National NFL analysts offer early thoughts on Chiefs-Browns playoff matchup
It’s been more than 70 years since the Cleveland Browns have won multiple games in the same postseason.
To match the 1950 Browns, Cleveland will need to beat the Chiefs in Sunday’s Divisional playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.
After the Browns’ 48-37 win at Pittsburgh in a AFC Wild Card game, a number of NFL analysts and writers took an early look at the Chiefs’ game against Cleveland. Here is what was being said.
Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com picked five things to watch in each divisional playoff game.
This is one of those things about the Chiefs-Browns game: “The last time the Chiefs won a game by two scores was in Week 8 against the Jets. The last game that Patrick Mahomes played in was a 17-14 nailbiter over the Falcons at Arrowhead in Week 16, which was sneakily one of the best games of the year. The Chiefs’ pass protection and pass rush have been lackluster down the stretch. Mahomes was sacked 12 times in his last six games, while 11 of the 15 sacks Kansas City managed in the second half of the year came in three games. The tape shows the Chiefs’ lines routinely losing on both sides of the ball. In theory, this team is dominant. In reality, the Chiefs are beatable, just like the rest of the top of the NFL.”
In his “Football Morning in America” column, NBC Sports’ Peter King looked at this weekend’s games.
This is an excerpt: “Cinderella time? Can the Browns keep the miracle alive? It’ll be tough to beat the rested Super Bowl champs, obviously. But I’m not a big fan of resting healthy players for three weeks before the playoffs, which is what Kansas City did with Patrick Mahomes. By game time, it will have been 20 days between games for Mahomes, and his last game was a 55-percent, 17-point shaky win over the 4-12 Falcons at home. Hard not to like the defending champs, but it’s also hard to love them unconditionally entering their Super Bowl playoff defense.“
John Clayton of the Washington Post posed “eight big questions for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.”
This is part of what he wrote about the Chiefs: “Given the Browns’ formula as a run-first team, their chances of beating Kansas City are rooted in building a lead and draining the clock to limit Mahomes’ opportunities. That would require staving off any late-game comeback efforts by the Chiefs, who made up big deficits in both AFC playoff games last season before doing the same in their Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Mahomes’ poise after his team gets behind is remarkable, so Cleveland’s defense had better be up to the task.”
If the Browns jumped to a 35-0 halftime lead on Sunday, would the game be over? Perhaps not. The crew at “Good Morning Football” had a lively debate about whether the Chiefs could rally from a five-touchdown deficit.
Fox Sports’ Geoff Schwartz wrote a story headlined “Picture-perfect playoff pairings.”
Schwartz, the former Chiefs tackle and brother of KC offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz, wrote: “The Chiefs could lose, of course, but only if they play down to the Browns, or turn it over multiple times like the Steelers did. Many of the Steelers’ errors were unforced, coming off poor throws by Ben Roethlisberger, which is something Patrick Mahomes doesn’t often do.”
Former Panthers receiver Steve Smith Sr., speaking on the NFL Network, said the Browns have a shot to beat the Chiefs.
“If they can run the ball the way they have all year, it gives them a fighting chance,” Smith said, per Cleveland.com. “Running the ball and playing keep away from Patrick Mahomes is your only plan.
“If you’re asking Baker Mayfield to go shot for shot with Patrick Mahomes, the only way it’s going to happen is to use a basketball analogy: Patrick Mahomes is Steph Curry and Baker Mayfield is shooting free throws like Shaq.”
