Wow, Cleveland Browns. I take it all back.
Just weeks after the skeptics (yes, myself included), lined up to suggest the likelihood of a gloomy campaign for Cleveland, amid a shaky summer and doubts over Deshaun Watson, here sit the Browns — sassy, swaggering and severely dangerous on defense.
Cleveland’s victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday was the kind of win that can ignite a season, and it was just as deserved as it was unexpected. Kevin Stefanski’s team has proved a point to itself — and perhaps an even bigger one to the doubters.
“We’re not perfect, we know that,” Stefanski said. “But we fought like crazy.”
No team in the AFC North is perfect, which is part of why Cleveland can feel pretty good about itself at 3-2 and firmly in the divisional mix. Up until the moment when rookie kicker Jake Moody’s late effort went wide, the 49ers had been perfect in 15 consecutive regular-season games, part of the reason why this was such a statement performance.
“They tie their shoes just like us,” Cleveland backup QB PJ Walker told reporters. “We’re not going to bow down to anybody.”
In late August, the Browns would have snapped your hand off if offered a situation such as the contending, optimistic, 3-2 spot they find themselves in. Back then, the concerns were real. Watson, lavished with a $230 million fully guaranteed contract, was unconvincing during the preseason and had been desperately poor in his brief appearances at the end of last season.
The defense had some promise but wasn’t thought likely to be dominant — not like they have been, highlighted by the weekend showing that cut off the 49ers’ streak of 30-point games at eight and gave QB Brock Purdy the kind of headaches that he has never had to get used to as a pro.
Watson missed a second straight game with a throwing shoulder injury, but up stepped Walker — formerly of the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks — to steer the path, and suddenly it no longer feels that the old unwritten rule applies with this Cleveland team.
You know, the one that states if something can go wrong, it eventually will.
Browns hand 49ers their first defeat
Stefanski’s squad has spirit and character and the willingness for a battle, summed up in some ways by a pre-game skirmish that — unsurprisingly — had an origin no one seemed to agree on.
“We’re a very physical team and we’re in the Dawg Pound,” cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. told reporters. “We want to defend our home turf. We don’t take any disrespect.”
It is time to talk more about the defense, because, in truth, that unit is the basis for what makes this team tick.
The Browns gave up a touchdown on the first drive, then appeared to hit a switch and said “enough.” Purdy was hassled and harried, throwing his first pick of the season. San Francisco was restricted to just 215 yards of total offense, its lowest number in all games under Kyle Shanahan.
Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who has an outstanding record against Shanahan, got it right, time and time again. Things got a little shaky on the final drive, but overall Cleveland deserved its dose of late luck.
There is a little more to what they’re doing than the raw numbers. The heartbeat of the squad comes from that defense and the way it isn’t afraid to tell anyone who will listen how good it is.
“That’s that swagger,” defensive end Myles Garrett told FOX. “Not just on the defensive end, but all throughout the team and that kind of confidence we exuded it all through the week. I think you’re all just seeing the beginning of it and just starting to take notice. But we always bring that type of energy, and no matter who’s on the field, we know we can bang with anybody.”
“Sky’s the limit” — Browns’ DE Myles Garrett on upsetting 49ers
Looking ahead, the Browns’ schedule shouldn’t exactly strike much terror into its fan base. The rest of the way is laden with winnable games, starting with visits to the Indianapolis Colts and the Seattle Seahawks over the next two weeks.
There is the margin for a run here.
Watson is still the team’s preferred option at QB, especially with him assured of all that money, but the identity of the team has taken on a different look; one no longer dependent on a star signal-caller trying to regain his old mojo.
It’s of a team that’s figuring out solutions on the fly, plugging its weaknesses with fire and intensity, and giving itself a shot at being relevant in a season that threatened to quickly drift away.
And it’s a group that’s not afraid to talk loudly and has the freedom to do so, even more now — having made the critics eat their words.
