Brendan Gulick and Anthony Moeglin break down the Browns elite defensive showing.
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00:07 It had been 251 regular season games since the Browns last shut out an opponent.
00:14 Until today, Arizona came to town hoping that maybe they could find a little magic
00:19 with their rookie starting quarterback in Clayton Toone.
00:22 And maybe they could catch the Browns on a bad day.
00:26 That was not the case, 27 to nothing,
00:30 an absolute beat down from the Cleveland Browns defense.
00:34 Anthony, let's go over a couple of numbers here, 17 passing yards for the game.
00:39 58 total yards, one of 12 on third down and
00:43 that one came in the fourth quarter way after the game had been decided.
00:47 Seven sacks, three takeaways for the Browns defense.
00:52 Cleveland was unbelievable this afternoon.
00:55 It's hard to even pick a player of the game defensively.
00:58 I kinda wanna give it to the whole defensive line, but
01:00 that was a hell of a performance.
01:02 >> Well, you say all those numbers and they all could have been more.
01:05 Like we could have very close this game with 13 sacks and five turnovers for us.
01:10 I mean, they were just, my favorite part about the defense is,
01:15 like when they were on the field, they were like hunting.
01:18 And you could tell their aggression was just ratcheted up.
01:21 It was almost like they could smell blood in the water and
01:23 they didn't wanna give a rookie quarterback on a bad offense an inch,
01:29 like at all, and they were doing everything in their power to do so.
01:32 I was just so impressed at every single level,
01:34 thought the defensive line was elite today.
01:36 They shut everything down.
01:38 Thought your linebackers played very, very well.
01:40 Anthony Walker had his hands on a pick.
01:42 JOK again was running around making plays and
01:45 the secondary I thought was fantastic.
01:47 Denzel obviously gets the pick.
01:49 Nothing happened through, nothing.
01:50 You don't even know what to say about the secondary because nothing happened in
01:53 the air, so it was impressive.
01:56 >> Well, it was especially good because of what we saw the last two weeks,
02:00 especially last week.
02:02 Seattle comes out and scores two touchdowns on their first two possessions and
02:05 then kicks a field goal when they got a takeaway on their next one.
02:09 And all of a sudden, you've given up 17 points and it's still early in the game.
02:13 It's like, what is going on here?
02:14 And then yes, the defense got right last week.
02:17 But Miles Garrett kind of said it in his postgame press conference.
02:21 He's like, look, they don't have to score.
02:24 We don't have to give up a yard.
02:25 So let's go with the attitude that we need to go out and
02:29 completely dominate somebody.
02:31 And it just felt like this avalanche because the defense played well,
02:35 then the crowd got into it.
02:36 Then the defense was feeding off the crowd.
02:38 And then the crowd was continuing to feed off the fact they were playing well.
02:42 And Arizona had nothing.
02:44 I mean, we're talking about a Cardinals team that on their first three plays from
02:47 scrimmage moved the ball a little bit.
02:49 And in the 45 plays after those first three,
02:54 they had 35 total yards in 45 plays.
02:59 That it's like make believe you don't hear that in the NFL ever.
03:02 It was unbelievable.
03:04 >> It's they're not even video game numbers.
03:05 Like that's not even you can't even say that's like a video game number.
03:08 That's like playing your little brother in the backyard and
03:10 not letting him do anything, right?
03:13 It was so impressive.
03:14 And it's funny you mentioned that the fact that the defense is feeding off
03:18 the crowd and back and forth.
03:20 Because you can kind of feel and for the first time this year,
03:23 you could feel that this team was playing complimentary football.
03:26 Like the offense, although they weren't getting it rolling, they weren't turning
03:29 it over and giving the ball to the special teams that Cory Borges was fantastic today.
03:35 And just pinning the guys deep and then they pin them deep.
03:38 The defense was like, all right, hey, try to throw it against us.
03:41 Try to do something.
03:42 They forced turnovers, they got sacks.
03:44 And it just that the team played for first time all year played as one.
03:48 It was really fun to watch.
03:49 Then the crowd got into it and it was a whole party down on the lakefront.
03:52 >> Yeah, great job.
03:53 It was the single high guy in terms of team tackles.
03:58 He had eight solo and 10 combined.
04:01 But there were six different guys that registered at least half a sack.
04:07 Obviously the script sack fumble that Shelby Harris and
04:09 Miles Garrett teamed up on.
04:12 A number of passes defended including a couple from Denzel Ward who also came up
04:17 with a nice interception, great interception from Sione Takitaki.
04:22 I mean, the defense right now is playing with an aggressiveness and
04:25 a cohesion that I just don't think we've seen at this consistent of a level in
04:30 a long time.
04:31 It's a lot of fun watching them because they go out there knowing that they are
04:34 good enough to make one heck of a difference.
04:37 And it takes a lot of pressure off the offense because they know that
04:40 they can relax a little bit, the defense is going to handle their business.
04:44 And it's fun when a coordinator is just so
04:49 in tune with his side of the ball.
04:51 You often see it on the offensive side and
04:54 they always talk about when offensive coordinators get into rhythm.
04:56 Well, Jim Schwartz is in a rhythm with this defense where
05:00 he's letting these guys play to their strength.
05:02 Denzel Ward, when he's playing man coverage,
05:05 is a top five cornerback in the league bar none.
05:07 And then you get MJ Emerson who's an ascending guy who's with his size and
05:13 his speed and size all combined, sorry, a lot of S's there.
05:17 But all that combined, he's an elite guy too.
05:19 And you got Schwartz letting these guys play to their strengths and
05:23 it's just totally unlocking this defense.
05:24 And it's really just fun to watch these guys play out of their minds.
05:27 I will add before I stop yapping here,
05:30 Grant Delpit is playing fantastic football the past couple of weeks.
05:34 He flies around like a missile and he makes his presence known and
05:37 he's playing really, really good football.
05:40 >> Yeah, probably the best football of his professional career in my opinion.
05:43 My word of encouragement for
05:46 Bronx fans would be enjoy this because this doesn't happen very often.
05:50 And you should celebrate the fact that your defense is playing like this.
05:55 And also, Baltimore absolutely embarrassed Seattle today.
06:00 I've got the numbers in front of me here.
06:01 Baltimore held Seattle to one of 12 on third down,
06:05 six first downs the whole game, and Seattle ran 47 plays for 151 yards.
06:11 And that offense is certainly capable.
06:13 Also, Seattle was outpossessed by 20 minutes.
06:18 They just couldn't get anything going.
06:20 So enjoy the fact that the Browns defense played like this today and
06:24 that they've now done this twice in the first eight games of the season.
06:28 And hope that they can dial up a similar performance when they play Baltimore on
06:31 the road next weekend because the Ravens look like the real deal.
06:35 And the good news is Cleveland certainly has one of the best defenses in the NFL.
06:39 For Anthony Meglin and Brendan Gulick,
06:41 thanks for hanging out with us for a little bit here from Cleveland Browns Stadium.
06:44 27 to nothing, a shutout win for the Cleveland Browns.
06:46 Pretty impressive, haven't done that in 16 years.
06:49 The second longest shutout streak, or
06:53 I should say shutout drought in the NFL is officially snapped.
06:56 We'll see if Cleveland can keep things rolling.
06:58 For more, head over to brownsdigest.com.
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