Saints' Brees is bracing for an improving Browns team

NEW ORLEANS—Drew Brees is in his 13th year playing for the Saints— and it's been about that long since he's beaten the Cleveland Browns.

Brees' first game with New Orleans was a victory at Cleveland in 2006. The Browns have won the past two meetings in 2010 and 2014.

"Man, they've been tough games against these guys," Brees recalled this week as he prepared for his latest

clash with Cleveland on Sunday.

While the Saints (0-1) made the playoffs last season, they’ve opened the season with an upset loss at home to Tampa Bay. Cleveland (0-0-1) comes in with a marginally better record after its opener against Pittsburgh finished in a tie.

And Brees doesn’t want to hear about how the Browns haven’t won a game since 2016—not after watching Cleveland’s defense produce six Steelers turnovers last weekend.

If Cleveland were to end a long winless streak in the Superdome on Sunday, it wouldn’t be the first time.

When the current incarnation of the Browns joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1999, they arrived in New Orleans winless through seven games and wound up celebrating their first victory after Tim Couch’s 56-yard heave as time expired found Kevin Johnson in the end zone. The lasting image for Saints fans was deflated thencoach Mike Ditka lying face-down on the turf.

For the Saints to avoid falling on their collective faces against Cleveland again, New Orleans’ defense likely will have to improve on the more than 500 yards it allowed to the Bucs in Week 1.