Cleveland’s defensive coordinator knows 0-1 start does not mean the season is doomed for failure.
The Cleveland Browns in 2023 knew that, if all else was failing, they could rely on their defense to shut down the opposition and give the team a chance at a victory, especially at home.
Related: Key Browns defenders don’t practice Thursday, added to injury reports
It’s a new season, however, and while many of the faces are the same on defense, the scenario did not play out as expected in Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys.
It also brought to mind another takeaway from last season, in that while the defense feasted on the league’s lower-level quarterbacks, it struggled when tasked with stopping or slowing down even competent quarterback play.
That is not altogether unsurprising, of course, as good quarterbacks are good for a reason and many teams find it difficult to deal with an offense that has its act together.
DC Jim Schwartz speaks to the media before practice https://t.co/wv00kOnR8V
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 12, 2024
Still, that was one area the Browns supposedly focused on correcting in the offseason, so it was frustrating to see them not be able to really lock down the Cowboys when it needed to, especially with the offense struggling to get anything consistent going.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was asked on Thursday if there is anything positive to take from the loss, and he gave an interesting answer (quotes via a team-provided transcript):
“I think the message there is any time you lose a game, there is immediate … there might be a little bit more urgency to confront your problems and not gloss over things. Self-correct and be more determined to go out and correct that. And maybe sometimes when you win, sometimes you can lose that.
“Sometimes it’s harder to deal with success in this league than it is to a failure. But I think if we do our job as players and as coaches and you guys write the story of the 2024 Browns and if this is a successful season for us, I hope that we can all look back and say, ‘You know what? They lost that opener but in the long run, that was a good thing for this team.’ “
When teams are still learning how to win consistently, something this Browns franchise is still trying to figure out, a little bit of success can go to the heads of the players, as Schwartz pointed out. That is something we’ve all seen Cleveland deal with over the years as players pump themselves up only to stumble the next time out.
No one wants to be 0-1, but it does not have to be the end of the season for the Browns. If they can get right the ship this weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars, they follow that up with very winnable games against the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders. Pull it together, and the Browns could head into October at 3-1 and feeling much better about themselves.
That may not solve the problem of the defense not always putting up its best effort against the better crop of quarterbacks, but it is a start and there will be plenty of opportunities to prove themselves beginning in mid-October when the slate of opposing quarterbacks becomes much stronger.
