Crew TNF: Fannin faces his old franchise
Tonight's Browns–Steelers game features 4 franchises and 4 players.
Pittsburgh is at Cleveland tonight, 8:15 Eastern. Four Crew starters are in it, one each for four franchises, across three matchups. Only one matchup has a starter on both sides.
🕳️ TBH vs 🍆 ZJ
🕳️ TBH leads 9–6, but the meetings worth remembering are the two in December, for how little happened in them. 76.0 to 64.0 in 2017 and 65.6 to 79.8 last year are the second- and third-lowest-scoring postseason games on record, out of 220.
The lowest of all, in 2016, was also 🍆 ZJ’s, against 🦞 Doug. 🍆 ZJ has played in all three of the lowest-scoring postseason games, and in four of the six lowest-scoring games of any kind. The latest of those was last week, 64.8 to 77.6.
🕳️ TBH helped make last December’s game what it was. It started Alvin Kamara at flex on a day he was scratched, and lost by 14.3. That was its fourteenth lineup blunder since 2015. Only 💨 LTF has more.
Harold Fannin Jr. starts at tight end for 🕳️ TBH, and he was 🍆 ZJ’s tight end last season. 🍆 ZJ went 2–5 in his seven starts. One of the losses was 106.9 to 108.6, against 🕳️ TBH, by less than two points. 🍆 ZJ benched him for the December meeting and won it. 🕳️ TBH drafted him 80th this year, and his 22.7 last week is his best in its lineup.
🍆 ZJ starts Steelers D/ST, with 136 starts at 7.6 PPG across twelve franchises. Thirty-three of those starts are 🍆 ZJ’s, the sixth-most any franchise has given one defense. The defense scores 9.7 a game for 🍆 ZJ and 6.8 for everyone else, and 🍆 ZJ is 14–19 in those starts anyway.
🦞 Doug vs ⏪ RTRO
The series is level at 12–11, and it took 🦞 Doug a decade to get there. ⏪ RTRO won eight of the first ten. One of them was the 2015 championship game, 138.1 to 97.1, which gave ⏪ RTRO its first title. Since 2017 🦞 Doug is 9–3. ⏪ RTRO won the latest, 151.5 to 118.5.
🦞 Doug has not started a player who could not score since week 15 of 2013, when it started a scratched Maurice Jones-Drew. That means a starter who was scratched, on a bye or off an NFL roster. Every other franchise in the league has started one at least once since 2015, and 🕳️ TBH has done it fourteen times.
Jaylen Warren starts at running back for 🦞 Doug. 🧪 CLI drafted him three years running, and 🦞 Doug took him 75th this year. He has scored 15.7 a game for 🦞 Doug and 11.0 for everyone else, and 🦞 Doug has lost both games he started. The second was last week, 135.8 to 141.1, against 🧪 CLI. He scored 22.0 in it, the second-best start of his Crew career.
🦅 Pwns vs 👨🍳 M&R
🦅 Pwns is 2–3 against 👨🍳 M&R, one meeting a year since it arrived in 2022. The first, 82.7 to 162.2, is still the second-heaviest defeat 🦅 Pwns has ever taken. 👨🍳 M&R won the latest, 113.3 to 119.3.
Last week’s preview said 🦅 Pwns had lost in week 3 three years running and had never won four in a row. Then it won 131.1 to 93.2. Now it is 3–0 for the first time, and its four-game winning streak is a franchise record. Tonight is week 4, and 🦅 Pwns is 0–4 in week 4. It starts nobody tonight.
👨🍳 M&R has been knocked out of the playoffs five times since 2015, and every time it was 🦞 Doug or 💨 LTF. 🦞 Doug did it in 2015 and again last year. 💨 LTF did it in 2019, 2020 and 2022, which were three straight trips.
Quinshon Judkins starts at running back. 🕳️ TBH drafted him 89th last year and started him eleven times, at 12.4 a game. 👨🍳 M&R spent the 44th pick on him this year. He has scored 6.6, 8.8 and 9.5 for it: rising every week, but not yet in double figures.