Browns: 5 defensive takeaways from Week 1 loss

Last season the Cleveland Browns were terrible in stopping the opponents’ ground game but began on a high note against the Steelers. On 17 attempts, Pittsburgh could only generate 35 rushing yards and simply could not get Le’Veon Bell going – holding him to just 32 yards.

Rookie defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi turned some heads as he had several tackles and his ability to shut down anything up the middle was on full display. Pro Football Focus gave him a notable grade of 84.1 in his NFL debut.

The Browns finished with the second-worst run defense in 2016 giving up 142.7 yards per game. The team was aware this needed to be immediately addressed and drafted Ogunjobi with high hopes he’d help solve that problem. In fact, he was graded Sunday’s top run defender by PFF as well.

https://twitter.com/PFF_JohnKosko/status/907065719615090688

With the absence of Garrett, the Browns are depending on Ogunjobi and Danny Shelton to stuff the run game. They not only accomplished their job today, but they shut down one of the NFL’s best playmakers in Bell. The Ravens have former Brown Terrance West and Cleveland should be able to replicate Sunday’s performance next week in Baltimore.