Browns defense keeps Jim Schwartz’s mastery over Kyle Shanahan alive in Browns’ 19-17 upset over 49ers
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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.
Everyone was looking for the formula to beat the San Francisco 49ers. Well, the Browns came up with it.
It helped to have a wet and slippery track. It helped to have a couple of the 49ers’ star offensive players leave the game with injuries. It helped to have a rookie kicker miss a field goal at the end of the game. And it helped a lot to have Jim Schwartz on your side.
The Browns’ defensive coordinator extended his personal record over 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan to 8-1 as his defense rose up and made seemingly-infallible quarterback Brock Purdy look like, well, the last pick of the draft. No team had done that before, much less defeat the Joe Montana-impersonator.
And it made a winner out of P.J. Walker, who survived two interceptions, and nearly a deadly third one late in the game, to become the first QB3 to win his first emergency start for the Browns in their expansion era. Twelve others had all lost.
The Browns (3-2) not only knocked the 49ers (5-1) from the unbeaten ranks with their 19-17 defensive masterpiece, they may have given the rest of the league a blueprint.
They refused to be distracted by Shanahan’s relentless pre-snap motion designed to move defenses off their marks. In doing so, they limited the NFL’s leading passer, per the rating system, to 12 of 27 and 125 yards, sacked him three times and intercepted him for the first time all season.
The 49ers entered the game second in points and third in total yards. The Browns held them to their lowest point total in their last 12 regular-season games. Their 215 total yards were the lowest in Shanahan’s 104 regular-season games as 49ers head coach. The only lower total (164) came in the NFC Championship Game loss last season to the Philadelphia Eagles, when Purdy suffered a torn elbow ligament early in the game. It was Purdy’s only previous loss in the NFL until Sunday.
“I mean, the talent and the scheme,” Shanahan said of the Browns’ defense. “They have two corners that are really good. They actually have three. They have a really good pass rush. Really good pass rushers. Just a really good scheme.
“[Schwartz] has been doing it for a long time. Very sound. They know how to get the right people.”
M.J. Emerson became the first defender to intercept Brock Purdy this season. (Cleveland Browns)
Coach Kevin Stefanski said he felt a positive vibe at Wednesday’s practice.
“If you measure a practice by how it sounds, we had the best practice of our season because the energy off the charts, and it was led by the defense,” he said. “They brought the energy all week. They were so excited for this challenge and I thought Coach [Schwartz] put those guys in position to go make plays.”
During the game, Purdy lost receiver Deebo Samuel to a shoulder injury in the first quarter and running back Christian McCaffrey to an oblique injury in the second half. The 49ers were able to make only two sustained drives resulting in a touchdown and a field goal. Another touchdown was set up by an interception.And when Purdy had a chance to pull out the victory, moving the 49ers 45 yards in the last minute, rookie kicker Jake Moody missed a game-winning kick from 41 yards toward the closed end of wind-swept and wet Cleveland Browns Stadium.
“The football gods were on our side,” said safety Juan Thornhill.
That’s for sure.
Walker almost blew the game with the Browns trying to set up the go-ahead field goal and milking the clock in the final 2 minutes. On second down from the 49ers’ 13, Walker bootlegged to the right and threw the ball across his body into the middle of the end zone, apparently intended for Amari Cooper. The ball caromed off some defenders and fell to the ground as everyone in the stadium picked their hearts off the ground.
Dustin Hopkins came in two plays later and made his fourth field goal, from 29 yards, for the official game-winning points.
“That was a terrible mistake by me,” said Walker (18 of 34 for 192 yards and two interceptions). “I came back to the sideline and told [coach Kevin Stefanski] I shouldn’t have made a stupid decision like that. God was with us on that play right there, for sure.”
Nevertheless, Stefanski was proud of Walker, who was promoted off the practice squad this week to fill in for the mending Deshaun Watson. Walker had run the Browns’ scout team at practices since he arrived on August 30. His first day throwing to the regular players on offense was Wednesday.
“He played great today,” Stefanski said. “He ran around like crazy. He was running the show.”
Kareem Hunt scored the Browns’ only touchdown on a 16-yard run. With Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio out with a knee injury, the offensive line responded with perhaps its finest game. Hunt had 47 yards on 12 runs (and 24 on three screen passes) and Jerome Ford rushed 17 times for 84 yards.
Walker survived interceptions by linebacker Fred Warner and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir. He connected four times with Cooper for 108 yards. Cooper said that Walker phoned former Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett during the week to ask about Cooper and Brissett told him, “Coop wins at the line of scrimmage. Just throw him the ball.” On an earlier drive, Walker completed a fourth-down pass to David Bell to move Hopkins into field goal range. That might have been his biggest play of the game.
“That kid, he’s a fighter,” Stefanski said. “I knew what P.J. was about coming into this, when he came onto our team. And then I just figured that kid’s been fighting for everything his whole life, his whole career and that’s kind of what we needed this week.”
Stefanski used fighting analogies throughout his entire post-game press conference. They were apropos because a pre-game fight between the 49ers receivers and the Browns’ cornerbacks set the tone for the day.
It seems the 49ers infringed on the Browns’ space on the field while the DBs were going through individual drills about 45 minutes before kickoff. Emotions flared and there was a lot of shoving and some punches thrown. 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams blindsided receiver Elijah Moore during the scuffle and knocked his helmet off.
“It definitely got me hyped up a little bit,” Thornhill said. “Played a little more physical than I usually do. I just feel disrespected when guys come in here and feel like they’re going to bully us and take us as a joke.”
Cornerback M.J. Emerson made his first interception of his career extra memorable. He’s the first player to intercept Purdy this year.
“Don’t poke the bear,” he said. “We’re a very physical team and we’re in the Dawg Pound and gonna defend our turf.
“That turnover, the interception, was just letting them know we’re different. They haven’t seen anybody like this 11 [on defense] all year.”
Shanahan would probably add a 12th – meaning Schwartz.
