The Cleveland Browns’ defense out-gained the Bengals in yards 327 to 141. In the first half, Cleveland allowed 134 yards of offense. That means in the second half, the Bengals had just 7 offensive yards, and managed to win. The Browns were a bit shaky early on, allowing Cincinnati to put together some methodical drives. They did a better job at not allowing the big play, though, and in the second half, they allowed nothing. They continuously gave the offense a chance to re-take the lead, but they didn’t capitalize.
Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 1 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Defensive Line
- Myles Garrett is often at his best to start the season, and I always say how there are often those moments in a game where he makes what should be a game-changing play. In this game, there were three different instances in which he was responsible for killing a drive: laying a hit on third down to force an incompletion, giving Joe Burrow immediate pressure to force him to abandon a play on third down, and then the point in the second half where he had back-to-back sacks.
- Despite those efforts, Garrett only received a grade of 72.1 from PFF, which is somewhat pedestrian for the grades they typically give him.
- We were wondering who would get more snaps between Isaiah McGuire and Alex Smith. It was pretty even overall, but McGuire (29 snaps) had more work than Smith (21 snaps). McGuire received a grade of 88.2 from PFF, and Smith was graded a 72.8.
- No. 5 overall pick Mason Graham graded out to 66.7 by PFF — a solid, but not spectacular, debut.
- A lot of Browns defenders graded well on the day, but veteran Shelby Harris was not one of them, grading out to a 31.6 from PFF.
- Joe Tryon, who received a 1-year, $4.75 million deal from the Browns, only got 2 snaps on defense in his Browns debut after a quiet training camp.
Linebacker
- After seeing the preseason, I think Browns fans had more eyes on Carson Schwesinger being a top player than Mason Graham, and he delivered in his regular season debut. He led the Browns with 8 tackles, including one for a loss, and was the team’s highest-graded defender by PFF (90.0).
- Devin Bush, who was impressive last year, also had a nice game, and was the team’s third-highest graded defender by PFF (87.5).
- Mohamoud Diabate only played 9 snaps, but from my eye, seems to be victimized on a couple of negative passing plays.
Cornerback
- It didn’t seem like Denzel Ward was targeted very often. It’s amazing how many times you see games where the Bengals’ star receivers can’t get much going against the Browns. Ja’Marr Chase had 2 catches for 26 yards, and Tee Higgins had 3 catches for 33 yards.
- Greg Newsome was flagged...
Dawgs By Nature
