BEREA, Ohio — Myles Garrett knows that his quarterback Deshaun Watson is embattled this week heading into the Eagles game, with dozens of NFL experts and analysts calling for his benching.
But Garrett believes that he and the rest of the defense can do their part to support him as he tries to come up off the mat and help the Browns snap their three-game skid.
“Not make his job so hard,” Garrett said. “Put him in easier situations, not just him but the offense. The pressure’s on everyone to perform and he might feel a bit bit more because he’s the highest paid guy and the media’s going to be pointing a finger at him, but it should be pointed at every single one of us. We’ve got to put them in position to have success. We’ve got to help our team win however we can.
“We’ve got to play complementary football, which we didn’t do, at least not at all four quarters. So we’ve got to find a way for all of us to be more helpful and more productive for this team.”
Earlier this week, Commanders premier defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, who won and lost a national championship game against Watson when they were at Alabama and Clemson, said he lacked confidence in the Browns’ 34-13 loss to the Commanders, a game in which Watson was sacked seven times for a league-high total of 26, and hit 11 for a league-high total of 64.
“I think if we put him in a position to win and position to gain confidence by scoring and putting points on the board, that changes the outlook not only for us but for everyone who has something to say,” Garrett said.
Like Watson, Garrett hasn’t seen the barrage of criticism of the Browns this week, especially of Watson, with one analyst even saying he doesn’t want him to get benched because he wants to watch him fail against the better pass defenses coming down the pike.
“I don’t look at the stuff anyway, so I don’t know the last time I looked up on Twitter or any of that and if I did, it’s not to look at football,” he said. “I’ve got family I need to see, I’ve got photography I can learn from and composition I can improve with. So the football stuff, that’s for here, that’s for Thursday night when we’re having team dinner and discussing some of the teams we might play, but I’m not worried about the opinions of pundits and analysts. That does nothing for this team but causes more negative discourse.”
Individually, Garrett knows he must step it up and wreck the game despite the extra attention he’s getting. In Washington, he was absent from the stat sheet with nary a tackle, hit or sack despite going against a rookie left tackle in Brandon Coleman.
“Shoot they tried to take years off my life by chipping the hell out of me,” Garrett said. “They were sliding, they were chipping … I’ve had it a couple times where it was like that, but they made sure that I wasn’t a disruptive factor in the game. So just try to find different ways where I can move around or get a one-on-one or at least get away from the chips so that I can be more impactful. But that was their game plan.”
It might be more of the same in Philly, where they have two big, bruising tackles in three-time first-team All-Pro Lane Johnson (6-6, 325) on the right side, and Jordan Mailata (6-8, 365) on the left.
“I don’t know,” Garrett said. “We’ve talked and it’s known that Lane doesn’t like chips and I know Mailata doesn’t really like them either, but they might help them both or they might deny them, but we’ll see when we get there. Those guys pride themselves in what they do. They’re highly touted because they perform well day in and day out and just fortunate for the opportunity. Both of those guys are pretty special and especially Lane who’s been doing it for a long time. So waiting for an opportunity like this.”
If all components of the team do their part for the first time this season, the Browns might have a chance to snap their three-game losing streak. If not, they’ll do more soul-searching for a complete meltdown in what they hoped would be a Super Bowl season.
“(In Washington) it was different because it was a little bit of everything from everybody,” Garrett said. “I feel like there was no complementary football played across the board. I feel like there were special teams moments where we want back, defensive moments we want back, and offense. I feel like there were some decisions that Kevin wanted back as well.
“Same thing he said to us, so about all of us being on the same page and clicking all at the same time and that’s [primarily] why it was different. Sometimes it’s a play away, it’s here, it’s there, and you don’t always see the events that lead up to what either caused a win or caused a loss, but it continued to snowball away from us.”
They also got a motivation speech from defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire, who played on the Chargers team in 2007 that lost three straight to fall to 1-3, but then turned it around to win the AFC West with an 11-5 record, and lose in the AFC Championship Game to the Patriots.
“Sometimes teams go through ruts.,” Garrett said. “Like Jacques said, he was on the team himself with Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates and Shawne Merriman, a team full of Hall of Famers and they had a terrible start. Ended up going to the playoffs, one game away from Super Bowl. Sometimes it just doesn’t click immediately. It doesn’t always flow year to year as you see with some other teams, but you’ve just got to find a way to pick it up. Some individuals, some leaders have to decide that enough is enough, it’s time to make a stand and that’s got to be team-wide and so feel like we’re at that point we got to decide who we want be and create identity more.”
Last week, Garrett said he was tired of getting kicked in the teeth, but the Browns took one more blow to the mouth in Washington to tumble to 1-4, leaving themselves with a 5.9% chance of making the playoffs.
“Won’t be the first team to bounce back from 1-4, won’t be the last,” Garrett said. “And right now we’re 0-0 as far as the scoreboard goes. We want to know by the time the game ends on Sunday. and then we can continue from there. But it’s got to be a 1-0 mentality like we usually talk about, but we’ve got to mean it, especially when you’re down. You can’t be focused on the past. You’ve got to focus on right now and this present (game) and working your a– off to get out of this little rut that we’re in.”
And if they can help their quarterback regain his form, they just might have a chance to turn things around.
