BEREA (92.3 The Fan) – Competitive, not combative.
That’s the personality that Browns head coach wants his football to have during training camp.
On Tuesday, we saw both.
But when push came to shove, the defense ultimately won the day – again.
“We have to set the standard. Yesterday was below standard. Today was right there around it,” safety Donte Whitner said. “Everybody thinks that fighting is bad, but fighting is not bad when you have helmets on and you’re not throwing punches. Guys are getting frustrated. Both sides of the ball are getting heated. Both sides of the ball are getting physical. That’s what we want.”
Whitner, who grew up in Cleveland and went to Glenville High School before starring at Ohio State, was signed this offseason in part to help bring a new attitude and physicality to a Browns defense that couldn’t get off the field last year.
His attitude is rubbing off on his new teammates.
“We don’t want two nice sides of the ball,” Whitner said. “We don’t want nice offensive linemen. We don’t want nice defensive linemen. We want guys that are nasty and want to drive guys back in the fourth quarter. That’s what we’re trying to develop.”
There wasn’t much niceness on either side of the ball during Tuesday’s practice.
Left guard Martin Wallace woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was involved in a pair of scrums.
Running back Dion Lewis was thrown to the ground by linebacker Eric Martin after a run. Lewis shook it off but a few plays later Ben Tate threw a football at Ahtyba Rubin after Rubin didn’t let up on a run play.
“I was probably just overaggressive, just hit him too much, you know, being a defensive guy, I just gave him a little push afterwards or something like that,” Rubin said.
“We just really came out with a lot of intensity, we really want to set a standard and when there’s a lot of guys running around hitting each other, fights will happen.”
That touched off another fight and took a few minutes to break up because half the team jumped in the melee.
“We’re not going to be bullied,” Tate said after practice. “It is OK for a temper to flare and its OK to fight sometimes but you don’t want big piles and guys falling down and falling on each other ’cause that’s when guys get hurt and we don’t ever intend for guys to get hurt.”
Players had to be separated multiple times during Tuesday’s training camp practice. / (Photo used with permission; courtesy WEWS-TV)
Tate gave Rubin a hug before they left the field as they put the dust up between them behind them.
“We all teammates here, at the end of the day we all got the same mission,” Tate said. “So it’s OK for it to go down just don’t carry it over into the locker room. After it’s over with it should be done with.”
Players had to be separated once again after Lewis was thrown to the ground, this time by Armonty Bryant, following another run up the middle.
“Every day our defense is going to come out physical, we know that,” Lewis said. “So as running backs, you’ve just got to defend yourself and be physical back. You can’t let them push you around. So whenever you get a chance to be physical, you’ve just got to be physical and take the fight to them.”
Pettine, who is as old school as they come, isn’t a fan of fights breaking out during practice but he didn’t seem to mind the testy tone established early in the session.
“There’s going to be times where it does boil over,” Pettine said. “You don’t want one side of the ball to get bullied by the other. There has to be some push back. Whether it’s O vs. D or D vs. O, and you look at that, and it’s the price of doing business. You don’t like to see it. You’re afraid somebody potentially gets hurt in it. It breaks up the rhythm of practice, but at times, that’s going to happen.”
Pettine had the Browns in pads for the second straight day and they’ll wear them again on Thursday.
The defense has dominated the first 4 practices of camp and is clearly ahead of the offense, which is to be expected when new systems are being installed.
If Tuesday was any indication, it’s clear offensive players are getting fed up.
“You want to be competitive. No one likes losing,” receive Andrew Hawkins said. “If they’re keeping score I want to win. That’s what coach Pett says and that’s the way we need to adapt. Of course, we’re upset about not getting the best of the defense, but it’s a long camp. We’ll get our shot.”
Sports Stories You May Also Be Interested In
- Illini’s O’Toole Leads 1 Upset, Hopes For A 2nd
- Browns End Soft Part Of Schedule With Bucs
- Bernier Has 28 saves, Leafs Beat Jackets 4-1
- Illini’s O’Toole Leads 1 Upset, Hopes For A 2nd
