Home or away? It really did matter for Cleveland Browns top-ranked defense
BEREA — The day after the Browns defense had arguably its worst all-around day at the worst possible moment in the AFC wild card loss, coach Kevin Stefanski was giving the Houston Texans all of their flowers.
"I’d give them credit," Stefanski said Sunday in his end-of-season news conference. "They had some good schemes. They got us on some big plays, and for big plays to happen it’s typically a miscommunication or falling out of your gap or what it might be. So, it’s all little things that, as we know, they add up to the big thing.”
The problem for the Browns was that Saturday's defensive performance in a 45-14 loss wasn't a one-off when it came to playing on the road. The points they gave up, the yards they allowed, the big plays surrendered, all of those were constants when the league's top-ranked defense left the friendly confines of Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Seven of the nine times the Browns allowed an opponent to score at least 24 points in the regular season came in road games, including when Cincinnati scored 31 against almost exclusively backups. All four times a team scored at least 30 points, it happened away from home.
"It’s something to look at, obviously," Stefanski said. "You can easily say crowd noise and that type of thing, but those are things that we’ll look at. Didn’t end how we wanted it to, but I also know we played really good defense for the majority of this season."
It's not just scoring, though. The opponents per-play averages were also higher on the road than at home.
Opponents averaged 4.7 yards per rushing attempt in Browns road games, compared to 3.9 yards at home. They averaged 7.2 yards per passing attempt and quarterbacks had an 86.8 passer rating in road games, compared to 4.7 yards and a 64.2 passer rating at home.
Of the 52 plays of at least 20 yards allowed in the regular season, 30 came on the road. That includes eight of the nine plays of at least 40 yards.
"I think it's just finding our own energy," cornerback Greg Newsome II said Sunday. "I feel like that's the biggest thing. It is an energy thing, so just find ways to build our own energy, create our own energy, and just stay in the moment. I think that's the biggest thing.
"It is easy at home when the crowd is on your side. When you go on the road, it's only the men that you travel with and the people that come with you. So I think it's just finding our own energy on the road.”
It's hard to say it's based on the quarterbacks faced, because the Browns saw their share of top-level quarterbacks at home as well, although their health at the time could be questions. Cincinnati's Joe Burrow was still battling at calf injury in the season opener and Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence was just coming off an ankle sprain in Week 14.
The quarterbacks they faced on the road in the regular season, though, weren't necessarily a steady string of All-Pros, save for Baltimore's Lamar Jackson and the Los Angeles Rams' Matthew Stafford. They faced, in order, Pittsburgh's Kenny Pickett, Indianapolis' Gardner Minshew, Seattle's Geno Smith, Jackson, Denver's Russell Wilson, Stafford, Houston's backup and No. 3 quarterbacks, Case Keenum and Davis Mills, and Cincinnati's Jake Browning.
Houston rookie C.J. Stroud played as well as any of those quarterbacks, if not better. In fact, it could be argued the former Ohio State standout's performance — 16-of-21 passing, 274 yards, three touchdowns, 157.2 passer rating — was the best game any quarterback had against the defense, home or away.
"C.J., he's a phenomenal quarterback, phenomenal player, is going to be a top-five quarterback in this league," cornerback Denzel Ward said. "He's been showing that since already as a rookie. So congrats to him on again the victory and moving on in the playoffs. But he's definitely going to be a problem in the future and a guy that is going to be tough to play against."
If this season wasn't a one-off, the Browns defense hopes it's going to be tough to play against again next year, home or away. However, the home/road splits and the way it fell apart in the season's biggest game in Houston will be topics that are heavily scrutinized over the time between now and when the season kicks off next year.
The Browns will need that defense to be good, too, considering the schedule that awaits. Quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert, if they can avoid the injury bug that swept across the league this season, await.
That's just on the home schedule. Burrow and Jackson would be road opponents as well, along with Jalen Hurts and Lawrence.
So that makes diagnosing the problem much more urgent for the Browns.
"You always have to learn from things like this," Newsome said. "We're definitely going to come into next season with another chip on our shoulder, and I think we did a good job this season but we didn't show up in the biggest game. So I think we're going to learn from this moment and it's only going to help us in the future.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns top-ranked defense road woes extend all the way to playoff end
