JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — At some point during a regular preparation week that undoubtedly included an irregular level of anxiety about the way the Cleveland Browns played in their season opener, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz stood in front of the defensive meeting room and relayed a story from at least a decade in his past.
Schwartz told his players that he’d been in a similar situation before, with his team coming off a Week 1 clunker. He said then that he’d dug deeply into research that showed teams that started 0-1 were actually more likely to turn things around and make the playoffs if they turned their frustration into focus.
Schwartz’s reasoning — “you have to confront your problems when you’re 0-1,” he said — was sound. What made the story even better isn’t just that Schwartz didn’t remember if the conversation had taken place when he was head coach of the Detroit Lions or defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans. Later, he said there was a good chance he’d completely made up the stat he shared. In either case, he found it a good way to get his players’ attention.
Here Sunday, the results matched those efforts. The Browns’ defense was far and away the best unit on the field. And though a game the Browns dominated early went more than a little sideways late, it was the defense — specifically the pass rush — that made the biggest plays as Cleveland never trailed but still pieced together an 18-13 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Browns scored their only touchdown on the game’s first drive. They maintained the lead with a strong defense that was especially good in the red zone, then should have sealed it with a sack for a safety recorded by defensive end Alex Wright on the first play past the two-minute warning. The Browns’ Corey Bojorquez pinned the Jaguars at their 2-yard line with a masterful punt, and on the first snap with the Jaguars needing to drive for a field goal to tie, Wright got Trevor Lawrence to the ground before the Jaguars quarterback could make any kind of play.
A SWARMING SAFETY FOR ALEX WRIGHT 🙏#CLEvsJAX on CBS & NFL+ pic.twitter.com/XvJhBYz6eW
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 15, 2024
Wright’s safety wasn’t the exclamation point it should have been thanks to Cleveland’s inability to kill as much clock on the ensuing possession as it should have. But the Browns survived after knocking down Lawrence’s last Hail Mary, and the overall defensive performance was a reminder that this group goes fast — the only way Schwartz knows — and is talented enough at every level to carry Cleveland to a certain point. One touchdown from the offense held up because Lawrence rarely found open receivers over the game’s first 40 minutes, and the Browns’ relentless pass rush mostly dictated things.
The Browns had four sacks, and unofficially they had seven quarterback hits and five pass breakups. Lawrence was 14-of-30 passing, and the Jaguars were 3-of-9 in trying to convert third downs.
Perhaps it wasn’t that the defense was the problem in the season opener as much as the game’s circumstances got away from the Browns. Whether or not confronting the problems of Week 1 was anywhere near as important as just surviving in Week 2, the Browns were better in many areas this time around. And with an improved running game, just enough overall improvement from the Deshaun Watson-led offense and Myles Garrett recording three tackles and a strip-sack despite being limited by a foot injury, the defense held up well enough to overcome some offensive sloppiness and allow Bojorquez and Wright to make the defining plays.
“I see the ball (on the safety) and I’m thinking the ball is gonna come out,” Wright said. “I wanted to make sure he didn’t get the ball out. Really, I don’t know what happened. Just trying to get him down as fast as possible and trying to put the game away.
“The anxiousness, the adrenaline, that’s just football at its peak.”
The Browns went three-and-out following the safety, and Watson inexplicably tried to throw the ball away on third down instead of taking a sack — a decision that cost the team around 45 seconds of game time ahead of the final desperate possession. They converted all three of their fourth-down tries, which in a way made up for their putrid 2-of-14 rate in trying to convert third downs. More than a third of the Jaguars’ first-half yards came on one 33-yard scramble by Lawrence, a play that was a byproduct of the relentless rush upon which Schwartz’s defense thrives.
Last year’s Browns defense was a bully at home but struggled on the road and in the red zone, and that’s been stressed all offseason in the aforementioned defensive meetings.
So seeing three of the four most productive Jacksonville drives of the day end in field goal tries was not only proof of problems confronted, but it also went a long way toward helping the Browns hang on to a game they nearly gave away despite being the better team for much of the day.
“Not perfect,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Wasn’t pretty, but we fought.”
one heck of a team win 😤@Ticketmaster | #DawgPound pic.twitter.com/e4Beiwo5ot
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 15, 2024
Only eight of the 74 teams that have started 0-2 since 2015 have made the playoffs, so the Browns avoided that coming up in Schwartz’s file of shareable — and maybe or maybe not accurate — statistics. Stefanski isn’t much for big-picture thoughts or numbers as he prefers to focus and discuss what’s in front of his team. The Browns have never been 0-2 under Stefanski despite losing three of his five openers. And though the offense wasn’t able to sustain its strong start or convert third downs here Sunday, the 89-yard scoring drive featured efficiency and mobility from Watson and a nice mix of aggression and variety from Stefanski in calling the plays.
For the offense, it was about the basics and avoiding turnovers, which the Browns did Sunday. For the defense, it was trying to live up to its standard and proclamations that it could be the league’s best.
“We got on the airplane and thought we could get one this week if we played good football,” Stefanski said. “This is a hard, hard league and there are tough games every single week.”
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This defense gives the Browns a little runway when it comes to tuning and tightening things up on the offensive side, so 1-1 is just fine for now — especially since they won despite racking up 100 penalty yards on 13 accepted flags. The Browns confronted their problems, fixed a few of them and relied on their defense to close. Even if the defense had to do it twice. Linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said the Browns “really got embarrassed, at least to me, when we were at home.” So with that and last year’s road struggles atop their minds, they mostly swarmed Lawrence and the Jaguars in Week 2.
“That defensive line really showed up today,” Owusu-Koramoah said. “The defensive line, that’s our engine. When we have our engine moving, we can get point A to point B in a hurry. We could get (from here) to Cleveland, Ohio, driving. So we give thanks for that.”
The Browns didn’t have to drive. They flew home Sunday night at 1-1.
(Photo: Corey Perrine / Florida Times-Union]
