Early in the year, the Browns defensive issues largely boiled down to communication issues in the secondary with crucial blown coverages. But the heart of the issue this year, as the numbers show, became the run defense.
And therein lies the heart of the problem.
The rest of the way over the Browns’ final seven games of 2021, Cleveland relinquished an average of 163.9 passing yards per game and 130 rushing yards per game. They allowed an average of 18.6 points per game, and in four of those contests they held opponents to 16 points or fewer. They finished the year with a top-five defense, having given up an average of 311.5 yards per game.
Over the last five games, the rushing defense hasn’t improved much with Cleveland still giving up 132.8 rushing yards. But they are relinquishing 175 passing yards, and just 14.8 points per contest. For the season, the 335.9 yards per game they are giving up has them ranked 16th in the NFL. “I just think teams start running the ball on us, and we get a high, high number of runs per game,” Woods said. “We haven’t handled it well because we give up explosive runs. That was the main focus for us throughout the season was how can we eliminate the explosives. We just didn’t do a good job. When you give up big runs, you give up big yards, and I think that is what happened to us throughout the season.
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