2023 was the first year in Cleveland for Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, and his opening effort produced one of the top defenses in the league over the course of the regular season.
But the year ended on a sour note, as the Browns defense imploded in a Wild Card Round loss to the Houston Texans, giving up 45 points and allowing a 157.2 passer rating by C.J. Stroud.
Talking to the media on Thursday for the first time since that day and with almost five months to analyze the tape, Schwartz broke down what went wrong for the team in that playoff loss, attributing the troubles containing the Texans to both the players and himself acting "out of character" from their usual approach.
"We put a big emphasis on making plays and being aggressive. And my biggest takeaway from that was we chased plays in that game, right? Instead of letting the plays come to us and making the plays that were there," Schwartz said, via team transcript. "And I thought for the most part of last year, we did a really good job of that, and in that game, we missed an interception fairly early in the game and it just seemed like we were pressing and guys played a little bit out of character instead of just doing their job with physical toughness and effort and some personality, all of a sudden we played a little bit out of character.
"There were a couple times in there that even as a play-caller, I started pressing, right. The game started getting away from us a little bit and I started pressing. It's like, 'Oh, let me dial this up, see if it.' And, you know, a lot of times it just makes things worse. … That one we didn't play the way we should have."
With the time for reflection on last season wrapping up, preparations to build on that otherwise solid first season have begun.
Before that game, the Browns had put together a quality season for a team in the first year of a new system. Under Schwartz's tutelage the defense moved up from a 20th-ranked finish in 2022 to No. 14 last season. And while they had their struggles in the red zone, the group finished first in the league in passing yards and total yards allowed, as well as third-down conversions.
"Coming off of a pretty good year of defense, when you look at the film there was a lot of room for improvement," Schwartz said. "We can't get complacent, we can't think that last year is going to mean anything, right now last year means nothing, everybody's right down to the bottom of the hill again, and you got to climb it again."
Most of last year's starters are returning, and with a year in Schwartz's system under their belts everyone should be more comfortable, allowing the DC to add on to the scheme and potentially make the unit only more vexing for opposing offenses.
"I mean, we're obviously in a different spot because we have a year in the system," Schwartz said. "We don't have to work on the fastball now, we can add different pitches and you guys will get tired of my baseball analogies, but really, that's what it is. We don't want to get away from the fastball, but it does give us a chance to work on some changeups and some secondary pitches and add to our scheme."
