Dolphins at Browns : Will This Be The First Win?

Coming into the season, this was one of the games I had penciled as a win for Miami. I expected Cleveland to a be an improved team, but I think that they have performed better so far than anyone could have imagined.

The Browns got off to a rough start to the season as they got absolutely crushed by the Steelers in week 1. They followed that by trading their starting quarterback (Charlie Frye) to Seattle and things were looking pretty bleak at that point.

But Cleveland has bounced back very nicely after that. Derek Anderson took over for Frye and the team has responded. The Browns have beaten the Bengals and the Ravens, they basically beat the Raiders if it wasn’t for that dumb time-out call and they kept it closer than any team has been able to do against New England.

So yes, the Browns are anything but an automatic victory anymore and this will be a tough game for us by the looks of it.

Keys on offense :

After a slow start, Ronnie Brown has been tearing it up and he’s currently fourth in the league in rushing. It’s obvious that Ronnie needs to be involved a lot in the offense for us to win and hopefully they’ll keep feeding him the ball.

Ronnie’s our best player on offense, he’s the workhorse, he’s the guy the offense needs to be built around and he’s showing what he can do when given the chance. Brown becomes even more valuable when you consider that Cleveland’s offense has been one of the league’s best so far and that by running it and controlling the clock we can keep them off of the field.

Besides another strong rushing performance from Ronnie, we’ll need a mistake free game from Cleo Lemon. Lemon doesn’t need to go out and put up Peyton Manning type numbers, but he must make smart decisions and avoid turnovers.

Keys on defense :

The Browns are ranked 5th in the league in passing yards per game, 6th in total yards per game and they’re averaging an impressive 25.2 points per game. Miami has great numbers against the pass this year but that is deceiving since teams have been basically running at will against us.

The key then becomes to put pressure on Derek Anderson. Anderson has a much improved offensive line in front of him and he’s got great playmakers in Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards.

If Anderson has all day to stand back there and throw, things will get ugly very quickly. The front seven needs to put pressure on Anderson to disrupt his timing and to make him release the ball before he wants to. Anderson has made some bad decisions at times this year and if the defense can pressure him enough, he will throw a few up for grabs.

We’ll obviously have to play better against the run but guys like Winslow and Edwards could wreak havoc on our secondary. Pressuring Anderson will take some of that pressure off of the secondary and keep us in the game.

Outlook :

This team has its back against the wall so it wouldn’t surprise me if they come out firing and finally get that first win of the season. But it will be our second road game in a row, we’re starting a different quarterback and the Browns have a tough offense to slow down.

It would be great if Ted Ginn could make some sort of impact in his return to Ohio and it would be just as wonderful to see coach Cameron get his first win. It will be a close game but I’m biased and I’m saying that this will be the week that we break through.