Browns: 3 things Cleveland has to do to defeat the Chiefs

The Browns have to do these three things to defeat the Chiefs.

The Browns are poised to have a huge season, but it all starts with week one. After a great 2020 season and an impressive offseason, the Browns have the highest hopes they have had in decades. Super Bowl expectations are not far-fetched.

Not anymore.

It all starts against the Chiefs, however. A Chiefs team the Browns could’ve beaten in the 2020-2021 playoffs, but failed to do so. This isn’t about revenge but redemption that the Browns are chasing after. A chance to prove to the league that they are for real.

These are the three things they need to walk away from Week 1 with a victory.

Maintain contain

The image of Chad Henne rushing for a first down haunts me still to this day, and it should haunt the Browns. Watching Larry Ogunjobi get stood upright, while Adrian Clayborn got rode around Henne was a disaster. The defensive line had failed their job in barely less than three seconds.

Henne, with a 3rd and 14, rushed for a first down because Clayborn overpursued and Ogunjobi couldn’t get off his block. The issue from the start falls on Clayborn, who attempted to do a rip-maneuver to the outside of Eric Fisher, who was able to trap Clayborn and ride him away from Henne and nearly smack-dab into Myles Garrett, opening up a hole big enough to fit Colin Cowherd’s ego.

While the defensive line is supposed to get to Henne in this instance, there are right ways and wrong ways to do this, Clayborn did the wrong way. Garrett, who bull-rushed his blocker, did it the right way. For his part, so did Sheldon Richardson, who had two Chiefs players on him, but still, he pushed them back into Henne’s pocket, taking away angles from Henne to use.

The Browns didn’t just fail on the line, not having anyone over the middle, was also a problem. If you had linebacker five or six yards off the line of scrimmage, he can come up and put down Henne after a modest gain, setting up a fourth down. So you can blame defensive coordinator Joe Woods too.

The Browns can’t allow this to be a trend against the Chiefs. They have to ‘stay home’ on their assignments and not allow the offensive line to take them out of the play by being overly aggressive.