In the half-century or so that I have been a Browns fan, I’d say they have had a Super Bowl-caliber unit—which is to say, a Super Bowl-level offense or a Super Bowl-level defense—maybe three or four times. Maybe. I’m judging generously here, because the Browns have not had too many great units.
I’d list the best Browns units of the last fifty years as these:
- The 1980 Brian Sipe offense. Being honest, the Kardiac Kids’ offense of Sipe, Ozzie Newsome, Reggie Rucker, Mike Pruitt, Dave Logan and so on was probably NOT Super Bowl-caliber, but they had a thrilling knack for the big play, and they had all sorts of last-minute magic. That is until Red Right 88 broke our hearts.
- The 1986-87 Browns balance. Those two Browns teams did not have either a high-flying offense or a dominant defense … but they were, like, top five on both sides of the ball. And in those days, the AFC was just brutal, so that balance could have — and should have — been good enough to get Cleveland to a Super Bowl. Alas, it wasn’t, because of the Drive and the Fumble.
- The 1994 Browns defense. With head coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Nick Saban working together, that defense gave up the fewest points in pro football. It was a good enough defense to get Cleveland to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, the Vinny Testaverde-led offense was not nearly good enough, and the Browns got crushed in a division playoff game against Pittsburgh.
I think that’s as far as I can go. Since the Browns returned to Cleveland in 2000, they have finished top 10 in scoring offense just once (2008, when they finished 8th) and in defense only three times (in 2002 they finished 10th, in 2011 they finished fifth and in 2015 they finished 9th). None of those were dominant units, to say the least.
So, having looked back a bit more closely, I can say more about a theme that I brought up last week:
I think this Cleveland Browns defense is the best unit this team has had in my life as a fan.
Right, I know, it’s only three games, and the first one was played in bad weather, and the last two were played against vertically challenged offenses,
Still, in those three games, this defense has been so crazy dominant that it’s hard not to dream. In Week 1, they made Joe Burrow look like a kid who lost his parents at the mall. In Week 2, the Steelers did not run a single play in the red zone. And on Sunday, they just swarmed the Titans, put Derrick Henry in quicksand, made Ryan Tannehill look around for ghosts.
Joe Posnanski has been called "contemporary sports writing's biggest star." For more stories from Joe, subscribe to his Joe Blogs Substack newsletter at joeposnanski.com, where he writes about sports, pop culture, life, and all manner of nonsense.
Here’s how good that defense was on Sunday: Late in the first half, the Titans went on their only sustained drive of the game—a drive marked by two big downfield throws by Tannehill, one on third down to the marvelous DeAndre Hopkins and the other on fourth down to Chris Moore. The second of those put the ball on the Browns’ 11 yard line with 22 seconds left. Tennessee still had one timeout.
On first down, Tannehill tried to stuff a throw in there to Hopkins and Anthony Walker almost intercepted it.
On second down, Tannehill tried a quick throw to Tyjae Spears, and it had no chance—Juan Thornhill made the tackle for no gain. There were 13 seconds left, and the Titans immediately used their last timeout.
And I thought: Uh oh, that was a big mistake.
Here’s why I thought that: If they were planning to kick the field goal there (which would have been the right call), then they should have let the clock wind down to two or three seconds so the half would end after the kick.
Instead, by calling timeout immediately, it was clear they were going to take one shot to the end zone before kicking. And normally, that might be an OK idea … but not against this Browns defense. That’s what I was thinking during the timeout. To be specific, I was thinking: “They’re going to try one more play, and Myles Garrett is going to sack Tannehill, and they’re going to come away with no points.”
And the Titans ran one more play, and Myles Garrett sacked Tannehill, and they came away with no points.
That feeling—a confident feeling that something good is going to happen FOR the Browns?—well, it’s entirely new for me. I’ve never felt it before. I’ve spent all my years watching Browns games with this internal dread that something bad was about to happen. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought, “Oh no, you don’t want to give the ball back to Peyton Manning here,” or “That Steelers defense will make you pay for that,” or “Stop already, you can’t run the ball against a Ray Lewis defense,” or “Dammit, Bill Belichick will probably rush one and drop 10 guys on this play and this will be a pick.”
But I’ve never anticipated good things for the Browns, and I realize now it’s because they’ve never had a unit as good as this defense. Quarterbacks are completing less than 50% of their passes against them. Running backs are averaging 2.8 yards per carry. Teams are converting less than 20% of their third-down attempts.
And the Browns’ defense has this spirit, instilled in them by defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. They celebrate wildly after every good play. I’m sure it’s unbelievably annoying to non-Browns fans—and will only get more annoying as the season goes on—but you know, that’s good; it would be nice to finally be on the right side of such annoyingness. I’ve always envied fans of annoying but awesome teams, the Bad Boy Pistons or Coach K Blue Devils or Jeter Yankees or Belichick Patriots, etc., where, it’s like the old Ric Flair line: “If you don’t like it, learn to love it.”
This Browns team has a chance to be like that. Schwartz took over a wildly underachieving defense, and the team made some shrewd acquisitions, and now he’s got them playing like the ’85 Bears. Celebrate all you want, fellas.
Joe Posnanski has been named the best sportswriter in America by five different organizations, including the Sports Media Hall of Fame and the Associated Press Sports Editors. He has also won two Sports Emmy Awards. He is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of six books, and he co-hosts the PosCast with television writer and creator Michael Schur.
