Titans-Browns inactives, preview notes

The inactives are out for today’s game at FirstEnergy Stadium as the Titans visit the Browns, and here they are:

CLEVELAND BROWNS: TE E.J. Bibbs, DB Ibraheim Campbell, DL Xavier Cooper, CB Justin Gilbert, QB Josh McCown, OLB Scott Solomon, RB Robert Turbin

TENNESSEE TITANS: RB Antonio Andrews, NT Sammie Hill, CB Jason McCourty, CB Cody Riggs, G Quinton Spain, TE Delanie Walker, QB Charlie Whitehurst

A couple consequential injuries that will affect both teams. Andrews, Hill, and Riggs were all Out on the injury report, so the only real question mark was the status of Walker’s hand injury. My cynical joke interpretation of “Questionable” is “will play if good,” but my guess was he was more truly questionable than that. With him down, Chase Coffman makes his season debut and slots into the perhaps the same position in the gameplan. Given Walker was likely going to be limited even if healthy, my guess is that’s still no guarantee of targets.

For the Browns, the big news is to make really official what we knew Friday, that Josh McCown did not clear the concussion protocol and Johnny Manziel would be the starting quarterback. The Browns had four other Questionable players, Gilbert and Dwayne Bowe, Desmond Bryant, and Karlos Dansby. Three out of the four of those playing is, I believe, roughly in line with what you would expect despite “Questionable” supposed to mean more like 50-50.

I tried watching last week’s Browns-Jets game and actually writing something about it. I kind of gave up on that last year because I thought it was pointless; the 2014 Titans did one thing well most weeks, but what it was varied and I never got into a rhythm where I felt I could reliably look at matchups and say “here is where the Titans will do well” for any given week (saying where the 2014 Titans were not likely to do well was easy, which, y’know, 2-14). Previewing this game was exasperating for different reasons. The first, to quote something from my Football Outsiders colleague Cian Fahey on Twitter, “This Titans-Browns game is tough. Titans clearly better at QB, TE and WR, Browns may be better everywhere else.” Walker’s absence limits the edge at tight end, at least in the passing game, but I pretty much agree with his comment.

Second, both teams were involved in lopsided Week 1 contests. The Titans decisively and thoroughly outplayed and outcoached the Buccaneers last week and were in control of the game throughout. The Browns bumbled and stumbled too much of their time against the Jets in New Jersey and did not stand out on either offense or defense. But the Browns are a lot harder to play against, especially on defense, than the Buccaneers were, while the Titans aren’t as talented as the Jets. So, the first games could indicate the Titans are much better than the 6-10 squad I expected them to be and/or the Browns are worse than the squad I expected them to be and/or it’s just one week of games and your overall perspective on either team should not change very much. My position is mostly the last one.

If you want to say the two teams are who we thought they were before the season began, than I think the edge for this game goes to Cleveland, at least slightly. Mike Pettine’s defense will give Marcus Mariota troubles, and the Titans will have trouble sustaining any sort of consistent offense. They had some line breakdowns last week, but it didn’t matter much because of the overall gameplan and the game script. Both those will be harder to manage this week. The Browns will have an easier time running the ball than they did last week (Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson combined to go 19-42 on the ground), but I’m not sure they’ll have enough to sustain a victory that way. Rather, I’d expect mostly an evenly played game whose fate is decided by a handful of big plays, whether one or both of the mobile quarterbacks doing something after buying time with his legs or our old friend turnovers or just a handful of big plays like the last Titans game in Cleveland. The line on this game shifted after Week 1, going from the Browns being favored by a couple points (the home edge of 2.5-3 plus maybe a point) to the Titans favored by 1. I may be a bit cautious or just shell-shocked after last season came crashing down in Week 2 after a great Week 1 win, but I think the line shift is wrong, that the line was right where it was. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Titans win today.