Justin Gilbert reportedly suffers another injury
By Thomas Moore
Aug 13, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns cornerback Justin Gilbert (21) runs back a kickoff during the first half against the Washington Redskins in a preseason NFL football game at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
A day after his name was absent from the injury report for the first time in weeks, Cleveland Browns cornerback Justin Gilbert reportedly has another injury.
Several media outlets reported that Gilbert had his upper right leg wrapped during the portion of practice open to the media on Thursday and the second-year player was watching practice from the sidelines.
All of this shortly after head coach Mike Pettine and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil credited Gilbert for the work he’s done in recovering from a horrible preseason and a hip flexor injury that has kept him out of the Browns’ first two games.
“He’s having a good week so we’ll see how that ends up playing out,” Pettine said. “Justin’s done a real nice job. He’s fully recovered from his injury, and he’s stacking together some good practices. We’ll ultimately make that decision at the end of the week but what he’s done here on the practice field and in the meeting rooms has been encouraging.”
“What he’s done here on the practice field and in the meeting rooms has been encouraging.” – Head coach Mike Pettine on Justin Gilbert
Even though the Browns only had one day of practice in the books when the coaches met with the media, O’Neil was encouraged enough by Gilbert’s progress that the defensive coordinator speculated that Gilbert could see action on Sunday when the Browns host the Oakland Raiders.
“He’s back. He’s healthy. He’s had a good now week of practice. I’m hoping that continues,” O’Neil said. “If that continues the rest of this week, I’m sure in coach Pettine’s mind, he’ll be in the running to be up. He’s in that competitive battle with some of those other guys. Right now in the first two weeks, he’s been a player that’s been down for us. If he continues to practice the way he has been, he’s making a case for himself. If he’s up, we’ll use him.”
It has been that kind of year for Gilbert, who:
- was burned in the preseason opener against Washington in a performance that he deemed “flawless” but that the coaches believed otherwise;
- injured his hip in practice against Buffalo while being burned by backup wide receivers; and,
- was involved in a road rage incident two days before the season opener.
It it wasn’t for bad luck, Gilbert would have no luck at all, apparently.
O’Neil touched on a few other important topics during his press conference today, starting with the run defense, which gave up 166 yards against Tennessee and, after two games, is giving up 160 yards a game – even more than last year when the Browns were last in the NFL.
O’Neil channeled his inner Butch Davis in explaining how things weren’t as bad as they appeared against the Titans.
“To me, it was really two plays we were bad on this past week that accounted for over 60 yards. One of them was probably not a great call. I was chasing a play and I didn’t put the guys in great position,” he said. “Then, we had a couple of guys that weren’t very good on that play. That was the 40-yard run. Then on another play, we had a new coverage in that we busted and we lost the edge.
“I see things on tape that are going to lead to us having a successful game against the rush. We have to take away those two or three big plays out of each game, and if we do that we’ll be damn good.” – Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil on the run defense
“I don’t know if you can sit there and put that on the guys that are playing outside backer right now and say that we don’t have great guys to set the edge. I do think that we’re doing things this year that we weren’t doing last year in the run game. I know that the numbers don’t support that, and I get you guys on that one, but I see us going the right way with it.
“I see things on tape that are going to lead to us having a successful game against the rush. We don’t want to let anybody rush for over 100 yards on us. That’s our goal. Again, we have to take away those two or three big plays out of each game, and if we do that we’ll be damn good.”
O’Neil also said he needs to do a better job of getting linebacker Barkevious Mingo on the field.
“I think when we looked back on it, we wished we would have played Mingo a little bit more. We probably played (LB) Paul (Kruger) too much. I think when your best pass rusher is on the field for 70 plays throughout the course of a game, that’s probably a little high, especially when you get into those critical drives at the end of the game,” O’Neil said. “You want those guys to be fresh. Paul’s a guy that we’re going to count on to make big plays for us at the end of the game so we have to do a better job as a coaching staff taking some reps on him in some of those early drives, early quarters.”
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Finally, O’Neil talked about facing Oakland quarterback Derek Carr at home rather than on the road. So far in his short career, Carr is far better at home (60.7 completion percentage, 17 touchdowns, seven interceptions and six sacks) than he is on the road (56.4 completion percentage, seven touchdowns, six interceptions and 19 sacks).
“That’s something that we look at. Their three big games so far this season have all been at home, the third preseason game and then both the first two games,” O’Neil said. “He was a guy we went against last year, but like I said, it’s a new system so you don’t know exactly how they’re going to be on the road and how the noise will affect them and what their plan is with silent cadence and some of that kind of stuff.
“Again, we do go back to some of last year’s stuff, we do study some of the stuff that the offensive coordinator did when he was in Philly. You can only put so much stock into that stuff because it was last year, different team and different system.”