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

He's already played in 1

 

Week 3: New York (Jets)*

The Good

• Baker Mayfield. Absolute unit. I (obviously) am a huge Baker fan / hype-man. Even I was blown away. The receivers looked better, the line looked better, the play-calling looked better. Literally *every* aspect of the team improved when he took over. Sam Darnold looked (again) like hot garbage and Baker Mayfield was making throws that looked like a Top 3 QB in the league with the savvy of a seasoned veteran.
  
  
• Myles Garrett. Another absolute unit. He now leads the NFL in sacks (granted, he's a game ahead) but there's no stopping him. The Saints did because they put two men on him at all times and when they did, Larry Ogunjobi had two (three) sacks. He can break the sack record in his second year and I hope he does.
  
  
• A Win. Time to retire #635. Everything feels better after a win. It had been so long, I genuinely forgot how to celebrate (still haven't quite figured it out, tbh). I always try to give the GBU a fair three points each, but after two damn years? I'm stealing two bullet points...
  
  
• BONUS: Denzel Ward. Defensive. Rookie. Of. The. Year. The future looks very bright for Ward.
  
  
• BONUS: Larry Ogunjobi. Dominated Pouncey (6x Pro Bowl, 2x All Pro). Dominated Max Unger (2x Pro Bowl, 1x All Pro). Dominated whomever was suited up for the Jets. Browns have a great combo in him and Garrett - and their doing this without their second-best pass rusher (Ogbah) at the moment.

The Bad

• Bubble screens. Seriously... how hard is that to stop? You could see when it was coming because they didn't disguise it. I don't know what Gregggggg was calling against that, but it was working all night. I'm sure other teams took note of that last night.
  
  
• Jarvis Landry returning kicks. Why? He's your top receiver (although I expect that to change after a few more weeks of Callaway development). I think they said after the game Peppers might have been injured, but how hard is it to find a semi-decent kick returner? Landry is also the emergency QB, so maybe find a less critical guy to trot out there?
  
  
• Hue Jackson. Yep, still got to throw him in here. Our buddy @TopDawg was right... this team would have been 3-0 with Baker at the helm. If (when) they throttle Oakland, they'll go to 2-1-1 but that could and should have been 4-0. Cleveland sitting at 4-0 with Mayfield in charge? Dilly dilly.

The Ugly

• Special Teams. Yeesh. Touched a bit on the Landry thing. The kicker, who at least made the kicks, didn't make them look easy. Britton Colquitt was stellar, but had a partial block on a complete whiff by Chubb. Last night was a great win and I'm still thinking 9-7 (well, 9-6-1)... but this isn't a team who can completely dominate an opponent yet so ST is going to be vital to that success. Be better!

*Edit

 

Uhm SAS;


a) are you still lit up from last night’s free beer

b)/or is this a typo

c)/or are we going back to an alternate universe where Mayfield is actually named the starter day 1

 

Don't throw him in with The Ugly, you'll jinx him. I just want to chalk it up to first game rookie jitters for our new kicker.

Should have just camped out next to one of the bud light fridges in Cleveland for the last few weeks.

 

I agree with most of what @SAS said.

I think the glaring item that may be worse than being lumped in The Ugly is just how poorly all offensive facets have performed most of the time when Taylor is QB'ing. And it's been that way for two and a half games. Now granted, I/we only have a half+ game of Mayfield tape, but everything seemed to get jacked up a couple of notches and everyone responded. It was night and day for the team with each QB. I'm sold.....start Mayfield. He's ready and I'm sure he'll have some bumps along the way and disappoint us as well. But Taylor just doesn't seem to have what Mayfield showed in the second half.

 

Week 3: NYJ

The Good

The offense/team is a completely different unit with Mayfield in the huddle. You could see the energy of the entire team change for the better. Very impressive debut for the young rookie; admittedly he got lucky a couple of times. I’m all for some of that Kool-Aid you nut jobs (@TD, @SAS, @IRISH) been guzzling since January

The Defense is only going to get better. Ward was the right pick over Chubb. Ogunjobi is becoming an absolute beast. Reminds me of...

Spoiler

Avery is a nice addition and had a good game last night. Hopefully Ogbah is back next week.

The Browns have 10-days to rest and prepare for OAK.

The Bad

Taylor had to get concussed for Hue to see how much better this team is with Mayfield at the Helm.

Penalties on Kick and Punt returns are the norm for this group. Makes it very difficult to flip the field. That is on HUE. He has to get these guys to be more disciplined.

Agree on the bubble screens. WTF! how could Williams NOT make adjustments with his players on the sidelines between series?

The Ugly

The Run defense still needs a lot of work. Letting Crow get two easy TD’s chapped my arse. Powell picking up large chunks of yardage.

Now we all know why Chubb isn’t getting more snaps. He needs to spend more time learning how to phuquing block. The blocked punt is totally on him.

I’m not going to go down the shoulda, coulda, woulda, road with Mayfield. I do believe that he should be named the starter from here on out and never look back.

I’m just going to spend the next 10-days savoring this win.



HERE WE GO BROWNIES

HERE WE GO

WOOF WOOF!

 

Fixed!

Sorry, I copy from the first one every time... just forgot to update because I was (am) so amped.

 

Dilly. Dilly.

 

Stats By STATS @StatsBySTATS

Baker Mayfield of the @Browns is the first player to come off the bench in his debut, throw for 200+ yards and lead his team to its first win of the season since Fran Tarkenton for the 1961 Vikings. #Browns

 

Unsurprisingly, the QB who broke the grading system at the NCAA level picks up right where he left off.

 

^^^^^ If 84.3 sounds low, it isn't. It'd be 5th-best in the NFL right now. Ahead of Tom Brady (81.6), Aaron Rodgers (79.6), Andrew Luck (77.9), and Jared Goff (68.7).

Ryan Fitzpatrick (98.8) and Patrick Mahomes II (93.5) are both off to such incredibly hot starts that their insane scores are clear outliers.

 

@SAS

There are 13 games left on the schedule......a Baker's dozen.

 

Baker was awesome. To be that sharp with no practice is insane. But PFF is garbage. Mariotta's first start he went 13-15 for 209 yards and 4 TDs and he didn't even make their Top 5. He had a perfect passer rating (158.3).

 

I have to laugh at this a little because with Tyrod you could and probably should have been 2-0

 

Speaking about kickers.... how about whatisname?

Shaky, but through the uprights they went. Amen

 

Let's not let facts get in the way of a good crusade. Had Baker started in week 1 we may have been 3-0. But the fact of the matter is: If we had a kicker without the yips, we would have been 3-0 even with Tyrod under center.

And, OBTW, how soon do you forget that multiple times you agreed with starting Tyrod Taylor over Mayfield?

 

Moving on . . .

The balance of the AFCN schedule for week 3 looks like this;

• Denver Broncos @ Baltimore Ravens
• Cincinatti Bengals @ Carolina Panthers
• Pittsburgh Steelers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Its not too far of a stretch to think that the Ravens, Bengals and Steelers all lose. That would put our Browns all alone in 2nd place in the AFC North after three weeks.

 

I expect the Bengals and Steelers to lose....Just basing off point spreads, the only actual stretch is Baltimore. I freaking HATE saying this, but; go denver!

 

I don't deny that - I said I hoped he started for the full year, in fact (because it meant we'd be winning). I also don't have the advantage Hue Jackson does of seeing them both in practice every day. He should have seen and known that Baker had earned first team reps.

But as you say, moving on. Baker will save Hue's job, so in that respect don't we both win?

 

If Baker continues to improve upon what we saw on Thursday night, I think everyone wins. Baker Mayfield, the Browns organization, the Fans (and the number of fans will grow exponentially as the wins pile up) and the NFL. They are looking for the faces to replace Peyton Manning and soon to be Tom Brady and Drew Brees. They might just already have two in Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield. Russell Wilson should be, but he just doesn't have the charisma. I think both Mayfield (especially) and Mahomes will become the poster boys of the NFL in the coming years. If Mayfield resurrects the Browns to contender status, his legend will grow before it actually has merit.