The Browns’ defense has spent much of the season propping up a team that keeps finding new ways to wobble, but the last few weeks have started to expose the wear and tear.
For nine weeks, Cleveland’s formula has been hard to miss: the defense holds the line, the offense drags through the early going, and then the Browns suddenly wake up late when the game looks ready to slip away. That pattern has been especially tied to Deshaun Watson at quarterback. But Watson was out last week against the New Orleans Saints with a concussion, and without that late surge, there was no comeback waiting to save Cleveland.
The bigger issue now is that the defense, which has carried so much of the load, is no longer looking quite as airtight. Over the last three games, the Browns have given up an average of 24.7 points and 167 rushing yards per game. That kind of stretch makes the whole operation feel a lot less stable, especially with a bye week looming and a three-game losing streak threatening to follow.
Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg said Thursday that the answer starts with confronting problems directly and squeezing value out of every snap.
“No one drive defines a game, and I think that’s important for the whole team to know, and that’s what Monk always talks about. Whether it’s starting fast, finishing faster, making the play at the end of the half, going in, getting a three and out after halftime. Each little six-second play defines the game.
“And then of course at the end of the game, great defenses try their butts off to finish. And during the week, I’m not going to get into what we do, but what I can promise you is we are always addressing whatever came up head-on, honestly, together, and figuring out the best ways, whether it’s in a meeting, whether it’s out at practice, whether it’s a drill. We do all that, and our guys are bought into that, and it’s really cool to see.”
The run defense remains the clearest concern. Cleveland is ranked No. 27 against the run at 130.6 yards allowed per game, and that hasn’t been easy to hide. The Texans come in ranked No. 29 in rushing at 87.1 yards per game, but that didn’t stop the Saints from putting up 141 rushing yards against the Browns last week.
Rutenberg was asked what the coaches can do to steady that part of the defense, and he leaned on the same message he’s been giving.
“Every week, whatever it is, we address it, like I always say, because that’s just what football is. And in terms of the run defense, great run games are based on violence, which is what we’re built off of.
Discipline fits and straining of the ball. And we’ll continue to preach our style of strain and violence and our style of the mind to do our best in the fits, practice it like we’ve been doing it, and continue to, whatever it is, take that approach in everything we’re trying to fix.”
What had been a 5-2 start and a first-place spot in the AFC North has started to feel a lot less secure over the past two weeks, and the defense has been part of that slide.
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Browns Run Game Woes Just Revived An Uncomfortable Audric Estime Debate
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Estime played one game for Cleveland before being waived and heading back to the Saints, and the timing of what happened next did not help the Browns case. In a later game against Cleveland, he led New Orleans backfield with 72 rushing yards and a touchdown, a reminder that the question of whether the Browns gave up on him too soon is going to linger as long as the ground game keeps sputtering. [Read more 🡒]