Browns win heavyweight bout, leaving Trent Williams to label Myles Garrett a Hall of Famer

CLEVELAND — Myles Garrett knows how to embrace a clash of heavyweights.

Basking in the afterglow of a 19-17 upset win by the Browns, Garrett conducted his postgame news conference Sunday evening with a San Francisco 49ers jersey autographed by Trent Williams draped over his right shoulder.

Garrett also had a black duffel bag hanging at his side emblazoned with Ali vs. Frazier and a Thrilla in Manila patch commemorating the legendary 1975 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is now 8-1 in encounters against a Kyle Shanahan offense. This time, it took surviving a potential game-winning field goal — a 41-yard attempt 49ers kicker Jake Moody missed wide right with 6 seconds left to play at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

“[Schwartz] told us it was going to be a dogfight, it was going to be a heavyweight fight, it's going to be Ali-Liston, Ali-Frazier, even Hagler-Hearns, and, I mean, down to the wire it was,” Garrett said. “So we trusted in him completely, and we're going to keep on riding with each other.”

The fighting actually started when a skirmish broke out between the two teams during pregame warm-ups.

Williams played a role in the drama, sprinting along the 49ers' sideline and crashing into Browns wide receiver Elijah Moore after Niners receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel and Browns safety Juan Thornhill combined to bump, push, shove and talk trash.

Williams said he was trying to “break it up, offer a little support.” He wound up knocking off Moore's helmet.

“He's a big-ass dude,” Moore told the Beacon Journal. “I didn't see him. I was trying to slow Deebo down, but I know Deebo, so it wasn't nothing crazy, but I wasn't expecting to see Trent.”

Garrett, 27, a four-time Pro Bowl defensive end, and Williams, 35, a 10-time Pro Bowl left tackle, were anticipating a showdown. They had never played each other before.

“I was excited as hell because it's someone I respected and admired even before I started playing the NFL,” Garrett said.

The marquee matchup within the game proved to be as much as a back-and-forth nail-biter as the previously unbeaten Niners (5-1) versus the Deshaun Watson-less Browns (3-2).

Some Browns players considered the pregame confrontation a sign of disrespect from the Niners and used it as fuel.

“We're a real scrappy team, and we don't take nothing from nobody,” Browns defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo told the Beacon Journal.

Emboldened by the swagger Schwartz seeks, the defense had been confident anyway.

The 1,002 yards allowed by the Browns this season is third fewest through a team's first five games since 1970, according to the NFL. Only the 1971 Baltimore Colts (836 yards) and 1970 Minnesota Vikings (945 yards) allowed fewer yards.

After the dust settled Sunday, Williams called Garrett “a Hall of Fame rusher” and the Browns the owners of “one of the better defenses” in the NFL.

Okoronkwo had a slightly different description.

“We're the best defense in the league,” Okoronkwo said. “I think that's pretty clear.”

Unlike many other times in recent history, the Browns can back up the talk. The defense carried itself with an edge.

The Niners entered the weekend ranked third in the league in yards (402.6) and second in points (33.4) per game. The Browns were first in fewest yards allowed (196.8) and tied for second in fewest points surrendered (15) a game.

But the Browns were big underdogs partly because Watson missed his second consecutive game with a shoulder injury, resulting in veteran journeyman P.J. Walker rising from the practice squad to start at quarterback. Cleveland played without All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio, too. Bitonio recently underwent arthroscopic knee surgery.

There's also this: The Niners had won 15 consecutive regular-season games.

The injury front became more of a level playing field when two 49ers stars — Samuel (shoulder) and running back Christian McCaffrey (oblique) — left the game in the first and second half, respectively.

Williams missed part of one series in the opening quarter after center Jake Brendel blocked Browns defensive tackle Shelby Harris into his right leg.

Williams said his ankle “didn't feel good at all,” but he wanted to return to try to help the Niners contain Garrett. Williams explained he considers Garrett and 49ers teammate Nick Bosa the two best edge rushers in the NFL, and then there's “a little bit of drop-off” after them.

“He's one the best in the world,” Williams said of Garrett, “so we battled. It was tough. We've got a lot of respect for each other. He's everything I thought he was going to be.”

Garrett didn't register a sack. On San Francisco's second possession, he tossed Williams aside during an 8-yard loss on a screen to McCaffrey. The box score lists Garrett with three tackles and a quarterback hit, though he certainly hit 49ers QB Brock Purdy on multiple occasions. He also said he got a piece of the ball on Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr.'s interception with 10:08 left in the third quarter.

There were many times Williams neutralized Garrett. There were other times Garrett rushed from the other side, facing right tackle Colton McKivitz. There were several times Purdy fired quick passes to avoid pressure.

During the 49ers' would-be game-winning drive they started at their 25-yard line with 1:40 remaining, Garrett twice maneuvered past Williams and hit Purdy but reached the QB a split second too late.

“I was thinking, 'Damn, Brock is getting it out fast,'” Garrett said.

The Browns compiled three sacks (one credited to the defense as a whole, another to linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and another to linebacker Sione Takitaki) and six quarterback hits.

Purdy, who had been 10-0 in regular-season games, went 12-of-27 passing for 125 yards and a touchdown with the interception for a rating of 55.3.

The 49ers finished with 215 net yards (108 rushing and 107 passing) and went 3 of 12 on third down (25%).

They had one sustained touchdown drive — on the game's opening possession — and used Garrett's aggression against him to reach the end zone.

After Garrett powered through a Williams block to tackle running back Jordan Mason on a 1-yard gain, Williams let Garrett past him on second down, and the Niners ran a screen — a 13-yard shovel pass from Purdy to McCaffrey — right by Garrett for a touchdown.

The other TD came with 10:58 left in the fourth quarter a play after a Walker interception and a 28-yard return by 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir gave San Francisco first-and-goal at the 8.

For the vast majority of the game, the high-powered Niners were held in check. Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson repeatedly got push from the interior. Okoronkwo and D-end Za'Darius Smith each tallied a QB hit. Owusu-Koramoah had two.

“They've got a really good defensive front,” Williams said. “They've got a really good front eight. [No.] 95 is the catalyst for all of that, and it's not just him. Obviously, it's more than just him. He's just the biggest part, so we tried to do what we could do to contain him.

“But when you're getting in third-and-long and second-and-long, the playbook shrinks down about 80%. You only got so many calls you can call, and when you're behind the chains you play into that defense's wheelhouse.”

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The Browns also caught some lucky breaks. Two plays before Dustin Hopkins made the game-winning 29-yard field goal with 1:40 left, Walker nearly had a pass intercepted in the front of the end zone. Hopkins went 4 of 5 on field goals. Moody went 1 of 3.

The defense, though, showed it's championship material in its greatest test yet, and Garrett was honored to hear about Williams' praise.

“Hopefully one Hall of Famer to another one day,” Garrett said.

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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns' Myles Garrett a Hall of Famer, Trent Williams says