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'It's like an artist': Browns defense paints another masterpiece in rout of Titans
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- 'It's like an artist': Browns defense paints another masterpiece in rout of Titans
CLEVELAND — The Tennessee Titans were flustered. The Dawg Pound was roaring. Meanwhile, the Browns defense was egging the crowd on by waving their arms up and down.
One of those Browns defenders , defensive tackle Maurice Hurst II, tried valiantly to describe the feeling as the fourth quarter was beginning.
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"Man, I feel like it's got to feel like you're like a modern-day gladiator," Hurst told the Beacon Journal. "It's like you have the crowd in your hands. It's like an artist, you're just that guitarist and you're just [riffing] and you got everyone in your palm of your hand and you can feel the emotion and the level just rise as you pump everyone up. It's exciting when it explodes like that."
The sequence surrounding those cheers best epitomize the Browns' 27-3 win over the Titans. They also sum up the day of their defense, which limited Tennessee to just 94 total yards, the franchise's fewest net yards since moving from Houston to Tennessee in 1997.
The play before that, second-year defensive end Alex Wright recorded his first career sack, leaving the Titans on their own 8 and facing a third-and-12. The very next play, coming out of a timeout, Tennessee barely avoided a holding call in the end zone while trying to block Myles Garrett .
Browns defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo celebrates a defensive stop against Tennessee during the second half, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, in Cleveland.
It didn't matter anyway, as Garrett dropped quarterback Ryan Tannehill for the fifth Browns sack of the day, 3.5 of which belonged to Garrett.
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"Look, when the sacks are coming in like that, when it rains it pours," defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo told the Beacon Journal after his half-sack, one-tackle for loss, one-quarterback hit day. "Five was cool. We have big, big goals, so we are going to get back to work this week and we're going to keep rushing the passer. We're not going to look at the numbers, we're just going to keep going, keep rushing."
The Browns defense kept rushing, and the Titans simply could not. That's notable due to the fact they boast one of the league's top running backs in Derrick Henry .
The former NFL rushing champion came into the game with 143 yards on 40 carries through the first two weeks. Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz explained Thursday the plan for Henry by utilizing Cleveland's highway system as a prop.
"Number 22 is coming town and we need him on highway 90," Schwartz said. "We don't need him on highway 71, if you know what I mean, right? No north-south. We need him east-west."
Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry, center, runs the ball against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday in Cleveland.
That's exactly what the Browns defense did to Henry. The longest run he had was 9 yards, which he accomplished once, on the very first play of the second half.
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A lot more of those run were like Henry's first one of the game, a 2-yarder on which safety Grant Delpit took him down. That's how he had minus-7 net rushing yards on four carries in the first half.
Henry finished with 20 yards on 11 carries. It's tied for the 11th-lowest rushing performance of his career, and his lowest since Dec. 21, 2017, when the San Francisco 49ers limited him to 19 yards on seven carries.
"I feel like the biggest thing for us was we didn't want him to get downhill and get his speed going," defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson told the Beacon Journal. "I think he makes it one cut and get vertical, it's hard to stop him at that point. I think we did a great job in keeping him going left and right and just attacking him before he could hit the holes and closing off the gaps and stuff like that as a unit."
The Browns defensive line has been the center of what has been a defensive renaissance this season. Their aggressive play has set the tone for the entire defense, which came into the game top three in the league in total yards per game, yards per play, points per game, passing yards per game, first downs per game and third-down efficiency.
Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson (94) celebrates a defensive stop against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in Cleveland.
Nothing that happened Sunday will change that fact. Not when the Titans were just 2-of-12 on third down, failed to reach the end zone at all, and went 0-for-2 in touchdowns scored in the first two red-zone trips against the Browns defense this season.
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"They're not even allowing us to even touch the ball back there," linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. told the Beacon Journal. "We have the best seat in the house. I tell the (linebackers) that we got the best seat in the house. We get to see an elite defensive line play their ass off in there. We get to see great coverage outside. We got the best seat in the house as linebackers."
Like watching a "modern-day gladiator," as Walker's teammate Maurice Hurst II would say.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns defense once again 'elite' in total dominance of Titans
