**** Ravens at Browns Gameday thread

[calfoxwc]

7 minutes ago, Axe said:

The damn near pick 6 didn't help matters either.

When Baker made that mistake, I said "he just had a brain fart, crap"

Throwing a bit further to the sideline would have saved him, but it is what it is.

[Axe]

Kicker left 4.. Mayfield gave away 7.. There's the difference in the game

[mjp28]

ESPN is calling this a Classic Game,. it was.

[Neo]

The running game WAS working, so why did they shy away from it? Seemed like they went away from it early. I was really surprised how much they were throwing it considering how good their secondary is and the fact our receivers weren't really getting separation. I never liked the flow of the game,  thought it favored the dirty pigeons.

[CLEVELANDwantsPLAYOFFS]

Tough loss. Good game. We unfortunately gave them too much time at the end. Solid effort from the offense. Defense and special teams need to tighten up, regardless of Ward being out.. 

[Cbus Brownie]

Team played well tonight, we’ve got a good football team. First time I’ve said that in a long, long fricken time. 
 

Ward, Harrison, Williams are all sorely missed. We just don’t have the back 7. Sandejo needs to go. Our O can score on anyone. 

[Neo]

29 minutes ago, hx214 said:

Always one play away....

We need new linebackers and plenty of them. Probably need to draft another freaking CB if Greedy and Ward can't stay on the field for these kinda games.

Good thing is.... that short list makes them a really tough team. It's nice to have a short list instead of the 10 foot long one we usually have.

I don't think anyone wants to say this because he is easily the best coach we've had in decades, but Stefanski deserves some heat for this game too. I thought he made some good calls throughout the game, but the overall gameplan was terrible. You need to keep their offense off the field as much as possible, throwing early into their good secondary plays right into their hands. We don't really have a playmaker at WR other than Landry, so I guess now you see the value of Beckham. Baker is not a quarterback that is going to carve up a defense. He has made some strides but he is still not there yet. That near pick 6 was atrocious. 

[Tour2ma]

Only thing better would have been a W...

Our guys left it all on the field tonite.

I'm proud of them.

[Neo]

I think it's obvious that we need Beckham back. Beckham is our #1, Higgins can be or #2 and Landry in the slot because he has the knack for getting open and he catches everything.

[gumby73]

It still just blows my mind with the tough luck of this game.. McSorley blows his leg up just at the sight of Garrett ready to pounce on him at 2:02 left... Did anybody really think Lamar was coming back into this game? the Next play was a 4th & 5 😤

[TypicalBrowns50]

Baker gave them six at the end. We just aren’t there yet. But we are getting there! I’m certainly excited to see the Browns improvement this year 

[hoorta]

lesson- beat Giants, beat Jets... 11 wins is good enough. 

[AP1]

5 hours ago, hoorta said:

lesson- beat Giants, beat Jets... 11 wins is good enough. 

The most important Browns' games two decades.

[jiggins7919]

I just can't give the I'm proud of them rhetoric. It looked so easy and looked like we never really had a chance. I'm explicitly tired of not having a defense that I can be proud of, and it just feels like we'll always be who we are, and that's the team that gives up a 3rd and 10 to the backup QB when the game is on the line, or the team that leaves people open running across the field, or the team that see decides to miss kicks in the biggest effing game in literally 20 years. 

I'll get to where I'm proud of them later, but right now I'm not. They choked yet again to a team they almost never beat. 

[Canton Mike]

13 minutes ago, jiggins7919 said:

I just can't give the I'm proud of them rhetoric. It looked so easy and looked like we never really had a chance. I'm explicitly tired of not having a defense that I can be proud of, and it just feels like we'll always be who we are, and that's the team that gives up a 3rd and 10 to the backup QB when the game is on the line, or the team that leaves people open running across the field, or the team that see decides to miss kicks in the biggest effing game in literally 20 years. 

I'll get to where I'm proud of them later, but right now I'm not. They choked yet again to a team they almost never beat. 

I AM proud of them. This is only year 1 of this regime & I believe we are going in the right direction. What has been accomplished within 1 season is amazing. Yes, the "D" needs help & good health, but we are closer than many think.

Even in losing, our Browns never quit, showed they can compete with anyone, earned a ton of respect, & I'm betting the Ravens wouldn't want to meet us again this season.

Season's not over...GO BROWNS!

Mike

[Canton Dawg]

6 minutes ago, Canton Mike said:

I AM proud of them. This is only year 1 of this regime & I believe we are going in the right direction. What has been accomplished within 1 season is amazing. Yes, the "D" needs help & good health, but we are closer than many think.

Even in losing, our Browns never quit, showed they can compete with anyone, earned a ton of respect, & I'm betting the Ravens wouldn't want to meet us again this season.

Season's not over...GO BROWNS!

Mike

Yep...and the best part is this is a young team.

[Bob806]

19 minutes ago, jiggins7919 said:

 I'm explicitly tired of not having a defense that I can be proud of

 

I get that frustration. 

My hope is guys they drafted actually play (Greedy, Ward, Delpit) and they draft some LBs that can make an impact. 

Sub par LB play might be killing us more than the 3rd & 4th string secondary.

Think about it- 9-4 with a leaky D. Couldn't fix the whole roster in one off season, but so much closer to contending.

[tinythinker]

looks from the comments like they lost

on to the next opponent

[mjp28]

3 minutes ago, Canton Mike said:

I AM proud of them. This is only year 1 of this regime & I believe we are going in the right direction. What has been accomplished within 1 season is amazing. Yes, the "D" needs help & good health, but we are closer than many think.

Even in losing, our Browns never quit, showed they can compete with anyone, earned a ton of respect, & I'm betting the Ravens wouldn't want to meet us again this season.

Season's not over...GO BROWNS!

Mike

I  think that I heard the BROWNS defense is all under 30 year old players the only team in the league like that.  A win would have been great and was so close.

Would be nice to have a dependable clutch kicker could have used one last night.  Baltimore had one who hit a 55 yard kicker to win the game.  Just sayin'.

[Orion]

Denzel Ward saved two games for us this season.

We needed him last night.

How would you like to be Joe Woods?  Playing with a secondary totally void of starting players....

[Ibleedbrown]

I hope this game really makes the team bear down and puts that hunger into overdrive. A wake up call of sorts. 

[browns52]

7 hours ago, Neo said:

I don't think anyone wants to say this because he is easily the best coach we've had in decades, but Stefanski deserves some heat for this game too. I thought he made some good calls throughout the game, but the overall gameplan was terrible. You need to keep their offense off the field as much as possible, throwing early into their good secondary plays right into their hands. We don't really have a playmaker at WR other than Landry, so I guess now you see the value of Beckham. Baker is not a quarterback that is going to carve up a defense. He has made some strides but he is still not there yet. That near pick 6 was atrocious. 

we cannot stop superman.....end of story....i agree, we cannot get into shootouts because overall our d is not good enough but lamar was the one who got us into a shootout type of game.....our d is the issue though....especially the secondary.....the cowboys game, big lead....our d almost gives it up....titans game...same issue....it looks like rught now, we have an elway issue....could not stop him and we cannot stop lamar....not good....and don't think we have it easy the last 3 games....we could easily lose 2 out of 3 and be gasping for help from other teams to make it into the playoffs....not nearly over yet...

[browns52]

8 hours ago, jbluhm86 said:

Woods isn't the problem. We just don't have the personnel on the defense to make a deep run in the playoffs. The defense just doesn't have enough gas in the talent tank to be able to play a full 60 minutes against great teams.

who says we are going to the playoffs......my guess is we are going to be in that shitass sitiation where we need help from other teams....our d really sucks the big one...i could see daniel jones running amuk for the giants against us.....its like we need 8 minute drives the whole game to keep the other teams offense off the field....even the crappy teams....

[Browns149]

33 minutes ago, browns52 said:

we cannot stop superman.....end of story....i agree, we cannot get into shootouts because overall our d is not good enough but lamar was the one who got us into a shootout type of game.....our d is the issue though....especially the secondary.....the cowboys game, big lead....our d almost gives it up....titans game...same issue....it looks like rught now, we have an elway issue....could not stop him and we cannot stop lamar....not good....and don't think we have it easy the last 3 games....we could easily lose 2 out of 3 and be gasping for help from other teams to make it into the playoffs....not nearly over yet...

Do you really think the Browns will lose to Colt McCoy w/Giants and the winless Jets?

I don’t see either of those 2 things happening 

[Browns149]

1 minute ago, browns52 said:

who says we are going to the playoffs......my guess is we are going to be in that shitass sitiation where we need help from other teams....our d really sucks the big one...i could see daniel jones running amuk for the giants against us.....its like we need 8 minute drives the whole game to keep the other teams offense off the field....even the crappy teams....

Jones is hurt

[Nero]

Things I liked: 

- I don't know how many people where in the stands, but in the TV you could sense them. I loved feeling their heat, trying to push the team.
- Every player gave a fight, and yesterday it was a big game.  
- We can do anything on offense: short pass, deep pass, run. Ravens' is not a joke of a D. Baker passed to DPJ, Higgins, Landry, Bryant, Njoku, Hunt and Chubb. That's 7 receivers. I like that.
- This might be the best coaching team we've had in many years. You see adjustments, a gameplan... 

Things I didn't like: 

- Losing. Duh. 
- Defensive gameplan. What Lamar did in the first half is simply unacceptable. I said before the game: keep him in the pocket, make him win us with his arm. He ran for 1000 miles and they rushed for 2000 yards. 
- Run/pass percentage. We ran the ball, yes, but we should have done it more. Our defense is average AT BEST. I see every run play as an investment: 40seconds less in the field for our defense. I don't care if we only get 2-3 yards at some point. Baker can pass, we have receivers and a creative offensive caller, but Chubb and Hunt should be the bread and butter of this offense. Manage the clock and we got them. Everytime we do this, we get big chunk run plays on 4th qrtr. 
- The defense playcall in the last Ravens TD (on 4th down). I would like to see the replay on that one, but I felt like that blitz was a mess, and the secondary got confused too. Blitzin doesn't work with a QB that can run to the sideline, limping or not.
- Offensive playcall in our last first half possession (3rd down). The Ravens had 1 minute left and 1 timeout left, and instead of forcing them to take the timeout, run the ball, put them on a hurry... Baker looked helpless on the pocket and did an intentional grounding. Before halftime, we were 7 down again.

The best thing is that these are little details, I think this will help the team in the future. It was a good game. We should be happy we have the team we have. Go Browns! 

 

[Nero]

1 hour ago, Bob806 said:

Sub par LB play might be killing us more than the 3rd & 4th string secondary.

I don't remember having heard the name Mack Wilson announced last night in the whole game. At least Takitaki did some tackles for loss IIRC.

[Flugel]

1 hour ago, jiggins7919 said:

I just can't give the I'm proud of them rhetoric. It looked so easy and looked like we never really had a chance. I'm explicitly tired of not having a defense that I can be proud of, and it just feels like we'll always be who we are, and that's the team that gives up a 3rd and 10 to the backup QB when the game is on the line, or the team that leaves people open running across the field, or the team that see decides to miss kicks in the biggest effing game in literally 20 years. 

I'll get to where I'm proud of them later, but right now I'm not. They choked yet again to a team they almost never beat. 

Nothing about THIS team makes me feel like it's the ALWAYS we've seen since 1999.  They show up with a mentality that if you're going to beat us you better damn well play 60 minutes and have a kicker that can drill it down the middle from 55 yards out with seconds remaining.

Ronnie Harrison, arguably the best Safety on this team, didn't play in either matchup with the Rats. His tackling and big play capability were missed on some of those big plays the Rats pulled out of their asss.  Denzel was missed as well on a team coming off only 6 wins.  If this was LAST year, this team would have been in a fetal position in the 1st quarter last night.  BUT, it's not last year so you watched what all viewers, football fans and media are calling the game of the year.

This year shows epic progress to extent the number of holes to fill in the roster aren't ship sinking.  In fact, this last off-season decreased the major needs to - a need to upgrade the LBer Corps and add depth in the secondary.  While injuries aren't an excuse - they're at least worth acknowledging in the secondary when  the major investments/plans aren't able to suit up.  Grant Delpit was brought here via the draft for his elite coverage skills.  Denzel Ward was a 4th pick overall that was playing like one when he got injured.  Greedy Williams, whom I'm not all that warm and fuzzy about, had many others disagreeing with my dime store take considering we landed him in round 2.  And Ronnie Harrison was the 2nd leading tackler on Jax last year because he has killer good instincts we've witnessed here repeatedly. For example, his pick 6 against the Colts.  These guys are all major parts of the plan so if this team can win around some of these injuries and we get some back - we're winning a game like last night that left us feeling like we were 1 big defensive play away from winning.  

As much as we LOVE 9 wins with 3 games still remaining, it's important to remember where this team was in every way last year to appreciate where it is today and where it's heading soon.  This is a VERY fun season with progress we appreciate unfolding.  The coaching is way better.  The FO doesn't have the War of the Roses Divorce of philosophies and collision of egos it had last year.  A team that believes in itself and its leadership is playing it's asss off while it continued to welcome the next man up opportunities confronting them.  As much as people love to poke at a guy like OBJ - he took a lot of pride in blocking for his teammates when he wasn't getting the ball.  I WISH Webster Slaughter would have considered blocking Jeremiah Castille crossing his face or even just getting in his way instead of allowing him to strip the ball out of Ernest Byner's hands.  ALL of our WRs block, which is reflective of them buying into the coaching staff/leadership and putting the "we before the me."  In a 60 minute game these are the little things that add up to why and how the Browns have 9 wins in just 13 games.  

The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer the headlamp of an oncoming train... 

[Bob806]

16 minutes ago, Nero said:

I don't remember having heard the name Mack Wilson announced last night in the whole game. At least Takitaki did some tackles for loss IIRC.

It's a shame because I think he has the proverbial "potential" and has shown flashes of good play at times. He certainly has the pedigree & passion to play.

To a simpleton like me, it looks like the LBs get sucked in to the LOS and the DBs make most of the tackles. By design or player error, it puts a ton of pressure on the DBs. 

It isn't going to be fixed this season, that's pretty obvious to all of us. The weird thing is, the Browns always seem to have a decent group of defensive strengths but not a complete unit- like now our D line is pretty good, above average, but the back end is decimated by injuries and the LBs are sub par. In the Marty era they had Dixon/Minnifield/Wright and no pass rush but good LBs. We had Thom Darden, Clarence Scott & Jerry Sherk/Walter Johnson but no name LBs. Belichick had a great scheme and LBs & safeties, but no pass rush either. 

Let's give this staff & regime some time to assemble a great D- hell, even a decent D and they may be on their way to great things. We've been really patient as a fan base (ok, maybe not lol) but as bad as it's been since 2008, I'm happy they've appeared to turn the corner into a real pro team.

[SdBacker80]

9 hours ago, Neo said:

I think it's obvious that we need Beckham back. Beckham is our #1, Higgins can be or #2 and Landry in the slot because he has the knack for getting open and he catches everything.

yep!!!

you will need to convince half this forum...good luck