Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Speaks made a nice play on that inside trap looking play where he flowed down the line, no doubt (though if my memory serves, Chubb still gained a handful of yards there because poor push in the middle). He also did a good job of staying in front of Johnson later in the game on that 4th down and waiting for help to finish the play.
But Mayfield dropped back 42 times yesterday with the worst pair of tackles in the league protecting him and Speaks was getting stood up head to head damn near every time.
Speaks, like the rest of the box defenders, was reactive most of the day. They made the job a hell of a lot harder on the secondary than needed and the secondary stood tall for the most part. He didn't 'shut down' the run on those drives; they still gained okay yardage in between incomplete passes from Mayfield. Moreover, Bailey had his only real standout play of the game early on as well when he tagged Chubb (IIRC) at the line of scrimmage and even Hitchens did an okay job early on so even on those drives, Speaks didn't do anything 'single-handedly'.
Nobody loses every time, but Speaks was completely ineffective as a pass rusher, got absolutely abused in coverage a time or two and was...fine...as a run defender. He did not play well yesterday and he damn sure didn't play better than Nelson.
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Speaks is playing out of position, we all know it. People expecting him to get a bunch of sacks standing up are deluding themselves. And the Browns line played pretty decent, they shut down Ford pretty much all day too.
This defense FINALLY showed up against the run and Speaks was a big (actually, probably the biggest) part of that. The only play Speaks really got burned on was the flat pass to Duke Johnson that went for 23 and he got picked at the line by Landry, which could have arguably been OPI. He played a solid, but unspectacular, game and was the most consistent defender I saw out there.