Karlos Dansby said Browns anticipated almost every play Bengals ran

When Cleveland Browns linebacker Karlos Dansby was told of the quarterback rating of the Cincinnati Bengals’ Andy Dalton on Thursday night — that would be a whopping 2.0, folks — he couldn’t contain his shock.

“Wow. Wow. Wow,” Dansby said, per the Akron Beacon. “Has that ever happened in NFL history? That’s strong, man.”

It has — but rarely. Dalton was a miserable 10-of-33 passing (30.3 percent) for 86 yards with three interceptions in Cincinnati’s 24-3 defeat at home. According to Pro Football Focus, Dalton was the first quarterback since 1989 (in regular season or playoffs) to attempt 33 passes and complete that low a percentage. It’s amazingly fitting, too, that the last guy to do it — Phil Simms — was the one who called the game for NFL Network.

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(An aside: Dalton might have been the one man who was shredded more on Twitter on Thursday night than Simms, so we think the announcer/former QB might owe Big Red a beer or two.)

So how much of it was Dalton’s putridity … and how much was the Browns’ good defense?

It was impossible not to notice the slew of overthrows on short passes and the missed connections (0-for-8 passing on throws of 15-plus yards) down the field that were at least partially Dalton’s fault.

But Dansby said the Browns were ready for almost everything the Bengals threw their way. Per the Akron Beacon:

“We knew what was coming,” Dansby said, “so we were all over it.

“We knew exactly what they wanted to do, how they wanted to do it, when they wanted to do it. We’re calling out screens. We’re calling out run plays. We’re calling out everything right there on the field.”

That’s impressive considering it was a short week for the Browns. But Dansby said there was very little the Browns hadn’t seen on tape already that the Bengals tried to execute.

“When he audibled, we knew exactly what he audibled to,” Dansby said.

Asked how many plays the Bengals ran that the Browns could not identify pre-snap, Dansby estimated “about a dozen.” The Bengals ran 63 offensive plays in the game. So more than 80 percent of them, give or take, the Browns essentially knew what was coming. That’s … sad.

The NFL literati enjoy saying that Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson is a play-calling guru (and Jackson would never correct you if you said it to him). But either he’s just not changing up his plays at a level that is challenging defenses or Dalton is incapable of expanding his repertoire.

Either way, that’s a big problem.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm