After Alex Mack left the Steelers game last Sunday with his season ending injury, I focused my binoculars on John Greco and Paul McQuistan. I was impressed by both, the Browns didn't lose a beat as both Greco and McQuistan were particularly dominant while run blocking. The zone blocking scheme of Kyle Shanahan stood out. The Browns were successful to move the entire Steelers defense en masse, at times it seemed to me that the Steelers D played into the Browns hands by trying to move with their blockers towards the Browns running back. Penetrate gaps and hold your lane is what I was thinking Steelers defenders should do. Reading up this week on tactics to stop a zone blocking scheme verified my thoughts. Zone blocking is best countered with a 4-3 lineup whose lineman penetrate and stay in lanes. Let the outside linebackers do their job to contain and the middle linebacker must make a lot of tackles.
If I am Jacksonville, I'm going to focus on stopping the Browns zone running by playing a lot of 4-3 and daring Hoyer to pass. I think this strategy will in fact work and the Jags will hold the Browns offense a season low in points.
That brings us to the other major factor this week. A rookie QB with penchant for pick 6's. There's a reason coaches hate rookies and Blake Bortles is showing us that reason. He has given up 3 pick 6's this season. At times he has looked great, many others he's looked like, well, Brandon Weeden. in the Hoyer vs Bortles matchup, I'm guessing Hoyer will make fewer mistakes and that will be the difference this week. The only thing that could really muddy my prediction up is if, instead of passing, when in doubt, Bortles runs the ball. Then we could have a major problem, but I think the Browns will bottle him up no matter what he does.
In what will be a close one, I see our Browns sneaking out of Florida with a W.
BL Predicts
Browns 19
Jags 17
The BL are 3-2 year to date predicting the winner of Browns games.
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