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Pittsburgh Steelers Meet The Opponent: Cleveland Browns

By Donnie Druin

CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 09: Ben Roethlisberger #7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers throws a pass in front of Larry Ogunjobi #65 of the Cleveland Browns during the second quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 9, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 09: Ben Roethlisberger #7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers throws a pass in front of Larry Ogunjobi #65 of the Cleveland Browns during the second quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 9, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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CLEVELAND, OH – OCTOBER 08: Myles Garrett #95 of the Cleveland Browns reacts to a play against the New York Jets in the first quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium on October 8, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH – OCTOBER 08: Myles Garrett #95 of the Cleveland Browns reacts to a play against the New York Jets in the first quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium on October 8, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Defense

The Browns have a lot of young, exciting players on the defensive side of the ball. None however match the presence of defensive end Myles Garrett, who looks as promising as his number one overall pick potential appears to be. Garrett is lined up across Emmanuel Ogbah, with the duo combining for 8.5 sacks on the season thus far (Myles has 7 of those, currently ranked #5 in the league). Trevon Coley and Larry Ogunjobi anchor the defensive tackle spots in Cleveland’s 4-3 defense, which has looked promising at times despite allowing nearly 135 yards rushing per game.

The Browns will be without Pro-Bowl middle linebacker Joe Schobert on Sunday, a big piece to their defensive puzzle as the team’s leading tackler. Genard Avery is likely to fill his spot on Sunday, as he logged 78% of snaps last week per Pro Football Focus. Christian Kirksey and Jamie Collins fill the other two spots as linebackers, having played considerably well with 77 tackles amounted between the two.

Cleveland’s secondary is headlined by number four overall pick Denzel Ward. Steelers fans got a taste of Ward in the first week of the season, where he was able to pick Ben Roethlisberger off twice and looked good in coverage against Antonio Brown. Much of the same is expected of Ward in week eight, with T.J. Carrie starting opposite of him. Safety Damarious Randall is questionable with a groin injury but is expected to play. Randall and opposite safety Jabrill Peppers are both extremely versatile/athletic, so expect them to be lined up in various spots on Sunday.

Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams finds himself conducting a defense that is middle of the road in terms of scoring, ranking 18th in points allowed per game (25.3) despite allowing over 400 yards of offense per game. Williams can be known to be aggressive with his play-calling, and isn’t afraid to move guys around to cause confusion for opposing quarterbacks. His defense has given up 38 and 26 points the last two weeks, will the Steelers offense be able to keep the trend of high scoring games up?

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