The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Eagles will test Browns’ improved run defense
The not so new but definitely improved Browns’ run defense is about to be tested again.
The mission on Nov. 22 at FirstEnergy Stadium is to slow Eagles running back Miles Sanders who — with 519 yards rushing on 86 carries — is averaging six yards per attempt.
Will the Browns, 6-3, play like they did on Nov. 1, when they were pushed around by the Las Vegas Raiders in a 16-6 loss, or will the defense dominate as it did last week when the Browns stifled Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans, 10-7?
One big difference between being a Major League baseball player and playing in the NFL is a baseball player has little time to sulk after a bad game because he usually has another game 24 hours later.
In the case of the Browns, they had not just one week, but two weeks in between playing the Raiders and Texans because they were on their bye Nov. 8. Defensive coordinator Joe Woods and his assistants used that time to self-scout and make whatever adjustments Woods thought necessary.
The result was, instead of giving up 209 yards on 45 carries as they did in the Las Vegas game, the Browns yielded only 90 yards on 22 carries en route to beating the Texans.
Rainy, windy conditions were factors in the Vegas and Houston games. Another wet field could be in play Nov. 22; the forecast for Cleveland calls for a 60 percent chance of rain. Wind should not deter Browns’ quarterback Baker Mayfield or Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz from throwing the ball because gusts aren’t expected to be higher than 11 MPH.
Still, Wentz won’t have to throw often if the Browns don’t slow Sanders.
“Growing up, you always had a couple of kids in the neighborhood that could just juke you and it was hard to get them down,” Woods said Nov. 19 on Zoom. “I look at him, and he’s a daylight runner. He sees daylight, he’s running from an opposite color jersey and he’s very slippery, very quick.
“You have to be very disciplined in your gaps because as soon as you think he’s going to stick it inside, he bounces outside and challenges your leverage. I think he’s doing a great job. He’s third in yards per carry in the NFL.”
Linebacker Sione Takitaki said the difference from before and after the bye is defensive players are learning to trust each other more — not in the sense it’s okay now to leave a $5 bill out in the open in one’s locker; that kind of trust never was a problem. Takitaki is talking about the kind of trust that makes a defender confident the player next to him will perform his job just fine.
When that trust isn’t there, the player lacking confidence in his teammate abandon’s his own assignment to help the other guy. Bad things often follow.
“I feel like just trusting our keys and everybody doing their job,” Takitaki said on Zoom. “I feel like the coaches have been emphasizing that all year, but I feel like coming back from the bye, it’s something that we kind of wanted to fix as a defense and as a unit.
“It’s seeing your job and doing your job, and once you know it’s run, hitting your gaps and trusting all 11 guys on the field that they’ll do their job. I feel like we started off right coming off the bye, and I feel like we’ll carry that on through the season.”
Slowing Sanders and forcing Wentz to pass would play right into the strength of the takeawayhungry Browns defense. Wentz has thrown 12 interceptions - most in the NFL in nine games for the 3-5-1 Eagles.