The Best Defense In The League Shows Up Again vs Bears
The Browns Defense showed up in a big way to help the team take down the Bears at home 20-17. Anthony Moeglin and Spencer German take you through how it happened.
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00:00 Welcome in again Browns fans. Spencer German Anthony Meglin recapping a thrilling Browns
00:15 20 to 17 win against the Chicago Bears here in week 15. And it was a game that the Browns
00:21 kind of stole Anthony. They really had no business winning this game for most of pretty
00:26 much all three through the first three quarters of the game and then pulled it out in the
00:30 fourth offense outscores the Bears 13 to nothing in that quarter and they go on to win the
00:34 game and that's in large part because of the subject you want to talk about here which
00:38 is the defense. It kind of in the story of the season. They keep it close. Offense has
00:43 been sort of hot and cold all year long. But when they need to get the job done they do
00:47 and it's because that defense keeps it within a couple of possessions. They're able to rally
00:51 and score the 13 points today to get the win. Just we'll get to some specific topics here
00:55 coming up in relation to the defense that was also banged up mightily today especially
01:00 in the secondary. But what are some of your overall thoughts and impressions just based
01:04 on how that group played today. Yeah I think that honestly this was one of their best performances
01:10 in my opinion of the season and there's a couple of reasons why. The first is that for
01:14 the first time all year the injury bug like got to the defensive side like for like for
01:19 the most part the offense has been experiencing the season ending injuries and all the long
01:23 term ones. Well this week you lose Moe Hurst you lose Oboe Ocoronkwo you lose Grant Delpit
01:29 you lose Juan Thornhill again you lose Anthony Walker in practice this week. Like these guys
01:33 in defense were dropping like flies and it almost got to the point where like you're
01:36 running out of dudes and like I don't think the Bears offense is that great. But what
01:41 they do have is this big play capability and what the Browns did today just kind of stifled
01:47 it all gave up 148 yards passing and only 88 yards on the ground. This this Bears offense
01:52 is third in the league averaging 138 yards a game rushing in this Browns defense while
01:56 banged up kind of kept them in kept them in check and really kind of shut them all the
02:01 way down. And then the other reason why I think it's so important is turnovers are so
02:07 detrimental to the team for many reasons but one of them is just psychologically it just
02:11 kills your defense like when you are constantly giving the team the ball on their side of
02:15 the fifth you're in the red zone like those guys at some point like holy cow offense like
02:19 we are carrying this team and it weighs on you. But the fact that this these guys fought
02:24 off three more offensive turnovers and just shut the door totally on this Bears offense
02:28 was was a special special performance. They've done that all season long. I wrote a piece
02:33 this week over a browse digest dot com shameless plug that was all about just like the turnovers
02:38 and how points off of turnovers have really killed the Browns this year coming into today
02:44 there was 97 points scored off of Browns turnovers this season.
02:49 The Bears scored 14 more. They took one back for six and then they took another one to
02:53 the one yard line that led to six. So they have now scored one hundred eleven points.
02:59 If you look at the Browns point total allowed this season one hundred eleven of those points
03:02 came either directly off of a turnover or after the team after they took a turnover
03:11 into like the red zone or on the brown side of the field scored a touchdown or kicked
03:14 a field goal off of it like that's an insane number and it really puts in perspective like
03:18 the job this defense really has done when you kind of look back the whole season and
03:22 realize the amount of scores they actually have limited when it's not kind of gifted
03:27 to the other team is kind of crazy. It's like a touchdown a game like honestly you're there
03:31 is basically you're starting down seven nothing and there's nothing the defense can do about
03:36 it and it is just totally amazing that this group while they're banged up they keep just
03:40 staying with it and one of the things that I love today and it was it's probably it's
03:45 not like a huge deal but something that I just kind of caught my attention just because
03:48 we follow this team every week is they were trailing 17 7 you know midway through the
03:52 third quarter or something and Greg Newsome he's always the guy who's always like the
03:55 hype guy on defense like someone makes a play he's always dancing well he made two really
03:59 good plays and like they're still trailing but he's doing his dances and he's trying
04:02 to get everyone's energy up because hey the outsiders looking in like they're like hey
04:07 this is weird like why are you celebrating but like that's what this team does and like
04:11 when they just rallied together stick stuck together all game long you could see it and
04:15 they started making plays and making plays and then when the offense tied it up it was
04:19 like these dudes flip the switch.
04:20 And it was awesome I this defense is special and I hope our fans I know we don't but I
04:27 hope our fans aren't taking this for granted because this group of guys is incredible to
04:33 watch and they're playing so well together.
04:35 Well as we know Jimmy Schwartz basically requires that you celebrate a big place so that's part
04:40 of the reason why you see that and it is kind of funny I'm sure for outsiders are like dude
04:44 you're down you're down 17 to 7 like you're you're going to lose this game why are you
04:48 celebrating in the fourth quarter but it's just what they do and it's part of their mentality
04:52 it's part of their persona you can't really knock it because it's worked to this point
04:55 the season.
04:56 I want to get to a couple standout plays in this game that allowed the defense to be so
05:02 smothering and throughout the entire game.
05:04 One of the big things that stands out of course is they only gave up three points in the second
05:09 half.
05:10 If you factor in what I mentioned about the points of a turnover this defense really only
05:14 gave up three points the entire day which is pretty crazy in of itself.
05:18 They almost shut out but especially as we talk about the injuries creeping on the defensive
05:23 side of the ball you had to fill in safety say one thorn hit was out we know Grant Delvin
05:27 went to the I.R.
05:28 Chancey comes back for the playoffs but he's done for at least the regular season and you
05:31 had Ronnie Hickman who's a rookie undrafted and you had the Anthony Bells in the second
05:36 season both here with Cleveland kind of a practice squad guy who's gotten some some
05:40 opportunity here with the team and I thought Hickman almost made me forget about Grant
05:45 Delvin in a way because he played very much like him he was flying and making some plays
05:50 and Ronnie Hickman I thought had some moments as well.
05:52 It is remarkable just how this defense you insert the next guy and somehow some way it's
05:59 just like a flawless transition even though they're down another key player.
06:03 It's amazing that's two straight weeks.
06:05 We'll get the grades later on during the week when everyone starts valuing the tape but
06:09 Ronnie Hickman two straight great performances when this team needed the most and it goes
06:14 back to that point exactly goes back to how well this team is coached in Jim Swartz's
06:18 group specifically.
06:20 It doesn't matter who's in it's so rare when you can plug and play like Grant Delvin is
06:24 playing at a Pro Bowl all pro slash like slash all pro level like that's what he's doing
06:29 and the Anthony Bell came in he's been a special teams ace all year came in and like you said
06:33 major not forget about Grandel but you had a great tweet during the game but like not
06:37 forget about him but like play to that level because guess what I don't want to I hate
06:42 using this but that's the standard like the standard is the standard for this defense
06:45 and you know they they're they're holding themselves to it and it's a really this group's
06:50 awesome to watch.
06:51 Yeah that's I mean it's that's one of the most remarkable things about this team in
06:55 general is just how flawlessly the next man they I'm kind of sick of hearing the phrase
07:00 next man up because they say it so much but this team has lived it every single day and
07:04 it truly is like the next person fills in and they just kind of pick up where they left
07:07 off.
07:08 I want to get to Cameron Mitchell deserves some shine we'll get to the defensive line
07:12 as well before we get out of here but Cameron Mitchell deserves some shine because he made
07:16 what very well might have been the play of the game first play of the fourth quarter
07:21 it was fourth and one bears are going for it they were on the brown side of the field
07:25 and it was a design fields kind of keeper run he boots to his right takes off and there
07:31 was nobody there and Cameron Mitchell trips him up just enough that he falls short of
07:35 the first down and gets the ball back to the Browns and the Browns go down to kick a field
07:39 goal the very next series to make that then a one score game and the rest of the scoring
07:44 spree kind of spirals from there are snowballs from there it was a great play and again another
07:50 instance of a guy who's kind of had to step up and fill in in some spots making a big
07:55 play on this defense and for this team and guess what just like you said another guy
07:58 is having to step up that's a fifth round draft pick you know a guy who wouldn't be
08:02 playing if the team was healthy like if Rodney McLeod was was still healthy and the back
08:08 end of our second year was still healthy I promise you that's not Cam Mitchell but with
08:12 where this team's at he needs to step up and make the play and by the string of Justin
08:17 Field's shoe he got him down and guess what happened the very next play we get a false
08:21 start which we will talk about later but false start back it up 58 yards to Marquis Goodwin
08:25 down the field we kick a field goal and we're back he's killed me where's where's he where's
08:30 Marquis go with it I mean I know where he's been he obviously had the concussion but it's
08:33 like man they got him out there and he hits on a big play that was awesome I know this
08:37 is about the defense but that was a huge play a sight for sore eyes and that goes to the
08:41 complimentary the complimentary football that this team plays they turn it over offense
08:45 comes right out waste no time in scoring position down down so one score game this is an amazing
08:51 play by Cam Mitchell honestly one of the players of the game you talk about sort of one group
08:55 feeding off the other that's one of those moments that feels like that like the defense
08:58 they keep the keep you in games they get you extra possessions they make some plays for
09:01 you to try to give you momentum and they're just hoping that eventually it clicks and
09:05 after that play it certainly did for the Browns I want to talk about the defensive line before
09:09 we get out of here miles Garrett didn't have a sack today I did ask him point blank well
09:14 I started to ask the question I he shot it down quickly because I was gonna say I don't
09:18 want to get you in trouble but what did you think of the event and he was like just ask
09:21 Roger just ask Roger Goodell I'm not saying anything about it so he wants to avoid having
09:25 to pay another twenty five thousand dollars which I don't blame him but I thought this
09:30 was a game where he actually almost had a sack on the touchdown that field threw in
09:34 the first half there after the flacko interception where he was he had him dead to rights and
09:41 miles kind of said like he had a guy hanging on his back so he thought maybe that one could
09:44 have been a flag but he missed them fields being as elusive as he is boots out there
09:50 with the touchdown pass but he doesn't get a sack today but I did think his performance
09:54 back-to-back weeks now where he draws a lot of attention and he creates other up he creates
09:59 opportunities for people like Davin Tomlinson creates opportunities for people like Shelby
10:02 Harris creates opportunities for Zedaria Smith and some of these other guys be able to kind
10:05 of step up and make some plays they were relentless today it felt like they were playing at a
10:09 different speed where I was like hey we're kind of we're we're we're backed up you know
10:14 we don't have all of our guys but they came out right away and just said we're gonna try
10:17 and dominate this game and it was from the top guys was a Darius and miles it was Davin
10:22 Tomlinson it was Jordan Elliott it was Siaki Ika who first versus now first game it was
10:27 Alex Wright who made a huge play on third down late in the game to force a punt you
10:32 know it was all these guys and it was we're gonna dominate this game by committee it's
10:36 not gonna be on miles it's gonna be on this entire group we're gonna finish we're gonna
10:40 sack the quarterback four sacks on the day jok got in there with for one so it was like
10:44 again we're not gonna be full strength but guess what the sum of our whole is greater
10:48 than the parts and you know we're going to we're gonna just try and dominate this game
10:52 the best we can so it was a great performance by the entire defensive line yeah it was a
10:58 great performance from them great performance the defense all around like I said they gave
11:01 up three points in the second half theoretically they gave up three points for the entire game
11:06 because two of them came directly off of turnovers one set up the bears the one yard line one
11:11 lead directly to a touchdown so just another standout performance for this group at home
11:16 mind you which is where they've seemed to thrive and the Browns have gotten one step
11:19 closer because of that defense to clinching a playoff berth here in the coming weeks ahead
11:24 it'll be a game against Houston on Christmas Eve next week we'll see if the defense can
11:28 be equally as stout then but until then make sure to follow along with all of our content
11:32 over at the Browns Digest YouTube page and as always of course follow along with all
11:36 things Cleveland Browns at Browns Digest dot com.
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