Browns struggling run game gets first-hand look at undefeated 49ers' swarming defense
BEREA — The first question Jerome Ford faced Monday was about his television viewing habits the previous night. Did he watch the San Francisco 49ers rout the Dallas Cowboys?
"Yeah, we were watching them," Ford acknowledged.
The Browns are going to get plenty of chance to watch San Francisco over the next week with the 49ers coming to Cleveland for Sunday's game. That's a lot of opportunities to gauge for themselves where the 5-0 49ers rank among the NFL's elite teams.
The 42-10 rout of Dallas is pretty much on par with what San Francisco has done over its first five games. It's scored at least 30 points in each of those games, the sixth team in NFL history to do so over its first five games, while its plus-99 points differential is the best in the league at this point in the season since the 2019 New England Patriots went plus-123.
"Obviously (the 49ers) played really well (Sunday) night," Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday. "They’ve been playing very, very good football on all three sides of the ball. We had really one eye on them last week in our work, in our bye-week work, and then we'll really dive into them starting today."
That dive will lead Stefanski, as the Browns' offensive play caller, straight to a defense that has been one of the league's best for several years running. That's especially true against the run, which is not what the Browns necessarily want to hear as they try to get their rushing attack jump-started after losing Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury.
The 49ers are second in the league against the run, allowing 64.2 rushing yards a game. Only the Philadelphia Eagles, who are allowing 61.2 yards per game, are better, while the Browns are fourth at 71.8 yards a game.
The 3.7 yards per carry the San Francisco defense is permitting is tied for ninth. The Browns, at 3.2 yards per carry, are tied with the Seattle Seahawks for first.
"Overall, it's a great defense," Ford said.
The 49ers are yet another opponent that is rugged against the run. That's been a common theme for who the Browns have played since losing Chubb early in the second quarter of the Week 2 loss at Pittsburgh.
The week after losing Chubb, the Browns ran for 78 yards on 31 carries, a 2.5 average, against the league's ninth-ranked run defense in the Tennessee Titans. The week after that, they ran for 93 yards on 25 carries, a 3.7 average, against the Baltimore Ravens, who own the seventh-ranked run defense.
And now, here comes Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, Javon Hargraves and company. So how do you get your run game going against the immovable object that has been the 49ers defense?
For Stefanski, it's a matter of improving some of the things he saw in the run game the last two weeks.
“It's multifaceted," Stefanski said. "I mean, it's play design, play call, sometimes it's execution, it's all of it. We have to get back to being way, way, way more efficient."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns try to kick-start run game vs 49ers swarming defense
