The 3-10 Cleveland Browns took a step back in Week 14 in an unfortunate loss to the then 1-11 Tennessee Titans, who were the only team in the NFL with one win up to that point. They’ll look to move on from that tough loss in a difficult matchup at the Chicago Bears on Sunday, who are looking to avenge a loss of their own as they fell to the Green Bay Packers last week and saw their five-game winning streak come to an end.
One bright spot from the Titans game is that rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders had his best performance to date with nearly 400 yards of total offense and four total touchdowns.
He’ll look to build on that performance against a ballhawking defense that leads the league with 18 interceptions, but one analyst pointed out a different matchup that should go a long way toward dictating the winner of the Browns-Bears matchup.
Thomas Valentine of PFF wrote up a preview of the game, and he is most interested in what should be a fun battle in the trenches.
On the edges, there will be a game-long battle between one of the best tackles in football against a certain Brown looking to break the single-season sack record.
“Any time Browns star Myles Garrett (93.2 grade; 1st) is on the field, he’s going to be highlighted. Still, Garrett is fifth in total pressures (64) and will have to lock back in against Bears tackle Darnell Wright (77.6 grade; 17th) in Week 15. Wright has the 13th-lowest pressure rate allowed among tackles (4.4%) and has permitted just two sacks all season. Wright is also one of the best run-blocking tackles in the league (80.0 run-blocking grade; 12th), and the Bears are second in rushing success rate and EPA per rush.” Valentine wrote.
Garrett is 2.5 sacks away from tying the record shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt, and should be hungry after logging just one sack against the Titans last week. He’ll have his hands full with Wright, while the Bears are certain to send plenty of tight end help his way as well via Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland.
Caleb Williams has been sacked just 20 times this year after being taken down 68 times as a rookie. New head coach Ben Johnson has done a great job protecting his young quarterback, and it will be a fun subplot to see if Garrett and company can buck that trend.
He hasn’t been sacked more than twice in a game since Week 5.
We’ll see if Garrett can change that.
NEXT: A Franchise-Defining Choice Is Looming For The Browns
