BEREA — Timing is everything. That’s in football or life.
The time it takes for a quarterback to release the ball can be the difference between a touchdown or a sack. Or, at least, the difference between a sack or not.
That’s been the trouble the Browns have dealt with over their current three-game losing streak. They’re rushing the quarterback, but they’re not getting home.
“I think if you look, definitely over the last couple years, every team that plays us gets the ball out quickly,” coach Kevin Stefanski said Oct. 15. “That’s by design, obviously, with [All-Pro defensive end] Myles [Garrett] being on our roster. So, there’s ways that we try to mitigate that, with rush end coverage involved. And then when you can get offenses into those down and distances, where they have to hold the ball third and longer, call it third-and-7-plus, where there are longer development plays, potentially, that’s when you can play to your strengths. But understand that all teams come in versus us trying to get the ball out quickly.”
Three games into the season, Garrett was posting numbers at a Defensive Player of the Year pace. He had four sacks, and was near the top in quarterback hits (six) and tackles for loss (seven).
The last three weeks, though, one of the best pass rushers of his generation has been neutralized by something beyond double teams and chips. The quarterbacks he’s faced — Pittsburgh’s Aaron Rodgers, Minnesota’s Carson Wentz and Detroit’s Jared Goff — have all gotten rid of the ball fast.
“No, the script’s pretty much the same,” Garrett said after a Week 6 loss at the Steelers. “If you want to stop us as a [defensive] line front, they’ve got in chunk formation, they chipped, he got the ball out as quick as possible. There weren’t a lot of situations in which, even if I was running butt ass naked, that I could have got there. So I think that was a situation for all of us. The way he was getting it out or sprinting out to other side. He moved behind the line of scrimmage more than he has in the last couple years, and that wasn’t by mistake.”
The Browns managed just nine total pressures against Rodgers, the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer. They only hit him six times, and did not sack him at all.
What’s interesting is that Rodgers’ time to throw, per Pro Football Focus, was the slowest of the three quarterbacks the Browns have faced over the last three weeks at 2.65 seconds. Wentz, who Cleveland sacked three times in Week 5, was at 2.50 seconds, while Goff, who it failed to sack in Week 4, released it in 2.47 seconds.
Compare that to the first three weeks, when the fastest release also belonged to the quarterback — Green Bay’s Jordan Love at 2.57 seconds — the Browns sacked twice and hit 17 times. Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson got rid of it in 2.85 seconds in Week 2, while Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow did so in 2.87 seconds.
So what’s the answer, especially knowing that the Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa — who comes to Cleveland Oct. 19 — is another quarterback known for a quick release?
“Know the situation, mix some coverages, different coverages, different looks,” Browns linebacker Devin Bush said Oct. 13. “Of course, Myles is going to get most of the attention. So if Myles is getting a bunch of attention, then we got other guys that are capable of winning. But if the ball is out so fast, it’s our job for our second-level defenders, our third-level defenders to get the ball on the ground so we can line up and it won’t be so fast the next play.”
Tagovailoa is averaging 2.58 seconds in time to throw, according to PFF. He’s been sacked 13 times, and opposing teams have turned 19.7% of their pressures into sacks against him.
The sixth-year pro has been under pressure on 31.7% of his drop-backs this season. He’s completed 26 of 48 passes on those 66 drop-backs for 221 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions.
“We just got to continue to play tight and just do our coverage still,” cornerback Denzel Ward said Oct. 15. “I mean, if guy’s getting it out quick, that’s just how the game may go sometimes, but just try to stay tight and get him to hold the ball a little longer as best as we can and those guys will get home.”
The last time the Browns faced Tagovailoa was in Week 10 of the 2022 season in South Florida. They had just eight total pressures in that game and no sacks, while he got rid of the ball in 2.35 seconds.
The Dolphins, who will have second-year left tackle Patrick Paul primarily lined up against Garrett, are well aware of the All-Pro’s presence. They also know that too much attention on Garrett could free up another defender.
“I think that’s part of the challenge of this particular defense and why they’re playing so well, because if you overcommit to one player, you leave yourself extremely vulnerable to the other players not focused on and this group has a plethora of really, really good defensive linemen,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel told South Florida reporters Oct. 15. “So you have to balance it. … You do that in a collection of plays over the course of the game and it’s never one person’s responsibility.
“You prioritize him in the game plan and focus on him, for sure, while spreading the duty of trying to contain an elite player across a group and not an individual.”
