Written by Thomas Moore

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The Cleveland Browns return home to take on the Cincinnati Bengals in the final game under the ownership of Randy Lerner.

The Browns are facing the prospect of not only losing their 13th consecutive game in the AFC North Division, but their 12th consecutive game overall – which would be a franchise record.

The Opposition

Cincinnati’s record: 3-2
Offensive rank: 15th overall/11th passing/15th rushing
Defensive rank: 18th overall/16th passing/19th rushing
All-time record: Bengals lead, 42-36
Last meeting: Bengals won, 34-27, in Week 2
The line: Browns (+1.5)

What to Watch For

What do the Browns have in store for their fans this week?

So far this season they’ve lost a game on a last-second touchdown pass, lost two divisional games that may or may not have been closer than the score indicated, were blown out and somehow turned a 14-0 first-quarter lead into a 41-27 loss.

The Bengals are average is just about every way imaginable. They beat bad teams, lose to good teams (and Miami), average 25 points per game but give up 25.8, and are sort of just there. The Bengals are also pathetic on third down, converting just 24.6 percent on the season, second-worst in the NFL, and are just 4-of-25 in their past two games.

Of course, just being there has, more often than not, been good enough to beat the Browns on Sundays.

This is the first time the Browns have faced a team for the second time this season, so it will be a good game to gauge how far they have progressed, especially rookies Brandon Weeden and Trent Richardson. In the first game against the Bengals, Weeden threw for 322 yards and two touchdowns, while Richardson ran for 109 yards and scored two touchdowns.

“Anytime you’re a quarterback and you’ve had a chance to play against a team, it helps you,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said. “Then, you factor in that you’ve improved since the last time you’ve played them. There’s things we’ll do differently. Even though the matchups are the same, the game’s played just a little bit different because you’ve played them once before.”

Exactly who Weeden will be throwing too remains a bit of a question. Wide receivers Mohamed Massaquoi and Jordan Norwood are both out for the game (and Norwood will miss at least six weeks after being placed on injured reserve), and Travis Benjamin is doubtful with a hamstring injury.

The injuries forced the Browns to activate rookie Josh Cooper, an undrafted rookie, off of the practice squad. Cooper was Weeden’s second-leading receiver at Oklahoma State, so at least the Browns catch a break in that department (and just wait until Cooper outperforms Greg Little; the hoople heads will be out in full force).

“(Brandon) usually knows where I’m going to be, and I know where he’s going to put the ball,” Cooper said. “He depends on men and I’ll be in the right spot for him. He knows when I’m going to come out of a route and where I’ll be.”

Further complicating matters is that the Bengals come into the game as co-leaders in sacks, with 18. The Browns didn’t allow a sack last week against the Giants and a repeat of that performance would be nice on Sunday.

Defensively, the Browns will finally see corner back Joe Haden return to the lineup after missing four games to a suspension. Haden’s return comes at a good time, as the secondary is:

• Banged up, as Dimitri Patterson is out with an ankle injury, Tashaun Gipson is out with a knee injury, and T.J. Ward is having a hard time dealing with playing with a cast on his arm.
• Struggling, primarily Buster Skrine, who posted a -5.6 pass coverage grade last week, according to ProFootballFocus.com. Skrine has also allowed a 109.3 passer rating on the 36 passes thrown into his coverage
• Facing Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green, who in three career games against the Browns has 11 receptions for 209 yards and two touchdowns.

“Certainly they’ll make (Green) a focal part of their passing game and they have a lot of talent around him also so it does open him up,” Browns defensive coordinator Dick Jauron said. “He’s a threat, clearly, down the field and they use him underneath a lot also. He’s getting a lot of attention from his offense, he’s getting a lot of attention from defenses and he’s still producing.

“It’s great to have Joe back, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve talked about it almost every week since he’s been out, it’s just never good to have a starter out of your lineup. Call-wise or scheme-wise it helps us a little bit, but doesn’t change a lot of stuff significantly. It does change some things.”

After holding their own in the run game for three weeks, the Browns were steamrolled by the Giants last week, as Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 200 yards and an average of 6.7 yards per carry.

The Browns might be without their best defensive lineman, Ahtyba Rubin, who is questionable with a calf injury, which certainly won’t help. But the Bengals have injury issues of their own in the running game and will have to rely on BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who is averaging just 3.3 yards per carry, the third-worst among running backs who have rushed at least 60 times this season.

If the Browns can’t stop him on the ground, then who can they stop?

“When you’re losing you’re concerned about everything on defense,” Jauron said. “We’ve just got to give up less points. I don’t ever mind bleeding a team, we’re not concerned with yardage, but when they get into the end zone as often as they did last week, it’s never a good thing no matter how they do it. We defiantly put them in some not-so-great situations with some calls and we’ve got to make more plays on the field.”

Browns vs. Bengals Fact That May or May Not Mean Something

The current Browns team is tied with the 1975 squad for the longest losing streak in franchise history. The ’75 Browns team broke its losing streak against the Bengals, and went on to win 17 of their next 26 games.

The Prediction

Much has been made of the Browns losing 11 games in a row, primarily because that is really bad, but because they have come consecutively, it feels even worse.

But is really any worse than when the team started 1-11 in 2009, part of a streak that saw the Browns lose 16 of 22 games under “super coach” Eric Mangini? If the Browns find a way to beat the Bengals, Shurmur will only be one game off the “pace” set by Mangini in his first 22 games in charge.

“Our focus is to win the next game,” Shurmur said. “(The losing streak), it’s not a motivator. What’s a motivator is going out and winning a division game at home.”

Having proper motivation is a good start, but is that enough?

For this week, probably not. Although it will be another close game, look for the Bengals to cover, probably with a late field goal after some kind of defensive breakdown on the part of the Browns.

Because, really, can any Browns fan come up with a more fitting end to the Lerner era in Cleveland?

Record picking the Browns this year: 1-3-1

(Photo courtesy of ClevelandBrowns.com)