CLEVELAND -- Since quarterback Drew Brees and Coach Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans, the Saints have enjoyed quite the home-field advantage at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
When the offense is putting up points and the defense gets to the quarterback after collapsing opposing pockets, the 76,468 fans inside the dome get rocking so loud that it can be difficult to call signals and offensive linemen to make their pre-snap reads and recognize blitz pickups.
Ahead of Sunday’s game against the Saints, the Cleveland Browns are doing what they can to neutralize the fans’ influence on the game.
“Oh, it is concerning,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said. “We have to work at it this week. Obviously, we are going to have crowd noise. We will have it revved up as loud as we can.
“That is something that we have to take care of. Those self-inflicted wounds like that, we can’t do that because it is hard to overcome those. We brought it up to our players again. They understand what we need to do. We need to do it better, and we are going to do it better in practice first.”
Having played in a dome in front of a crowd at fever pitch in previous seasons, offensive lineman Chris Hubbard knows being thrown off on timing can negatively impact the Browns’ ability to move the ball up the field.
“One thing, you can’t let the crowd take ahold of the game,” Hubbard said. “If you do, you are able to have pre-snap penalties and different things that can catch you off-guard.
“You could be late off of the ball and things like that. This week of preparation is the main thing to get ready for the silent count, make sure that you are getting off of the ball on time and just little details for this upcoming challenge.”
With their rebuilt roster, the Browns have not yet played in a dome together, but through the usage of loudspeakers at practice to blast music and noise toward the field during drills throughout the week of practice.
“We have to be prepared for the noise level,” quarterback Tyrod Taylor. “First time going on the road. That is something that we have to practice this week. The noise levels, of course, you can simulate as much as possible, but us going out there and fighting through that throughout this week will definitely prepare us.”
In last Sunday’s 21-21 tie against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Taylor completed only 15 of his 40 attempts for 197 yards with one touchdown against one interception against the Steelers. Taylor took seven sacks for 47 lost yards and carried a 51.8 quarterback rating in his first start with the Browns, who acquired him in a trade with the Buffalo Bills back in March.
And despite the concerns about the noise inside the dome, Taylor expects improvement out of both himself and the offense against the Saints.
“I think that between the first and second game -- of course, for a new group that is playing together -- you definitely have room to make a tremendous improvement,” Taylor said.
“That is what we have to do this week. Continue to keep focusing on the details, learn from what we did not do so well last week and harp on those details throughout the week so that we can go out and execute at a high level this weekend.”
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