The Cleveland Browns’ defense was excellent in the first half. Aside from the blocked punt that led to a touchdown, they forced five punts and allowed a field goal. The second half seemed rougher statistically, as they allowed touchdowns on three straight drives. Two of those drives were again short fields, starting at the 5 yard line and the 36 yard line. Even the one that started at the 5 yard line, they only allowed the touchdown on fourth down. And the drive before that, they held Baltimore to a field goal after a big play had gotten them to the 1 yard line.
Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 2 game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Defensive Line
- Myles Garrett played well again, getting to Lamar Jackson twice, and I also saw him make two run stops against Derrick Henry. With the outcome, though, I’m sure he’s already feeling the frustrations. He requested a trade earlier this offseason, and although he re-signed, you can see why he asked for one. He’s a dominant force, and the defense basically played a shutdown first half. And yet, the team was still down 10-3, and in the second half, before you knew it, they were down 41-10.
- Isaiah McGuire had a couple of close pressures on Jackson, but Henry did a great job getting a block on him each time.
- The Browns are using their starting defensive tackles like workhorses, with Mason Graham playing 79% of the snaps and Maliek Collins having 73% of the snaps. Graham had some nice stops against the run. It’ll be interesting to see how Mike Hall cuts into that when he returns.
- Cameron Thomas continues to see more reps than free agent signing Joe Tryon, who only had 5 snaps.
- Collins was the highest-graded defender for the Browns, according to PFF, grading out to a 92.5. Garrett (89.6), Adin Huntington (85.3), Cameron Thomas (69.9), and Shelby Harris (65.2) all graded well. Not appearing in the top graders was Graham, though.
Linebacker
- Devin Bush led the Browns with 8 tackles, and he also had a sack and nearly intercepted a pass in the end zone. He was the Browns’ second-highest graded defender, per PFF, with a grade of 90.7. Rookie Carson Schwesinger had a pretty quiet game, but graded to a 65.2.
- Distribution wise, the snaps were pretty identical to the first week. I know Jerome Baker is playing, but I feel like I haven’t seen him on the field. Baker received a PFF grade of 78.6.
Cornerback
- Lamar Jackson threw four touchdown passes, and the secondary deserves flak for much of that. The one exception that I would say is the one play where Jackson bought time and then found DeAndre Hopkins at the one yard line, with Greg Newsome in tight coverage.
- Speaking of Hopkins, he only played 10 snaps, but had a profound impact...
Dawgs By Nature
