The San Francisco 49ers are facing the Cleveland Browns on the road on Sunday as they look to extend their current win streak to three games.<\/p>\n
San Francisco is right in the middle of a packed NFC playoff race, currently holding the No. 7 seed in the NFC. They\u2019ve got a Week 14 bye week, and getting a win this week is a must to keep them firmly in the picture.<\/p>\n
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They face a tricky Cleveland team that has struggled offensively, but has been elite defensively, with star Myles Garrett recording 18 sacks in 11 games so far. San Francisco will need to protect the ball on offense, but there\u2019s one key thing they\u2019ll need to do to win on Sunday: contain the run.<\/p>\n
Rookie Quinshon Judkins has been a pleasant addition for the Browns, rushing for 667 yards and seven touchdowns since joining the team early in the season.<\/p>\n
Cleveland has given the rookie a significant amount of volume, as he\u2019s taken over 15 carries in seven games. Teams have limited Judkins in recent weeks, as he\u2019s failed to top 60 yards in three of the last four weeks.<\/p>\n
But, the 49ers\u2019 run defense has been both strong and susceptible at times, so they\u2019ll need to be disciplined and find a way to contain the run this weekend.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey\u2019re going to run the ball,\u201d defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said this week. \u201cNo one\u2019s really giving the young man attention, and that\u2019s the back. He\u2019s freaking good. I don\u2019t want to mispronounce his name, number 10 [Quinshon Judkins]. He\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a rookie quarterback at the helm, the Browns will try to make things easy by relying on the run game, both on the ground and in play-action. The way to combat that is with a fast start, but that\u2019s been hard against an opportunistic Cleveland defense.<\/p>\n
So, the 49ers front seven will have to be prepared against the run. They\u2019ll be without Sam Okuayinonu and Tatum Bethune this weekend, which means players will have to step up in key roles. That includes Curtis Robinson, who had his first career start, which came with ups and downs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he did a really nice job,\u201d Saleh said of Robinson. \u201cI know that he didn\u2019t fill the stat sheet up, and I\u2019m sure from his perspective, he would love to have had that happen. But, you just try to put yourself in his shoes. He\u2019s battled, he\u2019s had a lot of battles trying to find his way back into this, to get this opportunity on that stage with the type of game it was, playoff implications and all that on Monday night, where the entire football world\u2019s watching.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI thought he did an outstanding job keeping calm, relaying, communicating, taking care of the huddle, on the sidelines, making the adjustments that needed to be made. And he\u2019ll close the gap to allow him to make some of the plays that I know that he wishes he had back. But, I thought he was outstanding in that regard. And again, I expect him to get a little bit better this week. And same as everybody else. It means something to him, and because of that, he will get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sloppy conditions will likely make this a game in the trenches as well, which may keep things tighter and force both sides to rely on the run game even more.<\/p>\n
But, the 49ers must be able to contain the run to keep the Browns offense limited and weather their way to another victory on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Niners could get in an ugly game with the weather on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":126701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[94,1210,912,4711,3693,57,2412,90,12,1711,3767],"class_list":["post-126700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-curtis-robinson","tag-myles-garrett","tag-nfc-playoff-race","tag-quinshon-judkins","tag-robert-saleh","tag-sam-okuayinonu","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-tatum-bethune","tag-the-browns"],"yoast_head":"\n