Browns' Defensive Snap Counts and Stats vs. Cowboys

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns' Week 9 game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Defensive Line

For this week at least, I pulled the trigger and moved Emmanuel Ogbah to the defensive line. The reason being is that for most of the season, Cleveland has played Ogbah most of the game as "the" outside linebacker, with the backups seeing only a little bit of time. Against Dallas, Collins started at outside linebacker and didn't miss a snap, in essence taking the distribution that had previously been given to Ogbah. Ogbah was even listed as starting at defensive end against Dallas.

Jamie Meder and Danny Shelton played a very high percentage of snaps. They had a tough challenge going up against the best offensive line in football, and when you're not a pass-rushing duo, it's hard on those guys to really make a visible impact in the trenches. Xavier Cooper is, and I hate saying this because it sounds so demeaning, one of the more worthless players on the roster. Carl Nassib continues to struggle.

Outside Linebacker

Fair or not, Jamie Collins will get a pass most of the rest of the season, as he's coming into a shit product to begin with. He looked to be playing zone coverage on Jason Witten's early touchdown pass -- was that his fault or Ray Horton's scheme? I paid attention to Collins on a few plays and saw some of his physical traits on display -- unfortunately, the rest of the team wasn't up to the challenge to help clean up anything he tried to start.

Inside Linebacker

Despite a cut in playing time, Demario Davis led the Browns with 10 tackles. Christian Kirksey added 9 tackles. The game book credits Davis with a forced fumble on Ezekiel Elliot on the second play of the third quarter (but Dallas recovered).

Safety

This might be the oddest rep distribution of safeties you'll see. The difference this week was that another no-namer in Ed Reynolds got some work at the position. I bashed Rahim Moore in the preseason and I bashed Donte Whitner last season, but dear lord, I wish I could see one of them playing right about now (tries to remind self to stay patient with the rebuild).

Cornerback

Cole Beasley sprung wide open on a play where two veterans, Joe Haden and Tramon Williams, didn't know who was covering who. That definitely shouldn't happen. Aside from that, I thought Haden played a good game. I hated seeing Briean Boddy-Calhoun celebrate an incomplete pass so happily in the second half while Cleveland was losing, because I knew it'd only be a matter of time for Dallas just went on ahead and scored again. Sure enough, they did. Jamar Taylor saw a very steep decline in playing time with just 14% of the snaps -- not sure if that was because of his persistent groin injury, or if it's a demotion.