Defense and Deshaun Watson come together in nick of time for Baltimore showdown
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Where were you in 2007, the last Browns’ defensive shutout until Sunday’s 27-0 obliteration of the hapless Arizona Cardinals?
Kevin Stefanski was a 25-year-old gopher for Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress. He had the title of assistant to the head coach, but it was about an entry-level job in the NFL as you could get.
“I was in seventh grade in Miami, my second to last year of Pop Warner football,” said Anthony Walker, considered the old sage, at 28, of the Browns’ linebackers. “I was playing defensive back and wide receiver.”
Jim Schwartz was putting the finishing touches on a defensive coordinator run with the Tennessee Titans that would earn him his only head coaching job with the Detroit Lions. The Titans were ranked eighth in yards and scoring defense in 2007 and held three opponents under 10 points, but didn’t record a shutout.
Of course, they may not have played a team that season more offensively challenged than the Cardinals.
After a deadline-beating trade this week of quarterback Josh Dobbs, who heroically pulled out a victory for Minnesota on short notice, the Cardinals trotted out fifth-round rookie Clayton Tune. And the result was not pretty.
“We couldn’t run it, we couldn’t protect, and we couldn’t throw it,” summed up Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon, the Cleveland native and pride of St. Ignatius HS.
The Browns sacked Tune seven times – defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson was credited with a career-high 2.5 – intercepted him twice, stripped him of a fumble, and strangled the Cardinals for 58 total net yards in 48 plays. And that was the name of that tune.
It was the third-stingiest defensive performance in Browns history, surpassed only by the 47 yards surrendered to the Bears in Justin Fields’ first NFL game in 2021 and 53 allowed the Steelers in Bud Carson’s surreal coaching debut in the 1989 season opener.
But the shutout was the exclamation point, an affirmative response to Schwartz’s challenge to get back to the standard the defense set earlier in the season. It overshadowed an equally positive performance by quarterback Deshaun Watson in his first return to full-time work since September 24.
It was the fifth shutout in the Browns’ expansion era, first since that 8-0 snow globe classic against Buffalo in 2007.
“I’m always thinking about the shutout,” confessed defensive end Myles Garrett, who tacked on one sack to up his season total to 9.5 and added a recovery of tackle Shelby Harris’ strip of Tune. “You go into a game thinking, ‘They don’t have to score.’ I mean, we lived up to that.”
Cornerback Denzel Ward and Sione Takitaki had the interceptions of Tune, who passed for 58 yards, but lost 41 on sacks, and completed his first game with a passer rating of 20.8. The Cardinals ran a total of five plays in Browns’ territory, none beyond the 44-yard line.
The Deshaun Watson-to-Amari Cooper connection was back in action, with Cooper catching two long balls among his five receptions. (Cleveland Browns)
But enough about the defense. How about Watson?
He started shakily as Stefansk’s conservative game plan, supported by heavy formations and short throws, eased him back into rhythm. Watson missed some touch throws early on and actually precipitated some boos when he threw low and away for tight end Jordan Akins on a fourth-and-3 from the Arizona 36 late in the first quarter.
But on the next possession, Watson turned those boos into “oohs” with a strike to Amari Cooper that traveled 34 yards in the air and Cooper extended to a 59-yard gain.
“[That ball] convinced me he was back because if he wasn’t feeling good he wouldn’t have thrown the ball deep,” said Cooper, who was also the recipient of two other Watson completions of note. “Once he threw that I’m like, ‘OK, cool, let’s go.’ Because I know Deshaun likes to throw the ball deep. That’s his thing, so once he threw it I was like, ‘He must be feeling good.’”
Watson punctuated the afternoon with his prettiest pass of the game, a 49-yard dime to Cooper streaking through double coverage of safety Budda Baker and cornerback Antonio Hamilton. That led to the final points, a 3-yard touchdown run by Kareem Hunt.
Cooper’s only touchdown came on a lucky carom off the helmet of lineman Dante Stills that ricocheted the ball high and into the hands of Cooper in the end zone. Cooper finished with five catches on five targets for 139 yards and the TD.
Watson was smartly lifted by Stefanski with 6:49 to play after going 19 of 30 for 219 yards, touchdowns to Cooper (11 yards) and David Njoku (5), no interceptions and one hard landing on his strained right shoulder after a sack.
“It feels good,” Watson said of his long-awaited return after he missed three full games and three quarters of a fourth. “This is what I’ve been preparing and training very hard to get back to. Just to get out there and play free and be able to very, very close to myself and just go out there and compete and have fun with my teammates, and that’s what today brought.”
What did Watson feel was missing in his game?
“I’m not 100 percent,” he said. “I just came [back] from an injury, so I just missed, whatever, I was 19 of 30, so I missed a couple of throws that I want, that I know I can make, and, yeah, we just got to keep striving. And I’m striving to get better each and every opportunity that I get.”
Watson would not even consent that this was a great tune-up for him prior to next week’s game in Baltimore. The Ravens maintained a comfortable advantage in the AFC North race with a 37-3 route of Seattle.The Ravens (7-2) are 1 ½ games ahead of the Steelers (5-3), Browns (5-3) and Bengals (5-3). But their lead is an extra game over the Browns because of Baltimore’s 28-3 victory in Cleveland on October 1.
Stefanski said, “I thought [Watson] looked really good and looked like himself to me. And that was important to get out there and get one today, take care of business.”
Garrett admitted there was a sense of relief seeing Watson round into form as the game wore on.
“Yeah, I mean, you don’t expect the guy to look like Superman, especially coming off an injury like he was,” Garrett said. “So, him getting back the groove of things, getting the feel of the game, making those deep passes, putting some on the money, getting out of the pocket, just feeling like himself again. That’s what we want to see and he’s only going to get better.”
In the nick of time. It’s on to Baltimore.
