The Cleveland Browns shall be trying to decide up their third dwelling win of the season on Sunday once they host the San Francisco 49ers.
All the pregame hype will deal with quarterback Shedeur Sanders making his first dwelling begin, however the Browns will want extra than simply “juice and vibes” to beat the 49ers, who’re deep into the playoff hunt in the top-heavy NFC West Division.
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While the offense will look to reap the benefits of a weakened protection for the second consecutive week, Cleveland’s protection, which is coming off a 10-sack recreation, will work to make life depressing for the 49ers once they have the ball.
On Friday, Cleveland’s coordinators held their weekly assembly with the media, and listed here are the key takeaways from what they needed to say about the upcoming recreation in opposition to the 49ers.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz
In three earlier conferences, a Schwartz-led protection has restricted Kyle Shanahan’s offense to fifteen.7 factors, 290 yards, and 4.6 yards per play. But the final result of Sunday’s recreation will nonetheless come all the way down to the gamers on the subject, according to Schwartz:
“When it’s all said and done, it’s not Jim Schwartz against Kyle Shanahan, it’s players versus players. And our job is to try to put players in good positions and let them go out, execute, play with fundamentals, and win the game. This is always one of my hardest weeks of preparation because, I mean, Kyle’s one of the best in the business and has been for a long time. (He) makes you defend every part of the field. He uses his personnel really well.
“I think we can probably make a little too much of people behind the scenes, structure and schemes, and calling plays and things like that. This is a player’s game. Our job is to put them in a good position. Kyle’s one of the best in the business of doing that for his players, so we’ll have to do the same.”
One space the place the Browns will have to be significantly sharp shall be in tackling to restrict yards after the catch:
“(The) field might be sloppy, so it just puts more of an emphasis on technique, but also pursuit and knowing what your help is and getting 11 guys to the ball. I hate to keep referencing it, but (San Francisco’s offense is) very similar to what we saw when we had to go against Miami. A lot of perimeter screens, a lot of quick passes, and it really put an emphasis on tackling. And one of the big things we did in that game was we tackled really well, and that helped set us up for the defensive performance that we had.
“So, when it’s all said and done, defenses are judged by their ability to tackle. If you tackle well, you’re generally going to play good defense. If you don’t tackle well, it’s hard to overcome.”
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees
Cleveland utilized operating again Quinshon Judkins in a Wildcat formation to attain two touchdowns in opposition to the Raiders, bringing his whole to 4 on the season out of the Wildcat. While they could not use it each week, Rees said it is nice to have it in the toolbox:
“Obviously, we’ve had a lot of success here in two small sample sizes of games, but we’ve scored four touchdowns and had some productive runs in the package. You know, our fullback was unavailable there throughout the game. So, that takes you out of certain personnel groupings. So that’s kind of the Wildcat is another one you can use in those run-heavy situations.
“We don’t use it every week, but it’s something we work on and have in our arsenal and have a lot of confidence in that group of guys, you know, making those plays work, and you can kind of define the looks that you’re trying to attack.”
The Browns are coming off a win in quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ first begin, and this week the focus was on constructing off what labored, based on Rees:
“There’s a lot of plays he would like to have back. There’s a lot of great learning opportunities out there and then there’s a lot of plays that he made that helped our offense and helped us score enough points to win the game, but, again, we’re really doubling down on how can we be process oriented, not get too caught up in a result of a win or a loss and just focus on every time you come in on a Monday, there’s going to be a bunch of plays that you want to correct.
“It’s just usually easier to correct when you win than when you lose, so our focus is there on continuing to improve. I think Shedeur’s done a really nice job this week of continuing to prep and really starting to hone in on the things we’re asking of him, and excited for another opportunity.”
Special groups coordinator Bubba Ventrone
Sunday’s recreation goes to be chilly, windy, and probably raining, which implies the gamers must discover a approach to take care of the situations, according to Ventrone:
(*6*)
After his early-season struggles, kicker Andre Szmyt has settled down, which Ventrone credit to Szmyt sticking to a profitable course of:
“I think it ultimately starts with the process, right? The practice repetitions, being able to consistently hit the ball in practice. And then, obviously, when we get to the game, it’s being able to connect and have a start it out with, again, your warmup, figuring out what the wind’s doing, figuring out the elements.
“We’ve played a decent amount of those this year with wind and rain and things like that. So, I think that having done that, I think that will help him moving forward. But his process has been very good, he’s been very consistent in both practice and in games.”
The Browns and the 49ers kick off on Sunday at 1 p.m. from Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland. Stay tuned to Dawgs By Nature for protection all through the weekend and all day on Sunday.