Giants vs. Browns: 5 things to know about Week 3

The New York Giants (0-2) head out to Northeast Ohio to face the Cleveland Browns (1-1) in an interconference battle between two of the NFL’s most recognizable brands.

Here are five things to know before Sunday’s game.

The series

From 1950 through 1995 and then from 1999-present, the Giants and Browns have met 50 times in the regular season with Cleveland having the 27-21-2 advantage.

The Giants, however, have won three of the last five meetings between the teams with the most recent victory coming on November 27, 2016 (27-13).

The Browns are one of three AFC teams to advance to the Super Bowl (Houston and Jacksonville are the others). They were an NFL franchise from 1950-69 before being one of three teams (along with Pittsburgh and the Baltimore Colts) to move over to the AFC in the NFL-AFL merger.

In 1995, owner Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore and became the Ravens. In 1999, the NFL awarded Cleveland an expansion team, which was named the Browns.

Browns are tough at home

Cleveland Browns Stadium is now called Huntington Bank Stadium, but it has been some friendly confines for head coach Kevin Stefanski and his bunch.

The lost their first game of this season at home in Week 1, 33-17, to Dallas but under Stefanski, the Browns have posted a 24-11 (.686) record at Huntington Bank Field.

In 2023, the Browns finished 8-1 in Cleveland, a team record for wins at home.

Giants are underdogs once again

The Browns are 6.5-point favorites over the Giants with the moneyline up to Browns -275, Giants +225.

Per Sharp Football, this marks the 18th consecutive game in which the Giants are underdogs, matching the longest streak in franchise history.

The over/under is an embarrassingly low 38.5 points as neither offense has scored over 20 points in either of their first two games.

Red zone warriors

Giants first-year defensive coordinator Shane Bowen specializes in red zone defense. After allowing the Vikings to convert on both of their trips into the red zone in Week 1, they kept Washington out on all six of their chances last week.

The Giants are fourth in the NFL in red zone defense after two weeks. They will be challenged by an opportunistic Browns team this week.

Cleveland leads the league in red zone offense, converting all three of their trips thus far in 2024.

Thomas vs Garrett

A heavyweight matchup is looming between two All-Pro players in Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett.

Garrett, since entering the league as the NFL’s top overall selection in 2017, is the only NFL player to record at least 14 sacks in each of the past three seasons (2021-23) and the only player to record at least 10 sacks in each of the past six seasons (2018-23). He is the Browns all-time sack leader with 90.5.

Playing in his 102nd career game last week, Garrett tied J.J. Watt as third-fastest player to reach 90 career sacks in NFL history. Garrett has recorded a strip-sack in each of the Browns’ first two games this season.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants vs. Browns: 5 things to know about Week 3