Are Deshaun Watson and the Browns the team to beat in the AFC North? | Sunday Night Blitz
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab react to Cleveland’s 33-31 win over the Baltimore Ravens and rank the teams in the AFC North after Week 10. Hear the full conversation on “Sunday Night Blitz” - part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
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FRANK SCHWAB: A heck of a win for the Browns here. I mean, they-- this is a really, really good division. And they're right in the mix for it. Why not them? Who would you pick? Who would you pick right now in the AFC North? Why not the Browns? They seem to be getting better, right, like especially Watson getting a little healthier.
JASON FITZ: I thought the answer to that was going to be Baltimore. This morning, I'd have said, clearly Baltimore. Like, I kept saying, we're not paying enough attention. There were two things that really stood out to me in this game. One, there's going to be a question I think Baltimore's offense is going to have to answer and Cleveland sort of exposes today. If you can shut down, and I mean shut down, the ability for Baltimore to run the football, can their receivers separate enough to actually be who they need to be in this offense? I think the answer to that today was clearly no.
Now, you go to the other side of it, one thing that I thought was really key for Deshaun Watson, especially in the second half, he was moving the ball around a lot. Like, to me, what was really impressive wasn't just that in the second half, he was passing more efficiently. The fact that it felt like Deshaun wasn't locked in on any one thing really made them tough to cover. It felt like they were stretching Baltimore in ways Baltimore didn't expect because Deshaun was doing a really nice job of working the entire field, no matter who it was for any matchup he had. I think those were two huge keys in why this game turned out this way.
If you had to power rank the AFC North, we all know Pittsburgh's at 4. But after that, what are you doing? Because, like, I-- I've got trust issues with the wide receivers of the-- of the Ravens. I've got trust issues with Deshaun Watson. And today, I saw a really weird Bengals team. So, like, I kind of still like-- I think I want to go Bengals, Ravens, Browns, in that order. Like, Bengals 1, Ravens 2, Browns 3, because my trust of Joe Burrow. But I don't know. I genuinely don't know how to separate those teams.
FRANK SCHWAB: These are-- these three teams play the rest of the season out, they probably all win a division 33% of the time, right? Like, it's kind of one of those deals. I'd probably-- I'm going to just-- because I don't like overreacting to one game and a weird pick six, I'd probably still have the Ravens 1, I guess the Browns 2, the Bengals 3. But I don't feel very confident in that order at all.