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.
Get Patrick Mahomes on the turf/Not giving up deep plays
You can in fact get sacks without being overly aggressive. Myles Garrett proves this. He’s given a lot of praise for his athleticism but he should get more praise for his intellect. One of Garrett’s best assets and a reason why he’ll be a problem long past his prime is his situational awareness. Garrett resorts to bull-rushing offensive linemen more than most in the NFL, usually doing so on third-and-long and later in the game. The reason for this is simple, it keeps your shoulders square to the quarterback in case he tucks the ball and runs.
This is something that the Browns are going to need to do against the Chiefs. There’s a time and place for fancy spin-moves and rips but every time you give up your back or hip to a lineman, you give up your leverage and ability to pivot. So the Browns are going to need to get to Mahomes without giving up containment on him. The addition to a potential uptick in blitzing linebackers should help here.
This point is two-fold. If the Browns can apply appropriate pressure on Mahomes, then the secondary will have an easier time. It’s a very simpatico relationship. If Mahomes is getting bumped around like a pinball in a pinball machine, then he has less time to throw. If he has less time to throw, the receivers don’t have enough time to develop their routes, forcing Mahomes to throw more stuff underneath to guys running outlet routes. That means keeping the pass-catchers in front of you, for modest gains at worst.
Play flawless offense
This is specifically for this game at the moment. The Browns defense is an unknown right now. They might and rip the Chiefs into thousands of little tiny pieces, making Humpty Dumpty thankful for his predicament. On the flip side, the Browns defense might go missing, only to turn up when the Lifetime movie about their disappearance gets made three years later.
We have no idea what this team is going to look like defensively.
So, to negate any concerns about the defense, the Browns’ offense needs to play perfectly. That means no turnover and points on every position.
It’s a big ask, considering the Browns had just eight drives against the Chiefs in the playoffs, and five resulted in no points. Then you factor in the Chiefs’ defense is mostly back, it won’t be an easy day for Cleveland. That said the Browns’ offense is completely back. They will have a complete team (hopefully) and that should allow them to overcome some of the issues the team had in their last encounter.
One of which was only calling 19 rushing plays despite averaging 5.1 yards-per-carry as a team. The Chiefs’ secondary aren’t slouches, and if Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham continue to stay stagnant or worse, regress, then the Browns are going to have to find ways to move the ball. Mayfield has shown the ability to win games on his own, but even Tom Brady has had to rely on a running game before.
Don’t get caught up in the name-brand, most of the receivers on this team have something to prove. Running the ball would be a wise way to go about things until the team can be relied upon.