CLEVELAND — For the past two weeks, the Browns defense has struggled. The road trip out west to take on the Broncos and Rams saw the team's defense struggle, particularly in pass coverage, run defense, and generating turnovers.
On Sunday at home, the Browns were able to turn that around in a big way, with the defense getting back to their explosive ways on every level.
Each week, the Browns aim to win the turnover battle. They've lost it more often than not this season, offering more turnovers than they've forced nine times. On Sunday, the defense was able to rally and win the battle, getting four turnovers over the Browns' offense's three.
"For our defense to go take the ball away four times, harassing the quarterback, hitting the quarterback, who’s a very, very tough kid, that was a big part of this game," head coach Kevin Stefanski said after the game.
Leading the charge was cornerback MJ Emerson. Emerson alone notched two interceptions on Jaguars' quarterback Trevor Lawrence on Sunday, both in the second quarter.
"Second pick, yeah, it felt great. When I got that second pick, I'm like, 'Oh yeah, I'm him. You feel? Stop playing with me,'" Emerson laughed. "But honestly it was just like next play mentality because the game, we still had a whole game. We had a whole other half to play. So that's how I look at it."
Emerson was joined in his interceptions by fellow cornerback Greg Newsome II, who had a late-game pick on Lawrence in the fourth quarter. Newsome's pick, the second of his career, gave the Browns the ball back on Cleveland's 35-yard line, and with the ball back, quarterback Joe Flacco was able to connect with wide receiver David Bell for his first career touchdown—a wide-open look for six.
"The way that I caught it, I thought somebody was going to be right on me and I thought they was going to hit me, but once I figured nobody hit me, I just turned around and I just seen nothing but green grass," Bell said. "It just felt like little league back when I was in second grade. Just seeing that much green grass, I haven't seen that much since I was about six or seven."
That touchdown gave the Browns a 28-14 lead. Bell, like his other teammates, was grateful for the efforts of the defense, not just to get the ball back to the defense and allow him the opportunity to score, but for what they did all game.
They've been balling since Week One, so them constantly doing their job and us doing our job, I think we complement each other well when we aren't clicking on some end, they step up for us, vice versa," Bell said. "But as you see, football is a team and a family effort. So if your brother isn't able to do the best, that's when you got your other brothers to help him get through that goal."
A team effort is one the defense embodied well on Sunday. The three interceptions by the corners were aided by a strong effort from linebacker Anthony Walker Jr., who forced a fumble and recovered it himself. That turnover led to another Browns touchdown, that one a direct snap to running back Kareem Hunt, who rushed it in for four yards.
But while the takeaways forced by the Browns' secondary and linebacking corps helped them win the turnover battle and, ultimately, the game, the impact along the Browns' defensive front was a driving force for it all.
All season long, the Browns have described the defensive line as the "engine" of their unit. Pressure and chaos by the defensive tackles and ends forces the quarterback to make poor choices in his passing, leading to the potential for takeaways and big plays through every level if the line doesn't take down the quarterback.
On Sunday, the Browns' defensive line and unit as a whole made both happen. The Browns sacked Lawrence four times (five if you count Myles Garrett's two-point conversion attempt sack, which doesn't show on the stat sheet but probably should). Grant Delpit, Maurice Hurst, Ogbo Okoronkwo and Za'Darius Smith all got in on the action.
Smith said the defense knows the importance of the pressure up front and their ability to make plays on the line. For them, the past two weeks hadn't been good enough, and they knew it. So, they set out to turn things around.
“I would say we felt [the energy] last night. We had an opportunity to watch all of our defensive plays from the season at our defensive meeting last night. It set the tone for us, fired us up and as you can see it worked out. I think we need to do that every week from now on," Smith said. “We got chewed out at the beginning of the week for not having sacks and not making big plays up front these last two games. As you can see, we did a 360 tonight so I’m happy for sure.”
Sunday's game was a major boost for the Browns, especially on defense.
With a bounce back from the two weeks prior, the Browns hope to keep the momentum going moving forward.
"We're resilient, and it also helps that we're at home. The crowd doesn't understand how much they mean to us out there, so it was definitely a rebound game for us," Newsome said.
But the game also isn't something the team plans to let slow their work down because there's no complacency to be had with just four games left on the schedule and a path to the playoffs right in front of them.
“We just have to take it one step at a time, go 1-0 each and every week and that's all we can do,” Smith said. "Get back to work on Wednesday, as you know we got a victory Monday, so get back to work on Wednesday and work on the Chicago Bears.”
