A couple of weeks ago, I would've chalked this one up as a game the Browns would win easily. Now? Not so much.
First off, it looks like we're going to be without Peyton Hillis after that hamstring injury PR fiasco that happened last week. Despite the fact that the Browns haven't been running the ball well, when you take away the only player that defenses might fear, it's clearly not a good thing. Montario Hardesty will get his second start of his young career, and the last time he started a game he played pretty well. But that was against the Dolphins—a team that still hasn't won a game. If the Browns are going to win today, they're going to need Hardesty to not only run the ball better, but catch the ball too. He was regarded as a good receiving back, and we need to see that in action since so far he's shown nothing but stone hands.
Speaking of offense, we really need to buck this trend of only starting to play it in the second quarter. The Browns have scored a grand total of 3—yes three—points in five first quarters sof ar this season. That's ridiculous. To me, it speaks volumes about the way head coach Pat Shurmur just hasn't had his team prepared to start the game. I know he's a young, first-time head coach, but there's no excuse for the way the Browns have driven the struggle bus in the first quarter.
Other than that, we'll have to look out for Seattle's no huddle offense. Charlie Whitehurst will probably get the start with Tavaris Jackson out with an injury, and Whiethurst proved to be pretty effective with that offense in Seattle's last game against the Giants. Yes, the Giants struggled in that game and Eli Manning may have thrown it away with his three interceptions, but they won that game.
One thing that plays in the Browns favor with the no-huddle element is that they don't substitute much on defense. I read from Terry Pluto that by and large Dick Jauron stays in his base defense, with the linebackers D'Qwell Jaackson and Scott Fujita playing 90% or more of the snaps, with TJ Ward, Sheldon Brown, Jayme Mitchell, Jabaal Sheard and Athyba Rubin also rarely being out of the game. If Joe Haden is healthy enough to play today, he'll be in there the whole time too. So the point is that even if they go no huddle, it shouldn't mess us up too much. That being said, it'll largely depend on Jackson to make sure the defense gets lined up correctly in those cases, especially with Fujita out this week after suffering a concussion.
Alright, so what's the bottom line today? Well...I just don't have a good feeling about it. No Peyton Hillis. No Scott Fujita. Seahawks coming off of a bye week, and off a great win against the Giants. All those elements seem to spell "Browns will lose" to me...
The Prediction: SEA 24 - CLE 17
It might be a late touchdown that seals it, or Seattle will run Marshawn Lynch all over the field and we'll score in garbage time to make the score look better than it really is, but when it comes down to it, I just don't think the Browns will have the personnel available to win today. It's not even that Seattle is that good, I just think we're that bad.
I hope I'm wrong.
See you at the half,
~MAS
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