Browns’ defensive snap counts, stats, and notes: Week 2

Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

More good news for the Browns’ defensive line and starting cornerbacks, but the middle of the defense needs players back from injury.

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

• Disclaimer: as we said before the game, the Bengals’ offensive line was terrible.
• Myles Garrett delivered in Week 2, and the most surprising thing to me was seeing that he played 91% of the snaps. That might not be a lot for a normal game, but Cincinnati ran 92 plays, so that means Garrett was in on 84 snaps. He was the team’s highest-graded player on defense with a grade of 90.1, and obviously, his strip-sack on Burrow to give Cleveland the ball back at the 1 yard line was very important to Cleveland’s win.
• With Olivier Vernon down for the game, Adrian Clayborn had an early sack before leaving to injury himself. That left Porter Gustin in charge as the other starter for much of the game, and he too delivered — although he did have one facemask penalty.
• Per PFF, “Jordan Elliott saw a decent bit of playing time with 34 defensive snaps and got home for a couple of pressures.”
• Sheldon Richardson had a few high-impact plays, including one sack on Joe Burrow in which he was not fooled at all by the rookie’s attempt to spin away from him.

Browns DL Sheldon Richardson made an impact as a pass rusher and against the run in Week 2:

Pass Rush
→ 4 pressures, 3 hurries, 1 sack
→ 9.1% pressure rate

Run Defense
→ 4 run tackles on 19 run snaps
→ On-Field: 2.4 rush YPP allowed (Off: 4.4 rush YPP)#CINvsCLE | #Browns

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 18, 2020

• Joe Mixon had a very tough time running against Cleveland’s front:

Joe Mixon was hit at/or behind the LoS on 50% of his rush attempts in W2 pic.twitter.com/lR2I5fQKC1

— PFF (@PFF) September 18, 2020

• B.J. Goodson played the entire game and had 7 tackles.
• With rookie Jacob Phillips injured, veteran Malcolm Smith stepped in to play 61% of the snaps and log 9 tackles, second-most on the team in Week 2. Sione Takitaki’s snaps took a hit this week, as he played 45% of the snaps.

We are all concerned about the #Browns defense -- which is understandable so far. But Woods has been very vanilla the first two weeks. Keeping it simple for so many new faces.

When he has flashed some pressure schemes, they have been effective. Hoping he brings out more in W3.

— Jake Burns (@jake_burns18) September 19, 2020

• Denzel Ward and Terrance Mitchell combined to defend six passes. The Ward that I saw against the Bengals is the one who I know will allow this defense to click better eventually, once some more depth comes back at positions like nickelback and linebacker:

Denzel Ward really showed out playing a ton of single-coverage concepts on Thursday

dude's a baller pic.twitter.com/uyiFBUEGj9

— Austin Gayle (@PFF_AustinGayle) September 19, 2020

• A.J. Green was targeted 13 times, but had just 3 catches for 29 yards.
• Tavierre Thomas played 83% of the snaps as the nickelback. Again, I’m not trying to bag on the guy, but we need to get Kevin Johnson back soon, hopefully in Week 3. Thomas had 9 tackles, and also missed on a chance to bring Burrow down from a blitz.

Kevin Stefanski said today that “it’s possible” the Browns could get several guys back in practice next week, including CB Greedy Williams (shoulder), LB Mack Wilson (knee), CB Kevin Johnson (liver), "all heading in the right direction.”

— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) September 18, 2020

• Andrew Sendejo played the entire game again, while Sheldrick Redwine didn’t play at all on defense. Maybe Sendejo’s reps are here to stay. He had a team-high 10 tackles, but Cleveland again had a tough time covering tight ends.
• The tight end position combined for 11 catches for 87 yards and 1 touchdown against the Browns’ defense. The biggest issue I see right now is that teams clearly know that the middle of the defense — linebacker, nickelback, and safety — are extreme weaknesses, and they are just going after them repeatedly with success. That negates some of the stronger pieces of Cleveland’s defense.

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