{"id":411550,"date":"2026-09-26T21:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411550\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T21:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:00:24","slug":"one-stat-shows-how-the-browns-revamped-their-defensive-approach-in-tampa-was-it-one-game-or-their-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411550\/","title":{"rendered":"One stat shows how the Browns revamped their defensive approach in Tampa. Was it one game, or their identity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A number that tells you about what went wrong for the Browns<\/a> in Week 1 \u2014 and what changed in Week 2 \u2014 can be found buried inside a defensive coverage chart, says cleveland.com columnist Terry Pluto.<\/p>\n

Against Jacksonville in the season opener, the Browns played man-to-man defense on just 12.5% of snaps, according to TruMedia Sports<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On Sunday in the win over Tampa Bay, that number jumped to 59.7% \u2014 37 plays.<\/p>\n

That kind of swing doesn\u2019t happen by accident. And as cleveland.com columnist Terry Pluto said on the latest Terry\u2019s Talkin\u2019 podcast<\/a>, what happened in Jacksonville wasn\u2019t just a bad game \u2014 it was a coaching misstep with a specific cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike Rutenberg, the defensive coordinator, had a brutal, awful game against Jacksonville where he totally abandoned the game plan that they had planned,\u201d Pluto said. \u201cI got this for a fact. I don\u2019t want to hear anybody from the Browns tell me that\u2019s wrong. That is not wrong. He got timid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Jacksonville, Rutenberg retreated to passive, zone-heavy coverage. According to the coverage stats, the Browns ran 30 cover-three plays against the Jaguars, dropping players into deep thirds and giving opposing quarterbacks comfortable windows and time to operate. <\/p>\n

As Pluto put it: It ended up looking like \u201cjust throw a pass to whoever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bigger problem, Pluto said, is that the entire Browns roster is built and paid to excel in man-to-man.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019re paying,\u201d Pluto said. \u201cDenzel Ward\u2019s one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the NFL, if not the highest. Tyson Campbell has a very lucrative contract. He\u2019s probably in the top 20, and he\u2019s built for man-to-man.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 12.5% man-to-man figure from Week 1 would have been a major topic of discussion heading into the game in Tampa, and the Browns knew it needed to change. \u201cThe analytics people would say that,\u201d Pluto acknowledged.<\/p>\n

Against the Bucs, the Browns took the aggressive approach \u2014 and Bucs QB Baker Mayfield never found the rhythm Trevor Lawrence had enjoyed the week before.<\/p>\n

Will man-to-man be the Browns\u2019 trademark coverage, or will it come and go week to week?<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s home opener against a Carolina offense averaging more than 30 points per game will provide some clues.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the podcast for this week, and previous weeks:<\/p>\n

If you have a question or a topic you\u2019d like to see included on the podcast, email it to sports@cleveland.com<\/a>, and put \u201cTerry\u2019s Talkin\u2019\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n

You can find previous podcasts below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio – A number that tells you about what went wrong for the Browns in Week 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-411550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}