Green Bay Packers defeat Cleveland Browns 31-3
By Pete Dougherty pdougher@greenbaypressgazette.com October 25, 2009
CLEVELAND Its not often an NFL defense allows only three total points in back-to-back games.
The Green Bay Packers have to go back 43 years, to 1966 and the heart of the Vince Lombardi era, for the last time they gave up so few points in back to back games. So their 31-3 blasting of the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium a week after shutting out the Detroit Lions has to count for something.
On the other hand, they accomplished it against two of the NFLs worst and most offensively challenged teams. The shutout of Detroit last week came against a one-win team missing its two best offensive players (Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford). The more dominating performance on Sunday was over a Browns offense that has no go-to player and has produced only 16 points in its last three games combined.
What to make of it? Well, probably not all that much.
But that doesnt stop the world from looking much better to the 4-2 Packers than a few weeks ago. They at least can feel good about how theyre playing heading into their rematch with the Minnesota Vikings (6-1) knowing that a win at Lambeau Field this week ties the two in the loss column for first place in the NFC North Division.
You know what? Every teams got some of that, outside linebacker Aaron Kampman said of the Packers caliber of competition the last two weeks. Minnesota already played Cleveland and Detroit. I think Chicago has played Detroit.
In the end, we got some confidence going. Football is a game of confidence. Right now were playing at a pretty high level. I think weve figured some things out in terms of how we want to best utlize our personnel, weve made some tweaks and it seems to be effective for us. So hopefully, that will continue against a team (Minnesota) youd say is a little higher up the chart in terms of where they rank in offenses in the NFL.
As for this game, the mismatch was total for the Packers defense over the Browns quarterback-starved offense. The Browns (1-6) came in ranked No. 31 in the NFL in yards and No. 30 in points, and with a quarterback, Derek Anderson, whose passer rating of 41.7 points ranked No. 36 in the NFL.
We arent good right now, Anderson said. Thats it. Period. Flat out.
The mismatch was exacerbated because the Browns used their Wildcat formation only once. In that formation, their lone playmaker, Josh Cribbs, takes the snap and at least has a chance to make something happen. They presumably didnt use it more because of Cribbs health he was listed as questionable (50 percent chance of playing) coming in because of a knee injury.
I thought (theyd use Wildcat a lot), as much as they ran it against Pittsburgh (last week), Packers safety Atari Bigby said. It probably had to do with Josh Cribbs being banged up a little.
Theres evidence galore for how one-sided this game was when Cleveland had the ball, most notably in Andersons passing production (99 yards) and passer rating (36.4 points), but also in the Browns average of 2.8 yards a rush.
Yet more than numbers, one play call might have been the ultimate measure. Late in the first quarter, the Browns faced a second-and-1 on their 40, a down and distance offensive coordinators live for. What did they do? A quarterback sneak. If thats not raising the white flag, what is?
That tells you they didnt have any confidence theyd be able to run and get it, nose tackle Ryan Pickett said.
Bigby said: They seemed like a conservative team today. Real conservative.
Defensive coordinator Dom Capers strategy was simple: Stack the line of scrimmage and force Anderson and his receivers to win the game. The score and Clevelands embarrasing 139 yards in total offense tell everything you need to know about how it worked.
As the first quarter passed and it was clear the Browns would keep pounding the ball regardless of how far behind they fell, Capers turned more and more to his Big Okie lineup, in which linebacker Brandon Chillar replaced Bigby. Regardless of personnel, Capers usually brought an extra player to the box (Bigby) or, in Chillars case in the 12 snaps of Big Okie, all the way to the line of scrimmage.
That left halfback Jamal Lewis with no running room he averaged 3.1 yards on his 15 carries and the outside receivers matched one-on-one against cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Al Harris, with only safety Nick Collins as single help on the deep ball. Anderson tried to hit rookie receiver Mohamed Massaquoi on go routes against Harris four times, and came up empty on each, and on the only one they connected on, Massaquoi was penalized for his obvious push-off before the catch.
I felt like our defense took the fight from them early, Pickett said. You hit them in the mouth to start the game, it made it long for them, took the fans out of the game, took everybody out. Thats what the defense is supposed to do.