BALTIMORE — The nostalgia will be thick at M&T Bank Stadium. More important, one team will be 0-2 when all is said and done.
The new Browns and the old Browns, er, Ravens, meet in Week 2 with matching scars from painful losses in their openers. Cleveland missed two big kicks and watched two passes bounce off wide receivers’ hands to become interceptions in a 17-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Baltimore had most of America heading to bed late in the fourth quarter when it built a 15-point road lead over the Buffalo Bills. Most of America woke up to find out the Ravens had given up 16 points in the final 3:56 as the Bills came back for a 41-40 win.
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A team that starts 0-2 has less than a 12% chance of making the NFL playoffs through 2024. The Browns, though, know 0-2 only makes the next several weeks even more of a climb against arguably the top three NFC North teams — Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings — plus a road game at Pittsburgh, where they haven’t won a regular-season game since 2003.
Speaking of going back in time, there’s going to be a lot of that in Baltimore as well. The Ravens are celebrating their 30th season in the city against the team representing the city from which they took the franchise after the 1995 season, and against a team being quarterbacked by the player who led the Ravens to their second Super Bowl win.
Got that? If you’re reading this, you probably already knew that.
As for the game itself, here’s a preview of it from a variety of angles:
Cleveland Browns offensive matchup of the game vs. Baltimore Ravens: WR Jerry Jeudy vs. CB Marlon Humphrey or S Kyle Hamilton
Both of the individual matchups were made quite easy this week. That’s because in both instances Browns players decided to say something that at least drew extra attention to themselves. In this specific case, it was wide receiver Jerry Jeudy saying there were “no challenges” created by the Ravens secondary. It is absolutely true that Bills QB Josh Allen threw for 394 yards against that secondary in Week 1. It’s also absolutely true that Cleveland — Jameis Winston, to be exact — threw for 334 yards against that back four in a Week 8 win last season. Finally, it’s also true that only Jacksonville gave up more passing yards per game in 2024 than the 244.1 yards Baltimore allowed. Still, it’s also true that cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who may get a lot of run guarding his fellow former Alabama Crimson Tide standout Jeudy, was tied for third in the league with six interceptions in 2024 and his 19 picks since 2017 is most by any Ravens defender in that time. Oh, and it’s also true that if safety Kyle Hamilton, who had an interception return for a touchdown on the first play of these teams’ 2023 meeting in Baltimore, would have held onto the ball late in that Week 8 game in Cleveland last year, Cam Ward and not Joe Flacco might be the one throwing passes to Jeudy in this game.
Cleveland Browns defensive matchup of the game vs. Baltimore Ravens: S Grant Delpit vs. RB Derrick Henry
This is another one where a Browns player opened his mouth, and by his own teammates’ admission now has to back up that talk. Safety Grant Delpit said “not hard” when asked how hard it was to tackle Ravens future Hall of Fame running back Derrick Henry. That’s the same Henry who ran for 1,921 yards last season, and whose 11,592 career total is miles ahead of the next-closest active running back. The same Henry who ran for 138 yards, with 83 yards after contact as well, in the Ravens’ Week 18 win over the Browns in this same stadium. There is some context as to why Delpit, who is easily was of the three biggest trash talkers on the Browns, would say what he said. One of the biggest is the past success, save for the final game of a season given up on in 2024, Cleveland has had defending against Henry. In seven games all time against the Browns, the running back is averaging 56.4 rushing yards on 13 carries. The next-highest total for him against the Browns, after the finale last season, is 84 yards in the 2019 season opener wen he was with the Tennessee Titans. Even in the first meeting last season in Cleveland, Henry had just 73 yards — his third-highest total against the Browns, it should be pointed out. So what’s to be made of Delpit’s words? Henry gets the final say here, because it’s accurate: “We’re going to see on Sunday.”
3 burning questions for Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens
3 key numbers for Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens
29 games
The Browns have been a stingy bunch against the pass since Jim Schwartz became defensive coordinator in 2023. No stat shows that better than the league-best 29 consecutive games in which Cleveland has not allowed a 300-yard passer. The last one to do that against the Browns was Gardner Minshew II, who threw for 305 yards for the Indianapolis Colts in a 39-38 Cleveland win in Week 7 in 2023.
150 yards, 2 TDs
Henry is tied with Browns legend Jim Brown with 13 career games of at least 150 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. This is technically two stats in one, but they go hand in hand because it’s hard to imagine the Ravens running back reaching that yardage mark without getting into the end zone a couple of times as well. Considering the fact Henry’s going to be looking for his yards, and the Ravens may very well be happy to give him them, it’s one to watch in the game.
4-4
Baltimore has owned the team that replaced it in Cleveland in 1999 for most of this series. The Ravens hold a 37-15 all-time mark against the Browns, including 26-8 since John Harbaugh became the head coach in 2008. The past four seasons, however, have been as competitive as the series has been since the final seven seasons (2001-07) of Brian Billick’s tenure in Baltimore, when the teams were 7-7 against each other. The Browns and Ravens have split the last eight games, and split the season series in each of those four seasons. That 4-4 stretch, however, includes just one win for Cleveland in Baltimore, which is where this game is being played.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns at Ravens preview | Key matchups, questions and stats for 2025 Week 2 road game
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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