It's Going To Take More Than Joe Haden's Return To Help This Cleveland Browns Defense

Written By Larry M. Glicken "LG"

Sure Joe Haden comes off his 4 game suspension and will be allowed to play this weekend when the Browns take on the Bengals at home.

 Many Browns fans think Haden's return will be the boost the Browns defense needs to shut down their opponents offense.  Nothing is further than the truth. Haden will help in the Cleveland secondary and he will make a few plays.

The Browns gave up 200 yards rushing to the Giants Bradshaw yesterday and it shows the Browns still don't have the ability to stop the run.

The Cleveland Browns couldn't stop the run last season, Tom Heckert made a couple of defensive moves during the off-season and he completely failed to bring in guys to stop the run. The Browns defense has huge holes in it when it comes to stopping the rush. Unless the Browns get 10 more Joe Haden's this week which is highly unlikely, they will still be exposed to their opponents running game. The Cleveland Browns defense is ranked 26th in stopping the rush.

The Browns have problems with their defense and the team did very little to stop the bleeding in the off-season. As a matter of fact the Browns total defense is ranked 28th in the NFL and is no wear near the same defense it was last season through 5 weeks of play. Not to mention that A.J. Green the Bengals receiver had his way with Joe Haden last week. If the Cleveland Browns are going to get their first win of the season, it is going to have to be an offensive win. The Browns offense is going to have to control the game so the Browns won't have to count on the defense.

As far as I am concern the Cleveland Browns defense has only shown up to play twice this season. The other three games the defense sucked. Unless the team can turn this defense around this week, the Browns may not get a win against Cincinnati this week wither. Browns fans could be in for a long season full of losses. 5 in a row is already more than we should have to put up with. Haden's return may help, there is much bigger problems than that with this defense.


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