Browns Defense Saves Cleveland in Win over Raiders

It wasn’t pretty, but the Cleveland Browns got it done. Their 23-13 win over the Oakland Raiders was a good step toward righting the ship. If the Browns are to sail toward the postseason it looks like it will be the defense which powers the engine and not the offense.

For the first five games of the season the Browns were playing football in a bizarro world. The offense, which is missing its best playmaker in Josh Gordon and had an inexperienced quarterback, was supposed to struggle. The defense, which was flush with talent and ranked ninth in the league last year, was supposed to be their stabilizing force.

They added linebacker Karlos Dansby and safety Donte Whitner to give some attitude and confidence to a defense that was good but not great. They struggled mightily on third downs last season, and those moves were supposed to help.

Then this season started, and they didn’t just struggle on third down—they struggled on all the downs.

The Browns entered Week 8 as the 29th-ranked defense overall and the worst defense in the NFL against the run. Sure, there had been injuries on the defensive line but nothing that should have caused such a dramatic plummet to the bottom of the league.

Instead, the offense was the reason the Browns had a .500 record, and the league was taking notice of them as a legitimate contender in the AFC North. Despite a poor performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Brian Hoyer has far surpassed anyone’s expectations for this season.

The running game entered Week 7 as the third-ranked attack in the NFL before gaining just 69 yards against the Jaguars. Even the receiving corps, which is made up of a bunch of has-beens and never-weres, had been more than sufficient.

But in the last two weeks something changed. At the very least, the injury to Pro Bowl center Alex Mack changed the way the offense operated. Even worse, it seemed as though other teams had figured out what the Browns do and how to stop it.

Either way, the offense has not been playing well, and the defense has had to save the day.

Last week the Browns lost to the Jaguars 24-6. Lost in the anger from that defeat, however, was the fact that the defense held Jacksonville to 10 points until there were six minutes left in the game. The only reason the Jags scored two more touchdowns was poor special teams play and desperation throws by the Browns offense which gave them great field position.

The Cleveland defense also forced quarterback Blake Bortles to throw three interceptions in that game. If the offense had held up its end of the bargain in the slightest the Browns would have walked away with an easy victory.

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This week was more of the same except the defense finally played a complete game. There were no “if this didn’t happen” or “had this been different” scenarios. The Browns just flat-out made the plays necessary to win.

The Raiders were able to move the ball but never could make a play on the Browns defense when it was crucial. Cleveland forced the Raiders into two fumbles and turned a fake field goal into an interception.

Cornerback Joe Haden is finally playing at a Pro Bowl level and had a team-high nine tackles, two passes defended and a tackle for loss to go along with his fumble recovery. Oh, and don’t look now, but rookie Justin Gilbert had two passed defended too. He actually looks like a professional corner.

One of the big pieces that had been missing for the Browns defense all season was safety Donte Whitner. People expected much more out of him when the Browns gave him a big free-agent contract this offseason.

Until this week he had been a ghost on the field and rarely around a big play. Sunday afternoon he had eight tackles, forced a fumble and made a huge third-down stop early in the contest. That is the guy Cleveland thought it had signed.

So while the defense seems like it was late to the party, it may have arrived just in time. The offense needed someone to pick up the slack, and it looks like the defense is ready to do that. Sure, the Raiders are not a very good offensive team, but this is a start.

And it is tough to brush aside an effort that gave the Browns their fourth win in seven games this year, especially when those four wins match the team’s total from the entire 2013 season.