The Browns look to string some wins together this week in a battle against Justin Fields and the Bears
The Chicago Bears are coming to town this weekend, and the Cleveland Browns are looking to carry over some of the success from their win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in week 14.
Though the team had suffered more bad news with injuries this week, the determination and resiliency they’ve shown despite this happening all year is incredible. Cleveland has truly embraced the “next man up” philosophy and have shown that they’re refusing to back down from any challenge.
Despite the Chicago Bears being able to find an offensive spark as of late, they still show a few big weaknesses each week.
The Bears can’t stop teams from scoring in the red zone
This Chicago defense has been allowing teams to score touchdowns on 75% of their red zone drives this year, which is currently ranked dead last in the league.
Yes, the Bears are very good when it comes to stopping the run, but it seems as though that’s the only thing that they’re consistently above average at. They allow teams to easily move the ball downfield through the air, and it somehow appears to get even easier for offenses when they get past Chicago’s 20-yard line. Needless to say, that’s the exact opposite way that it should work.
Chicago’s offensive line still can’t protect Justin Fields
Fields was sacked 55 times in 2022 which was the most in the NFL. This season, he’s on a 17-game pace to be sacked 60.5 times. Though the Bears’ offensive line looks fairly decent on paper, they just can’t seem to get it together right now.
Rookie offensive tackle Darnell Wright has been struggling a lot this season. He’s committed 10 penalties and allowed 6 sacks in 13 starts so far, which rank 3rd and 11th most in the league amongst starting offensive tackles.
The Bears’ secondary has been terrible this season
As I mentioned earlier, for whatever reason this Bears secondary (despite having some very talented players) has been getting taken advantage of all season long. They’re allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 67.6% of their passes, and throw for 230.9 passing yards per game which is good for 29th and 23rd in the NFL, respectively.
Something that could also be attributed to this lack of overall pass defense is the fact that they haven’t gotten any help in the pass rush department until very recently. Even with the acquisition of Montez Sweat in October, they’re still only sacking the quarterback on 4.3% of snaps which is also currently ranked dead last as well.
What’s your score prediction for the Bears game on Sunday? Join fellow Browns fans in the comment section below.
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