May 26, 2013

Cleveland Browns Defense Had Incredible Day Against Dolphins

September 26, 2011 by 26 Comments

The Cleveland Browns offense struggled big time for most of Sunday’s contest.  It isn’t exactly unexpected that a young offense will struggle.  Plus, yesterday they were dealing with the loss of Peyton Hillis to what must be one heck of a bout of strep throat.*  These facts make it all that more amazing that the Browns not only won the game yesterday, but that they were even in the position.  The defense of the Browns is playing incredibly well so far this season, especially considering their youth.

It starts up front.  The Browns biggest question mark coming into the season was defensive line.  Before the draft, all Browns fans were wondering who would play alongside Ahtyba Rubin**.  Most of us were hoping that Marcus Benard could play defensive end and sure enough he is a backup.  Rubin along with Phil Taylor, Jabaal Sheard and Jayme Mitchell have been steady and productive so far this season.

Yesterday alone, Rubin had a team high seven tackles and 1.5 sacks.  Phil Taylor had five tackles and a sack of his own.  Keep in mind that while you want your interior linemen to get some tackles and sacks, they are really designed to occupy offensive linemen so other people can pile up those stats.

Jabaal Sheard only had one tackle, but he made his presence felt hitting Henne’s throwing arm and causing him to float a pass harmlessly to the turf in the red zone.  It was especially nice to see Sheard play aggressively in Henne’s face after getting a flag for some kind of excessive touching to the QB head and / or facemask.***  His counterpart Jayme Mitchell had 1.5 sacks as well.  They are far from dominant, but considering their ages and time played, it is pretty phenomenal so far.

The Browns’ secondary also seemed to be everywhere.  Eagles fans warned us about Dimitri Patterson when he was acquired, but he looks very comfortable as the Browns’ third CB.  He had no easy task yesterday either having to chase Davone Bess around the field all day.  Joe Haden too must have had a good day.  I say that mostly because Brandon Marshall only had four catches for 43 yards.

Now, a lot of you will want to get all over Sheldon Brown who was victimized by Brian Hartline for a 38 yard pass.  The fact is that Sheldon Brown is a vet and not getting any younger.  That being said, the Browns aren’t going to shut down a team’s entire passing game no matter who the corners are.  That means occasionally guys are going to catch passes and most likely it will be away from Joe Haden.  At the end of the game, Chad Henne had 255 yards passing on the Browns.  All in all, I don’t think you can get too crazy about it.  Sheldon Brown is still the best available option to play corner opposite Joe Haden on this team.  Deal with it.  He isn’t perfect, but he also doesn’t have to apologize for his performance.  Few teams can boast multiple shut-down corners.

Last, but not least the linebackers also played well.  I sometimes have a tendency to take these guys for granted because they are the veterans on the defense.  Chris Gocong had a very solid game for the Browns including a big sack.  I know Scott is a fan, but how about that formal handshake celebration that Gocong and his teammates use?  D’Qwell Jackson and Scott Fujita were also solid even as they didn’t stand out a whole lot.

The Browns defense still isn’t particularly deep, but they are easily the strength of this team outside of Josh Cribbs’ brand of special teams. Oh, and how can you forget Mike Adams and his game-ending interception? Those are the kind of contributions that take a decent defense and make it truly great.  If the Browns can get solid play from the guys they are supposed to get them from and also get additional big plays from guys like Mike Adams, Buster Skrine, who had tight coverage on one of the pass attempts in the game-saving 4-play stand to keep the Dolphins out of field goal range, they will continue to be better than average.

* I mean it. I would never question the toughness of a guy who is so clearly tougher than I am.

** His name is Ahtyba, not A-Tuba as the announcers on TV seemed to think.

*** It was a penalty by the letter of the law, but it is so hard to see guys get 15 yards without any kind of real nefarious intent.

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  • Harv 21

    Seems every young defensive player is contributing, a real tribute to Heckert’s eye for young talent. But totally disagree about the LBs as I have commented on other posts. For me, the low point was a Miami rb getting about 4 seconds to squirt out of the ankle grasp of our d-lineman. Not only did no lb arrive to help, there was never one within the camera shot. Sorry, not even mediocre.

  • -bobby-

    I can agree with a lot of this. In the end they had a pretty good day. I dont like hearing people say this is the next reincarnation of the 85 bears though (which is what many people were inferring after the game yesterday- not really on this site which is why its a great community to talk browns with).

    RE: Sheldon Brown- Its not just this game. He has seemed out of position a lot and a step slower. I think he would be better as a Nickel or possibly FS- but we have gotten good performance there by Adams/Young. He may be the best currently, but Id like to see Buster getting more shots on the outside there. If he can pair up with Haden that would be huge.

  • Scotty

    Was anyone else terrified with Adams game winning interception when he didn’t go down, but instead decided to run around the field for a few seconds? I almost expected him to fumble it when he was tackled..

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Craig Lyndall

    Upon further review, it would have been a weak call on Skrine at the end of the game, and Henne’s pass was really bad and out of bounds, but Skrine was playing very physical and never really turned around to locate the ball. A flag could have been thrown, albeit weak, and we could be talking about a game-winning Dolphin field goal.

    It was nice to see the refs no bail the Dolphins out with a flag in those last four plays, but the Browns’ corners were all playing at the edges of interference. I might (MIGHT) have even seen Joe Haden grab Brandon Marshall’s jersey on the final pass play that Mike Adams intercepted. (Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone.)

  • -bobby-

    @ Harv- I agree with LBs. I think DQ has been pretty good, but the OLBs have lacked something. I liked Gocong coming into the season, but he just hasnt been good so far. Hopefully they are just starting slow due to the lockout.

  • Garry Owen

    The criticism of Sheldon Brown is, I think, misplaced. What other plays did he miss yesterday? I can’t recall any; and in fact, it seems as if Henne avoided his side of the field most of the day. I don’t remember hearing his name mentioned at all the rest of the game. That’s a good thing, if you’re a CB. (I’m more than happy to be corrected if I’m wrong. This comment is based more on what wasn’t seen/heard than what was.)

    That Hartline play was, admittedly, bad – but I also think there’s more to it. I deleted the game from my DVR, but I’d like to go back and look at it. At the time, it seemed to me that Brown was coming back into the field from the sideline. There must have been quite a battle going on between Brown and Hartline (outside of the allowable rules for contact) before the catch. Hartline just beat him. It happens (and Hartline’s a pretty good receiver). I thought Brown played a respectable game otherwise. Pretty rough to say that a guy stunk just because of one glaring play.

    Again, someone with better knowledge of how he actually played is free to correct me.

  • 5KMD

    It’s not only that strep throat is very painful, but it is also very contagious. I’ll bet as soon as it was diagnosed the team docs quarantined him away from everyone else, lest you get an epidemic on your hands.

    Also warps your energy which would not be good for Hillis. Good call in my book.

  • http://www.morningjournal.com/content/articles/2011/01/31/sports/doc4d463b0cd062d819200129.jpg Return of the (Alex) Mack

    @ scotty… yes, yes, and yes. Even D’Quell Jackson seemed to think so as you can see him furiously motioning for adams to go down.

  • Lyon

    Garry, to me Brown’s fault wasn’t that he “missed” plays, it’s that he never is in position to defend a pass, leading to receptions.

    Does he get torched for long TDs? No, but he also allows an inordinate amount of 5-10 yd receptions.

    With that said, I agree there is no real solution for this & I feel kind of bad for singling the guy out b/c he is giving his all, but I just ask that we look for a replacement next year.

  • Harv 21

    here’s a videop link to the last plays of “The Drive” with Jim Donovan ‘s radio calls (man, he’s a good play-by-play guy).

    http://youtu.be/zr6-1Vn0A3I

    Had forgotten what a great play Colt made on the short but important jump-pass to Moore as his protection broke down. And the TD pump-fake/throw was perfectly executed. Not sure even Tebow can do that yet.

  • JK

    Incredible day? Nah.. A very good day, sure. But we still have Sheldon Brown on this team who can get beat by anybody and there were way too many missed tackles while they let a rookie RB run all over them.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Scott

    I love the formal handshake celebration. The Indians did the same thing with Thome following his shot on Friday – he stepped on home plate and just received handshakes from Duncan and Kipnis. Was awesome.

    Worth noting that Gocong would’ve had another sack if not for a holding penalty. Also, kudos to the official scorer for giving Rubin half of a sack on his attempted clothesline of Henne which was finished off by DQ.

  • Craig

    Can anyone confirm what they saw out of Sheldon on that long reception by Hartline? I was at the game and it definitely looked like Sheldon was trying to catch up from out of bounds… which seemed strange? Hard jostling at the line or something?

  • Garry Owen

    @ Lyon:

    Fair enough (I guess that’s what I mean by “missing” plays), but I’d still like to see a DB coach’s grades to see how his performance compared to that of the other guys. I still think he played a generally solid game – particularly considering that when the other guy (Haden) has a “shut-down” kind of game like he did yesterday, more pressure is invariably put on him. At the very least, he’s better than most of the other options we’ve thrown out at #2 corner in the last, oh, 12 years or so. I’m willing to cut him some huge slack until his replacement is identified.

    (That should not be confused with “cutting huge slacks” for Phil Taylor, which I’m not willing to do, but mostly because I’m not a tailor. See what I did there?)

  • Garry Owen

    As an extreme, “rabbit trail,” beaten-dead-horse aside, does anyone else get tired of announcers saying things like, “Brian Hartline may not have the greatest speed, but . . . “? (Can’t remember what the direct quotation was – I think was a self-directed leading question like, “Is Brian Hartline the fastest guy? No.”)

    If I’m not mistaken (I could be), Hartline was one of the fastest guys, if not the fastest guy, on the OSU team a few years ago. Where do these dudes get this brand of analysis? (That’s purely rhetorical. I know that it’s because Hartline has brown eyes.)

  • tsm

    When was the last time we had 2 DT’s this good? I say back in the days of Johnson & Sherk. Also, Sheard seems like he is in the backfield on almost every pass play. This has the making of the best D line since the championship years under Paul Brown. Let’s keep hoping the Falcons lose so we can get 2 picks in the top 20. Need a dominating rush LB and one more top OL guy for the right side. Things looking up based on the excellent drafting of Heckert. He is the single most important person in the organization.

  • Lyon

    Garry, I’d like to see that too. And like I said, I’m willing to live with it as long as we’re keeping them out of the endzone. But every now & then I like to pick nits.

  • mgbode

    I thought for sure our defense would be our downfall. Switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3 with no offseason, 2 new 4-3 starting NFL DEs, LBers that scare me and not the opposition, and an exciting but incredibly young secondary.

    Jauron is our coach-of-the-year so far. No doubt.

    Now, I think as we face some tougher offenses and we need to use our depth (or lack thereof) things will come back down to Earth a little bit. But, dang, they have been so much better than I expected.

  • paulbip

    Strep throat can kill you. You must not know that.

  • youngstownbrown

    @Garry Owen:
    I wasn’t quite sure so i checked into this and sure enough brian hartline was among the top performers in may of the speed drills at the scouting combine:

    Hartline finished tops among all wide receivers with a 10.92 in the 60-yard shuttle. In the three cone drill, he finished second among his position with a time of 6.65, while taking home fourth place in the 20-yard shuttle (4.12). (taken from http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2009/02/brian-hartline-takes-on-the-nfl-combine/ )

    What’s more, pre-draft scouting reports on brian hartline called him “lightning fast.”

    And to think, the kid has brown eyes…

  • TSR3000

    @19- Yeah. I have had it a few times. No way can you play football with it.

  • I

    If you take a way the fluke quick-snap play from the CIN game, the defense has been pretty decent. I think the key is that they bend but don’t break, making teams settle for 3. They give up yards on the ground, but still have only conceded one garbage-time Cedric Benson rushing TD in 3 games.

    Not sure if the article mentioned it, but I’m pretty sure CLE is 2nd in the league in sacks right now (11). Could be a lot worse..

  • Garry Owen

    @ youngstown:

    That’s great data. Thanks for doing the research I was to lazy to do! I thought I remembered something like that. It was a surprise to me that Hartline would leave OSU before his senior year, because I didn’t think he was that skilled of a receiver. It was his speed that turned the Dolphins scouts’ heads, and he has become a pretty good route-runner and pass-catcher since then.

    I remember this type of “analysis” as far back as Brian Brennan (who also “had brown eyes”). It was an undisputed fact that Brennan was the fasted guy on the Browns (until they signed Mark Harper, if my memory serves me correctly), yet every TV guy said that Brennan was a “possession guy,” “not the fastest guy,” but with “great hands” – all ways of saying “I can’t believe there’s a ‘brown-eyed’ receiver in the NFL!” Indeed, (here’s the beaten dead horse part) this same type of analysis is all that we hear in the RB world when it comes to discussing Peyton Hillis.

    Why can’t these guys just be football players?

    Oh well. I guess I just have former “brown-eyed” receiver blues.

  • deg4

    What other plays did Sheldon Brown miss yesterday? Aside from the 31 yarder mentioned he gave up something around 30 yards to Hartline again on the sideline that he didn’t even appear to try and defend. He also missed a tackled on the Dolphins FG drive in the 4th quarter on Reggie Bush, turning a 2-yard gain into 11 yards & a 1st down instead of 3rd and 8.

  • deg4

    I have to say I’m extremely impressed with the pressure our new front 4 gets on defense, particularly Sheard. I was surprised to see how few stat he compiled because he was in Henne’s face all day, & IMO had the best game of any defender.

  • Garry Owen

    @ deg4:

    Okay. Fair enough, definitely.

    To continue the discussion, though: How many yards did Haden give up to Marshall? How many tackles did Brown make (think: Eric Wright or Brandon McDonald for comparison’s sake). I still think that he played a decent game, for all of the reasons previously stated. I’m glad he’s on the team and is playing a solid corner, particularly in comparison with what we’ve had in prior years.