Written by Thomas Moore

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The Cleveland Browns welcome the Baltimore Ravens to the Stadium on Sunday, and one way or another a streak will end.

The Browns are looking for their third consecutive home win. Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco is 9-0 vs. the Browns. The Ravens are also looking to sweep the Browns for the fifth consecutive year.

Something has to give – but what?

Let’s see if we can find out.

The Opposition

Baltimore’s record: 5-2
Offensive rank: 16th overall/13th passing/20th rushing
Defensive rank: 28th overall/24th passing/30th rushing
All-time record: Ravens lead, 20-7
Last meeting: Ravens won, 23-16, in Week 4
The line: Browns (+3.5)

What to Watch For

The Browns may be catching the Ravens at the best possible time: in their last two games Baltimore has given up 481 yards of offense (to Dallas in Week 6) and 420 yards of offense (to Houston in Week 7).

In addition, Baltimore is struggling with injuries on defense as linebacker Ray Lewis and cornerback Ladarius Webb are both out for the season, while nose tackle Haloti Ngata is questionable after not practicing most of the week with a bad shoulder.

But linebacker Terrell Suggs is back, so Browns coach Pat Shurmur is not feeling complacent – probably a good idea seeing as how the Browns have scored 13 points and seven points each of the past two games.

“I watch them on tape and I watch the games for what they are and I see a very dynamic and explosive defense,” Shurmur said. “It’s a challenge to play against them, which we saw the last time we played, and then numbers can be deceiving. You’ve got to ultimately look at wins and losses and there are times where you’re giving up yards and you’re not giving up points. I don’t put much stock in that. I think they’re a good defense.”

With the Ravens currently sitting near the bottom of the league in rushing defense, the Browns should turn to running back Trent Richardson, who is coming off a 122-yard performance against San Diego.

In the previous game, Richardson had 14 rushes for just 47 yards and a touchdown, while catching four passes for an additional 57 yards.

“I would love to pound it,” Shurmur said. “I would love to be able to pound it and score points. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to score points. I’ve said this often that Trent needs to be involved. That means you can throw it to him, you can hand it to him and you’ve got to do what you think is best to move the football. We all know that involves some sort of balance which means you run the football some and sometimes more than others, sometimes less than others, but you’ve got to try what you can to score points.”

Quarterback Brandon Weeden will also be getting his second look at the Ravens. In the first meeting, Weeden threw a pick-six that ended up being the deciding points.

“We’ve come a long ways (since the first game),” Weeden said. “I watched the game at home, and Josh (Gordon) really hadn’t come into his own. I was doing some uncharacteristic things, missed some throws. We had some drops. We’re not making the same mistakes that we were making, so we’re coming a long way. After watching it last night, it’s very, very encouraging.”

The growth of the passing game is evident when Weeden throws more than 10 yards downfield. In the first game against Baltimore, Weeden was 7-of-20 on such throws (according to ESPN Stats & Information), but has completed more than 54 percent of such throws since.

Weeden and Gordon have also been clicking in the passing game. Over the past four games, Weeden is 7-of-15 on throws to Gordon with four touchdowns.

“You’d like to have some more explosive plays,” offensive coordinator Brad Childress said. “If you look at the chances of scoring when you have an explosive play in a drive, and for us that’s a run of 12 or a pass of 16 ... you’re scoring changes go up in the 80th percentile. If you don’t look for them, if you don’t swing the bat you can’t get a hit.”

On defense, the Browns will see familiar faces in Flacco and running back Ray Rice.

Rice has averaged a little over 19 rushes in Ravens’ wins since the start of 2011, but just fewer than 14 rushes in their losses. He is also accounting for almost 30 percent of the Ravens total offense. In nine career games against the Browns, Rice has rushed for 824 yards and three touchdowns.

Not good news for a Browns defense that is giving up 4.4 yards per carry this season. However, the Browns held Rice to just 49 yards in the September game.

Flacco burned the Browns in their last meeting, throwing for 356 yards and a touchdown. He also hit Anquan Boldin nine times for 131 yards.

Flacco is a different quarterback on the road, though.

In four home games this season, Flacco is averaging 318 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. On the road, those numbers fall to 189 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions.

“The one thing that we’re not as good at on the road as we are at home is being on the same page,” Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said. “It might be any combination – it could be in the passing game, it could be in protection, it could be in the run game. So, we’re looking at everything from a communication standpoint, how we can make sure, on the road, that we’re on the same page. Does that mean we aren’t going to audible? Not at all. That’s a huge part of what we do. But, I think getting on the same page is the first thing we have to do.”

Probably the biggest difference on defense is that the Browns did not have cornerback Joe Haden the last time.

“I think anytime you’ve lost a starter - there’s a reason why he’s on your starting 11, and it’ll be nice to have them all back,” defensive coordinator Dick Jauron said. “Everybody in the league deals with injuries and plays through them. We’ve just got to play better. It’s good to have Joe back out there.”

In the four games that Haden missed because of suspension, the Browns gave up 34, 24, 23 and 41 points. In the three games since he has returned, it has been 24, 17 and six points.

Coincidence? We think not.

However, when the Ravens go to three wide receivers, that puts Boldin in the slot where he may be matched up with Buster Skrine (who is the fourth captain for this week’s game).

According to Pro Football Focus, “Skrine is currently giving up a reception every 4.9 snaps in coverage from the slot. His average of 1.48 yards given up per snap in coverage is unlikely to make anyone feel any better about the upcoming matchup.”

Oh dear.

“I understand sometimes you’re gonna have bad games, sometimes you’re gonna have good games,” Skrine told The Plain Dealer. “That’s just part of it. You’ll rarely ever see a player that has a good game all through the season.

“I never backed down from anybody. I’ve always been that way, and I’ve always been taught to play like that.”

The Browns will also welcome back defensive tackle Phil Taylor, who will see his first action since tearing a pectoral muscle in the off season. While it’s probably too much to expect Taylor to play a normal rotation of downs, he will help offset the loss of Ahtyba Rubin, who will miss the game with a calf injury.

“It’s great to have Phil back practicing,” Jauron said. “As of now, he’ll certainly rotate into that game. We’ll see how much he can go. We don’t want to overdo it. He’s had two weeks of work and it’s been a long season. He’ll definitely work in, and we’re really excited about seeing him back.”

The Prediction

The Browns have a huge opportunity staring them in the face on Sunday.

Win and they actually have a winning streak – albeit just two games – to go along with a three-game home winning streak.

A win would also be the Browns’ second division victory of the season, something they have not accomplished since 2007.

Beat Baltimore on the second try, just like they did against Cincinnati, and suddenly the Browns can actually point to tangible improvement.

They had the same opportunity the week after beating the Bengals and laid an egg in Indianapolis.

Will this week be different?

“We definitely feel like (we have closed the gap),” Haden said. “We feel like we were in the division (games), but we were just a couple plays off. Now that we’ve beat Cincinnati and we’re coming off of this last week’s win, we just feel like there’s no reason why we can’t keep these wins coming.

“(Baltimore is) a beatable team, they’re really talented though not to put anything past them, but everybody in the division is beatable. We just feel like our team is on the verge of being at the top.”

It all sounds good and we like the way Haden is thinking. But until the Browns actually go out and show that they have closed the gap (rather than the front of the division coming back to the Browns) it’s all just talk.

Take the Ravens and the points.

Record picking the Browns this season: 1-6-1

(Photo by ClevelandBrowns.com)