Garrett: ‘I don’t feel like we’ve let each other down’
BEREA — Myles Garrett knows what the Browns’ record is. He knows 3-7 isn’t acceptable.
The All-pro defensive end also knows he’s part of a unit that’s been front and center in several of the losses. It’s not just been one part of that defense, either, leading to those frustrating breakdowns that hurt the team’s chances.
However, Garrett believes pointing blame at one specific player, position or side of the ball isn’t the answer as Cleveland looks to snap a two-game losing streak in today’s home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I mean, football’s everyone,” Garrett said Friday.
“It takes everyone, it takes a concerted effort by an offense, defense, special teams. I don’t feel like we’ve let each other down. I mean defensively, within our rooms, I’m sure we feel like there are some times where, you know, this position could have played better, I could have played better, this guy could have felt like he played better. I mean there were always those feelings, those notions. But as far as like a whole unit, no.”
After the Browns’ last win, back on Halloween against Cincinnati, multiple players talked about the key to the victory being the complementary football they played. The 32-13 win saw them nearly post a season high in total yards, with 440, while they allowed a season-low 229 to the Bengals.
The Browns had a bye following that game. Since returning, though, it’s been struggles across the board in losses to the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills.
Both games saw the Browns seemingly incapable of running the ball (192 combined net rushing yards) while their opponents seemed to run at will (366 net rushing yards combined). They also fell behind by double figures in the second half of each loss.
Garrett believes the Bengals game shows the blueprint the Browns need to follow in order to change the narrative.
“We know that if the offense plays better here, we win, or the defense plays better and gets a stop here, we win,” Garrett said. “If, you know, special teams, same thing. So I don’t think there’s any one group that feels like they let each other down. I feel like if we just played a more complete game in these games, we’d be where we want to be.”
There’s only one side of the ball, though, Garrett can impact. That’s the side of the ball that has been under the most criticism over the course of the season.
Some of that criticism has come from Garrett. That includes following last Sunday’s loss to the Bills, when he took aim at the lack of takeaways the Browns — with eight in 10 games — have manufactured.
Garrett said, at the time, that he believed there was a lack of emphasis put on takeaways in practice. Those words were taken by many to be a shot at either defensive coordinator Joe Woods, his teammates or both.
So, who exactly was Garrett talking to in Detroit?
“Everyone,” Garrett said. “Talking to everyone. Public service announcement. All of Cleveland, look out for your local Browns player trying to take the ball away. We’re going to do our best to play football at a standard that we have set.”
The calls have continued to grow louder by the week for Woods to be replaced. Cleveland is 20th in total defense at 349.9 yards allowed, 23rd in rush defense at 135.1 yards a game and 16th in pass defense at 214.8 yards a game.
However, the most important statistic is the scoreboard, and that’s where the defense falls short the most. They’re 30th in the league in points allowed at 26.9 points a game.
Garrett disputes that issues run deeper than a lack of steadiness in performance across the board. However, he does still believe the Browns could help themselves by getting their hands on some takeaways.
“We don’t need to change our ways, we just need to be consistent in what we know we can do and what we’ve been doing from training camp and on,” Garrett said. “We don’t need to dial back or look around, we need to look forward and focus on our job.
“A lot of the mistakes that eventually come, there’s multiple teams who have had mistakes or breakdowns in coverage, these accidents happen, but the difference between us and them is that they’ve taken the ball away at a higher clip and that’s kept them from having those glaring mistakes like we have and I think if we do as we have our defensive stats, our rankings, will definitely bump up and increase just because we’re performing like we should.”