'Sometimes teams go through ruts': Myles Garrett believes Browns need to find 'identity'

BEREA — There's a man standing in the front of the Browns defensive line room who defensive end Myles Garrett has looked to for inspiration as the team has spiraled to their 1-4 start . Jacques Cesaire, the team's defensive line coach, has been in such an early hole and managed to climb out of it and nearly reached the Super Bowl.

Cesaire was a defensive lineman on the 2007 San Diego Chargers when they opened the season 1-3, including a three-game losing streak. The Chargers turned it around, finished the regular season 11-5 and eventually lost to the then-undefeated New England Patriots in the AFC championship game with quarterback Phillip Rivers running around on a torn ACL.

That example has been put forth at least once as the Browns try to snap their own three-game losing streak Sunday at the Philadelphia Eagles. Garrett, who has only been past of one other start worse than this year's 1-4 start in his career, has tried to heed the example of his position coach.

"Sometimes teams go through ruts," Garrett said Friday. "It’s 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 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. So it feels like we're at that point we got to decide who we want be and create identity more."

The offense — primarily quarterback Deshaun Watson — has been the main culprit in the Browns' struggles this season. The defense, though, has had its hands in plenty of the issues that have led to what is tied for the second-longest losing streak and the worst start of the Kevin Stefanski era.

That was never more evident than last Sunday, when the Browns gave up their highest number of explosive plays in a single game this season. Eight of the 17 20-plus-yard plays allowed and three of the five 40-plus-yard plays allowed came in the 34-13 loss to the Washington Commanders.

Next up is an Eagles team that boasts running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts, who will be able to throw to wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Philadelphia this season has 17 plays of at least 20 yards, and five plays of at least 40 yards.

"We've had too many big plays that really hurt us and set us back and just put us in bad field position, or if we get a stop, puts our offense in bad field position," Garrett said. "So just get 'em in those plays, being consistent. How we started the game, we want to come out in the second half and play like that and end the game like that.

"So it's just about being able to do that and executing. We show that we have that potential. We showed it earlier this season, we showed it last year, so just erase some of those big plays and it's a different story completely."

Slowing Barkley, in particular, will be key to keeping those big plays down. The former New York Giants star who signed as a free agent with the team on the other end of the New Jersey Turnpike is averaging 5.96 yards per carry, second in the NFL behind the Baltimore Ravens' Derrick Henry.

The last two weeks, the Browns have allowed the Las Vegas Raiders and Commanders to each average more than 5.2 yards per carry. Both also finished with one of their top two rushing performances as a team yardage-wise — 152 for the Raiders and 215 for the Commanders.

"I mean, pointing out some of the stats, there were probably 90% of their plays that they had on the ground, we held them to under 3 yards," Garrett said. "But they had just a couple of those big runs that led to a lot of the yardage and big plays that we saw. But we just have to nip some of those big plays they have.

"With a guy like that [Barkley], he might break off one, but it has to be negated from 60 to 15 to 20 and keep that yardage down and keep him contained as well as possible. So we just have to contain that consistently across the board."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'Sometimes teams go through ruts': Myles Garrett believes Browns need to find 'identity'