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Cleveland Browns: Design, Not Just Execution Hurting Defense

By Peter Smith

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Coming into the 2015 season, the Cleveland Browns were again talking about playing good defense and trying to take pressure off of an undermanned offensive attack.  Head Coach Mike Pettine took more of an overseer type role, stepping back a bit from the reigns of the defense, giving more direct control to defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil, and having far more understanding of what was happening with the offense under new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.

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After a quarter of the season, the defense has not looked good, ranking near the bottom of the league in a number of categories.  The issues hurting the defense stem from missed assignments yielding too many big plays, player roles and the overall vision not appearing to match the talent on the roster at this point, which is limiting the number of plays being made by the defense.

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Big plays have been death to the Browns defense this year.  Especially the past two weeks, the defense has been largely solid but would have breakdowns or simply give up a huge play that would lead to points and drive their averages down in terms of rankings.  This past week, 46% of the San Diego Charger’s 438 total yards came on 5 of the Chargers 61 plays.  On the other 56 plays, the Chargers gained just 236 total yards at a little over 4.2 yards per play, which is exactly what the team wants to see.

Those 5 big plays proved deadly for the Browns.  3 passes and 2 runs caused by defensive breakdowns.  Against the Raiders, 2 missed assignments resulted in 74 rushing yards for Latavius Murray while they gave up several explosive passing plays, including a 55 yard reception to Marcel Reece, a 36 yard reception to Seth Roberts and an 8 catch, 134 yard performance by Amari Cooper at 16.75 yards per reception.

Missed assignments are the responsibility of the players, especially on some of these big plays where assignment is clear and the player is simply not executing.  The question goes to coaching when it relates to asking players to execute assignments that they simply are not capable of or overloading them in terms of what they need to know.

By in large, O’Neil’s defense has not asked players to do things they are not capable, with the exception of Donte Whitner being asked to cover Amari Cooper in the slot.  That is simply a winning matchup for the Raiders and they exploited it.  Single covering him against Ladarius Green was not a great look either this past week that yielded a touchdown, but it was a great throw and catch even if the defensive play call.  Again, putting Whitner in a difficult, if not a losing position.

It is possible the defense is asking too much of the players, but so many of the big plays are being given up by veterans who are the ones that should know better.  The Chargers might have done the best job of finding opportunities against younger players, especially on the crossing route Dontrelle Inman that went for 68 yards.  Chris Kirksey should have had his head on a swivel and picked up the crosser coming into his zone, which he failed to do and it was off to the races.

Player roles are a bigger issue.  O’Neil’s choice of how he uses players is a little difficult to understand at times.  For example, Paul Kruger led the team with 11 sacks last season but through a month this season, has half a sack.  Despite having the skillset and physical limitations (bad hips) to play attacking forward, he has been asked to drop into coverage this year.

Not just as a change up on a rare situation but a stunning amount of the time.  That is not who he is or where he wins.  That is on the coaching staff.  It is their job to put players in position to succeed and they are not doing it with Kruger.  Kruger is a microcosm of some of the things happening on the defense in this regard.

While not being able to be attend practice, meetings, etc, it is difficult to judge the coaching staff on who they are playing, both in general and specific situations.  Nevertheless, it is at least curious to see Johnson Bademosi out there at corner over Justin Gilbert when he struggled all of preseason in that spot and was not any better against the Chargers.

The heavy passing attack from the Chargers schemed Danny Shelton out of the game, but Barkevious Mingo played even fewer plays than Shelton did.  This might suggest that the Browns simply view Mingo as a run defender, which would be a huge indictment of him.   Given how ineffective the pass rush was, perhaps that was another mistake made by the coaching staff.

That goes into the overall vision of the defense, which is having a negative impact on the number of plays the defense is able to make.  Right now, the Browns want to be a blitzing defense that wants to attack gaps and fill against the run, while then getting pressure on the opposing quarterback and forcing them into quick decisions and as a result, mistakes.  The problem is they are not terribly effective at it.

For example, the Browns went with a ton of blitzes against the San Diego Chargers, probably in part to make their backup corners (Pierre Desir, Johnson Bademosi, Justin Gilbert) not have to cover quite as long.  For all of the blitzing and attacking of the quarterback they did, they managed to get 1 sack and 4 quarterback hits.  Sacks are great but not necessarily an indicator of pressure, but the hits and the fact that the Browns did not force any turnovers show just how impotent that attack proved to be.  In certain situations, they were going with Cover 0, sending everyone not engaged in man coverage at the quarterback.

Oct 4, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; Cleveland Browns cornerback Pierre Desir (26) breaks up a long pass attempt to San Diego Chargers wide receiver Malcom Floyd (80) during the first half at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

There is an element of execution in this that has to improve.  The Browns pass rush has to get better and win individual matchups, but the fact that it was so impotent and the way the game was going, taking fewer risks on the blitz was the right move, even if it was just to give Philip Rivers something else to try to decipher and perhaps cause a misread.

The players need to win, especially when they send as many as 6 and 7 rushers, but many of those guys were handpicked by this staff.  They have to continue to develop them and improve their technique but it is that much more important to put them in positions that help them win.

As a result, the Browns are simply not making enough plays.  Much of defense is simply not giving up plays but they also need to provide a threat to take away the football.  Through 4 games, the Browns have just a single interception, which was then fumbled right back to the opponent, week 1 against the Jets and 4 fumble recoveries.

The Browns have 14 sacks through 4 games, which looks good on the surface (3rd in the league) until it is pointed out that 7 of those came against the Tennessee Titans.  These marks leave them in the middle of the pack in terms of being able to make plays, but the schedule gets more difficult.

Sep 20, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden (23) celebrates after breaking up a pass intended for Tennessee Titans wide receiver Harry Douglas (83) in the second quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

Injuries have taken their toll on the Browns on the defensive side of the ball, but they are not the only team that is dealing with that as an issue.  Certainly, not having Desmond Bryant for two weeks and Joe Haden this past week hurt but the team has to be able to adapt to some extent.  Pierre Desir played relatively well in Haden’s absence.

Mike Pettine is going to get more involved with defensive game planning again.  He is unlikely to take over defensive playcalling, at least at this point, but that is not the biggest problem anyway.  The issues are what have been discussed already like player roles and the overall vision.  How the calls made during the game stem from that anyway.

It would seem Pettine’s best plan of attack is identifying what the defense in general and players specifically do well, streamline the gameplan to do more of what works and then build outward.  His judgment on how to do that will be something to keep an eye on but having Paul Kruger being an attacking player the vast majority of the time might be a simple example.

Missed assignments, among other things keep dogging the Browns, but there are encouraging signs from this past week.  After a horrific day of tackling against the Raiders, the Browns were far better in that regard against the Chargers, getting back to fundamentals and wrapping opponents up rather than just throwing their bodies at them (This should be basic as opposed to being called progress but at least it was addressed).

Additionally, the younger players seem to keep progressing.  The Chargers got fed up with Danny Shelton and schemed to take him out of the game by going far more pass heavy and using the run as a changeup look as opposed to their means of moving the ball.  Xavier Cooper got the opportunity to play and notched his first career sack as well as getting a hit on Rivers.

The overall defense keeps stubbing its toe and ultimately let the Browns down this past week in their loss to the Chargers – like with the Raiders, a game they could have won.  They simply could not make a big play and the last of the five big plays helped set up their game winning field goal attempt.  As bad as things look and as frustrating as the results can be, there is slow but steady improvement.  The key now, between Pettine’s influence and players simply avoiding costly mistakes and hopefully making more plays, is the defense actually helping the Browns to win a game instead of just simply not losing it.

They need to take the steps to become the defense this team envisioned, especially now as they have gotten their own players in house to try to improve it.  Pettine should get some credit for the improvements on offense but most critics are going to hang the defense’s success or failure around his neck, so there’s a little bit of pressure for he and his handpicked coordinator to come up with some real results for the Cleveland Browns’ defense to produce.

Next: Where do the Browns rank in our latest Power Rankings?

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