The Browns’ scorching offense and 3 other things to watch against the Jets – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns offense has been absolutely humming since Thanksgiving. Kevin Stefanski’s team is averaging 450.5 yards per game in its last four outings and 308.3 passing yards per game. To put it in perspective, the Kansas City Chiefs lead the league this season in yards per game at 427.9.

They have climbed all the way to eighth in offensive DVOA, according to Football Outsiders, eighth in both the run and the pass, and are 11th in yards per game in the league.

They’re efficient, too, ranking fifth in drive success rate and seventh in points per drive.

The Browns are peaking offensively at exactly the right time of year as Stefanski and his players continue to grow together in this system. Expect more offensive fireworks on Sunday against a defense that has given up 30 or more points in nine games.

Continuing the air attack

New York is, surprisingly, not bad defending the run. Now, the flip side is they just lost one of their best run defenders for the season in Quinnen Williams, but they are getting Folorunso Fatukasi back off the COVID-19 list. The Jets are Pro Football Focus’ fifth-best run defense and they’re eighth in run defense DVOA on Football Outsiders. They are 14th in rushing yards per game but eighth in yards per attempt.

The Browns, in theory, are built to run the ball against anyone, but with Nick Harris filling in for Wyatt Teller, they are missing a key piece to their run game. The Jets defense, meanwhile, is missing Brian Poole and Javelin Guidry is listed as doubtful, so there’s no reason Mayfield and Co. shouldn’t be able to continue moving the ball effectively through the air.

The Sam Darnold experience

Darnold is coming off his best game of the season in Sunday’s win. He completed 22 of 31 passes for 207 yards and a score. He notched his second-best game grade from PFF this season. It was perfect, Jets-esque timing considering they were barreling towards landing his replacement in the draft until the win over the Rams took them out of the driver’s seat for the No. 1 pick and Trevor Lawrence.

The only chance the Jets really have is if Darnold stays hot and plays somewhere close to the player they thought they were getting when they picked him two spots after Baker Mayfield in 2018. Darnold has been a picture of inconsistency. He has had 12 multi-touchdown games in his career and nine multi-interception games. He has thrown four touchdown passes in a game once in his career and thrown four interceptions in a game twice. He’s had exactly as many games with fewer than 200 passing yards as he’s had games with more than 200 passing yards.

It hasn’t been great for Darnold, but he might try to make the case over the next two weeks for the Jets to give him one more year if they aren’t enamored with Justin Fields.

Setting up the battle for the north

The “have their cake and eat it, too” scenario for the Browns is to win Sunday, get the help they need from either the Giants or Raiders (Las Vegas plays Miami on Saturday night) and have the Colts beat the Steelers. It would mean they clinch a playoff spot and still have a shot to win the AFC North.

The alternative might be getting no help, still having a shot at the AFC North next week but making it a potential win-or-go-home depending on various scenarios. In this weird year where even an exposure to someone who tests positive for COVID-19 at the wrong time could knock a key player out of a game, it would be much better to play for a division crown with a playoff spot already locked down.