Brendan Gulick and Anthony Moeglin give their thoughts on another elite defensive showing from the Cleveland Browns.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Big day for the Cleveland Brown defense.
00:09 What else is new?
00:10 Here we are game 10, and we have said that almost
00:13 every single week.
00:14 This time, Cleveland's defense lifts the Browns
00:17 past the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 13 to 10 showdown
00:21 here in Cleveland.
00:22 Brendan Gulick, Anthony Meglin with you.
00:23 Part of our coverage on Brown's Digest, the Fan Nation Network
00:27 channel on Sports Illustrated's platform.
00:29 And look, Anthony, it's a team that's
00:32 going to have to find some ways to keep winning like this,
00:35 because they're not going to be an offensive juggernaut
00:37 without several of their best weapons and best protectors.
00:42 And the good news is, you can win games
00:45 in lots of different ways.
00:46 And you shouldn't feel shame for the way
00:48 the defense goes out and dominates most of the teams
00:51 that they've played against this year.
00:53 Today, the Pittsburgh Steelers, for the first time
00:55 all season in their 10th game, finally
00:58 had more yards of total offense than their opponent did.
01:01 But they lost.
01:02 74 of their 249 yards came on one long touchdown run.
01:08 The only offensive score they had all game.
01:10 Pittsburgh couldn't throw the ball consistently.
01:14 Even literally from the first play from scrimmage,
01:16 it was a pretty impressive showdown.
01:19 It was insane.
01:20 And you take that 74 yarder away,
01:22 and the Browns hold the Steelers to 98 yards with 25 carries
01:29 on the ground, and then give up 77 yards in the pass game.
01:34 This is a special group.
01:35 And it's amazing for a couple of reasons.
01:38 The first is that you rarely see a professional team like this,
01:42 especially in the NFL, really seem like they genuinely
01:45 love each other.
01:46 It honestly seems that way.
01:48 And I know that's kind of like, whatever,
01:50 it's a little lovey-dovey or weird to say.
01:51 But it's true.
01:52 These guys play for each other.
01:54 And then when you have that sense of togetherness,
01:58 then everything's connected, man.
01:59 The secondaries connect to the linebackers
02:02 who are connected to the defensive line.
02:04 And they just all play as one unit.
02:06 And that's rare to see in the NFL.
02:09 And when you do see it-- because all of these dudes
02:11 are elite athletes.
02:12 And when you do see it, it's special.
02:14 And this defense, man, I don't know what you do
02:16 when you're on the other side.
02:17 You need a couple of lucky plays, a broken play here,
02:19 which the Steelers got.
02:20 But it's hard to attack this group.
02:23 You're right.
02:24 That's definitely more a thing that you
02:25 see at the college level, where there's that different kind
02:28 of brotherly bond.
02:30 But this Cleveland Browns team seems
02:32 to have tapped into that.
02:33 These guys definitely, actually do
02:35 seem to genuinely like each other.
02:37 And winning helps, but so does the change in coordinator
02:41 when Jim Schwartz came in and flipped this thing on its head
02:44 and took many of the same players
02:47 and certainly some critical additions
02:49 and turned this defense into an absolute powerhouse.
02:53 Some final numbers today.
02:54 The Cleveland Browns, obviously, almost came up
02:56 with a safety on the very first offensive snap
02:59 that Pittsburgh took.
03:00 Frankly, they almost had a safety on the second play, too.
03:03 Ultimately, though, neither of those ended up in points.
03:06 Pittsburgh punted it nine times.
03:08 The Browns forced nine punts from their bitter rivals
03:12 and gave up just two scoring drives all game.
03:16 Pittsburgh was limited to only 12 first downs in the game.
03:19 They were three for 14 on third downs.
03:22 And quite frankly, Kenny Pickett looked lost an awful lot
03:27 throughout the game.
03:28 He did not look like a very good NFL quarterback today.
03:32 And maybe there are Steeler fans that are saying,
03:34 hey, we know.
03:35 We've seen that throughout the course of the year.
03:37 I get it.
03:38 But you still want your guys to go out and play well
03:39 in a rivalry game.
03:40 And Pittsburgh has had Cleveland's number a lot
03:43 over the years.
03:44 So regardless of how the season's
03:47 gone, when you go play against a team
03:48 that you're used to playing well against,
03:50 sometimes that's the mental edge you need.
03:52 Kenny Pickett just didn't have it today.
03:55 I'll bite my tongue on my Kenny Pickett thoughts.
03:58 We'll keep this more Brown specific.
04:00 Because I think that the group on the back end of Denzel Ward,
04:04 Greg Newsome, and Martin Emerson are--
04:07 I mean, those dudes are spectacular.
04:09 There's not many open guys running around the field.
04:13 And all you got to do, really--
04:15 that's the best part about it, man.
04:17 And I just said it a moment ago, how everything's connected.
04:19 All those guys have to do is cover for 2 and 1/2 seconds.
04:22 Because guess what?
04:24 If you take his first readaway, whether it's
04:27 Kenny Pickett or Tom Brady, you take the first readaway,
04:30 Miles Garrett or Zedaria Smith is at the quarterback.
04:33 I mean, it's just amazing how this group is just, hey,
04:36 you do your job on the back end.
04:37 You're going to pay for it.
04:39 They're going to get paid on the front end.
04:40 Or, hey, they get paid on the front end.
04:42 And there's a tipped ball and a pick 6 going the other way.
04:44 It's just the synergy between these groups is insane.
04:46 And there's one clip or one play that sticks out of my mind.
04:50 The Steelers are in the red area.
04:52 They're on the high red zone.
04:54 And they drop back.
04:54 They have this play-action pass, but they have crossers.
04:56 It's a normal route where the guy on the right side
04:59 crosses the guy on the left side,
05:00 and they do this cross thing.
05:01 Well, the Browns trade it off, and they
05:02 cut Deontay Johnson loose.
05:05 You'll see it.
05:05 You'll see it.
05:06 He's wide open.
05:07 There isn't a guy within 15 yards,
05:08 and it would have been a touchdown.
05:10 But it didn't matter, because they took his first readaway
05:12 and Miles Garrett's home.
05:13 Sacks the quarterback, puts him outside of field goal range,
05:16 and totally derails a drive.
05:17 This group works so well together,
05:19 and they're so awesome to watch.
05:20 It's a ton of fun.
05:22 I think Browns fans are going to sit at home tonight
05:24 and think to themselves, maybe it didn't look pretty,
05:28 but we just beat Mike Tomlin and the Steelers
05:30 with a fifth-round rookie quarterback.
05:32 OK, that'll work.
05:34 Cleveland 13, Pittsburgh 10, thanks in large part
05:38 to another incredible defensive performance from the Browns,
05:41 who are going to be back to work this week before they head
05:44 to Denver on Sunday to take on a Broncos team that
05:47 is playing better football, but also is not a team
05:51 that you would consider to be a world beater.
05:53 Maybe this is the kind of run the Browns
05:55 can get on here in the middle of the season
05:57 and really make a serious push.
05:59 They are clearly right now barging toward the playoffs.
06:04 Obviously, nothing's locked in stone at this point,
06:07 but 7-3, and they are unquestionably
06:10 one of the best teams in the AFC and certainly
06:13 have divisional championship aspirations still
06:16 within their reach.
06:17 For all the latest news and info on the Cleveland Browns,
06:20 we've got you covered, brownsdigest.com and right
06:22 here on this YouTube channel.
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