Browns vs Cowboys Game Preview.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – It’s been 239 days since the Browns fell 45-14 to the Houston Texans in their AFC Wild Card game in Houston, and Browns fans have felt every minute of those days. Here is everything you need to know heading into the Browns matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.
Home Opener Advantage?
Each team has been impressive in their season openers, which makes figuring out who has the advantage a tough task. I'll give you the numbers and let you decide.
Browns: The Browns have won their past two season openers and are 3-1 in openers under Kevin Stefanski. The Browns success at home has also been well documented posting an 8-1 record last year which was tied for the highest win total at home in all the NFL with, you guessed it, the Dallas Cowboys. The Browns also have posted a 24-10 record at home and an 8-4 record in September under Stefanski.
Cowboys: The Dallas Cowboys have also been impressive regarding season openers. The Cowboys have posted the second-highest opening-day win percentage (.633) in NFL history and have 40 opening-day wins tied for 6th all-time. The Cowboys are coming off a year last year where they routed the New York Giants 40-0 in New York in their opener. The Cowboys and Browns have faced off against each other 3 times in home openers and Dallas has come out on top every time with a 3-0 record.
Winning In The Trenches
The biggest storyline, and potentially where this game will be won, is in the trenches.
Cowboys: The Cowboys are starting two rookies on their offensive line against one of the best defensive line groups in all of football that includes NFL defensive player of the year Myles Garrett. 6’7 327lb rookie Tyler Guyton will spend a lot of time getting to know Garrett as he gets the start at Left Tackle for the Cowboys. Guyton was selected 29th overall in the 2024 NFL draft out of Oklahoma University. Guyton played a career-high 663 snaps in his final season at Oklahoma and allowed no sacks. Cooper Beebe will get the start in the middle for the Cowboys. Beebe was the 72nd overall pick by the Cowboys out of Kansas State. Beebe in his final year allowed 2 sacks and 7 hurries in his final year at Kansas State, posting an overall grade of 83.9. Both rookies played in the preseason and played well, but dealing with this defensive line will be a test they have yet to face.
Browns: The mystery surrounding who will be protecting Deshaun Watson’s blindside continues as the Browns have still not come out to confirm who will start at Left Tackle Sunday. One thing we do know for sure is that it will be either James Hudson or Jack Conklin. Conklin returned to practice last week for the first time since tearing his ACL in week 1 of last season. Conklin did not play a single snap in preseason and was out all of training camp. It appears that it has been a slow ramp-up with the all-pro Conklin, he has been limited the last two days of practice and Hudson has seen the majority of first-team reps. Hudson played 556 snaps in 2023 giving up 4 sacks and had 9 penalties which was tied for the 11th most in the NFL. One would expect that Hudson would get the start, but Stefanski has still not shut down the possibility of Conklin suiting up. Stefanski did not dismiss the idea of platooning the two linemen throughout the game. Stefanski stated that they will wait and see how Conklikn feels in pregame warmup and make a decision from there.