Sunday’s weather at FirstEnergy Stadium calls for 58 degrees, showers, and 28 mile-per-hour winds, which makes it the perfect recipe for running the football.
The Houston Texans know they are going to see a heavy dose of Browns running backs Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb, and defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver is getting his unit ready for the challenge.
“I’m hearing there’s about a 90% chance of rain,” Weaver said. “Obviously, you get there, and you get by the lake and the wind’s blowing. You saw the (Las) Vegas [Raiders] game, I mean, there wasn’t many balls thrown at all.”
In Week 8, the Browns ran Hunt 14 times for 66 yards and had backup D’Ernest Johnson rush twice for six yards. While quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 12 passes for 25 yards and 122 yards, he also rushed six times for 29 yards. The Browns still lost 16-6 to the Raiders.
“It’s going to be a ground and pound type of football game, which, defensively, kind of simplifies the game for you a little bit,” Weaver said. “You put some extra-long cleats on. You dig your heals in the dirt and you do everything you can to stop the run. We know they’re committed to it.”
The Browns will also be getting Chubb back from injured reserve. The Pro Bowler has been out since Week 4’s 49-38 win over the Dallas Cowboys when he rushed six times for 43 yards, but left the game early with an MCL sprain in his right knee.
Though the Texans have given up 159.5 rushing yards per game, the most in the NFL, and also surrender the second-most rushing yards per carry at 5.1, Weaver likes the improvement his unit has taken in the past few weeks.
Said Weaver: “We’ve improved in recent weeks. We know what we have to do. I think if it is like that, if it’s raining and it’s windy and the game becomes one-dimensional, I tend to think it helps the defense. As long as you can bow and you take the challenge on, you can stop the run and try to get them to throw the ball in a windy stadium.”
If the Browns rely on the run game to advance the ball, they will be attacking one of Houston’s vulnerabilities, and the run defense will have to stiffen up, or else it could be a long afternoon.