I'm surprised that any Browns fan is surprised by Myles Garrett's injury on the eve of the regular season. This is Cleveland, isn't it? At least we've got the staph infection problem licked, so we got that goin for us...
There is a silver lining: All you goobers who said that Garrett filled a "desperate need" for an edge rusher are going to get embarrassed by Nate Orchard, or whoever replaces Myles.
All those 3-4 outside linebackers were former defensive ends who were edge-rushers in college, and the personnel Gregg Williams inherited pretty much dictated a 4-3, even if he hadn't preferred it.
We already know what Myles can do. While he's better than anybody else, at least Rodney Orchardfield, and maybe Rodney Nassibfield will now have an opportunity to further develop and stick a thumb in everybody's eye who pretty much said they sucked.
It's going to be tougher vs the Steelers, though. Maurice Pouncey and David DeCastro are the center and right guard, and Danny Shelton is also out (yeah it's Cleveland alright!)
To my surprise, our lunchbox home boy Jamie Meder is listed unofficially as the starter in his stead (at left DT). DeCastro can probably handle him, leaving Pouncey to help out with Coley.
Some people don't know this: While the 3-tech is shaded to the left guard's outside shoulder, he will sometimes come across his face inside, and when he doesn't, the center will sometimes step back to head him off at the pass in the backfield.
Ogbah might accomplish something, but with those two defenders (almost predictably) missing, Gregg will need to blitze.
...oh yeah he blitzes anyway.
They'll probably come inside to keep Clowney out of Coley's way and isolate Villanueva on the defensive end (if the linebacker or safety doesn't get through himself).
Delayed blitzes are good too. Let Clowney commit and open something up, then shoot in there. Probably an outside linebacker, since Clowney will have one eye on Schobert.
That's unmistakeably a really good offensive line, dammit...ok let's do corner blitzes too.
Well, the front seven should hold up against the run as well as anybody else's could. We can hope Ebeneezer Belle is rusty, and statisticly, players who hold out until game one get injured a lot, and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Shelton, Garrett...who's next do you think? I mean it's only thursday, and the linebackers and secondary are still intact!
The Steelers are going to do some damage on offense, no matter what.
The Browns offense needs to carry this one, and the run is critical.
Hue wants to go vertical more than he has in the past, and that's partly to clear out the box for the run, and thin out the middle for the tight ends and fast crossers.
It's really not that complicated: Just force the defense to defend every blade of grass so they can't shut down any particular mode of attack.
But they'll make it tough on Kizer. They'll show eight guys in the box, crowding up, up until he's done calling the play, then pull two guys back and roll one towards Coleman. Or do the reverse.
That's going to be a problem for Kizer, as it is for any rookie quarterback. A well-coached veteran defense can often "tell him what to do" so than they can bushwack him when he does it.
There are some answers to this. A simple one is a code-word.
I'm not sure how Hue Jackson does it, but it's common for offensive coordinators to package plays in sets of two or three. When the quarterback calls the pass play based on the stacked box, and then they pull that back off and roll crap, he yells "BLUE!" or something, and everybody knows he just switched to "plan b" of that two or three-play package.
A faster pace is better. If a defense sees the quarterback screwing around too much, they'll double-shift to blow that up too.
My guess would be Kizer gets two-play pass/run packages to keep it simple, and uses fairly quick snap-counts (and some instant snaps to catch them screwing around and out of position).
Then there will be the play-actions, which Kizer excels at, and read-options. In either case, the defense has to honor multiple threats, and the quarterback has post-snap discretion.
Then again, Isaiah Crowell did quite well vs stacked fronts last season, and this offense is all muscled up and able to mix power with zone-blocking, so Hue is libel to just say "run it anyway" as often as not.
That's the Martonian approach. Just keep battering the wall til some bricks start falling out, then lob some passes over it, then knock a hole in it. Hue might just do a little of that.
Running the ball is more attitude than technique. It's pushing the other guys around, and refusing to go down. Crowell was one of the best in the league in yards-after-contact.
The Browns have the personnel to batter down walls. The question is, do they know it?
Anyway, a Browns win looks like more of a longshot today, but the operative word is "shot".
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