Cleveland Browns: Will the real Browns defense please stand up?

Our Voice of the Fan is back to deliver a message to Freddie Kitchens and Steve Wilks before the Cleveland Browns duel with the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6.

We see that Steve Wilks took the blame for the absurd showing of the defense on Monday Night Football. But it was a team effort. The offense didn’t exactly make Browns Fans jump out of their seats with excitement!

Even John Dorsey realized that the offensive line was in trouble as he was signing cast offs and undrafted free agents right up until the first game. But spending one or two first-round picks for Trent Williams isn’t the answer to the offensive line problems.

But talking defense, at least Greedy Williams and Denzel Ward are back..at least, I think they are. We won’t truly know until game time. Even if they are back, will that be enough against the Seattle Seahawks? I doubt it.

Kitchens and Wilks need to realize a few other things of importance.

First and above all they need to start to be able to make on-field adjustments. Not waiting until halftime, but while the game is going on. Wilks couldn’t wait to get to the podium to apologize for that 83-yeard debacle on Monday night. San Fran was licking their chops when they saw Cleveland in their 4-2-5 base scheme.

Just as with past staffs, many times as we fans have observed they don’t do it or wait until the players are down because they see the that what they are doing isn’t working!

They need to make changes on the fly. They have to be able to go from zone coverage to man-on-man for instance. Or change the blitz package they are using.

If they are getting run over they need to have confidence that the coaches can stop it on both sides of the ball. All teams get game films to study their opponent. But the ones that are best are teams that can see what their opponents are doing and change on the fly..

Kitchens is green behind the ears as far as head coaching in the league and I guess you could call this a work in progress, or him learning on the job. But Wilks has had experience and should know better!

Some parting shots here…

1. The Browns are -3 in turnover differential. They’ve forced seven turnovers, which is tied with seven other teams in the league. Four of those turnovers have come on interceptions. Russell Wilson hasn’t thrown one all year.

2. it’s time for the defense line to help Myles Garrett. Olivier Vernon has one sack in five games. He’s making fans pine for Emmanuel Ogbah (2.5 sacks).

3. Last week was a good example as to why Joe Schobert has haters and won’t ever be considered elite. The veteran was torched in coverage. It doesn’t matter how many tackles you have, you can’t be exposed like that.

4. Speaking of the linebackers, count this one as a big one for Mack Wilson. He looked like a rookie too often against the 49ers.

We’ll have to see what happens the rest of the way. But it’s evident that their opponents have studied the Browns and done their homework. They have figured out what Baker Mayfield does to get this team in the end zone.