Former Brown Says Mangini “was a bad head coach.”
November 18, 2011Week 11: The Browns Will Win If…
November 18, 2011Lost in the shuffle of the Cleveland Browns offensive woes has been the up-and-down play of rookie defensive tackle Phil Taylor who could most recently be found attempting to flatten St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford. Following a very impressive end to his preseason, Taylor started out his rookie campaign very strong prior to leveling off a bit heading into this past Sunday’s game. Apparently, all Taylor needed was a bit of a wake-up call from his coaching staff who had been forced to address the issue because the would-be sleeping bear was a force to be reakoned with in the team’s 13-12 loss.
“At least in my opinion he had maybe his best game last week,” said defensive coordinator Dick Jauron. “He had worked hard leading up to it. The preparation was part of it. I do believe like we’ve said all along, that every week he learns a little more. Obviously, he’s playing against different people and different schemes to some degree. There’s a lot to learn in there and a lot to feel. They can come at him in a lot of ways. He did a very nice job a week ago. He made some big plays for us in that game and was a force inside at some critical times.”
What fans may not have seen in the game against the Houston Texans was, during the Ben Tate touchdown run in the first quarter, Taylor being the man who would meet Tate in the end zone, just a hair after the bruising back had crossed the goalline on his 40-yard run. Teammate and mentor Atyhba Rubin would later have a downfield tackle on Houston’s Arian Foster, chasing down the high-volume back along the right sideline, bringing him down after a healthy gain. Against the Rams, it was Taylor’s turn to make a down-field tackle, chasing down St. Louis’ Stephen Jackson and wrapping up his legs.
Though the Browns defensive line had issues providing pressure in the first half of the most recent contest, halftime adjustments coupled with the refusal to taper off in th effort department rendered the Rams’ passing attack null. Though he only received credit for five tackles and one sack, Taylor had several plays that forced Bradford to released the ball a split-second earlier than he would have preferred. The team leader in quarterback sacks (five), Taylor continued to show flashes that reminded fans of what a motivated and healthy Shaun Rogers could do during his days with the team. Naturally, the 340-pound rookie would agree with his head coach with regard to Sunday being his best game, but he would reiterate that there would be plenty more to come with seven games remaining.
Browns head coach Pat Shurmur has repeatedly discussed his younger players ensuring that they take care of their minds and bodies during this point of the season, the part where their collegiate seasons would be coming to an end and the NFL season is approximately just past the half-way point. Their respective teammates are undoubtedly behind them while making sure they remain unsatisfied, D’Qwell Jackson going as far as to say that “having one good game doesn’t mean you’ve arrived.” With convincing games from both Greg Little and Phil Taylor against the St. Louis Rams, the impact rookies should have considerable momentum heading into this week’s contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’ll be up to them to capitalize.
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AP Photo/Amy Sancetta
11 Comments
the biggest brights spots of this year have been the play of Rubin, Haden, and Phil Taylor. I would argue his best game was against the Bengals, but that’s splitting hairs.
Deja vu I just read this in the PD not 5 minutes ago.
Scott… I know everyone has been singing the praises of Rubin, and Taylor and Sheard in spots here and there this season. My question is how to reconcile that with how awful we have been against the run.
Are our linebackers that bad? Are Rubin and Taylor looking dominant 4-5 plays a game and getting blown up the others? Is this an issue with Sheard and Mitchell? If Rubin is one of the most underrated players in the game (like we’re told), and Taylor is having a monster rookie season (he seems to be), where is the breakdown?
@BrownsFanSF – you are likely mentioning how ‘bad’ we are against the run for a few factors.
1. #30 in NFL in yards/game against
2. the Houston game (ugh!)
3. Gore, Arian/Tate, SJAX have all done well against us recently.
And, those are all valid concerns and our run defense either has gotten worse lately (possibly), we have seen better RBs (definitely), and/or OCs have figured out how to attack us better.
We should mention here that we are a more middle of the road 4.4YPC against (#18) and have only given up 6 rushing TDs (#11 but tied with 7 teams there).
My personal observation is that Sheard and Mitchell do not hold their lanes very well against the run, our LBers tend to be in the right gaps but do not shed their blocks very well, and our S’s have been terrible in run support (TJ Ward not playing as much near the LOS and Mike Adams and Usama Young take terrible angles for tackles).
I’m open for others observations of what they think is wrong as well.
Interesting. Looked up our DL stats and the only place that it seems we are good at defending the run is when the offense runs at our defensive right. Up the middle, to the left is about the same, which seems to indicate that Rubin/Taylor are not keeping their lanes as well as I thought they were.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/dl
Scroll down to the 2nd to last table that shows YPC by direction of the run.
sorry, in #5 I meant defesnive left (offensive right). table shows based on offense not defense.
so, Sheard/Fujita’s side of the defense (and usually Haden’s but he has been moving with the WR1).
Re the run defense, the 3-4 is supposed to let LBs fly to the ball and we don’t have that guy yet. DQ’s speed lets him take advantage of this scheme but when they get a real feared playmaker in the middle – the guy the opposing OC must account for, the guy the center and QB point at before the snap – this will in turn make more opportunities for Sheard and Taylor to make plays.
I think both Taylor and Sheard will improve next year, especially Sheard, when he figures out what they’re doing to him and how to exploit his quickness and strength. And a LB blowing up plays will put ball carriers and Qbs right into their path.
Isn’t our D a 4-3?
@8: thanks, yes, that’s what I meant before I forgot to proofread.
Right on!
about the run defense being a thing of concern, i think another reason for the inflated opposition rushing yards is the fact that often times these teams get ahead of the browns early and their gameplan changes gears to run the ball more with the lead. also playing a pretty good crop of running backs hasn’t helped us this year either.