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Balanced effort keeps Browns' defense on heels
By Rick Snider
Special to the Beacon Journal
Published on Monday, Oct 20, 2008
LANDOVER, MD.: Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn was playing a mind game against the Browns' defense.
Cleveland ''is so good on defense, if you didn't connect on everything, you didn't get a second chance,'' Zorn said. ''It was a mind game all game long of when they were going to give us the coverage we needed for the play we had, and it was back and forth all day.''
Unfortunately for the Browns, Zorn had a kingmaker on his side: Clinton Portis. The NFL's leading rusher gained 175 yards and scored a touchdown Sunday in the Redskins' 14-11 victory. His 100th yard came on a 3-yard touchdown to break a scoreless tie in the third quarter.
It was the fourth consecutive triple-digit outing for Portis, a first for him since the 2005 season. Soon, it was his fourth consecutive game with at least 120 yards — something he last accomplished in 2003 with the Denver Broncos.
It was nearly a 200-yard effort until a play that almost changed the game.
Portis was thinking 97 yards and a touchdown with 5:36 remaining. He cleared the outside defender and was already 24 yards down the right sideline when Browns cornerback Eric Wright stripped the ball away from him from behind and safety Brodney Pool grabbed it a split second before he was knocked to the sideline.
''All I could think was, '97 yards.' I could see the end zone and I thought I could get there,'' Portis said. ''[Wright] made a good play on the ball.''
The Browns scored to close within 14-11 with 2:44 remaining. Portis later admitted feeling nervous over the error.
Winning has become Portis' passion. He spent the offseason in Washington rather than his beloved hometown of Miami. It wasn't that way when he was traded to the Redskins in 2004. The offseason was meant for the beach, he said.
But the locker at Redskins Park between Portis and his college teammate Santana Moss now is vacant. Fellow Miami alumnus Sean Taylor was murdered last season and his two close friends remain humbled by the loss. Portis has become more serious, a team leader and now the league's leading rusher on the surprising Redskins (5-2).
Portis reminds many fans of John Riggins when leading the Redskins to their first Super Bowl under Joe Gibbs. The later it gets, the more Portis carries the Redskins. A sore hip that cost him two workouts last week didn't matter come game time.
''I think Clinton Portis is an absolute workhorse and our offensive line takes pride in that,'' said Zorn, who joked that his new moniker is ''Ground Z-Man.''
Indeed, a veteran offensive line averaging more than 11 years' experience found gaps in the Browns' 3-4 defense. Portis ripped off a 27-yard run to set up Moss' 18-yard touchdown catch for a 14-3 lead.
Portis worked both inside and out against the Browns to average 6.5 yards on 27 carries. The ''Smashmouth West Coast Offense'' gained 193 yards on 36 carries.
''There are games we make [Portis] look good,'' offensive tackle Jon Jansen said, ''and games where he makes us look good. We were built for the run.''
But the Redskins said the bulky stats didn't mean the Browns were pushovers.
''This was a fistfight,'' center Casey Rabach said. ''That was a heckuva of a defense. They play the run well.''
Said Zorn: ''We feel very fortunate. . . . I think teams are coming to stop our run, but we're staying with it. We've talked about balance, and I think that the mix of the run and pass and the mix of the different kinds of things is keeping them guessing.
''What I'm trying to do is keep them guessing. We had balance today. It didn't show up on the scoreboard as much as we would have liked it to.''
LANDOVER, MD.: Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn was playing a mind game against the Browns' defense.
Get the full article here.
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