When the Browns studied film of the Patriots, they had supreme confidence the ground was the way to go.
“We saw that we could run it on them,’’ said center Alex Mack. “And that’s what part of our game plan was, and we were able to stay up on them and continue with the run game.’’
The Browns knew inside linebacker Mayo had 17, 19, 12, and 17 tackles in his previous four games.
Cleveland wasn’t going to let that happen again. Mayo was the No. 1 priority for the Browns. Keeping nose tackle Vince Wilfork out of the side of the play was a close second.
“We knew that Mayo is really a run-flow guy and he’s one of the top tacklers on the team,’’ Mack said. “So one of our goals was to make sure we had someone on him because we knew that he makes a lot of tackles. So we were heads-up about how good he is. Wilfork is a real heavy, good player with a really good motor, so we had to keep on him and keep him from shedding off.’’
That left rookie strong-side inside linebacker Brandon Spikes as the player to go after. As a less-experienced player, the Browns thought there was a high probability Spikes would overpursue and perhaps run into a wrong gap.
“He’s a downhill run-hit kind of guy,’’ Mack said. “So we kind of knew what to expect and I think we did a good job in the game plan to try to exploit what we wanted to.’’
Mayo probably will be sore this morning, because whether it was Mack, Steinbach, left tackle Joe Thomas, guard Billy Yates, or right tackle Floyd Womack, Mayo had one of the Browns’ big bodies on him almost every play.
