Tag: Cleveland Browns vs. Tennessee Titans

Final Browns injury report: Denzel Ward and KhaDarel Hodge OUT

Myles Garrett will play but losing Hodge hurts at WR

Friday’s final injury report from the Cleveland Browns in advance of Sunday’s big AFC matchup with the Tennessee Titans reveals the Browns will be shorthanded at wideout.

The Browns will be without two wide receivers for the trip to Tennessee. KhaDarel Hodge has been ruled out with a hamstring injury and Tayway Taylor is out with a neck issue. Hodge injured the hamstring running a route in Thursday’s practice, per coach Kevin Stefanski in his Friday media session. It’s not the same hamstring that kept Hodge on injured reserve earlier this season, Stefanski also indicated.

With two wideouts ruled out with injuries, expect Derrick Willies to be elevated from the practice squad for the game. The Browns have just three healthy wideouts: Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins and rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones.

Cornerback Denzel Ward will miss his second straight game with a calf strain. He did not practice all week and Ward was not expected to play.

All the Browns activated during the week from the reserve/COVID-19 list, including starters Myles Garrett and Andu Janovich, will play Sunday.

4 key matchups for the Browns vs. the Titans

Here are four key matchups in the Browns’ quest to go to 9-3 in Tennessee

It’s a matchup rife with AFC playoff implications when the Cleveland Browns visit the Tennessee Titans in Week 13. Both teams are 8-3 and jockeying for postseason position on the backs of strong running games and impressive young coaches.

The Browns have won three games in a row, but the Titans are also playing very well of late. For the Browns to win in Nashville, it will require a tight, focused effort and attention to executing the small details of a smart game plan.

Here are four key matchups in the Browns’ quest to go to 9-3 in Tennessee.

Baker Mayfield: Browns are ‘night and day’ from the team that played the Titans in 2019

The Browns lost to the Titans 43-13 in Week 1 in 2019

Baker Mayfield remembers the last time he met the Tennessee Titans well. Though not necessarily with fondness…

The Titans destroyed Baker’s Browns in Week 1 of the 2019 season. In the debut game of the Freddie Kitchens regime, Mayfield threw three interceptions and was sacked five times in a 43-13 blowout loss.

The Browns have come a long way since that awful loss some 15 months ago. New coach, new attitude, newfound success. And it’s led by an improved quarterback in Mayfield.

Mayfield was asked about how much the team has changed from the team on the wrong end of the lopsided score to the 8-3 team heading to Nashville on Sunday.

“It is night and day,” Mayfield said in his press conference on Wednesday. “Obviously, staff and personnel on the team, but like we talked about, it starts with culture. A lot of that was the moves in the offseason to create this culture change. We are going to continue to build on it. We are not satisfied whatsoever.”

Mayfield is motivated to have a better showing and lead the team to a well-rounded effort in all phases. He knows it starts with No. 6.

“It starts with me just kind of looking at my game that I can definitely always improve,” Mayfield said. “We have not played a complete game as a team, complementary through and through, but we are improving as the weeks go on and we are improving at the right time. I am going to be hard on myself because these moments here down the stretch are the ones that you have to make every play count, especially in a game like this where it is going to be two strong rushing attacks that you do not know how many series you are going to get. We have to make these counts. We need to keep improving. Sunday is going to be a great matchup.”

Browns are decided underdogs vs. Titans in Week 13

Both Cleveland and Tennessee are 8-3 and have won three of their last four games

The Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans share the same 8-3 record. Both teams have won three of their last four games entering the Week 13 matchup in Nashville.

Yet the Titans are decided favorites over the Browns in the early game odds. Cleveland is a 5.5-point underdog on the betting line at BetMGM. That line holds true over most legal sportsbooks, too.

The over/under on the game is set at 54.5. That’s a figure the Browns have not topped since beating Cincinnati in Week 7. Tennesse has scored 75 combined points in wins over the Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts in the last two weeks.

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NFL postpones the Titans-Steelers game and how it impacts the Browns

The Browns play both Tennessee and Pittsburgh (twice) later this season

The NFL has officially moved the Week 4 matchup between the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers off the calendar for this week. An outbreak of COVID-19 among several Titans players and coaches forced the NFL to postpone the game to a later date.

That later date has yet to be determined, and that could wind up impacting the Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland is scheduled to face the Steelers in Weeks 6 and 17 and the Titans in Nashville in Week 13. Those don’t figure to change, but the state in which the opposing teams enter those games could be quite different.

One of the potential solutions is to move the Steelers-Ravens battle in the AFC North from Week 7 to Week 8 and play the makeup game with Pittsburgh in Tennessee in Week 7. The Steelers bye week is scheduled for Week 8, as is Baltimore’s, so that makes the most sense without impact too many other teams.

If that happens, the Browns catch the Steelers in Pittsburgh after their bye (this week) instead of leading into it. Pittsburgh hosts 0-2-1 Philadelphia in Week 5 before Cleveland visits the following Sunday. It also means a much longer time between the Browns trip to Nashville and the Titans’ scheduled bye week in Week 7. That’s an advantage for the Browns.

The Browns have their bye week in Week 9.