What is the story about?
The Cleveland Browns’ defense was fired up in the first half. Myles Garrett came up with two sacks that stopped touchdown drives and forced field goals. Carson Schwesinger had an interception that set the offense up in field goal range. That resulted in no points, and despite Garrett’s 5-sack performance, the Browns were somehow blown out of the building when you look at the scoreboard. This was another type of game where, if the offense had any shred of being decent, the defense would have finished
off this game strong. Instead, things spiraled out of control again.
Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 8 game against the New England Patriots.
Defensive Line
- As we said earlier, just an incredible single-game feat by Myles Garrett, who had a career-high five sacks in one game. We may never see that again from anyone in a Browns uniform (although honestly, his best chance of doing it again will be right after the bye against Justin Fields). Garrett was the Browns’ highest-graded player by PFF, grading out to a 91.5.
- I thought Alex Wright did a great job blowing up a few run plays throughout the game too. However, he must have missed a few tackles during the game, as he, Maliek Collins, and Isaiah McGuire all had their overall grades taken down a notch due to the tackling component. I should clarify that Collins and McGuire were also graded poorly for their run defense in general.
- In terms of reps, Wright (66%) seems to be overtaking McGuire (28%) in the defensive end rotation.
- Mike Hall Jr. made his season debut, playing 24% of the snaps.
Linebacker
- It was a good game for Carson Schwesinger, including when he picked off Drake Maye after dropping into coverage. He was the Browns’ third-highest graded defender by PFF, grading out to a 75.0. Unfortunately, it’s going to be awhile before we see him in action. He’s expected to miss about a month or more with a high ankle sprain he suffered near the end of the game.
- Mohamoud Diabate was the benefactor of more reps, and he graded out to a 71.7 by PFF, the fourth-highest on defense. He forced a fumble that was recovered by Devin Bush, although the game was out of reach, and that recovery really just led to the lowlight of Dillon Gabriel getting an intentional grounding for a safety.
Cornerback
- Can we get someone to see what is up with Denzel Ward this year? Granted, I know we have super high standards for him. But after a few years of him seeming to be in shutdown mode, now it just seems like he’s invisible on the defense. He received a grade of 45.9 by PFF this week.
- His grade wasn’t as bad as Myles Harden, who graded out to a 32.7. It seemed like Harden was also the only player on the team collecting penalties (although to be fair, the one pass interference call against him was bogus).
Safety
- After Grant Delpit was talked up to death this week, he was graded as one of the Browns’ worst defenders this week by PFF, grading out to a 33.7. He graded well in all areas, except for coverage.
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