Cardinals vs. Browns: What's the Game Plan for Cleveland?

Stopping the run won’t be any easier for the Cleveland Browns in Week 8. Arizona running backs Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington, along with a Cardinals offensive line that’s playing at a very high level, are not going to be easy to contain.

Johnson has six runs of 20 yards or more, and the Browns are second-worst in the league when it comes to giving up those big runs, allowing 10 this season—four of which went for 40 or more yards. They have also surrendered 17 runs of 15 yards or more and five runs of 25-plus yards.

But there’s more to this matchup than that obvious mismatch. Let’s take a look at some of the things to watch for in this one.

Offensive Game Plan

Duke Johnson has the fifth-most receptions for a running back with 31 so far in 2015. The Browns will need his utility in their short-passing game against Arizona’s top-10 rush defense. One thing the Cardinals have allowed, though, is the 26th most receiving yards to opposing running backs, per ESPN.com.

Chalk that up to them holding leads for much of the season, but their aggressiveness will lead to getting the ball out quickly. Arizona blitzed Baltimore on 50 percent of Joe Flacco’s dropbacks in Week 7, according to Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun. That aggressiveness and willingness to blitz means getting Johnson into space may be tough this week in one-back sets.

Pro Football Focus’ evaluation of Josh McCown under pressure last week against St. Louis wasn’t kind (h/t Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer).

Neither McCown or the under-fire Browns offensive line were good last week against St. Louis’ tough defensive front. The Rams utilized a lot of four-man pass rushes and were still able to get pressure. The Cardinals will blitz every defensive player on their roster at some point this Sunday. Not really, but the actual number will probably be somewhere close to that.

One way to help McCown mitigate those more-than-certain rushes is to keep one tight end and one running back in for protection. But he’ll have to do a better job diagnosing those blitzes pre-snap at the line of scrimmage. Here’s a quick shot from Shaq Barrett’s strip-sack of McCown in Week 6.

Source: NFL Gamepass

McCown doesn’t even look to his left, where he has a tight end and fullback lined up outside right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. He runs the play as is despite the blitz clearly overloading his right side. Instead of audibling to change the play or blocking responsibilities, he snapped it, and Barrett was unblocked and caused the fumble.

Arizona will do a lot of overloading and won’t make it easy for McCown to know who is coming and who’s dropping into coverage.

Defensive Game Plan

It’s impossible to ignore that the Cardinals offense and Browns defense are playing on polar opposites of the “resembles-an-NFL-team” spectrum. Arizona’s offense ranks fourth in rushing with 125.6 yards per game, while the Browns are giving up a woeful 151 on the ground per contest.

But the Cards are far from one dimensional. With quarterback Carson Palmer back this season, Bruce Arians’ vertical offense has truly been able to take flight. They’re also sixth in passing offense, with 281.0 yards per game. Having three explosive players in veteran Larry Fitzgerald and youngsters John Brown and Michael Floyd at receiver probably helps.

Johnson’s resurgence this season has helped aid that balance that eluded them last season.

Ellington is also seemingly back to full strength health-wise, so accounting for him on delayed routes out of the backfield on short passes—that should be common sense for the Browns, but it’s not—is as vital as containing Johnson and tackling properly.

There’s not much the Browns can do to scheme this Cardinals offense. They have good players, but they just need to execute and not play sloppy, undisciplined football as they have at times this season. However, they have done a better job lately, just not for four quarters.

Palmer hasn’t been sacked much this season—just 10 times—but turning up the pressure with run blitzes and heavy pass rushes on obvious passing downs might be worth a chance this week. Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil has shied away from selling out in those situations, but he isn’t getting much pressure with his current plan.

It would behoove him to unleash some of his pass-rushers this week, instead of trying to beat Palmer and his dynamic offensive weapons in coverage.

Key Matchups

QB Josh McCown vs. Cardinals DC James Bettcher

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

James Bettcher served as Todd Bowles’ outside linebacker assistant coach the last two seasons and hasn’t disappointed with his play-calling. Coach Bruce Arians obviously liked Bowles’ system and wanted it to continue, and it hasn’t missed a beat under Bettcher.

McCown must be the better of the pair and has to be able to get a read on what he’s doing. If Bettcher wins the confusion game at the line of scrimmage, McCown is going to have another rough day against pressure.

And with a sore shoulder, that could be a problem if McCown reenacts last week's punching bag audition in St. Louis.

Notably, Bettcher coached Robert Mathis to his first Pro Bowl season at outside linebacker while with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. Mathis’ former teammate Dwight Freeney signed with the Cardinals on Oct. 12.

OLBs Markus Golden/Dwight Freeney vs. OTs Mitchell Schwartz/Joe Thomas

Speaking of Freeney, the 35-year-old veteran earned career sack No. 112.5 last week with an absurd spin move and takedown of Flacco, his first of the season for Arizona. Schwartz has seen another spin move like that this year when Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders blew by him to throw down McCown.

Golden and Freeney have just two combined sacks so this could be a quiet battle, but it’s vital these two keep McCown from the edges.

DE Calais Campbell vs. OG Joel Bitonio

You know who Calais Campbell is by this point. He’s one of, if not the, very best 3-4 defensive ends in the league. Here’s a couple of reactions from Monday night against Baltimore, in case you need a refresher:

"

Calais Campbell just does everything.

— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) October 27, 2015"

While not 7’4”, Campbell is a mountain of a man at 6’8” and 300 pounds. He’ll get second-year guard Joel Bitonio in this one, and he has the power to shut down everything to the left side of the Browns offensive if Bitonio doesn’t start resembling the rookie who jumped off the film in 2014.

Prediction

Norm Hall/Getty Images

The Cardinals are stacked on both sides of the ball, and the Browns look lost along the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They might turn it around eventually, but it’s tough to see this week being the time.

Arizona presents matchup problems in every facet of the game, starting with Johnson and Palmer, but also with Fitzgerald, Floyd and Brown. Defensively they’re playing at a really high level and swarming quarterbacks to force a league-leading 12 interceptions. They haven’t gotten home with only 12 sacks to this point, but the blitzes are having positive effects.

Expect the Browns to take advantage of some of those blitzes, though, and keep this game competitive for most of the game. McCown has been bad in spurts against pressure, but he has also had flashes of brilliance this season. Blitzing as much as Arizona does will give Johnson, Travis Benjamin and Taylor Gabriel plenty of opportunity to make splash plays.

But Arizona’s offensive juggernaut combined with that defense is just too much to overcome, even at home. Palmer and the Cards should win comfortably enough to head into their bye week with an impressive 6-2 start.

Final Prediction: Cardinals 24, Browns 18

Unless otherwise noted, all stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com.

Mike Hoag (@MikeHoagJr) is a Cleveland Browns Gameday Correspondent for Bleacher Report and the managing editor of Browns Beat.