Mike Rutenberg’s first game calling the Cleveland Browns’ defense did not go the way anyone in Cleveland wanted, and the problems were bigger than one bad afternoon.
The secondary spent too much of the game in a zone-heavy look that never really settled in, and the pass rush that has usually been the Browns’ calling card didn’t get home nearly enough. Cleveland blitzed Trevor Lawrence on just 19.6 percent of his dropbacks, according to Ryan Paganetti, and Lawrence enjoyed a clean pocket for most of the day.
That matters even more now with Baker Mayfield on deck. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback had a rough opener of his own when he was under pressure, and Cleveland has a very clear path if it wants to make life miserable for him in Week 2: attack.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Cincinnati Bengals pressured Mayfield on 10 of his dropbacks, which came out to 27.8 percent. Even with 4.35 seconds to throw in those pressured snaps, Mayfield still finished with three turnover-worthy plays, took four sacks, scrambled twice and completed only 2 of 3 passes.
The Bengals’ approach is hard to ignore because Mayfield spent much of the game settling for short throws behind the line of scrimmage. He can still uncork a deep ball, but he was conservative for long stretches, and once Cincinnati started getting heat on him, his decision-making slipped badly.
Rutenberg walked into a tough first assignment. Jim Schwartz’s defenses were elite more often than not, and doing that again without Myles Garrett only raises the degree of difficulty.
Jared Verse also didn’t do much to carry the load in the opener, and he is going to see plenty more chip help and double teams moving forward. But that’s where the coordinator has to earn his keep, finding the right pressure looks and the right matchups to put him in position to make an impact.
There’s no denying that Liam Coen and Grant Udinski deserve credit, and Trevor Lawrence is talented enough to punish a defense when he has time. Still, when a quarterback gets a clean pocket on 76 percent of his dropbacks, the defense is asking for trouble.
There is always an adjustment period when a new coordinator takes over. This was Rutenberg’s first official game as the Browns’ defensive play caller.
But if the Browns don’t make the necessary changes in Week 2, there won’t be much room for excuses. Cleveland has built a reputation on being one of the league’s most disruptive defenses, and it has to get back to that fast.
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Thomas also looked back on the bigger picture, saying that by his tenth season he understood the Browns were deep into a rebuild and not close to contending. For a player who endured only one winning season in Cleveland, that realization had to sting, especially for someone who had already given so much to the franchise. Even now, his reflections land with extra weight because they come from one of the most respected players in team history, a lineman whose excellence was often separated from the results around him. [Read more 🡒]