BEREA — The Cleveland Browns’ defense has spent the week addressing a problem that has followed it all season: opponents keep scoring on their opening drive, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Oct. 29.
Tennessee was the sixth Browns opponent to score on its first possession, the Akron Beacon Journal reported — out of only seven teams Cleveland has played, with the Carolina Panthers in Week 3 the lone exception. Titans running back Tony Pollard gained 77 of his 129 rushing yards on Tennessee’s first two drives, building a 14-0 lead before the Browns rallied to win 27-24.
Cornerback Tyson Campbell said the defense adjusted on the sideline once it recognized what Tennessee was doing. “Well, we just adjusted to what they were trying to do,” Campbell told the Akron Beacon Journal earlier this week, describing how the Titans spread the defense out to create direct runs up the middle before Cleveland slowed them down.
The slow starts are not only a defensive issue. Combined with an offense that has not scored on its opening possession in any of the first seven games, the Browns’ opponents hold a 56-13 advantage in the first quarter, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Tennessee was also the first team since the Jacksonville Jaguars in the opener to score touchdowns on its first two drives against Cleveland.
Defensive end Jared Verse, who returned to limited practice Thursday after missing Wednesday with a knee issue, acknowledged the pattern. “I think it’s just getting our feet wet,” Verse told the Akron Beacon Journal, “but I think we have a good plan for handling it this week.”
Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg addressed the issue directly on Oct. 29. “Of course we don’t want to give up a touchdown on the first drive,” Rutenberg told the Akron Beacon Journal. “We don’t want to give up a touchdown on the fifth drive or the eighth drive. In everything we do, when it’s not to our collective standard, we address it head on as a group and work our a—– off to fix it.”
The stakes rise Sunday, Nov. 1, when the Browns travel to Pittsburgh. Both teams enter the game 5-2, with the winner claiming sole possession of first place in the AFC North, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. In the teams’ first meeting, Pittsburgh answered an early Browns punt with a 17-play, 78-yard drive that drained 9:48 and ended in a touchdown — exactly the kind of opening the Browns say they cannot afford to give up again.
What happens next is Sunday’s rematch in Pittsburgh, where Cleveland’s first defensive series will offer an immediate test of whether the week’s work fixed the problem.
Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY