Behind Enemy Lines: 5 Things to Know About the 49ers' Matchup with the Browns

Courtesy of Browns Insider Brendan Gulick.

The 49ers play the Browns in Cleveland the Sunday. To learn more about this opponent, I interviewed Browns Digest publisher Brenan Gulick. Here's the transcript.

Q: What will the Browns offense look like with PJ Walker at quarterback and what are his strengths and weaknesses?

BG: "I'm only being somewhat sarcastic when I say he can yell, 'hike.' No, I think he's got some strengths, but I'll tell you right now Browns fans aren't feeling pretty good going into this weekend. It's the 10th time since 1999 that we've had to start at least three quarterbacks in a season. Here we are five games into the year and it's already the third quarterback we've started. Your specific question about PJ Walker, quick release, he's got a fairly strong arm, he is reasonably mobile and I would say he can probably lean on the fact that he's played a lot of football. He's got some experience. And unfortunately there are a bunch of weaknesses. He's kind of scattershot in terms of accuracy. His preseason completion percentage is 47.8 -- that ain't good enough. He's obviously not that big and I think there's a number of instances where you can see on film that things are getting quick for him and he kind of accelerates his way through plays too quickly."

Q: What is the run game like without Nick Chubb?

BG: "I'm sorry, did you say run game? Does it exist? When you have a Ferrari and your Ferrari needs a repair and you rent a Kia Sportage, there's a difference. And I'm not trying to dog on Jerome Ford -- he's fine. But he's not Nick Chubb and there is no replacing a guy that's that good. You could argue that he is one of the best running backs in the history of the franchise and maybe the stats will back that up by the time his career is over. So yeah, there's a lot of question marks right now about the Browns offense because if you don't have a run game you put more pressure on your quarterback and right now you don't have your starting quarterback.

Q: Let's talk about the reason the Browns have a shot: their defense. It's really good. That being said, Dallas had a really good defense and they just gave up 42 to the 49ers, so tell me why the Browns will do better if you think they will.

BG: "I certainly think they'll do better. The Browns defense isn't really good -- it's elite. It is outstanding and for that reason alone they will be in every game they play this year. That defense is the real deal and to me it starts up front. Last year, the Browns defensive tackles were atrocious and they made substantial strides in the defensive line adding Za'Darius Smith in particular. The addition of Jim Schwarz has been awesome. I do think the Browns will play better defensively against San Francisco than Dallas did last week if nothing else because the wide nine front is going to slow down any edge rushing attack.  

Q: Kyle Shanahan historically has struggled against Jim Schwartz. What has he done for Cleveland's defense? 

BG: "Schwartz has given this defense some simplicity. It's as if he took largely the same group and said okay we're going to dumb down the scheme a little bit, maybe this was a bit too complicated, we're going to adopt a few new things including the wide nine and go play and go be aggressive and get after the quarterback and the fact that we've shored up the defensive line away from Myles Garrett I think has substantially helped. There are a lot of people here believing that Schwartz has brought some different level of accountability and credibility to a defense that clearly had talent. It's not like Denzel Ward couldn't play football under Joe Woods. It became obvious that Woods' scheme was just not working and too complicated and we've heard from players along the way that the simplicity of it has allowed them the freedom to go play. 

Q: What's the weakest link on the Browns defense? Because that's where the Niners are going. 

BG: I would imagine that they're probably going to go to the air. I don't think San Francisco is coming into this game saying we're going to run the ball all over them. I have a hard time seeing that be the case. If we're talking strictly what we've seen so far this year, there really hasn't been a glaring weakness. There are some metrics right now that say the Browns have had the best defense in the NFL. I'm not 100% sold on the secondary. They've been way better this year than they were last year. I think they still need to take some steps forward, but San Francisco has so many weapons, and Kyle Shanahan is one of the better offensive minds in the game, and I know Schwartz has had his number, but my guess is that he's going to scheme some things up that are going to work well.  I don't know that I would pick on Denzel Ward, but the opposite side of the field I would throw to."