Written By Larry M. Glicken "LG"
The Cleveland Browns are the only team in the AFC Central not to win a
game yet. The Browns take on the Buffalo Bills in week 3 and this game
doesn't look like the push-over fans were hoping for.
Yes the Browns had
a much improved offense in Cincinnati, the Bengals defense isn't ranked
as good as the Bills. Not only will Cleveland be facing a tougher
defense, the Browns have to figure out a way to defend against the run.
The Buffalo Bills have a very good running-back in C.J. Spiller who
rushed for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns yesterday.
For the second
season in a row the Cleveland defense has shown problems stopping the
run, while the Browns defense is good at defending the pass they still
lack run defense. As a matter of fact the entire Cleveland defense
isn't ranked that high yet this season.
The Browns gave up 398 yards of
offense to the Bengals and they gave up 467 yards in week one. The
Browns defense looked a lot better off paper than they do on paper,
unfortunately the stats don't lie. The Cleveland Browns defense is
ranked 29th in total team defense. They are ranked 19th against the rush
and 28th against the pass.
The Browns defense is a far cry of
what it was last season. To put things into perspective in the Bengals
games Cincinnati's defense is ranked 29th against the pass and they are
ranked 20th against the run. The Bengals defense is the only defense in
the AFC North that is ranked worse than the Cleveland Browns defense in
total team defense so far this season.
Keeping things in perspective,
the Buffalo Bills defense is ranked 25th in total defense that is 5
spots better than the Bengals. The Bills defense is 7 positions
better against the pass and they fall below the Bengals by 5 spots
against the run. This means we could see an even bigger rushing day for
Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden may not have the same success we saw
in Cincy.
The bigger problem is going to be how the Brown defense keeps
the Bills off the score-board. The team has to find a way to stop or at
least slow down the run this week. They cannot let C.J. Spiller run all
over them if they expect to avoid a 0-3 start.....
While D'Qwell
Jackson has made the Browns defense look sexy with all of his flash this
season, we can see on paper the Browns defense has a lot of work to do
to get better.
Larry Glicken is the owner of www.clevelandsports360.com and the host of the Cleveland Sports 360 Show, an online streaming sports video show at www.streamingsportstalk.com
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