We literally are the greatest team that has ever been assembled and I’m not trying to get carried away when I say that.
Stinka for Micah Feel like Baker throwing for 210-250, Chubb running for 115-130, and Hunt running for 75-100 is the platonic ideal of what we’re going for in this offense
They say a football team makes it's biggest improvement between weeks 1 & 2...and we saw exactly that last night for the Browns. Positives: - Stefanski called an excellent game: - run/pass balance was where most expected it. 23 pass/35 rush (although 8 rush attempts were on the final 2 drives, 1 the 'kneel' at the end). Chubb with 22 carries (5.6 ypc) and Hunt with 10 (8.6 ypc); really kept the defense off balance. - the passing game was called more to Baker's strengths. Last night we saw more play actions; more bootlegs; more moving the pocket; more Baker making throws while moving out of the pocket. Those are all things that helped Baker be extremely successful. - The OL was excellent. The Bengals had 0 sacks and only 2 TFL. - Garrett had 9 QB pressures - Ward was excellent and only allowed AJ Green 3 catches on 13 targets. - Another good game for the rush defense. Only allowed 68 rushing yards and 2.8 YPC. A couple of concerns: - I was fine with Stefanski going for it on 4th down on the Bengals' goal line. I was really surprised we didn't try a pass to the TE's in that situation. - That having been said, and to be nit-picky, the TE's only had 3 catches all night. I expected to see more Hooper. - Baker had one really bad decision, the INT. He has to cut those out because it will kill us vs the good teams on our schedule (Ravens, Steelers, etc...) - The back 7 is just atrocious. To be fair, there are 5 starters out with injuries in the back 7 and any team would be looking shaky given that situation. But our ability to cover is dog shit (outside of Ward). - We only rushed 4 most of the night. With a rookie QB I was expecting to blitz more in an attempt to make him uncomfortable. Overall, that was the offense we all expected to see this season. I think that game will give them much needed confidence moving forward. We now have seen that we have a good system (when called correctly) and players capable of executing. I know it was the Bengals but it's still very positive as it was only the 2nd game ever in this system and we should show gradual improvement at the season goes on. Defensively, the DL is the bright spot. Playing the run game very well and the front 4 has been able to generate pressure through 2 games; Garrett specifically. But the back 7 is a mash unit playing terrible football. It' just a mess right now. It's tough to have answer until we see a healthy unit out there. I do believe that guys like Kevin Johnson & Grant Delpit would be huge helps right now; and Ronnie Harrison will be as well when he is up to speed. But we are going to have win some shootouts like last night with the current back 7.
One alarming stat I saw in a deep dive: We did an awful job covering the TE last night. Cincy TE’s combine for 11 receptions on 15 targets for 87 yards and 1 TD. Uzomah had 4 receptions on 6 targets for 42 yards and 1 TD. He averaged 10.5 yards per reception. Nobody did a good job on him. His injury was the only thing that stopped him. Then came the back-up, Sample. He caught 7 balls on 9 targets for 45 yards. Again, terrible job by the defense. We know the Steelers and the Ravens love to used their TE's; hell, Andrews killed us in week 1. This is a big area of concern for me moving forward. If I'm an opposing OC with a decent TE, I am giving him 10+ targets vs the Browns.
Only question now: does Seibert get a Superb Owl Ring for being on the Browns roster this year? I vote yes.
Free Agent DBs Earl Thomas Eric Reid Kurt Coleman Morris Claiborne HaHa Clinton-Dix Free Agent LBs Alec Ogletree Clay Matthews Nigel Bradham Vontaze Burfict The Browns lead the league in cap space for 202 with $32.3m available. Go sign 2-3 of those guys on one year deals and spend 15-20m.
Stefanski said Greedy and KJ could be back this week as well. That would be a massive boost to say the least.
Whoa, kind of weird that Joe Burrow and Dwayne Haskins are coming to Cleveland as the opposing starting QB in back to back weeks. Hopefully Haskins also leaves with an L.
Back 7 is straight dogshit but we have to keep in mind how depleted it is. Nice to see Mack coming back and will be nice when Phillips returns, too. Hopefully Greedy can stay healthy. Really think the Delpit injury hurts our S depth. Am I missing something or is Redwine not playing at all? He can't be worse than Sandejo.
Goddam it. I'm sucked back into the Browns again this year because of that gorgeous run-it-down-their-fucking-throats drive to seal last night's game. Don't see this infatuation lasting though
What I like about this schedule setup is if you run a simulation for at Ravens and vs. Bengals 100 times, we're probably 1-1 after about 85-90 of them. So I didn't get too down after the Ravens beatdown, and am not losing my mind over the offense looking good last night. Give the team a couple weeks to heal some of the preseason injuries, get the new coaches comfortable, add some reps for everyone and we're probably going to be 2-1 going into Dallas - pretty nice.
I'm too lazy to look, but given we've pretty much lost almost every opener since '99, I wonder how many total games we've played over .500 since '99.
By my count, 32 (and 1 playoff game for 33). 2014: 8 2013: 1 2011: 1 2007: 9 2002: 4 (+1 playoff game) 2001: 8 2000: 1 0 in every other year. None since 2014.
Wow, thanks for going through that, appreciate it. Probably a few more than I expected to be honest. Forgot 2001 and 2014 had so many games above .500. 2007 was such a special season and still stings we didn't get to see that offense in a playoff game and see what they could do.
We should beat Washington but I'm not counting anything as a win at this point. Getting those guys back on defense is huge and winning Sunday sets up a huge week 4 game with Dallas
It’s not that the orange pants look bad, that exact same look would just look even better with white pants. These uniforms are going to look good with any combo.
I'm really excited about Porter Gustin. I think he can be a starting level DE for us. He made more plays last week than Olivier Vernon has his whole time here.