Browns’ defensive snap counts, stats, and PFF notes: Week 3

Cleveland forces 10 tackles for a loss against the Jets.

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 3 game against the New York Jets.

• This was the first game in which Larry Ogunjobi out-snapped Myles Garrett, and apparently, being worked to death isn’t hurting either of them. Garrett had two sacks, the second of which came on the Jets’ final drive — the play where replay review ruled he was down. Ogunjobi, meanwhile, bull-rushed the Jets’ center into Sam Darnold, helping force the interception that Joe Schobert nabbed.
• Per PFF, “Ogunjobi now leads the Browns with 11 pressures on the year after creating just 12 all of last season.” Garrett and Ogunjobi both made the list of Top 5 defenders of Week 3.
• Don’t sneeze at the job that Chris Smith did again, filling in for Emmanuel Ogbah. Smith forced three tackles for losses. The defensive line had 7 of the team’s 10 tackles for a loss.
• The reps for Anthony Zettel, Chad Thomas, and Carl Davis remain limited.

• This was a standout game for LB Joe Schobert, who answered the bell of me asking him to make more high impact plays. His interception pretty much sealed the game, and in the first half, he nearly had a diving interception (which instead was just a knockaway). Schobert was PFF’s second-highest graded player on defense with an 89.5.
• Genard Avery saw 57% of the snaps, a number that ballooned due to the MCL injury that forced James Burgess to exit early. Burgess was playing well before his injury.

• After a “meh” Week 2, Denzel Ward was lights out against the Jets in Week 3. He was the team’s highest-graded defender by PFF with a 90.9. Per PFF, Ward allowed just 2 catches for 9 yards in the 4 times he was targeted. He also forced a big fumble on WR Robby Anderson in the third quarter. Ward returned the ball to the 8 yard line, but Cleveland could only manage a field goal off of that.
• Terrance Mitchell? No complaints here — he is 3-of-3 with solid performances, by my estimation. For the second week in a row, T.J. Carrie took over for Briean Boddy-Calhoun in the nickel.
• Some more coverage of Ward’s early-season success can be found here.

• Despite his heel injury, Damarious Randall played all but one snap. It was his quietest game of the season, but I probably attribute that to the Jets choosing not to throw more than 5 yards downfield all game.
• For the first time this season, Jabrill Peppers out-snapped Derrick Kindred.

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