Told of Morton’s comments at his news conference Thursday, Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz – who coached the Lions for five seasons (2009-13) – shrugged.
“Um, I mean, we faced some good running offenses,” Schwartz said. “Green Bay was running the ball really well, so was Baltimore. Cincinnati is more of a passing offense. So, yeah, it’s one of the major things we have to do is stop the run. Two different running backs, you got to protect your edges, you got to defend all 53⅓ (yards), particularly with Gibbs. And then there’s a lot of passes that are just extension of the run game.”
The Bengals have the worst run game in the NFL averaging 49 yards a game. Cleveland held them to 46. Pretty close to their average.
Baltimore is 12th averaging 125 yards a game. Cleveland held them to 45 yards well below their average.
Greenbay is 20th averaging 98 yards a game. Cleveland held them to 81 which is slightly below their average.
Last year Cleveland had the top run defense in the league. Giving up just 57 yards a game.
Over the last two seasons Cleveland has had the best run defense and a top 5 passing defense too.
However they’ve been slightly below average in points allowed. Which I do think skews their defensive stats slightly. Opposing teams have good field position because Cleveland’s offense struggles. Therefore they don’t have to form long drives to score.
I do think CLE’s defense is the real deal. Schwartz is one hell of a defensive mind.
I expect our offense to have some struggles against them.
This is a classic game of why you focus on team execution. I do think the Oline will be fine. If this was at Cleveland I would be more concerned as I think our problems up front game 1 were mostly communication. This week will be a big one. Endless 1 week marathons each week is its own season within a season.
Out of the 3 teams CLE has played none of them has as physical of an OL as ours.
CLE and Schwartz are used too being the more physical team but this week they face Sewell and company and we will match that physicality all day and wear them down as a result.
each week is its own season within a season.