2022 NFL season, Week 8: What We Learned from Brown's win over Bengals on Monday night

Joe Woods may have written another unexpected twist. Early signs of improvement came with Cleveland's narrow loss in Baltimore, a game in which the Browns largely controlled Lamar Jackson but failed to make a comeback. With another top talent in the middle and a number of key players out injured, Brown answered the call with great success. With an attack currently unavoidable from a wet paper bag, Bengalis passing by had trouble most of the night. It started with a deflected pass from Joe Burrow that ended in an interception and continued with Cleveland's continued abuse of Burrow with five sacks and a forced error. The Browns turned into an unexpectedly opportunistic defense, forcing two hole turnovers and, more importantly, limiting offense averaging nearly 300 yards from Sunday 4-7. After six weeks out of action, Brown is starting to look like he's entering the second half of the 2021 season. This might be the perfect time for Woods to keep his job -- and potentially turn Cleveland's season around.

Joe Burrow's winning streak against the Browns continues. Burrow's resume doesn't need to be mentioned here, but for some reason he couldn't find a way to beat the team he once supported. Burrow is now 0-4 in the game against the Browns in his pro career and lost twice at Cleveland with a very different line-up. When Burrow last lost at FirstEnergy Stadium, his Bengals team slowly made their way into the competition in their debut season. This time, after lighting up the scoreboard at home a week earlier, his Bengals were expected to win. Instead, they were out in one place, allowing a wildly excited Browns side to snatch an all-night win. This is officially the focus of his career and since he will have two meetings a year with state rivals, it won't be the last we hear of. But Cincinnati wanted to get over that as quickly as possible.

The Browns finally committed to running the ball. The discourse on the Browns' four-game losing streak focused on two key moments: a disappointing defense and a lack of quick effort for Nick Chubb. Browns fans doing their homework will be pleased to know that Chubb hit 23 shots Monday night—a key point for Cleveland was Chubb's 20 tries—and he did his best, getting 101 yards and scoring two goals. After being too cute at the start of the game, Kevin Stefanski turns to his familiar back and asks for extra help to get the job done. He sent seven offensive linemen to the goal-line pack which saw Chubb take a direct kick to score. In the next two-point conversion attempt, Stefanski threw another midfielder (Drew Forbes) up the block as a fullback, giving the Browns an 8-0 lead and giving Cleveland the satisfaction he so desperately wanted. Cleveland is at its best when it comes to having the ball on the ground, and Monday night's 172 yards proved that.

Cincinnati needs to clean up the details. The Bengals came out Monday night without issue, plain and simple as if their win over the Falcons gave them another win over a struggling Browns side. Missed passes on key downs and minor errors appeared in the first three quarters, and the loss of cornerback Chidobe Auzie only made the task more difficult for the Cincinnati defence. When the Bengals started their first drive of the night, they committed a 95-yard foul in the third quarter with less than four minutes left. That number came from a team that had gained 537 yards eight days earlier. When Bengalis awaken from their 40-minute nap, the deficit is too great for them to overcome. If Cincinnati is to prove it's not a one-time AFC contender, it will have to avoid shows like Monday night.

Cleveland learned how to finish the game. For the first time since the Browns' Week 3 win over Pittsburgh, they finally seized the opportunity to push the team away and capitalized on it. The tip of the hat came from Amari Cooper, who intercepted a trick play and then returned to catch the key reception trio who directly contributed to Cleveland's bottom line. The first was a 27-yard advantage on the crossing route, and that was followed by a touchdown moments later. Finally, on a third and long pass, Jacoby Brissett crossed for Cooper, who separated two defenders to receive a pass from 53 yards that extended Cleveland's vital drive and scored. Without that scramble, the Browns could have put another team back into the game they should have avoided. Instead, they could ask Chubb and Kareem Hunt to slam the door. As tomorrow's trading deadline approaches, we'll see if Brown still has both halves of that backfield tandem. But for one night they proved just as important - with a valuable off-season acquisition.

Next Generation Game Stats: Jacoby Brissett completed 8 of 9 passes from 10+ yards for 216 yards in win over Bengals.

NFL Research: Myles Garrett had 1.5 sacks Monday night, giving him a career 9.0 against the Bengals, the most against any team (the Jets). He was also sacked in five consecutive games against the Bengals.

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