Cleveland Browns: Defending Q-Counter Bash
The Browns limited the legs of the Ravens' Lamar Jackson and the run game as a whole. Their tools for defending Bash concepts were also impressive.
After two years working for former Titans Head Coach Mike Vrable, Jim Schwartz returned to calling plays with a bang. Cleveland’s man-dominant four-down scheme suffocated most opponents last year. The Browns finished 2024 as the #2 team in total defensive DVOA.
The roster in Cleveland was perfectly set up for Schwartz’s scheme. In the backend, the secondary was full of man coverage defenders in CBs Denzel Ward, Martin Emerson Jr., and Greg Newsome. Even Safety Grant Delpit was great in man coverage.
Up front, DE Myles Garret led a unit that finished #1 in rushing 1st Downs in the NFL, tied with the Chicago Bears. The Browns were sixth in sacks and 10th overall in pressure creation. In short, Schwartz used a simplistic scheme to unleash the potential of his players, resulting in a dominant defensive performance.
For the most part, the Browns chose to run it back with the same crew in ‘24. DL Jordan Elliot departed to San Fransisco and was replaced by Shelby Harris, who was already on the roster. At LB, Anthony Walker signed with Miami and was replaced by former Minnesota Viking Jordan Hicks. The results have not been the same, though.
Much of Cleveland's issues center around the offense, mainly QB Deshaun Watson, who had one of the worst statistical starts to a season before tearing his Achilles and ending his season. It is hard to play elite defense when the offense doesn’t have its back. The two units fed into Cleveland’s success, especially the 4-2 finish by current Colts’ QB Joe Flacco.
We have seen this type of regression before in ‘elite’ defenses with defunct offenses. Two years ago, the Panthers’ Ejiro Evero had one of the best defenses in the league with the Broncos, only to watch the success slowly fade as the offense and situation around the organization worsened.
But that isn’t the only issue. The Browns’ defense didn’t change much in personnel or scheme from last year. Schwartz doesn’t run a complex scheme and, at least last year didn’t blitz very much. Then again, he didn’t need to.
Cleveland is still in the top 10 in Pass Rush Production (PRP), which measures how often a team affects the QB through Week 9. They are also in the top 10 in Sacks. Early in the year, the pressure numbers weren’t there, and Schwartz has since increased his overall Blitz Rate to ~32%, enough for eighth in the league.
The secondary has been struggling overall this year, a notable culprit in the statistical decline. Cleveland runs the highest amounts of single-high coverage in the NFL (~75%) and ranks 29th in Disguise Rates; what you see is generally what you get. This style puts a lot of pressure on the secondary because, many times, they are isolated man-to-man in coverage, even in Cover 3. Their EPAl (expected points allowed) in closed-post coverage ranks 25th in the league—a far cry from last year’s dominating play.
Even though the Browns are creating pressure in the passing game, they are not matching that success against the run. As of Week 9, the Browns are 15th in Rushing Efficiency in the NFL, with an EPAl ranking them 13th. Even with the degradation of the defensive success, the Browns found a way to beat the Ravens and control their ground game.
The Browns only faced 21 total rushes in their game against the Ravens. The lack of rushing was mainly due to the Browns’ ineffectiveness to stop the pass. Lamar Jackson went 23/38 for 289 yards passing and two TDs. Derek Henry had a decent day, going 11-73 (6.6 per) with one TD. Lamar has the highest Field Vision’s rushing Threat Rating at 81.73 but was limited to just 8-46 and no TDs.
A powerful platform used on Microsoft® Visio & PowerPoint to allow football coaches to organize, format, and export Playbooks, Scout Cards, and Presentations efficiently.