i'm starting to get excited even though i have no idea how we stop the rams' offense or how we prevent donald from doing murder in our backfield 41-38
This isn’t the same offense. Freddie can say whatever he wants, but there’s a serious disconnect here.
A lead against the Rams at halftime with essentially the entire defensive backfield not playing? Yeah. I’ll take it. I don’t really have any complaints right now. Granted, the Rams will probably blow it open in the second half, but, right now, the Browns are playing one hell of a game.
Defense played as well as you can ask. Major kudos to those guys and Steve. I don’t know who’s in charge of this dog shit offense, but it urgently needs resolved.
Lose to a Super Bowl team in the final seconds when pretty much the entire defensive backfield is out with injuries? I’ll take it.
If we lost because our depleted defense got shredded it would be different. We lost because our offense is mostly crap this year.
+2 in turnover margin, at home in primetime, and you hold an elite offense to 20 points. sorry, but if you're entertaining any sort of playoff aspirations, that needs to be a W. Resilient defense being sabotaged by utterly incompetent offense has been the Browns' story for 20 years. the defense deserves a ton of credit tonight, but the offense deserves zero slack. the performance on that side of the ball to date is totally inexcusable. and the schedule doesn't get any easier. tired of being negative about this team, but i don't see how this is any sort of moral victory. it was a missed opportunity.
How does everyone; the fans, the play by play announcers, the local high school coaches, everyone, know that the key to the offense is to get the ball out quicker, but we continue to run 3WR sets where they are all 20 yards down field???? How the fuck is that possible with an NFL team? Baker's stats when he holds the ball vs. throwing quickly are absurd. Someone make a mural of that stat and hang it outside Freddie's office. I don't remember which play it was exactly, but we were backed up on the 5 or maybe worse, and on the replay it showed the play was all 3 WRs run fly. Like the Hail Mary play from a video game. The fuck kind of play is that? I get that you have to run that, sometimes, to keep a defense honest, I guess, but??? Eh, on further review I think it was this play (at 10:33). 3rd and 10 from the 9. Baker has the TE dragging over the middle underneath, but doesn't want to throw it there, scrambles, and Mathews gets him. The TE looks like he's out for a casual stroll anyways. Maybe the short stuff is there and Baker is just looking for the home run every play??
I wonder if Baker is focused too much on OBJ and trying to get him involved, rather than taking his check-downs. With a makeshift OL, they have got to run short, quick passes. Offensive coaching is failing right now.
It's hard for me to believe that Freddie just forgot how to call plays. The play designs stink, the play calling stinks
I've always wondered how it worked when there's an OC as well as the HC calling the plays. So is Monken designing the offense, and Freddie calls the plays based on what has been designed? I've never been a fan of the HC calling plays, though it does work for some coaches/teams.
I know Freddie is calling plays, but this is NOWHERE near the offense we ran the 2nd half of the year when he took over. It's the same garbage that Monken ran in Tampa, where everyone is sent deep or it's a screen. There is no presnap motion, no innovation, all things we saw last year. Tampa rank in Scoring offense under Monken: 2016 - 18th 2017 - 18th 2018 - 12th Why is this guy an offensive genius again? Last year, once Freddie took over, Cleveland averaged 23.8 ppg, good for 14th in the league, after averaging 21.1, or 23rd. 4 of those games were OT as well, and we had a 42 point outlier, that would have dropped the PPG to 18.1 ppg, 28th. Add OBJ to the offense, Baker another year, you would think we could improve on the 23.8 with Freddie's offense. Monken is so boring and predictable, and has turned the offense stale. All we run are screens and verticals, and wonder why NFL defenses can sniff these out
Kitchens is in way over his head. None of those four plays from inside the 5 were even borderline close. I do think McVay is slightly overrated, but on their two 3rd and goals, he had a beautiful play call to a wide open receiver both times. It's like we're playing a different game out there. The draw was inexcusable. Not challenging PI was inexcusable. These deep pass routes with zero chance to develop are inexcusable. Last night was in no way, shape, or form a moral victory. Playoff teams need to go 5-3 or 6-2 at home, and now we're already 0-2 after catching a good team on an off night and getting a world-class performance by the defense. Even a team like the Rams will go 12-4 or 11-5 this year, and those losses will probably be road games against playoff teams. The Browns aren't a playoff team.
I didn’t think this at all in person. All night the pocket was collapsing and Baker was having to run around but everyone was still running with their backs to him
The draw was so fantastically stupid that I actually think our staff lost track of what down it was. that call just didn't make any sense. That was a 3rd and 9 call if you're playing for 4 downs. there was another concerning call late in the first half (i think) where we had the ball on LA's 40 facing a 3rd and 14. Obviously you want to get the first down there if you can, but the percentages are low. However, it's perfectly feasible to pick up 7-10 yards (easier than usual even, given how the defense is going to play that down and distance) and give yourself a shot at a FG, or a manageable 4th down attempt. instead we chuck it 30 yards down field and have to punt after jarvis fails to make a circus catch. just not great game management
agree with all points except this one. Their was an offensive penalty, rams only declined it to move onto the next down, if we challenge they just accept the penalty to offset the PI and we are in the same boat with 1 less challenge. Kept in the backpocket in case we needed it later
Sat next to a couple in OU Baker jerseys. Guy graduated from OU in 85, was always a Cowboys fan but slowly stopped watching them as much. Watched most Browns games last year and traveled to Cleveland just for the game. Nice couple and thought that was cool