CLEVELAND — The Patriots entered Sunday’s game at FirstEnergy Stadium with one of the NFL’s worst rushing defenses. The Browns entered it with the league’s top rushing attack.
Superstar back Nick Chubb led the NFL in rushing yards through five weeks, and Cleveland’s offensive line probably was the best in football. Plus, New England played Sunday without stout defensive tackle Lawrence Guy and lost stud sophomore Christian Barmore to a knee injury in the first half. Given all that context, you probably would’ve expected Patriots defensive linemen and linebackers to get gashed in Cleveland.
Well, that’s not what happened — far from it, in fact.
The Patriots held the Browns to just 70 rushing yards — 56 on 12 carries from Chubb; 12 on four carries from Kareem Hunt; two from receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones — in an impressive 38-15 road victory. Chubb found some success during the fourth quarter, but by then it was too late.
“I did not even know that we held them to 70 yards,” defensive lineman Deatrich Wise said after the game. “We were just playing and our number one goal was to stop Chubb. To hear that, that is very exciting. I believe we came out there and we met our goal of stopping the runs and then getting to the passer. When it was time to pass rush, we would get after them.”
As Wise alluded to, it wasn’t just about stopping the run. New England’s front seven also did a great job of getting after Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who was sacked four times and threw two interceptions, with pressure factoring into both. Putting the game in Brissett’s hands is what the Patriots wanted to do, but they wouldn’t have been able to accomplish it without first stopping the run and making Cleveland one-dimensional.
“We tried to make them play left-handed,” linebacker Matthew Judon said. “We knew that they had three really good backs but really Chubb and Hunt were running it really well. We tried to just stop them and we put all of our eggs in one basket.”
Bill Belichick clearly was impressed with the performance of his defense.
“The Browns have a great running game,” Belichick said. “… They’re very well-coached. Extremely well-coached, as good as anybody we see. Outstanding offensive line. Obviously, (Browns guard Joel) Bitonio is the go-to guy there but all five of those guys are good. The tight ends are good. And Chubb is just, he’s a heck of a back. And so are the other two guys, Hunt. But Chubb is as good as we see. Again, give the players credit. There’s no one guy that can stop them. That’s everybody doing their job. Defeating blocks, tackling, pursuing the ball, just being disciplined and being sound because Chubb has very good vision. He finds openings.
“He hit us on a couple in the second half where he squirted through for a couple decent runs, but overall, to kind of halfway keep him in check was a great job by our defensive coaches. Not only the front seven, but we had a couple plays when the secondary with tackle to keep those seven- or eight-yard runs from going to 50, which he has plenty of those. So it’s a good job by them.”
Now, this doesn’t mean the Patriots suddenly have one of the best run defenses in the NFL.
The general ineptness of the Browns must be taken into account, and the injuries to Guy and Barmore are concerning. Wise and fellow linemen Davon Godchaux, Carl Davis and Daniel Ekuale all are solid players, but New England’s depth will be tested and the numbers before Sunday’s game weren’t good.
Still, the Patriots deserve full credit for what they did to the game’s top running game. If they can play similarly well up front moving forward, it will do wonders for New England’s underrated defense, which has been good all season but hasn’t been tested by some of the NFL’s top passing games.
Belichick and the Patriots pride themselves on stopping the run. On Sunday, the run defense led New England to a crucial, convincing victory.
