G Joel Bitonio (10.13.22)
On facing the Patriots defense under Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick defense:
“They are always disciplined. They are always good. I feel like they are never going to beat themselves. For us, it is a big execution week and a big understanding what they are trying to throw at us. You have to account for players. (Patriots LB Matthew) Judon is playing out of his mind right now. They are all playing really well. They just came off of a shutout. They are going to be a real tough test for us.”
On if when facing the Patriots under Belichick it is more about preparing for the system than the players:
“You have to know your players because you have matchups when you are run blocking and pass blocking, but they do run a lot of games, they do have a lot of blitzes and they have a lot of different fronts again that they can throw us. They will probably have a flavor of the week of what they want to do to the Browns. It is tough. You do put in a little bit extra work this week because you know they are going to have something planned for us.”
On Belichick’s approach to try to take away an opponent’s strengths and if the Patriots can do anything different schematically to try to limit the Browns running game compared to what other teams have tried to do:
“There is always something new. You can always put someone down there. We will kind of see how it goes, but I think every defense has that 6-1 or the 5-3 with eight guys in the box with an extra safety hanging. At that point, it is like (RB) Nick (Chubb) or (RB) Kareem (Hunt) is probably going to have to beat the guy one on one eventually and we are going to have to execute our blocks. I am sure that they will have a plan of attack for us. We will see exactly what it is coming up.”
On if the Browns have had more success against defense’s heavy fronts attempting to limit the running game than past years:
“We knew the Chargers were going to come out with a few different heavy looks at us. I think (Head) Coach (Kevin) Stefanski, AVP (offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt) and (offensive line) Coach (Bill) Callahan all really put together a good plan if we did get those looks. You never know. Sometimes in years past, you don’t know a defense is going to come out in a 6-1 and you are not truly prepared for it, but our coaches have done a really good job of preparing us each week of what is the worst possible scenario.”
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