanski, whose love of the ground game knows no boundaries, will unshackle Mayfield again against the Giants, who lost James Bradberry, their best cornerback, to COVID-19. Rookie Darnay Holmes draws the start.

The battered back seven of the Cleveland defense should, at least on paper, have it a bit easier this week. Ostensibly getting Denzel Ward back helps immensely. It became obvious he was missed the last three games.

The struggling Giants' offense has scored more than 23 points in a game just once this season -- 34 in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys. It is one of the more anemic offenses the Browns will face this season. (They'll see an even worse one a week from Sunday, staying over in New Jersey to play the New York Jets.)

When running back Saquon Barkley went down with an ACL early in week two, that pretty much caused the Giants to change their overall philosophy somewhat, placing more emphasis on defense. It has worked. 

That defense has been good enough to keep games close enough to compete late in games. It has permitted the opposition to score more than 26 points in a game only twice. The Browns, on the other hand, have scored at least 32 points in seven of their 13 games. They look at good defenses and sneer.

With Myles Garrett showing signs of coming out of his COVID-19 problems and Olivier Vernon putting together his best season since 2016 and eager to play against his ex-teammates, the Cleveland pass rush against a harried Giants offensive line (41 sacks) should make if difficult for whoever opens up at quarterback for the Giants.

Daniel Jones, nursing hamstring and ankle injuries, is questionable, which means 34-year-old Colt McCoy is being readied to start. The ex-Brown, drafted by Cleveland way back in 2010, has become sort of an NFL vagabond since then, suiting up for San Francisco,Washington and now the Giants. He was under center in the Seattle upset in his only start this season.

In a delicious piece of irony, Freddie Kitchens will call the plays for the Giants in the absence of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who has contracted the coronavirus. The ex-Browns head coach is now the tight ends coach for the Giants. 

The Ravens last week pretty much held the Cleveland ground game in check, limiting Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt to 115 yards (although they combined for three touchdowns), Mayfield shredding the Baltimore secondary in the second half.

Even though right guard Wyatt Teller will miss this one with an ankle injury -- he can't seem to stay healthy --  methinks Stefanski returns to his first love, the ground game with Mayfield occasionally sprinkling in a few passes to keep the Giants honest.

This one won't be high-scoring, though. I'm kinda buying into the Giants' defense being active enough to make it interesting and the Cleveland defense rebounding from two bad weeks to handle the Giants' offense no matter who gets the starting call. Could be a field-goal game. Make it:

Browns 23, Giants 17