The Cleveland Browns have won back-to-back games for the first time this season after they beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans in succession. With Deshaun Watson as their veritable starter, the Browns hope they can win their third straight game when they face the red-hot Cincinnati Bengals on the road in Week 14 of the 2022 NFL season. A win here will keep the Browns' playoff hopes alive. Here are our Browns Week 14 predictions as they take on the Bengals.
We do expect Deshaun Watson to play better in this game than he did in Week 13. However, the Bengals are a strong team and seem to be hitting their stride right now. Keep in mind that Cincy just beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs last week. Having said that, for some reason, Joe Burrow has not done well against the Browns in the past. Still, he has been playing well recently. Since Week 3, he has had a high completion percentage and passer rating.
We're also not sure about the status of key players Myles Garrett, David Njoku, and Denzel Ward for this game. If even one of those guys cannot play, the odds of another Browns win over the Bengals significantly drop.
With all these in mind, here are our four bold predictions for the Browns in their Week 14 game against the Bengals.
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4. Amari Cooper bounces back strong here
Cooper recorded four receptions on nine targets for 40 yards in Sunday's win over the Texans. He was expected to receive a lift in production with Watson under center, but the latter showed considerable rust in his first game since Week 16 of the 2020 season. As a result, despite seeing a fairly typical rate of targets in the offense, Cooper did not put up great numbers.
In addition to the switch to Watson, the Browns were able to rely heavily on the run game thanks to a matchup against the Texans that they controlled throughout. That's much less likely to be the case in Week 14 against the Bengals, so Cooper should be in a decent position to bounce back. We have him putting similar numbers to what he had in their last meeting with Cincinnati — over 100 receiving yards and one touchdown.
3. Nick Chubb puts up triple-digits
The Browns own the league’s fourth-best rushing attack (156 yards per game). They will encounter a Bengals defense that ranks in the middle of the pack by allowing 114.3 rushing yards. Take note that running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt have combined for 17 touchdowns on the year. They find a favorable matchup here against a Bengals defense that has allowed eight touchdowns to running backs over the last six games. The powerful duo combined for 176 yards from scrimmage in the first matchup in Week 8. That was highlighted by two rushing touchdowns from Chubb.
Meanwhile, in Sunday's win over the Texans, Chubb rushed the ball 17 times for 80 yards. Watson made his debut for the team, but Chubb still had a typical role in the offense. He ran efficiently and had two rushes of more than 15 yards, but he did not catch any passes and did not score a touchdown. This was a disappointing performance for Chubb, but the Browns continue to focus on running the ball. Chubb should have a solid triple-digit outing here and find the endzone once.
2. Deshaun Watson plays much better than last week
The big storyline for the Browns coming off of last week’s game is going to be the performance of new QB Deshaun Watson. With how much draft capital and money the Browns invested in him, Watson needed to put together a strong performance in his first game in over 700 days. A good showing would have instilled confidence that the organization made the correct decision. Sadly, he simply did not deliver.
Against his former team, Watson completed just 54 percent of his passes for 131 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. If the defense and special teams had not stepped up for the Browns, they legitimately may have lost to the 1-win Texans.
Of course, Watson hadn’t played in a very long time, so expectations shouldn’t have been for him to immediately return to playing like a top-5 NFL QB. However, the Browns are going to need him more this week against a Bengals defense that just held Patrick Mahomes to 223 passing yards.
The key for Cleveland to pull off an upset this week is really dependent upon Watson looking more like his 2020 self than his Week 13 self. This Bengals defense is stout and they are going to make Watson pay if he makes the same mistakes he did against Houston. We think Watson has a better outing here. He should finish with 250+ yards and one touchdown.
1. Browns drop one against Joe Burrow
This will be the Browns' second game with Watson at QB. The Bengals knocked off Kansas City in Week 13 and could be set up for a letdown. However, Watson was terrible in Cleveland's default win over Houston last Sunday.
There shouldn’t be any confidence that Watson can lead this Cleveland unit at this time. He has played very little meaningful football in the past two seasons, and they barely got past the lousy Texans at home. It took more of a defensive effort for them to win. On the other end, the Bengals just took down arguably the best team in the NFL at home.
That said, Cleveland has already beaten the Bengals once and they do have Watson back now. However, Watson is clearly rusty, the Bengals are hitting their stride, and the Browns defense could be depleted here. That means Joe Burrow finally beats the Browns.
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