5 reasons the Pittsburgh Steelers will win their Week 6 matchup vs. Browns
The Cleveland Browns offense is designed to work off of the run game.
There is a reason why the Cleveland Browns have scored so much in their last 4 games. While they played well against the Colts, every other team they have beaten was ranked in the bottom 10 in the league at stopping the run. While Indianapolis was unable to handle a shoot out game against the Browns, without the weapons and the defenders on the outside to do it, the Ravens had the most complete defense the Browns had faced up to this point. I expect the Steelers to give Cleveland the same kind of fits when defending the run.
It all starts with my biggest surprise of the season in Tyson Alualu. He is the highest-graded defender in the league, across all position groups, against the run, per PFF. The move to the inside has revitalized his career and made him look like the first-round talent Jacksonville was expecting when they drafted him. It is no secret by now the Steelers are the best run defense in the league, as aside from that fluky 74-yard touchdown by Miles Sanders, who averaged a .5 yards per carry on the rest of his carries, they have shown the ability to completely shut down a running attack at a rate this is the second-lowest average in the league. Again, this was inflated by that one run which looked like it would’ve been for a gain of 1 or 2 had Mike Hilton not missed the tackle near the line of scrimmage.
The run defense is also bolstered by T.J. Watt being the 3rd highest graded edge defender by PFF against the run, Vince Williams, and Devin Bush who are both graded in the top 27 of linebackers against the run, and even Mike Hilton graded at 27th of cornerbacks against the run. With having two elite run defenders, and then a multitude of guys that are in the good borderline great category against the run, this defense is built to handle the kind of running attack we are expecting to see from Cleveland.