Browns' 3 Keys to Beating Titans in Week 3

2. Slow Down Derrick Henry at All Costs

Slowing down Derrick Henry is one of those "if only it were so easy" kind of factors. Nobody goes into a game wanting Henry to run all over them, but often teams simply can't stop it from happening.

The way the Browns defense is constructed means they absolutely can not afford to let Henry get going though — it would be disastrous for both the run and pass defenses.

The Cleveland D is built to get after the quarterback, and everything else branches out from there. Jim Schwartz is able to use our elite pass-rush talent to get pressure with four rushers, allowing us to sit seven back in coverage. This helps the Browns secondary perform at a higher level than you might expect with the talent back there.

But if Henry is gashing the defense, we're suddenly not getting the opportunities to get after Tannehill. Schwartz would have to start focusing his alignments and play-calls on stopping the run first. Myles Garrett and Za'Darius Smith wouldn't be able to get off the ball moving upfield quite as much. And with that decreasing the pressure we get when they do drop back, our secondary suddenly has to spend a lot more time in coverage than we like to see.

Stopping the run has been a "weakness" in the Cleveland D so far this season, but that's a relative term. PFF grades us out with the NFL's third-best defense overall, but the 9th-best against the run. So it's still a top-10 unit from that standpoint.

Stuffing Henry early and often will be the key to making our defense click.