Greg Newsome II disappointed over end to Browns season despite talent
BEREA − Greg Newsome II isn’t hiding from the reality of the Browns’ situation as they head into their final two games.
“It’s super disappointing,” Newsome said Wednesday. “Like I said, on paper we have a very, very talented roster, but obviously we weren’t able to put everything together this season for the second straight year. So it’s definitely frustrating.”
The Browns are 6-9 with no chance at a winning season or the playoffs. Their only involvement in the playoff race is to play the role of spoiler this Sunday against a Washington Commanders team fighting for an NFC wild card spot or next week against at a Pittsburgh Steelers team that may still be alive in the AFC wild card mix.
The conversations around the Browns have all centered around the usual narratives that surround a season going nowhere. Where did it go wrong and who’s taking the blame for it going wrong are the topics du jour for now when it comes to them.
One of the targets for both of those is defensive coordinator Joe Woods. The seat Woods sits on may be as hot as any, with his job status beyond the season finale in Pittsburgh uncertain even to his own players.
“That’s above my pay grade, so I kind of don’t look at any of that stuff,” Newsome said. “We still got two more games, so I’m really focused on that. Whatever happens, if anything else, I have no clue what’s going to happen. So I kind of just focus on that and I allow the higher ups to make those decisions.”
That doesn’t mean Newsome doesn’t understand the criticisms of the defense. He has his own criticisms, but they’re as much directed at the person he sees in the mirror as anyone else on that side of the ball.
The biggest criticism for Newsome is one which actually is a repeat from a year ago. Yet again, the Browns are playing some of their best defensive football since Thanksgiving.
Starting with the Week 12 overtime win over Tampa Bay, the Browns have allowed 307.8 total yards a game, including 132.8 rushing yards and 175 net passing yards, as well as 14.8 points a game, over those five games. Over the first 10 games, they had given up 342.2 net total yards, 127.4 rushing and 214.8 passing yards a game, along with 30 points a game.
Newsome couldn’t help but notice the similarities to a year ago, when the Browns defense picked itself up off the mat after a 45-7 Week 10 loss at New England.
“I feel like as a unit, especially as a defensive unit, I feel like we’ve been gelling together these second half of the season,” Newsome said. “I kind of feel like that’s what kind of happened last year too. I feel like the second half of last year is when we finally hit our stride and I feel like as a defense, I feel like we’ve been doing an amazing job and just staying together, competing and I feel like we’ve been competing these last few weeks.”
The problem, though, is that it has become a trend for the Browns on defense the last two seasons. They saw what had happened a year ago, something which contributed to them missing the playoffs, and it once again became a issue that put them in a position to play near-perfect football over the last half of the season to try to make up for things.
It was a two-fold problem, though. The first few games, it was a lack of communication within the secondary which led to busted coverages, something that directly contributed to the Week 2 loss to the New York Jets and nearly led to a loss in the opener at Carolina if not for Cade York’s late dramatics.