Shedeur Sanders Tabbed to Get Big News After Patriots Game
The Cleveland Browns earned rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel the first victory of NFL career after losing in his first two starts, when they ran over the increasingly hapless Miami Dolphins 31-6 last Sunday. But Gabriel was barely a factor in the game, completing just 13 of 18 passes for 116 yards without a touchdown pass.
Now, in Week Eight, Gabriel faces his toughest test so far when he goes on the road and faces the league’s fifth-ranked defense, rated by points allowed per game, in the New England Patriots. In fact, the Patriots defense is predicted, in a new analysis by
That means, according to the Bleacher Report prediction, Shedeur Sanders — the most heavily publicized quarterback to have never taken an NFL snap — will finally get his opportunity to serve as the Browns’ starter.
Gabriel Faces Toughest Test Against New England
Gabriel has faced three defenses so far. In his debut as a starter, the Browns managed 17 points against the Minnesota Vikings, a team that through Week Seven has now allowed 23.1 points per game. The following week, Gabriel and the Browns scraped together only nine points facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, a defense that has allowed 23.3 per game.
The 31-point total last week was somewhat impressive against Miami, which has become a shambles of a team, and whose defense ranks near the bottom of the league allowing 29.3 points per game.
New England has allowed only 19, making the Patriots one of only five teams to permit opponents fewer than 20 points per game through the first seven weeks of the season.
“Probably not the most promising matchup for stater Dillion Gabriel,” the B/R analysis said, in a video posted to the site on Friday. “And next week is the Browns’ bye week. When better than a bye week to switch to the backup quarterback and add a spark to the offense?”
Ideal Timing to Elevate Sanders to QB1
Making the switch after the Browns face the Patriots — assuming Gabriel does not rise to the occasion against the stingy New England D — would allow Sanders an extra week of practice reps, and those reps would be taken with the first team, the
“Who would Shedeur be making his first start against?” asked Bleacher Report. “The Jets — who rank 26th out of 32 teams in terms of points allowed.”
That assertion in correct. The Jets defense has surrendered an average of 26.1 points over the team’s first seven games — which still makes them better than the Dolphins, but nonetheless an ideal team for a quarterback making first NFL start — and indeed, his first NFL appearance — to face, just to get his feet wet.
“The next few weeks have just shaped up as perfect timing for Cleveland to hand the reins to Shedeur Sanders, especially if Gabriel struggles against New England,” the B/R analysis concluded.
Sanders Health Could Stand in His Way
There is one complicating factor, however. That would be Sanders’ health. According to ESPN Browns reporter Daniel Oyefusi in a Saturday report, the Browns plan to list Sanders as “questionable” on their injury report due to a back issue.
That means the backup quarterback against New England will likely be none other than former Patriots backup Bailey Zappe, who started eight games for New England in 2022 and 2023, coming away with wins in four of them — including a 38-15 trouncing of the Browns on October 16, 2022.
The Ben Johnson Experience Was On Full Display in Bears Win Over Cowboys
To paraphrase the late Dennis Green, in a spotlight game on Sunday afternoon versus the Dallas Cowboys, the Chicago Bears proved that they
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the Bears played a perfect game. There’s still room for improvement, areas of concern that will need to be monitored throughout the season and fundamental flaws with the way this team has been constructed… but now there’s also proof of concept, because
After a three and out on their opening drive of the game, the Bears offense looked like a well-oiled machine for the rest of the afternoon, overwhelming the Cowboys defense with explosive plays in the 1st half, and then breaking them down with body blows in the 2nd half. Consider, the Bears had five plays of 25 yards or more in the first half, including a jaw-dropping
Caleb also found Colston Loveland for 31 yards on the opening drive, and followed that up two plays later with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Rome Odunze. There was a 41-yard screen pass to D’Andre Swift and a 29-yard laser to Burden again to set up the final score of the 1st half. Do yourself a favor and go back and watch that 29-yarder to Burden again. The touch that Caleb had to put on that ball to layer it over multiple defenders was next level.
Bears Run Game Comes Alive in 2nd Half
Speaking of next level, we once again found out at halftime that Ben Johnson is a next level competitive psycho, because his takeaway from the 1st half — a half in which Chicago led 24-14 and had nearly 300 yards of total offense — was that the Bears were relying
Technically, he wasn’t wrong. The Bears managed only 36 yards on 10 carries in the 1st half, highlighting a problem that had plagued them through the first two games of the season. But then after forcing the Cowboys to punt on their first drive of the second half, the smashmouth rushing attack that Johnson had on display so frequently as the offensive coordinator of the Lions came alive against the Cowboys.
On the Bears first drive of the 3rd quarter, they methodically worked the ball down the field on a 19-play, 76 yard, 9 minute and 54 second drive that included 11 consecutive plays where the Bears kept the ball on the ground and imposed their will on a Dallas defense that was all out of sorts with all of the motion and misdirection the Bears were throwing at them.
In typical Ben Johnson fashion, the drive concluded with a pass to a wide open DJ Moore on 4th and goal from the 4-yard line. Nail, meet coffin. Ben Johnson, grab yourself a game ball.
A visit to Las Vegas comes next Sunday afternoon, and based on what both the Raiders and Bears looked like today, there’s good reason to believe that Chicago could leave Las Vegas with a win. Then comes a bye week, and after that a primetime matchup with the Washington Commanders, where the Bears season, for all intents and purposed, ended last year.
They’ll need to take care of business on the road in Vegas and get healthier over their bye week, but it does appear that there could be a golden opportunity for the Bears to begin to write a far different story in Washington than the one that unfolded there last season, because unlike last year, the Bears
