DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum The Browns and the Blitz

I will post an article about how often the Browns were blitzing earlier in the year. It confirms what I saw while watching the Browns through the first 5-6 games. I admit that I didn't pay all that much attention to it when were literally and figuratively getting blitzed by the Steelers.

However, last Sunday against the Bengals, the announcers pointed out how often we were blitzing. It was seemingly on almost every play. We were bringing corners and safeties. Burrow showed a lot because he avoided the blitz and/or beat the blitz by either moving around in the pocket or by making a quick hot read.

My questions are:

Do you think we should blitz less and rely on the DL to provide most of the pressure?

Should we blitz a lot and expose our already compromised secondary?

Do you think the success Pittsburgh had when they blitzed us influenced our defensive coaching staff to blitz opposing quarterbacks more?

Or, do you think we blitzed Burrow a lot because he was a rookie qb and we were trying to rattle him?

You can combine some of those possibilities or introduce new theories on the Browns and the blitz.

Here is the article:

Quote:

Browns defense blitzing far less but getting far more QB pressure

Jeff Risdon
October 18, 2020 6:30 am

One of the hallmarks of the Browns defense over the last few seasons has been a heavy reliance on the blitz. Different coordinators and coaching staffs, different personnel united in Cleveland to blitz at a significantly higher-than-average blitz rate.

Not anymore. The Browns are blitzing much less than they have in recent years. And the results? The QB pressure rate is way up.


The good folks at NFL NextGen Stats tracked the QB pressure rate and the blitz rate for the Browns over the last four seasons (2017 through Week 5). Their finding shows just how much better the Browns pass rush is in 2020 despite new coordinator Joe Woods dialing up 15 percent fewer blitzes. That’s the biggest dropoff in blitz percentage in the NFL from 2019 to 2020. Yet the pressure is up, and way up from the blitz-heavy scheme deployed by former DC Gregg Williams.


Having DE Myles Garrett playing at an MVP-level certainly helps skew the numbers for 2020, and it’s still a limited sample size of just five games. Garrett is tied (with Rams DT Aaron Donald) for the NFL lead in QB pressures with 33. But the investment in Sheldon Richardson, Olivier Vernon and even Porter Gustin and Adrian Clayborn has allowed Woods to more effectively rush the passer with fewer defenders than his predecessors.

Not everything is working for the Browns defense, but they’re getting this one right. It’s reflected in Cleveland’s league-high 12 takeaways.


https://brownswire.usatoday.com/2020/10/18/browns-defense-blitz-rate-qb-pressure-joe-woods-scheme/

I REALLY hope the reason we blitzed so much was something other than we saw someone else do it well.

I don't know if the stats support what they're saying about the Browns, over the years, blitzing more than the league average. Blitzing can be utilized to try to cover for weak portions of your defense... but it's a gamble.

I think it's a safe assumption that we started blitzing because we wanted to get to Burrow early and knock him around a little bit. I do wonder, though... if our hesitation to move away from blitzing was due to our Dline. Our strength on D (if we have one) is the big boys up front. As the game went on, it became more and more apparent that Myles was the only guy that came to play (Ward did too, but stay with me for a moment). Our secondary, overall, is brutal and we are very reliant on pressure to disrupt passing games. I wonder if blitzing is our attempt to keep pressure up despite a Dline that suddenly became very 1-dimensional.

If you click on the link, the article contains a chart that will help.

My first thought: are we blitzing more because our DL guys are banged up and having trouble getting it done on their own, making our only chance of getting pressure from someone not named Myles being that we have to bring a fifth rusher?

That thought both explains the lack of production from guys not named Myles and the amount of blitzing.

No matter what, I sincerely doubt we did it because of something our staff saw someone else doing to us. Without knowing, I will simply say that I *know* we didn't do it because of that because I cannot fathom a situation where anyone on this staff would do that.

Another possibility, and I can't comment on it as I didn't get to see the game as I was driving home from Atlanta during it (I did drive past the stadium during the game, however), is perhaps the comments from the announcers were just erroneous and misspoken??? Kinda like when you hear them call a reverse a double-reverse? They see us getting pressure and just call it a blitz?

My guess is that they decided to try something different this game. The first game we didn't blitz much, and Burrows sliced up the defense for 300+ yards. So would make sense to try something different in that respect.

Also isn't Burrows the most sacked QB in the league up to this point? Couple that fact with the way he performed against us the first game, it would make sense to try blitzing more the second go around.

I think blitzing is situational. Take a QB like Lamar. Blitzing him I think the odds go up that the blitz will backfire on you. His skill set means that the odds of beating the blitz goes up for them.

When looking at rookie QB's, as a general rule they're easier to rattle and confuse. Burrows didn't seem as prone to being confused by the blitz and did well against it. But that isn't the norm for rookie QB's.

So I believe much as I've seen on the O, we adjust the game plan according to the opponent. I understand why we would blitz a rookie or less mobile QB's more. I also understand why we would blitz certain QB's less.

I agree that it's situational, and it probably depends on the opposing offense's QB and propensity to turn the ball over.

What confused me, though, is how we kept sticking with the blitz against the Bengals after Burrow was consistently burning us on it.

I guess in fairness, he was burning us when we didn't blitz as well.

Just confirming because you did not see the game, but we did blitz a lot during the game. I was surprised because my eyes told me we haven't been blitzing much in previous games. That was before I read the article I posted in my OP. I went searching for some proof and found that.

I wonder what Woods saw in the first game that made him want to do more blitzing in the second game.

I think it has more to do with our guys than theirs. The little our D has going for it is tied to getting pressure (ideally, with our front). That wasn't happening aside from Garrett, and you can scheme against 1 guy if nobody else is going to do anything.

I saw some poor blitzing. Our guys standing straight up, no forward movement, turned in their gap, almost like "hit and hold" than "meet at the QB" run blitz" that P-Borg loves. If you are called on to blitz, the cardinal rule is get there to the ball. We weren't much. And this was made worse when we were lining up with about 12 yard cushions and little press. Maybe Sendejo could do that instead. MG is often running around the outside behind his guy(s). Not sure if we are bringing enough pressure, but it lacked getting there. May as well risk it up front, because our zone is gouging us.
We need secondary help.

Woods probably saw our backers and DB's couldn't cover anybody, so he figured he might as well try to make them useful to the defensive cause.

In October our entire d-line not named Myles got 1/2 of a sack (I believe it was Richardson's 1/2 sack from Cincy when KJ ran Burrow right into Richardson). In other words, it was KJ's sack (he got the other 1/2 credit).
Richardson still gets good pressure and some TFL action but our front 4 has taken a dive these last few weeks. If we don't blitz the only person that will move the qb in the pocket will be Myles fighting through 3 helmets.

We were banging after 4 games, but...dang...October was rough.

Maybe once Clayborn is fully healthy again and Big Larry starts doing something.

Every game is different.

We blitzed the hell out of Burrows and he still put up 400 yards through the air.

Generally, but not always, I like to use the element of surprise when blitzing. I love a well-timed corner blitz..... when it works.

If we got better coverage from the back end, where currently we leave holes you could drive a truck through, it would be more effective.

Where is Greedy? We need him to get back and play, and the media doesn’t even ask about him. Not anywhere that I’ve read, anyways.

Greedy was put on the IR and should be eligible to return after the bye. If he will be ready is up in the air. He is having nerve problems in his shoulder.

Still, the lack of information is annoying. Yes, he is on IR, but how is his progress? Can he lift a tea cup, yet?

He has been out long enough that he will have a LOT of work to do to get back into football shape. He will definitely have lost a step with all of this time away.

They talked about this on Cleveland Browns Daily.

There are no updates for shoulder nerve pinch. The shoulder will be unusable until one day it's better. If it lasts til after the season surgery can be an option but even then there's no certain outcome with nerve damage.

At this point, we have to plan as if we will not have him the rest of the season.

We need a CB. Be it a #2 or a slot guy, we need someone to shore that up (in addition to needing a FS). Whatshisname from the Patriots would be an outstanding addition.