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(No Longer) Joe Woods’ Defense

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Randolphkeys said:
I don't know this week. Seemed like the defense shut down the passing game all game. Pitts and London only totalled 80 yards, Mariota completed two second half passes.

On a defense missing three starting defensive linemen and the signal calling middle linebacker, they couldn't stop the run and scored below league average on offense.

Feels like a talent deficit at the wrong few positions defensively combined with a bad offensive day... and I couldn't be happier I didn't watch.
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The stats look better than reality.

We didn't do anything creative up front.

We blitzed JOK once. It blew Atlanta up on third down and got us the ball. We never did it again.

The biggest adjustment we made was dropping Delpit into the box.

I was wholly disappointed with the defensive side.
 
Randolphkeys said:
At some point, the angry village has to acknowledge the talent issue. These are the developmental guys, all the vets on the defensive line are out.
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Here's what I consider disappointing/concerning:

Malik McDowell flashed at times last season, but he was mostly mediocre, at best. Malik Jackson was a corpse.

Jackson's snaps declined quite a bit after Week 6 and Elliott- a 3rd round pick in Year 2- was the benefactor but did little to capitalize on the uptick in opportunity. Then, late in the season when McDowell missed a few games, it was Sheldon Day who got the lion share of DT snaps and was by far the most impressive DT on the team.

I don't think Elliott is it. Willing to give Togiai and Perrion more benefit of the doubt simply due to being in Year 2 and Year 1, but I'm not too optimistic about Togiai. We'll see on Winfrey.
 
Randolphkeys said:
At some point, the angry village has to acknowledge the talent issue. These are the developmental guys, all the vets on the defensive line are out.
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As Speaker for the angry village - we're in year 3 now. There is a limit to how much we can blame a lack of talent (only truly lacking on the interior d-line) for our defensive woes.

We're not as upset about the Falcons committing to running down our throats because that's our weakness and it appeared to be mostly on the players lack of execution. The defensive issues go far beyond that, though.
 
Isn't it, you win the battle in the trenches... We cut veteran DTs and haven't honestly replaced them in my mind...
 
Even with the Cooper trade the browns have neglected the WR room and the interior dline.
 
FiveThous said:
Even with the Cooper trade the browns have neglected the WR room and the interior dline.
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We've chosen to invest in coverage (JJ3, Delpit, Ward, Newsome, Greedy, Emerson) as the primary point of focus on the defense.

I don't believe our defensive staff is using that investment to the best of its ability.

I still personally wanted Josh Paschal and Travis Jones, but I can't deny that Emerson has looked very, very good.

When we talk about investments, we also have to remember that Berry has only had 3 offseasons so far.

The first, he got Stefanski the tools he needed on offense. Hooper and Conklin in free agency plus Wills in the first. That made a formidable offensive line (that developed into arguably the best offensive line in the league), and remember--we had Chubb, Hunt, OBJ and Landry at the skill positions. Everything seemed set.

In the second, he got Joe Woods the pieces he needed on defense. Newsome and JOK in the draft, JJ3, Troy Hill, Anthony Walker and others in free agency.

Now, this offseason, we got Deshaun Watson and our draft capital was blown.

It sucks that the QB we inherited, Baker, wasn't the guy. But we addressed it and are moving forward.

You're absolutely right to say that DT hasn't been our focus on where to allocate resources. On the WR side, we had the talent--it's just that we squandered OBJ and Landry with Baker under center. Awesome job by Berry to restock with Amari. DPJ looks like great value for a day 3 pick. But WR is certainly a position we'll have to dedicate premium resources to sooner rather than later.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
You're absolutely right to say that DT hasn't been our focus on where to allocate resources. On the WR side, we had the talent--it's just that we squandered OBJ and Landry with Baker under center. Awesome job by Berry to restock with Amari. DPJ looks like great value for a day 3 pick. But WR is certainly a position we'll have to dedicate premium resources to sooner rather than later.
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Yeah, WR will be addressed, for sure. Although, maybe not to the extent we all think. If Njoku's recent uptick in production continues with Watson at QB, I could see them maybe look more towards depth rather than investing long term. Bell has been getting more looks and catching what has been thrown to him, and as mentioned, DPJ looks good enough. Maybe they take another one in the 2nd, but I'm not sure we see a vet brought in.

I would imagine DT will be addressed as well, seeing as how they will have plenty of money to spend. And I would invest in a veteran at the DT position. We have so much youth there, I wouldn't keep investing more young players in there.
 
Finally caught up on the Atlanta game. I didn't have the emotional investment of watching it live, but overall it felt like that Raiders game two years ago in the shitty weather. It was just perfectly clear our talent level is mediocre in a few key positions, and a smart opposing coach took full advantage.
 
Randolphkeys said:
At some point, the angry village has to acknowledge the talent issue. These are the developmental guys, all the vets on the defensive line are out.
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This isn’t a one or two week trend.

The talent issue I’ll acknowledge is that the Browns have had plenty of it and still routinely get beat on 3rd down and have massive mishaps in situations they shouldn’t.

It’s a “bend and then break” defense. It has been for a while. It has cost the team crucial games. In the first season of this regime I was willing to chalk it up to talent in the secondary.

Ward looks really bad. Part of that has to be put on the coaches most responsible for his success. Delpit looks worse than he did last season. Part of that has to be put on the coaches responsible for his development. Johnson is still playing an entirely different role than the one that got him his contract. That’s 100% coach decision. JOK blitzing has yielded great results, yet we don’t see more of it. That’s on coaching.

The Browns are not a bad defense talent-wise compared with the rest of the league. They were this past week because of Clowney and Garrett being out, but that’s an exception.

And at the end of the day, this is all nuance. Giving up huge plays because of communication gaffes isn’t, yet it’s a trend against all levels of competition. We saw it last year against the Chiefs and Chargers before the wheels came off the season. We’ve seen it this year in 3 out of 4 games as the remainder of the year teeters yet again.
 
So I guess Joe Woods gives the defense two play calls and the players are suppose to read the offense to decide which one to go with. It why they aren't on the same page alot of the times. Joe Woods admitted it in his press conference.

They start taking about it around the 5 minute mark in this video.


 
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