DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Upcoming Schedules

Just wanted to throw this out there...
It's fun to look at the schedules of the Browns and the Bengals as we are 2 games behind them. Look into your crystal ball and how do you see this playing out (of course, this is the assumption that our current QB plays each game)?

Browns-
BYE
At Bengals
Home vs Steelers
Home vs Jags
At Patriots
Home vs Bears
At Jets
At Steelers

Bengals-
At Ravens
Home vs Browns
BYE
At Chargers
Home vs Colts
At Steelers
Home vs Vikings
Home vs Ravens

Bengals have 4 remaining at home, including 3 of the last 4. Browns have 4 remaining on the road, including 3 of the last 4.

Predictions?
Bengals appear to have more challenging opponents (maybe?). We get Pit twice, they get Balt twice. We have to play at NE, they have to play at SD. NE is better, but traveling to SD is harder. They have the Colts at home, we have the Bears (probably with a healthy Jay Cutler). Both quality opponents.

Second half of the season is going to be interesting....Can we make up a 2-game deficit with these schedules?

I'd rather have their schedule.

Doesn't really matter, as far as us catching them, we can only worry about beating them and taking care of our own business.

it's basically 1 game back. if we don't beat them in the rematch, then we cannot catch them anyway.

no idea onthe entire season... but in three weeks (assume we beat the Benglas)
we could be tied for first in our division and hold tiebreakers over Cincy and the Rats.

Just be able to say that is cause for excitement.

I'll play...

Browns:
BYE - W
At Bengals - W
Home vs Steelers - W
Home vs Jags - W
At Patriots - L
Home vs Bears - W
At Jets - W
At Steelers - W

Browns 10-6 Based on continued improvement and consistent QB play.

Bengals:
At Ravens - L
Home vs Browns - L
BYE - Tie
At Chargers - W
Home vs Colts - L
At Steelers - W
Home vs Vikings - W
Home vs Ravens - W

Bengal 10-6 (Maybe 9-7 with a loss to the Chargers.) Either way we win the division.

How good would it be to stomp all over the Steelers, in THEIR HOUSE, on our way to the playoffs?

This Cinci game in two weeks is a HUGE game. IMO we have already begun to turn the corner. Now it's time to round the curve and head into the straightaway.

The best part? The BEST PART is that this is not horsecrap or wishful thinking, we can beat these guys.

If we beat the Bengals, I think we make the playoffs.

If not, we won't.

Really stoked but nervous about that game. Wish our first win over them was on the road and the next game was going to be at home.

I don't really have a reason, but I'm not so sure about the Bears and Jets games. The Bears have some talent, and I can see us not really getting any momentum in that game.

I just have a really bad feeling about the Jets game. I see us really laying an egg in that game, for some reason.

I don't see the Bengals beating the Chargers, but I do see them beating the Ravens. Maybe you're thinking the Ravens will be pissed about the loss to us and go take that out on the Bungles.

The Steelers are playing poor football right now, but we've elevated worse teams' games before.

Pittsburgh is trash, won't shock me if we swept them. Jacksonville is awful as hell.

Cinci game is what will determine how we finish.

If they somehow manage to lose to the Ravens this weekend it is going to be VERY interesting next week in Cinci.

BYE
At Bengals W
Home vs Steelers W
Home vs Jags W
At Patriots L
Home vs Bears W
At Jets L
At Steelers ?W

That's with orange colored glasses on.
Without it looks like 3W 4L
Just my 2 cents worth.

Who'd of thought that the Week #16 game. Browns vs Jets could potentially have major playoff implications at the beginning of the season?!

And that's an even number week. The week that the Jets usually lose. They can only win on an odd week number.

J/C

I have a sinking feeling that we're going to lose at Cincy and most likely at least once to Pitt (I also find the Bears game to be difficult) ... not to mention the game at NE is basically a no chance IMO.

Man, I've been a Browns fan too long ... where is my optimism?!

The season sets up VERY VERY interestingly for us.

Cincy in 2 weeks on the road. We beat them 17-6 at our house...and I maintain that we are a bad matchup for them. Everything they do well, is based off of how AJ Green opens everything up. You roll coverage, and double him...other guys get open. Other things open up. We play him straight up and still limit him and it limits them. Marvin Jones stepping up has helped them immensely, but at the same time...theyre a different team in Cincy than in anywhere else.

Why else could you explain 49 against the Jets and then lose to Miami. Yea Thursday on the road helps explain that...but still. They lost to us on the road.

We have an additional advantage in this one is that they don't exactly know what theyre going to see from us as we get 2 weeks to prepare and with Jason Campbell we are different than we were with Hoyer. We also have a QB that gets rid of the ball quick, which hurts their pass rush. Again...bad matchup for them.

We'll see there...

They have 10 days to get ready for the Ravens coming off a bad loss to Cleveland. Their backs are against the wall at this point in the season. They're hurtin and need a big time win...and against a division rival is a great time to get that win. That's how they can get back on track...they NEED this one v. Cincy, and I hate counting Harbaugh and co out. But if they don't get their run game untracked theyre in trouble.



As for the rest of our schedule.

Pittsburgh has an issue. If they do well on offense, they stink on defense. If their D plays well, they stink on offense...they just cant seem to get it together. I don't see them putting it together anytime soon...We can win that one, especially at home.

The Jags? they suck...and at home. That's a W.

@NE...that's our toughest remaining game. They aren't a good matchup for us because they will spread us out and I think that is our biggest weakness. They can beat you with Gronk, Amendola, Dobson, Edelman, Thompkins, as well as with Ridley, Bolden, and Blount. They just hit you from EVERY angle, and we don't have that consistently solid of a coverage team. Brady gets rid of it quick which limits the effectiveness of our pass rush...The fact that they nickel/dime you down the field gives me hope because we seem to have figured out how to shut that down. So we'll see. I think we can move the ball against them...their D is suspect.

Chicago...We're a bad matchup for them. Forte gets everything goin for them. Haden can handle Marshall...he's done it in the past...but Skrine has a tough tough matchup with Jeffrey. But he battles, and I don't know if Jeffrey is ready for that hard of a battle. Plus we can roll coverage to help him because Haden can limit Marshall. Campbell can take care of it...and that hurts their defense...Also the fact that we use a lot of guys to get touches hurts them...I think that they'll limit Gordon and Little...but Bess, Whittaker, and Cameron will have bigger days.

Jets...depends on which Geno shows up. The one that just beat the Saints or the one that made Cincy look like the '00 Ravens. I think our pass rush will limit him, and Campbell's veteran moxy will hurt their D...Good chance here.

Pitt again on the road...at that point...They'll be playing out the string, season over.

I wont make any predictions...but...I like our chances. and I think if we can get to 7-5...which is very plausible...we're in it.

JC

Perfect time of the season for the bye week to fall. Let Campbell heal up those bruised ribs and etc. Maybe Groves will fully overcome his ankle issue, or issues?

Bengals going to have their hands full IMO come two weeks from now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lot of football left... Can't look too far down the road though... Gotta get healthy and ready for the late playoff push... Gotta destroy Cincy though coming out of th break - that's the number one thing!

Good read.

I know it's just your opinion - but you state your point, and back it up. I enjoy these kinds of posts - it sure makes me think.

Just like in the raven's thread......there were many posts/insights that gave me hope. I.e. "get ahead early, put the pressure on Flacco, that's when he makes mistakes".....or "We'll be able to stop their running game because of......"

No agendas. Just facts, as individuals see them. I like it. (plus, it gives me pause as to exactly what I'm watching - if that makes sense.)

Without atkins, Cinn is very vulnerable. Teams that can run the ball, can run the ball on Cinn now and that exposes the secondary. problem is, we cant run the ball and if we dont make the playoffs, the inability to run the ball will be a major reason as to why.

I feel we have a very real shot at the wildcard, and its a bit of a longer shot for the divisional crown but both are within our grasp. Bottom line we gotta win.

Hey if this defense gets into the playoffs, it could be hard to handle. We gotta start letting OB run the ball and reduce mcgahee to a short yardage back. There are a lot of fullbacks looking for work, go get one and let OB be the workhorse back.

Campbell will be a new QB after this bye work and really getting to focus on working with these receivers. I think the team gets much better in the 2nd half and the OL is starting to get it together.

All you said and we don't have aground attack tp speak of. Wish we could rediscover the Power Sweep of Old. Running wider might help us. Or cheat on the formation to let us seal down and run outside. We need to do more on the ground. Throwing three incompletions is not how you put a game away. After the bye, more Fozzytime, I hope. Oggy more than Mcgahee. Hope we work on the run during bye week. Especially if Weeds the Nimble is put in.

Browns-
BYE
At Bengals--L
Home vs Steelers--W
Home vs Jags--W
At Patriots--L
Home vs Bears--L
At Jets--L
At Steelers--L

Bengals-
At Ravens--L
Home vs Browns--W
BYE
At Chargers--L
Home vs Colts--L
At Steelers--W
Home vs Vikings--W
Home vs Ravens--W

i'm really interested to see what happens to Cinci's rush defense without Atkins. he really changed things with teams being forced to double him anytime they wanted to run.

sadly, both the Ravens and Browns have struggled running the ball this year, so we might not get to know much about it yet.

Rush defense and pass defense. Atkins is a top five defensive player in the league. He had 12.5 sacks last year from the defensive tackle position. He is also leading the Bengals in sacks this season. That is insane and Sappesque.

Atkins being gone will allow us to double team Carlos Dunlap or Michael Johnson.

Browns :

@Bengals - Loss
Steelers - Win
Jags - Win
@Patriots - Loss
Bears - Loss
@Jets - Win
@Steelers - Win

8-8


Bengals :

@Ravens - Loss
Browns - Win
@Chargers - Loss
Colts - Loss
@Steelers - Win
Vikings - Win
Ravens - Win

10-6

Going by the Jets good week/bad week routine, we're going to catch them on their bad week

Quote:

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the inability to run the ball will be a major reason as to why.

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You don't have to run the ball to run the ball, and I do believe that Chud & Norv are big fans of that notion. Perhaps that is another reason we were content to get a guy like McGahee that is otherwise close to used-up.

There are lots of pass plays that accomplish the exact same thing as running the ball - which is to suck the defense in closer to the LOS; force them to respect the shorter game so that they can't just sit on the intermediate and deep stuff. Make them respect the entire field.

Exactly correct.

It's November and we're talking seriously about a run to the playoffs..... ahhhh.... takes me back to 2007.

The Ravens would be a big help to us if they beat the Bengals on Sunday. And let's not forget that even when they're a mediocre team, they are still tough to beat in Baltimore, and Cinci losing Atkins really hurts their defense.

I knew before last week's game that the Browns had to beat the Ravens or we could kiss any realistic hope for the playoffs goodbye.

We NEED the game in Cincinnati. Lose that one, we'll most likely miss the playoffs. Win, and we'd be firmly in the hunt. We'd then have Pitt and Jacksonville at home in consecutive weeks... we could be 7-5 at the end of November.

The Ravens would be a big help to us if they beat the Bengals on Sunday

it would be a big help but it's hard for me to see cinci losing three weeks in a row this year.

I dunno. Nothing Cinci does surprises me, either way.

Without Geno Atkins (and Leon Hall) the Bengals defense will be average. Relying on Andy Dalton to win games does not seem like a great plan.

There is 2 big games that will essentially seal our fate. That being the Bengals game and the Chicago game. Those two if we can steal a win or two will determine our playoffs. Beating Cincinnati in their house gives us control of the division in the case of a tie breaker situation. Then after that we have the Steelers and Jax here at home. being 3-2 at home and 1-3 on the road is not a good situation seeing how the bengals are 4-0 at home. After that is the Patriots game and they too are 5-0 at home this year. I don't see the crazy win like we did a few years ago when we played them at home ( I was at the game BTW). the Jets are 4-1 at home.

You guys see where I am going here? 3 out of our 4 Road trips are against teams with a combined of 14-3. However that being said beating Pitts and Jets are key too.

JMHO

Quote:

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There is 2 big games that will essentially seal our fate. That being the Bengals game and the Chicago game.

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If we want to get all crazy and start talking about what it would take for us to make the playoffs...

The playoffs are almost set in our conference barring a total meltdown by somebody.. Bengals (I don't think we will catch), Patriots, Colts win their divisions, Chiefs or Broncos win the division and the other is the first wildcard.. that leaves one wildcard spot open with the Jets, Titans, Dolphins, Chargers, Browns in contention for now, the only team we play that has a chance to be in that race is the Jets... I don't fear the Dolphins because they are imploding..

The Jets still have the Dolphins twice and I can easily see them getting to 9 wins.. we have to get to 9 wins and have beaten them.. The Jets next 2 games are on the road at Buffalo and at Baltimore, would be nice if they lost both but they need to lose at least 1.

The Chargers still have KC twice, Denver twice, Cincy, by far the toughest road to get to 9 wins..

The Titans schedule looks similar to ours in that I think 9 wins is a possibility but certainly not a given

If we can be 7-7 with the Jets and Steelers left to play, I will be a pretty happy guy in mid December... and I think that will come down to us either beating the Patriots or the Bears.

Kansas City has a pretty tough remaining schedule left. I could see them slip to the rest of the pack

Off this week, then...

AT Den
SD
Den (stupid scheduling there. 2 times in 3 weeks really?)
@ Was
@ Oak
Ind
@ SD

If their defense stays the way they have been, they will be ok. If they start to fizzle, things get really interesting. Problem for us is they own a direct tie-breaker because of the head to head loss.