Browns: 3 bad and 3 worse things from Week 8 loss to the Raiders
By Chad Porto
The Worse
The tackling
The safeties are the only two players on the defense that seem to have any ability tackling. The rest of the team? Good luck. Terrance Mitchell got bulldozed with ease and even rode a player five or six yards before they finally went down. The linebackers are worst in the league and Mack Wilson’s stack is now at a historic low. While commentators keep talking about how “good” the run defense is, that’s not even a real thing. Of teams that played seven games in the NFL heading into Week 8, the Browns are third in the league for least rushes against their defense. The Browns are not a good rushing defense, teams just don’t need to run against them. They’re that much worse against the pass; which is the third worse team with yards given up through the air.
The effort
Olivier Vernon had two sacks in the first half so fans will think “he’s back, he’s good!” What they’ll ignore is that he gave up on more than one rushing play, notably near the end of the first half when on a sweep Vernon “forced” the Raiders running back to the sideline, as the announcers claimed, but Vernon pulled up and walked out the rest of the play. The back got another five yards or so after Vernon gave up the pursuit. This was not the only time a Browns defender was caught napping. Yes, they were on the field for nearly 40 minutes but that’s their own fault.
Andrew Berry’s defense
This is Andrew Berry’s defense, people. He gave Vernon a new deal with guaranteed money for no reason. He brought in Kevin Johnson. He signed Karl Joseph. He drafted Jacob Phillips and Jordan Elliot. He let guys like Joe Schobert go and replaced them with linebackers on one-year deals who had no business being on an NFL team, let alone starters for the Browns. He failed to acquire Everson Griffen, twice. He failed to acquire Yannick Ngakoue, twice. He’s failed to sign a free agent to actually help this defense. This his penny-pinching, bargain-basement defense. This loss isn’t on Baker Mayfield, Joe Woods, or Kevin Stefanski. This loss is all on the defense and Berry. Congrats.