Browns' Jabrill Peppers on Hue Jackson: Looking Forward to Kicking His Ass Again

As the Cleveland Browns prepare for Round 2 against Hue Jackson and the Cincinnati Bengals, defensive back Jabrill Peppers is once again hoping to stick it to his former coach. 

On Monday, Peppers made it clear that he had no ill will toward Jackson and he was grateful that the ex-Browns coach took a chance on him. However, he is "still looking forward to kicking his ass again" on Sunday, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com:

It's deja vu.

Prior to the Ohio rivals' first meeting of the season back in Week 12, Peppers was one of several Browns players to speak out after Jackson took a role with the Bengals as a special assistant to head coach Marvin Lewis.

"We wish him the best but we're still going to go out there and kick their ass Sunday," Peppers said on Nov. 23, per Cabot.

Sure enough, Peppers and Co., backed up their talk. Cleveland jumped out to a 28-point first-half lead in Cincinnati and never looked back on its way to a 35-20 victory.

Thanks to a four-game losing streak, Cleveland was 2-6-1 and in last place in the AFC North at the time of Jackson's firing. Since then, the Browns have won four of their last five under interim coach Gregg Williams and jumped the Bengals, who have lost seven of their last nine games.

Cincinnati has 14 players, including quarterback Andy Dalton (thumb), receiver A.J. Green (toe) and tight end Tyler Eifert (ankle), on injured reserve and may also be without 1,000-yard wideout Tyler Boyd (knee). All of that combined with the teams' recent trends have the Browns as seven-point favorites at home, according to OddsShark.

Beating their former coach isn't the only motivation for the Browns heading into Week 16, either. If they can win out to get to 8-7-1, it would mark their first winning season since 2007.