Discussion on dominant defenses
How good is this Browns defense?
Is it the best the team has had in the modern era?
Or is it the best the Browns have had in any era?
Those are the questions the fans, media members and all others are asking. And that’s understandable, for the Browns have given up just a field goal — three measly points — in both of their home games against the Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals . In their one road contest, at Pittsburgh, the defense allowed 12 points. That’s a total of 18 points, or an average of six a game, which is incredible in this day and age in the points-happy, offensive-minded NFL. Remember, the Denver Broncos
surrendered a jaw-dropping 70 points last Sunday. Those Broncos’ Orange Crush defense of decades ago is now Orange Crushed.
What we have to keep in mind with the current Browns defense is that the sample size of just three games is incredibly small. Just as we wouldn’t be lambasting the Browns for struggling to this point, we can’t canonize them, either, for excelling.
But if this pace, or anything even remotely close to it, holds up, then that would really be something.
The Browns, led by their only two Hall of Famers on that side of the ball in middle guard Bill Willis and end Len Ford, had great defenses for the first decade and a half of their existence, from their first season in 1946 through the late 1950s. Those units never got their due respect, though, because they were overshadowed by star-studded off-the-chart offenses that changed the game.
In the modern era, though, the only defense that compares with the present group is the one in 1994, which, while led by tackle Michael Dean Perry, end Rob Burnett, linebacker Pepper Johnson and safety Eric Turner, and playing under two iconic defensive minds in coordinator Nick Saban and head coach Bill Belichick, set a team record for fewest points given up in a 16-game regular season with 204, or an average of 12.8 per contest.
That will be hard to top, but, judging from what we’ve seen thus far, it’s certainly doable.
By Steve King
