3 big storylines for the Browns against the Chargers

No. 2: Can the defense put together a complete game?

Contrary to popular belief, the Browns had a relatively good week defensively against the Falcons. Sure, there were some drives and plays that went haywire, but overall, there were a lot of improvements to the defense, just not so much in the fourth quarter.

While the calls of Cleveland firing Joe Woods was heated up yet again, you can’t really pin that game on him, especially when you think about the fact that three of the four defensive line starters were not available. So it’s fair to cut the guy some slack for that.

Denzel Ward, who had been a shell of himself to say the very least in the first three games, had his best game of the season and was able to record his first interception of the year. He’s going to need to continue that play this week against a high-octane offense and a way to do that is to allow him to play man and not sit in zone coverage.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has been lightning-quick to the ball and that speed could be used to blitz Herbert. This defense will need to get after Herbert early and often and unleashing JOK might just be the solution to that.

The fourth quarter of every game has been abysmal from a defensive standpoint and that’s discouraging due to the fact they played well for most of the other three quarters. The Browns must play a complete game defensively in order to give the offense a shot at the end.