Browns Secondary Outstanding Against Bengals
The Cleveland Browns secondary delivered the type of performance that the organization envisioned when it added John Johnson III and Troy Hill in free agency as well as Greg Newsome II in the NFL Draft.
Gone were the coverage breakdowns and attempted hero plays, replaced by a group executing the defensive calls and simply trusting in their technique and each other. The rest came down to talent and the Browns have a substantial amount of it in the defensive backfield.
The combination of Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome at the corners along with John Johnson at safety was nothing short of brilliant against a Cincinnati Bengals team that boasted a passing attack that was more than capable of racking up yards and points. The result was the worst performance of the season for Joe Burrow and the least amount of points the Bengals have scored all season.
Burrow made a number of good throws that were simply defended well. For example, on one play he was flushed to his right where he had all kinds of space, stepped up and threw a ball intended to allow Ja'Marr Chase to cross the field and make a play on it, but Newsome was able to chase it down from behind and poke the pass away.
The Browns defensive backs were simply better at the catch point than the Bengals. They played the hands of receivers, able to jar passes loose that harmlessly fell incomplete.
In all, the Browns were able to defend a total of eight passes, which is 20 percent of the 40 pass attempts Burrow had in the game. Ward had three. Newsome had two and Johnson had one of them.
A.J. Green only played a handful of snaps, had one pass deflection and continues to look like he can be a nice player for this team in the long run.
The Browns secondary contributed to coverage sacks as well as any number of hits on Burrow. To Burrow's credit, he never showed any ill effects, but he took a beating throughout the course of the game.
When the Browns weren't getting coverage sacks, it's because they were simply eviscerating the Bengals protection. Defensive coordinator Joe Woods did not blitz Burrow much, because that's where he's been at his best this season, but when they sent extra pressure, it proved extremely effective.
Troy Hill was utilized on one key blitz where Burrow was executing a play-action from under center with his back to Hill coming off the edge. Hill notched the sack on a play where Burrow never saw him coming and there was nothing he could do.
That's all before mentioning the turnovers, including a 100-yard touchdown return from Ward. John Johnson had an interception off of a tipped pass and forced a fumble that the Browns were able to recover, which is notable considering how bad the Browns luck had been in terms of recovering fumbles they've caused.
In addition to the 7 points directly generated by Ward, the defense enabled the Browns to hit a pair of field goals off of turnovers which only helped to cushion their lead. The Bengals, meanwhile, scored just 16 points in the game.
This wasn't an impotent opponent the Browns were defending at a high level. Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and C.J. Uzomah plus Joe Mixon out of the backfield is a talented group of weapons. The Browns gave up yards and a ton of first downs, 24 in all, but they won third and fourth down, forced turnovers and kept the Bengals off the scoreboard.
If this secondary can play at this type of level consistently over the next eight games, the Browns become a defense that can play with anyone. Their defensive line has been impactful all season with Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney and they should be welcoming back Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to the lineup in a few weeks, which gives them another weapon on that side of the ball.
For now, the Browns need to find a way to bottle this secondary play and take it with them to Foxboro when they take on the New England Patriots this coming week.
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