To say that Mike Rutenberg's first game as the Cleveland Browns' defensive coordinator was a rough one wouldn't tell half of the story. Despite entering the season with hype as an aggressive play-caller, the Browns' secondary struggled with a zone-heavy approach.
Perhaps more worryingly, the Browns' usually strong pass rush failed to apply much pressure at the line of scrimmage. They only blitzed Trevor Lawrence on 19.6 percent of his dropbacks (h/t Ryan Paganetti), and he had a clean pocket for most of the day.
A date with Baker Mayfield is up next, and he struggled when under duress during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' season opener, losing three fumbles.
Rutenberg has a clear blueprint to follow. It's time to bring the heat.
Mike Rutenberg needs to turn up the pressure on Baker Mayfield in Week 2
According to Pro Football Focus, the Cincinnati Bengals pressured Mayfield on just 10 of his dropbacks (27.8 percent). While his offensive line gave him 4.35 seconds to throw in those situations, he had three turnover-worthy plays, took four sacks, scrambled twice, and only managed to complete 2 of 3 pass attempts.
The Buccaneers' line can hold its own against the best in football, but one can only wonder why the Bengals didn't attempt to pressure Mayfield more often.
Mayfield spent most of the day throwing quick-hitters behind the line of scrimmage. Despite throwing a mean deep ball, he was rather conservative for most of the game, and his decision-making got significantly worse when the Bengals got to him.
Rutenberg had some big shoes to fill in his first game in Cleveland. Jim Schwartz's defenses were elite more often than not, and having to replicate that without Myles Garrett made the task even tougher.
Jared Verse's performance left plenty to be desired, and he'll have to deal with chip blocks and double teams much more often than ever before. That said, it's up to the play-caller to put him in a position to succeed and find the right mismatches to help him show what he can do.
As much credit as Liam Coen and Grant Udinski deserve, and as talented as Trevor Lawrence is, any NFL quarterback will tear a defense apart when given a clean pocket on 76 percent of their dropbacks.
There's always an adjustment period when changing coordinators, and this was Rutenberg's first official game as the defensive play caller. That said, there's no way to give him a pass if he doesn't make the necessary adjustments in Week 2. The Browns have notoriously been among the most disruptive defenses in the game, and they have to get back to that.
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