CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns safety Jim Leonhard, who's played for Mike Pettine for six seasons, knows this defense almost as well as the head coach and knows exactly how to fix it.



"In a lot of cases, it's guys trying to do a little bit too much other than just letting it come to them and taking care of their job,'' said Leonhard, who signed with the Browns as a free agent on July 30th. "The plays are going to come. That's the thing I try to preach to the guys in this defense is, you don't have to go find plays. You're going to have opportunities.''



The Browns defense has tumbled to 31st overall, including 27th against the run. It's yielding 153.7 yards rushing per game and 25.7 points a week, tied for eight-most in the NFL.

"Every single game plan, whether it's he secondary, the outside linebackers -- every single group can look at the gameplan and says 'oh wow, I'm going to have chances to make plays here and here and here,'' said Leonhard. "You just do your job and plays are going to come to you and you really don't have to go out of the structure of this defense like some others.''



Leonhard, who's played for Pettine in Baltimore (2008), with the Jets (2000-11) and in Buffalo (2013) has heard this refrain before: the players start slowly in the new defense, and pick it up as the season goes along.

"Sometimes it takes a little time,'' Leonhard said. "I've been there before where you start slow in this system and guys figure it out. Every place I've been, it's kind of been that struggle, with guys trying to do too much in the scheme. Hopefully we can get it corrected here in the bye week and not have that come up again.''

Last season, in Pettine's first season in Buffalo, the tried and true scheme resulted in the following rankings: No. 10 in overall defense, No. 1 in opponent's completion percentage, No. 2 in sacks (57), No. 2 in interceptions (23) and No. 3 in opponent's QB rating (74.9). He boasted similar top rankings in New York and Baltimore.



"The more game reps you get, you realize it's like 'wow, it's us,''' said Leonhard. "It's not like we watch the tape and think 'there's nothing we can do to stop that.' In this defense, there's a lot of flexibility to help ourselves out. It's one, kind of understanding the defense a little bit better and two, play a little faster, and three, just not pressing.

"We've got a lot of guys that are playmakers, a lot of guys that can impact games. And it's kind of letting it come to you rather than going to get it.''



The Browns are coming off a 23-21 loss to the Ravens, in which they gave up 377 yards overall, including 160 against the run. They let a rookie in Lorenzo Taliaferro run all over them for 91 yards on 18 carries.



"We've faced some team that can run the football,'' said Leonhard. "Two of the three teams, they're going to run the football and they're going to find a way. But I do think the bye week comes at a good time for us being in the first year of the system defensively.



"You can kind of take a step back early in the season rather than it being a little bit later. Maybe there's some things that we can easily correct going into week five, rather than hitting it later in the year where obviously you don't have that time to pause and reset. I think it's a good situation.''



According to profootballfocus.com, defensive players that have struggled so far in the new scheme include Ahtyba Rubin, who's -6.3 grade is 71 out of 72 defensive tackles after three games.

The site also reports that Browns' opponents have rushed for 177 yards and a 5.1-yard average by rushing to their right and going straight at Phil Taylor who's ranked 50 out of 52 among 3-4 ends who have played 25% or more defensive snaps. Karlos Dansby is also coming off his worst game since 2011, according to the site.

In the back end, profootballfocus.com has Joe Haden ranked 94 out of 96 cornerbacks.

But Pettine shouldered much of the blame for the loss to the Ravens, and Leonhard understands exactly why.



"You don't want to start pointing fingers at the player because (the scheme is so sound), and the coaches don't push that,'' Leonhard said. "They have a lot of confidence in it and they get that across to guys, but they're not saying, 'the scheme is great, it's you.'

"I think guys are realizing to stop pressing a little bit, and the game will come to us. We're doing some great things. We just have to be more consistent and that's going to make the difference.''