2018 Season | The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Let's kick this season off right...

Week 1: Pittsburgh

The Good

• Myles Garrett. Absolute unit. A defensive guy taking over a game and changing the tone? Love it. If he wasn't being held so frequently, he'd have another 2-3 sacks in that game.
  
  
• Denzel Ward. Welcome to the NFL, rookie. Ward is playing like the defensive rookie of the year and off to a better start than Marshon Lattimore last season. I know two things: (1) OSU is DBU, and (2) Bradley Chubb doesn't have two picks in that game.
  
  
• Defensive effort. I won't say the defense in particular, because without those insane six takeaways, you've got a team who gave up almost 500 yards including a s**t-load on the ground. What we did see, however, was that side of the ball rally, take over a game, and make a statement. Sitting at 21-7 at halftime this felt like "same old Browns". By overtime, you thought this was one the Browns were going to win in extra minutes.

The Bad

• Offensive line. Not unexpectedly, when you change the lineup at the last minute and play a starting five who saw little to no cohesion with each other in the preseason.
  
  
• Officiating. It goes both ways, sure, but the Browns got absolutely destroyed by the refs in this one. It's tough enough having an 0(h)-16 team match up against a 13-3 one without having to battle the refs, too.
  
  
• Tie games. This felt like a fifth pre-season game in that you saw good, bad, and ugly (duh) but at the end of the day, there was no decision. Yeah, we "broke a losing streak", but that 1-31-1 doesn't somehow make me feel warm and fuzzy. Very anti-Millennial stance, I know. Sorry for anyone I may have triggered.

The Ugly

• Tyrod Taylor. Yuck game. That said, he still needs to start - just needs to play better. I think he will indoors on turf. What was of a larger concern (to me) was his unwillingness to pull the trigger. We knew he was a conservative QB coming in, so I accept a lot of that... but he seemed paralyzed in that game, unwilling to make the throws, or when he did a lot of them were under thrown or tentative. Good news is, he gets to go against a defense next week that just gave up 45 points and a ton of yards/TDs to 35 (36?) year old Ryan Fitzpatrick.
  
  
• Hue Jackson. The offensive line choices were poor, but the quote about Josh Gordon really takes the cake. This guy is a complete joke as a head coach - his press conferences are jokes. He's now 1-31-1 as a Browns coach and he's got an offensive juggernaut on the schedule next... let's see how long he lasts.
  
  
• Penalties. Picked up right where they left off in the preseason with two dozen penalties. I already noted the piss-poor officiating, but two back-to-back false starts from third-and-three isn't on the refs. They played a lot of undisciplined football and that's on the coaches.

 

To wit:

 

Huh?

Aw cmon, you guys don't get to play that card. There were really bad calls both ways. The Browns caught some big breaks on the Pouncey call and the punt that hit the Browns player. Yes, on replay there wasn't enough to overturn it but everyone on the field including the guy that got hit with the ball reacted to the play. The refs just missed it.

EDIT: P.S. They appeared to barely review the fumble into the end zone. He never regained possession and the ball went out the back of the end zone.

 

More GBU from around the league...

I strongly supported using #2 overall in 2016 on him. I'm so glad we have *checks notes* Corey Coleman, Shon Coleman, Cody Kessler, Ricardo Louis, Jordan Payton, DeShone Kizer, and Jabrill Peppers instead.

 

Sorry, third quarter.

 

I'm not saying the referees were the reason we didn't win - our offense and special teams can be blamed for that. I'm just frustrated at how poorly-officiated that game was. Yes, there were calls that went both ways, but an overwhelming majority of the ones against Cleveland were ticky-tack at best.

 

More GBU from around the league...

"If you do a 'Good, Bad, Ugly' segment and don't talk about DeShone Kizer, did you really do a 'Good, Bad, Ugly' segment at all?" - ancient Chinese proverb

 

Tyrod Taylor should still start next week, but...

... Baker Mayfield makes that throw and the Browns win the game. #justsayin

 

Does this make Myles Garrett the new James Harrison? It doesn't become official until someone says he was held on every play during a game he missed with injury (this actually happened)

 

I absolutely agree it was a badly called game all around, but you picked two really bad examples here beach.

A) the "player" reacted to seeing the ball and flinching, not the ball bouncing off of him, B) There is NO angle that showed the ball hitting him as some Steelers fans have eluded. It should have hit him, but there is a clear angle that shows the ball spinning off the bounce of the ground and ABSOLUTELY NO change to that spin, angle of the ball, or any ball movement what so ever as the ball passes over the Browns player. It was as close as the hair on your chinny chin chin, but the rotation of the ball would have been effected had it grazed him ever so slightly and it didn't.

Your second example, the ball doesn't have to have a possession regained to be called dead. The player's foot was out of bounds, so as soon as the ball is touched by a player out of bounds, the ball is dead at that spot. This was a good call. Also, watch it some more, the ball never went "out of the back of the end zone", it could be argued, had the player NOT been out OOB when the balls touched, it looks as if it went outside the goal line marker, thus never breaking the plane.

 

Yup. That was the problem. Hue Jackson and the referees. Nailed it.

 

Who are you even referring to? Just have an extra 5 minutes to troll?

 

Referring to the original post, Irish. Thought that was pretty obvious. It's laughable. I was pointing out how silly it was.

 

The Good:

It wasn't a loss.
Myles Garrett & Denzel Ward
​

The Bad:

It wasn't a win.
​

The Ugly:

Special Teams (that weren't very special).​

 

So....

THIS:

Got you to

THIS:

I know you don't like SAS, but that ^ ^ ^ is about 10% of what the post stated.

Do you even understand the "Good, Bad and Ugly" concept?

He laid out some good things, some bad things, and some ugly things....

As for only referencing one of the "Bad" and one of the "Ugly" of his first post, you left out essence of the entire post and only made a snide comment about two things.... Are you in some way suggesting that the reffing in this game was at or above par? Because I could probably bring in quite a few Steelers fans that would agree the refereeing was terrible. It did go both ways, and I'm sure we would disagree on which one got the shorter end of the stick here, but it was a legitimate aspect of the game to bring up in this forum.

Hue Jackson made some mistakes, once again as a HC. Not naming his starting LT until Friday, which then made for the least experienced lineup he could have put on that O-Line was a huge mistake imho. The team having 11 penalties is a reflection of the HC. That is part of his job to make sure the team is prepared, which if you have 11 penalties, you are not. That is an MO of this team, under Hue Jackson they have always been heavy into penalties. At some point it needs to be addressed...this is three years into his tenure. Calling a timeout midway through the 3rd Qtr when you are down by 14 points and still have about 12 seconds on the play clock is bone headed...You might need that timeout late in the game. It is a regular occurrence unfortunately since Hue took over the team.

I don't see any where that Hue Jackson and the referees are the reason the Browns lost, as you eluded. You are trying to make something out of nothing...Pretty clear

 

What's not to like?

 

Myles Garrett is a generational athlete who has to potential to be one of the greatest defensive ends of all time.

James Harrison was a PED-abusing, women-slapping, head-shot-taking bum who was coddled by an organization and the referees.

 

So yeah, I want to avoid "Overreaction Monday", but two questions: (1) what, (2) the f**K?

Didn't catch this live at the time. Earl Watford - not good. Austin Corbett inactive? That #33 overall pick looking less and less spectacular (especially when compared to the Denzel Wards and Genard Averys of the world). I know, I know... trust the process. But it cannot be denied we knew we had a monumental hole at left tackle, had a chance to draft some very highly, chose not to, and instead grabbed a guy who plays a position we were already "set" at (and paying handsomely for) and who could be projected as a center down the line.

Hoping that Bob "We Don't Stretch" Wiley can get things turned around quickly.

 

That could have been called because of the right hand but Haden got himself in good position to get up high and go after the ball. I can see your point but that kind of play could go either way. They were letting the WRs / DBs play on both sides.