Danny Shelton, Alex Mack

Danny Shelton and the Browns' first-team defense struggled on Thursday night against the Falcons.

(Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns gave up a 9-play, 71-yard drive to the Falcons on Thursday night the first time the defense took the field at FirstEnergy Stadium. It was capped by a 19-yard touchdown run from Devonta Freeman, the third time that Atlanta converted a third down.

In three series against Atlanta's first-team offense -- spanning 15:08 of game time -- the Browns gave up 78 yards in the air and 58 on the ground. That's 136 yards in a shade over a quarter of football.

It wasn't just the first series, either. Over the final two series, they allowed 43 passing yards and 22 rushing yards. Overall, it wasn't a strong showing.

The main culprit was the most fundamental of football activities and one that has troubled the Browns for some time: tackling.

"There were a lot of missed tackles tonight," head coach Hue Jackson said. "I can't wait to watch the tape to see exactly how many missed tackles we had, but we have to be a better tackling football team."

"As basic as that," middle linebacker Christian Kirksey said. "Getting the man down on the ground. A lot of guys was in the right position and you've just got to continue the play and finish the play."

"We're not wrapping up, not finishing and not getting enough turnovers," nose tackle Danny Shelton said.

It's a concerning development considering Jackson's camp has stressed physicality. He instituted a full-contact period in the early days of training camp signaled by a siren. Now the team's not tackling when the games have started.

"It's something you can coach and teach, but at the end of the day, we just need to go out and do it," outside linebacker Nate Orchard said. "Guys are right there. We just need to wrap up and take them down."

So, that's a big part of the problem. Now comes the hard part: fixing it.

Working on the day off

The Browns have a day off on Friday, which is typical of the day after a game. The defense is going in to work, though.

"We've got tomorrow off but as a defense we're coming in," Orchard said. "We're going to fix our mistakes."

Orchard said it was middle linebacker Demario Davis who decided the defense needed more work. "If he says jump, we jump," Orchard said, "so we're going to follow his lead and tomorrow we need to go in as a defense and get things fixed."

The work the unit does won't be too tedious, Orchard said, but it's something the group feels needs to get done.

"There's a lot of vets on this team that agreed with that," he said. "It's just something as a unit we want to fix, so we're going to come and fix it."

More than just tackling

It wasn't just the tackling, of course. Atlanta converted on three third-and-1 situations on their opening drive, twice on runs and once on passes.

"You always want to get a team off on third down and when they get the first down or score it's definitely devastating," Kirksey said.

"It just all comes back to everyone doing their job," Orchard said.

"You need to have the mentality that you are going to make the play," Shelton said. "You've got to make the play. The 10 other guys are tired, too. If you have the mentality that you are going to make every play, our defense will be the defense that we want to be."

Which begs the question: What kind of defense does this group want to be? Whatever that answer is, it's not what they showed on the opening drive.

"We regrouped," Kirksey said. "We got a chance to settle down, calm down, see what was really going on, see what they was throwing at us and just get on the sideline and come together and say, that wasn't us in the first series, that wasn't us."

"Can't allow someone to come into our house and rush over 200-plus yards," Orchard said. "We want to be a great defense and it all starts on the ground. We can't let someone run that way on us."

"We just need to continue to fight, continue to have the mindset that we're going to win our battles," Shelton said. "11 1-and-0s."

"What happens when you start spreading a leak, everybody tries to cover up for another guy because I'm going to cover up for this guy," Jackson said, "and I think we need to do that better."

"We've just got to continue to grow and continue to have a mindset that we need to be a Top 10 defense and we need to make every play that we can," Shelton said.

-----

Follow me: on Twitter | on Facebook | Snapchat username: djlobster