defensively the Browns are not where we thought they were

[Clevfan4life]

Defense lost that game, pure and simple. The offense is so much further along than I could have dared hope in the offseason. But defensively I really did expect this unit to be elite, competing for one of the best defense's in the NFL. It's not. In fact, watching the Broncos/Seahawks game and how those two defense's play....I realized that we're not even close. Our pass rush comes down to whether or not the opposing tackles had a good nights sleep the night before, the Ravens tackles apparently had slept well. Our secondary gives up the ass multiple times a game. And our run defense.....that's what has me infuriated. We said fuck you DQ you're old and can't tackle...than went out and paid more for Dansby who's not quite as old but also can't tackle. The defense's in our division have historically taken it personally when a RB even had the notion of possibly running for 100 yds. Today we let a guy who had Ray Rice not socked his wife upside her jaw, would be sitting on the practice squad...run for 90 yds on 18 carries and the 3rd stringer got 60 yds on 11 carries. Another game where all runners combined ran for well over 100 yds on us. This is on the ILB"s, period end of discussion. I watched Kruger all day sealing the edge but trying to spin and flail inside to try to just get a hand on the runner cause nobody was filling that gap. The olb'ers for yet another week were doing their job of keeping everything inside. Kruger's gonna get hurt real bad doing that move I hope they tell him to stop.

 

Pressure on Flacco today was spotted here and there, nothing consistent. Again for the 2nd straight week they stood the OLB'ers up all day, usually when teams do that the opposing offense doesn't run for 150+ yds but whatever. I just don't understand what's going on. We can't piss away these offensive performances. I'm really liking what I see on that side of the ball. I was utterly pissing myself when they showed the replay of that manziel trick play where Shanahan acted like he was having a convo and then you could see him mouth the words go go go. Too bad that didn't work cause that was a 1 trick pony, won't ever work again. Fun though and now I really really like Shanahan. Just too bad we're gonna have a lot more 20+ point games and still lose cause we have too many weak links on the defense. If our ILB'ers keep shitting the bed like this though I might be calling for that Perryman kid to be drafted out of Miami. We need more mean assholes on this team that take personally bullshit like 4th string RB's torching the defense. Fuck this.

[The Cysko Kid]

And offensively they're much much better than we thought they were

[miktoxic]

can't get a first down to ice the game?

[The Cysko Kid]

Going into this season with no gordon half this board thought we had no chance to score ever. Don't act like they didn't

[D Bone]

I am extremely disappointed in our defense. The whole thing. All phases. Going into pre-season I figured our D was going to be top 10, and on the verge of becoming elite. We were returning most of the players off last year's D, and the changes we did make, I viewed as upgrades. The new HC was a reputed defensive genius and he hand picked his boy for the DC job. I don't know if it's the scheme, or the players lack of understanding the new scheme, but whatever it is, it has been the major factor in all of our losses.

 

The offense on the other hand, is the exact opposite for me..................

[Alkid3]

I think if we stop the run we are good enough to beat the best.

[The Cysko Kid]

The defense is weak and soft and I don't buy it's because we've faced elite teams. None of the teams we've faced thus far are elite

[miktoxic]

I am extremely disappointed in our defense. The whole thing. All phases. Going into pre-season I figured our D was going to be top 10, and on the verge of becoming elite. We were returning most of the players off last year's D, and the changes we did make, I viewed as upgrades. The new HC was a reputed defensive genius and he hand picked his boy for the DC job. I don't know if it's the scheme, or the players lack of understanding the new scheme, but whatever it is, it has been the major factor in all of our losses.

 

The offense on the other hand, is the exact opposite for me..................

me too.

 

you look on paper we got top 5 defense. we were better last year on D and sucked.

 

can't we finally get some balance?

 

shanny is shady trying to out-class his opposing OCs. pettine needs to be asked the hard ?'s about why the defense isn't where it should be.

[The Cysko Kid]

We're suffering from Shan-anigans. Don't forget who coined this phrase

[Clevfan4life]

Yes the offense has exceeded my wildest expectations. These guys are also in their 1st year of Shannys system which is supposedly one of the toughest for guys to get acclimated to, why I'm not exactly sure I don't see us doing anything horribly complicated but whatever. I now want to know wtf is going on with the defense though. It certainly looks to me like the ILB'ers are nowhere to be seen until the runner is already at the second level. Isn't that supposedly what most of you had a problem with DQ for? My visual impressions of our linebacking play from last year to this year is this.....last year DQ was around the ball, when O lines tried to stretch the play DQ was in the mix trying to slice his way through the redwoods to get to the runner. This year I've seen that kind of flash through the offensive lineman ONCE out of Dansby. Both our ILB'ers just seem to be tied up somewhere else instead of sloughing off their blockers and flowing to the ball. They're just not that good from what I've seen. They're just not even around the ball until it's already 5+ yds downfield.

[Clevfan4life]

pettine needs to be asked the hard ?'s about why the defense isn't where it should be.

 

yes. Cause if some guy from the Titans gets close to 100 yds I'm calling for the immediate release of Dansby or, if available, a time machine to go back and give DQ what he wanted

[D Bone]

pettine needs to be asked the hard ?'s about why the defense isn't where it should be.

 

Exactly! I keep watching his pressers, and no one will ask the question straight up.

[Tour2ma]

can't get a first down to ice the game?

or stop a 3rd...

 

 

The D is perplexing especially against the run... and compounded by the runners we are not stopping. I mean, this Ravens kid today was the 4th stringer!

 

I thought Pettine called all or most of game 1 and it felt like our most aggressive game. I haven't seen a sheet in his hand since. Maybe in week 5 he needs to carry one again.

[Clevfan4life]

this Ravens kid today was the 4th stringer!

 

 

 

Just for perspective, Ray Lewis would have shit in his own mouth if he was on this defense today. There is no way he would have tolerated not just today, but 3 straight weeks of RB's gashing us like open assholes.

[tiamat63]

or stop a 3rd...

 

 

The D is perplexing especially against the run... and compounded by the runners we are not stopping. I mean, this Ravens kid today was the 4th stringer!

 

I thought Pettine called all or most of game 1 and it felt like our most aggressive game. I haven't seen a sheet in his hand since. Maybe in week 5 he needs to carry one again.

It's a combination of scheme and talent. More towards the latter. But how many teams have been successful with those open side runs or cutbacks? The defense aligns to the offenses strength and the backend can't hold their own.

[nickers]

 

 

The Browns look like theyre playing vanilla defense still. seeing B'more manhandle our D-line was just pa-the-tic!.. Joe Thomas is becoming a liability along with Haden.. Haden is a 2nd tier DB. GILbert and Bustakevious flat out SUCK!

[thenew23]

To me, it has been more the d-line than the ILBs. Pettine's scheme really relies on the down linemen to plug gaps, which isnt happening. I am seeing Rubin blown back, Winn making no impact, and too many plays with DBryant and Taylor on the sideline... just my $.02

[Clevfan4life]

To me, it has been more the d-line than the ILBs. Pettine's scheme really relies on the down linemen to plug gaps, which isnt happening. I am seeing Rubin blown back, Winn making no impact, and too many plays with DBryant and Taylor on the sideline... just my $.02

 

I'm not sure I buy that. Reason is I'm not seeing the lineman penetrating like they were last year. So they're holding up their guys, it's the ILB'ers that have to find their way through that. Today was the first day though I kind of saw some of our DL getting pushed back. There was a short ydge play where both Rubin and Taylor never got low and got pushed back. Both me and my boy watching with me looked at each other during the replay like wtf why weren't those guys on the ground. They were right there, had they gotten low they would have stopped the 1st down.

 

[miktoxic]

scheme scleme.

 

ask the guys how they prefer to play. see if they are correct. put them in positions to do their jobs via their strengths.

 

why does every D or O have to be written on paper and it is done?

[The Gipper]

While the DC may be responsible somewhat for the poor defensive performance, it is the HC who is really in charge of this defense.

HE has to take a lot of responsibility for these defensive breakdowns and failures. After all, the D is supposed to be his baby.

[dawgpound101]

the defense? no they are not...

[Tour2ma]

We're suffering from Shan-anigans. Don't forget who coined this phrase

Not bad... not bad at all...

 

I think I shall steal it.

[WalterWhite]

We need a badass at ILB like Kuechly or Burfict and his name is Denzel Perryman

[JorvorskieLaneLover]

I think if we stop the run we are good enough to beat the best.

You're forgetting the pathetic tackling and coverage from the secondary. They will never close out a game when they consistently give up chunks of yards over the middle.

[gftChris]

The defense was over-rated due to the horrific offense last year. Browns fans thought last years defense was great because they weren't thrown on and their stats were good. In reality they were not thrown on because you didn't need to throw on the Browns to beat them last year. This year the offense is pretty good and thus the other team has to move the ball to score and it's exposing the over-rated D.

You didn't need to score points to beat the browns, so teams didn't score points? Yep, that's how offensive coordinators think.

[LondonBrown]

More I read on this the more I believe it will change soon, Pettine and O'Brien run a complicated scheme and the players are adjusting.

 

It's going to take time.

[calfoxwc]

It isn't just learning the defense, it's learning all the adjustments in the defense,

that teams make from week to week, to counter the attacks

by offenses, imho.

 

I'm bettin that we see a huge improvement after the bye.

 

These arm tackles, etc, are just players out of position, trying to

make up ground. That's fixable.

[CaliBrowns]

It isn't just learning the defense, it's learning all the adjustments in the defense,

that teams make from week to week, to counter the attacks

by offenses, imho.

 

I'm bettin that we see a huge improvement after the bye.

 

These arm tackles, etc, are just players out of position, trying to

make up ground. That's fixable.

 

 

I agree.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

I'd say the Team lost the game.

[Clevfan4life]

def gonna watch that kid this year. I hope actually that he doesn't have that great of a year stats wise so he doesn't go very high in the draft, but that Miami defense looks to be pretty good so likely is he'll have a monster year. But I agree with the sentiment. I want someone that takes personally when a RB runs over his defense like we've been getting run on. Haven't seen anything like that from Dansby, Robertson or Kirksey. I don't know how Dansby, who considers himself a top 3 LB in the NFL....can sit and take a 3rd and 4th string RB combining for over 150yds on his defense. Not a word out of our big offseason acquisition on accountability.

We need a badass at ILB like Kuechly or Burfict and his name is Denzel Perryman