Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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Big ballgame for the Browns tomorrow.  A loss would knock them to 5-5, dealing a blow to the teams wild card hopes.  They head to Baltimore, where they find themselves as favorites against a reeling Ravens team that last lost three in a row, looking worse in each defeat, and culminating in last week's disgrace where they were almost shut out at home by the Bengals.  Jesse previews tomorrow's Browns game for us ...

Time: Sunday, November 18, 1:00 PM 

Location: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland 

Network, Announcers: CBS- Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots 

Line: Browns by two-and-a-half 

Team W/L Records: Cleveland is 5-4; Baltimore is 4-5 

Coaches: Romeo Crennel is 15-26 in his third season with the Browns. Brian Billick is 79-58 in his ninth season with the Ravens. 

Last Week for the Browns: Gagged up a 21-6 lead and lost to the Steelers for the ninth consecutive time, 31-28. 

Last Week for the Ravens: Completed maybe the worst two weeks in the short history of that villainous franchise with a 21-7 loss to lowly Cincinnati. 

All-Time Series: Baltimore leads, 11-6, but the series has been almost even (7-6) since 2001. Cleveland has competed fairly well with the Ravens over the last several years, despite having some blatantly inferior teams. 

Last Meeting: Week Four, 2007- Cleveland jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead and rolled to a convincing 27-13 victory. 

Out or Questionable for Baltimore: QB Steve McNair (shoulder), CB Samari Rolle (illness), S Gerome Sapp (thigh), TE Daniel Wilcox (foot), and WR Demetrius Williams (ankle) are out; TE Todd Heap (thigh), CB Chris McAllister (knee), and the legitimacy of the Ravens franchise (stolen) are questionable 

Out or Questionable for Cleveland: D'Qwell Jackson (ankle) and DE Shaun Smith (knee) are questionable 

What to watch for the Ravens: Just in case you hadn't heard, the Ravens are in a spot of trouble. At 4-5, they're still very much alive for a playoff spot- at least in theory- but they've lost three straight and have looked worse with each defeat, culminating in last week's "effort", in which Baltimore, playing at home, was hilariously shut out for the first fifty-eight minutes of game action by the rancid Bengals defense.  

Being brick-walled by a defense that would have trouble keeping Notre Dame out of the end zone might be good for a horselaugh or two; the problem is, there's nowhere to go but up from here. The Ravens are indeed in a state of decay, aging and injury-riddled, but is there some residual pride and skill in that locker room, and I'm willing to believe the team that hits the field this Sunday will be a feistier, more motivated outfit than the one that has disgraced itself the previous two weeks. In addition, Brian Billick has given the decrepit Steve McNair the Old Yeller treatment and turned things over to Kyle Boller, the erstwhile first-round pick. Boller is more a latter-day Marty Domres than a latter-day Johnny Unitas, but he has his moments, and unlike the wizened McNair, the Jeff Tedford protégé can deliver a ball that doesn't fly like it's filled with helium.  

Call me crazy, but I think the Browns are going to have to score 28 points or more to win this game.  

What to watch for the Browns: Derek Anderson played well in the first half at Pittsburgh, leading a magnificent touchdown drive on Cleveland's first series and throwing three scoring passes before the break. But when the Steelers eschewed their ineffective blitz, sagged back into short zones and took away the downfield routes in the second half, DA- normally as cool as February in Nome- vapor-locked. He felt pressure where there was none, missed on the short routes Pittsburgh's defense did allow, and although he avoided a turnover for the third time in four games, he was unable to properly manage an offense that didn't record its initial first down of the half until after the two-minute warning. For the first time since taking over the full-time job, Derek Anderson blinked.  

So there's the book: clog the throwing lanes with extra defenders and force DA, whose game is akin to the golfer who routinely hammers 300-yard drives but can't drop a three-foot putt to save his life, into situations that test both his accuracy and his patience. Baltimore's secondary resembles the hull of the Lusitania these days and won't present as much of a problem as Pittsburgh's, no matter the scheme. But like Pittsburgh, the Ravens will present problems to Cleveland's rushing attack. Jamal Lewis averaged less than three yards per carry in the first meeting, and judging by his recent efforts, he won't be waking the echoes of '03 at his old stomping grounds against the NFL's second-toughest rush defense. 

Bottom line: if the Browns want to break a ten-game road losing streak in the division, one that dates back to the final week of the 2003 season, Derek Anderson will have to play two solid halves of football. One won't cut it, not even against a team as ramshackle as the Ravens. And accuracy is a must, since the short pass will have to serve as a surrogate ground game. Those are the passes DA struggled with last weekend; those are the ones he must nail this weekend and down the line for this team to prosper. 

Good Past Win over the Ravens: Two wins, to be precise: the sweep of the defending World Champions in 2001, when the Browns played real, competitive, NFL football for the first time since the return. In the first meeting, at CBS, the Browns were out-gained 321-219 but got seven sacks, forced three Baltimore turnovers and stunned the Ravens, 24-14. It was Cleveland's first-ever win over the miserable hordes on the Chesapeake. Less than a month later in Baltimore, the Browns was again out-gained but again beat the Ravens, this time 27-17. Cleveland's defense picked off Elvis Grbac four times, including a Devin Bush 43-yard pick-six, and Ben Gay had his finest hour, darting and dancing through Ray-Ray and Co. for a career-high 56 yards and a touchdown.  

Bad Past Loss to the Ravens: A pair for the nightmares: the devastating sweep at the hands of the Ravens in 2003. The Browns were outscored 68-13 in the two games, including 52 unanswered Baltimore points spanning the first (a 33-13 loss) and second (a 35-0 loss) games, and gave up five hundred yards rushing to Jamal Lewis. Never has one of the more deep-seated characteristics of this franchise since 1999- a lack of physicality, an essential wimpiness as a team- been more ruthlessly exposed than in these two meetings.  

Next Week for Both Teams: Cleveland hosts the Texans; Baltimore travels to San Diego 

Trivia: With a loss to Cleveland, the Baltimore Ravens will tie the franchise record for longest losing streak at four games, set three times, in 1996, 1998, and 2005.