What is the story about?
Somehow, the Browns need to fix the fact that they keep allowing opening-drive touchdowns. Imagine if they played shutdown defense right out of the gate, and how that could impact the early flow of the game. Just like they always had Peyton Manning’s number (relatively speaking), they seem to always lock in on Derrick Henry for whatever reason, compared to other teams. They shut down the Ravens for the final three quarters, a shutout that was necessary to pull off the 13-10 victory.
Below, we analyze
the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 6 game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Defensive Line
- Maliek Collins is back to the semi-dominant form he displayed a year ago. He logged another sack and was the Browns’ fourth-highest graded defender on PFF, grading out to a 75.0. Imagine this version of Collins paired with when Mason Graham comes back. Adin Huntington and Sam Kamara are starting to stack some respectable performances as depth too, as they combined for tackles for losses and quarterback hits too.
- I get that Jared Verse is supposedly drawing attention to help others out, as part of the team-first mentality, Still, though, I expect a few high-impact plays from him each week, and they’re still absent from now. The past couple of games, he’s also had late hits on the quarterback that I’ve been stunned weren’t flagged for penalties.
Linebacker
- I was waiting for that breakout performance from Carson Schwesinger this season, and this was it. And not just because of the fumble he forced on Derrick Henry, although that is certainly a bonus. He led the team with 13 tackles and was a big reason the team’s run defense got it together. He was the team’s second-highest graded defender on the day by PFF, grading out to a 78.2, but his run defense graded out to a 93.1.
- Quincy Williams, on the other hand, came off his best game with a much more subdued performance, although he still got a sack and another hit on Tyler Huntley. He was the team’s lowest-graded defended by PFF, grading out to a 51.1.
Cornerback
- Denzel Ward and Tyson Campbell were up to the task of stopping the Ravens’ receivers, and it was one of the reasons why Huntley was hit and sacked a number of times, due to coverage sacks. Ward and Campbell both graded above 74.2 by PFF, and Myles Harden has a respectable day too. We saw Cleveland defenders drop a couple of possible interceptions too.
Safety
- Grant Delpit exited early with an injury, only playing six snaps. That essentially gave the whole game to Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, and everyone will remember the big tackle for loss at the goal line he had when he cut down Henry (even though the Ravens still scored a play later). McNeil-Warren also missed an interception.
- Reserve Daniel Thomas got some action and was actually the team’s highest-graded defender by PFF at 85.2. Kudos to both guys for stepping up when Delpit went down.
