Cleveland offense vs. St. Louis defense

	BROWNS OFFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	Run	26
	Pass	31
	Tot. Yds.	31
	Scoring	31
	Int's allowed	4
	Sacks allowed	25
	RAMS DEFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	vs. Run	3
	vs. Pass	12
	Total yds. allowed	6
	No. of INTs	9
	No. of Sacks	13
	Turnover differential	-2

It is clear that the Browns offense has found a way to move the ball by spreading the field and going to the short passing game as a low-risk approach. Tim Couch is used to running a wide-open offense because of his days at Kentucky, and is most effective as a passer when he can throw a lot of short, timing routes to his receivers. Couch has a very catchable ball and a great knack for hitting the short crossing and flat route receivers in stride.

St. Louis' challenge is to force the Cleveland passing game to become more of a pro-style, downfield attack, giving the front four time to get into their pass rush moves. The linebackers are going to be covering a lot of the flat and underneath areas in order to take away Couch's short to intermediate reads. The Rams are confident that if they force Couch into second and third reads downfield, they will disrupt the timing of the passing game and create enough time for their front four to exploit some of the Browns weaknesses on the offensive line.

Here is how the Rams are going to get to Tim Couch with a four man rush and just one linebacker coming on the blitz: Demarco Farr will shade over so that he is almost head up on OC Dave Wahlebaugh, assuring that RG Scott Rehberg, the team's most inexperienced and most exposed offensive lineman, is left without help. On the left side of the defensive line, Kevin Carter and Ray Agnew will run a lot of stunts that will allow Carter to use his speed and strength advantage on the inside versus Rehberg. Agnew will twist to the outside, where he is not much of a pass rush threat, but the team will blitz OLB Mike Jones in the D gap, forcing OT Orlando Brown to pick up either Agnew or Jones, which means that one of the two will have a free lane into the backfield. At this point, the Browns will either be forced to keep a back in to pick up the extra man in pass protection on the right side, or the rookie quarterback will be forced to get rid of the ball -- throwing off the timing of the pattern.

The simple fact in this matchup is that the Browns are going to have to throw the ball 50-or-more times on Sunday in order to keep up with the Rams. Not only will the Browns be playing catchup football for most of the game, but their insignificant run game stands no chance against the league's third-best run defense, yielding 66.3-yards per game on the ground. The Browns' Terry Kirby is not an every down back, and though he will flash on occasion, he wears down as the game progresses, he fumbles too much and he dances in the hole instead of heading north/south. (Editor's Note: RB Karim Abdul-Jabar was sent to the Browns on Tuesday)

Cleveland has been able to generate pressure from its UFO defense, which features seven-man fronts, all in two-point stances, giving the offense confusion at the line of scrimmage. The idea behind the UFO defense is to stand the entire defensive front up at the line and fluster the offensive line by dropping some of the personnel in coverage while the rest of the front seven rush the passer. Teams are having trouble with assignments because there is no telling which players are coming and which players are dropping off.

The problem with running this defense against the Rams is that the secondary is left unprotected and will be exploited in man-to-man coverage. The Browns will be limited to running the UFO defense only a handful of times, because the sensible base set against the Rams is to use nickel personnel. Corners Daylon McCutheon, Ryan McNeil and nickel back Raymond Jackson will play bump-and-run close to the line of scrimmage and will need excellent help from the safeties, Marques Pope and Corey Fuller, in the deep third, much like a two-deep look. The biggest mismatch will be OLB Rahim Abdullah trying to spy Marshall Faulk out of the backfield. If Abdullah gets burned, and he likely will, one of the corners will be forced to break off the receiver and cover Faulk in the flats, leaving a 5-10 yard window for Warner to hook up with his outside receiver before the safety can get to the sideline in coverage.

The one advantage to spying Faulk with an outside linebacker is that it leaves seven men in the box to defend the run. The Brown's defensive line has improved every game versus the run and clearly controlled the line of scrimmage last week against the Jaguars. The Browns' linebacking corps has also done a nice job of filling in run support and have been extremely active, flying to the ball. Nonetheless, the Browns rank 31st in the league against the run, allowing 151.8 yards per game on the ground. Marshall Faulk will make the Brown pay for concentrating on the passing game as he did last week to the Falcons when he rushed for 181 yards on 18 carries.

Because of the offenses' superiority this season, the punter and field goal kicker have had few opportunities in the first five games. Az-zahir Hakim ranks No. 2 in the league on punt returns, averaging 15.5-yards per return with a long of 84 yards and a touchdown. Tony Horne (suspended on Wednesday) has also been an amazing boost to this unit, leading the league on kickoff returns with a 36.0 average and a long of 101 yards and two touchdowns.