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

The Good: Taking my son to his first Browns game
The Bad: The Browns losing his first game he went to
The Ugly: After continually referring to themselves as "The best fans in the NFL" over the PA, the stadium was noticeably below capacity and had a pretty good Browns contingent on hand to witness the L
The Annoying: The grown ass man sitting a row behind me that was just yelling sounds to make noise instead of stringing words together and carrying the last syllable of the word. Just groaning, "uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". ALL. DAMN. GAME.
The Surprising: No shit-talking Texans fans after the game. Apparently they haven't forgotten what losing feels like.

 

Well, if he sticks with being a Cleveland fan.....this'll be pretty much par for the course for most of us die-hards. My first Indians and Browns games were both losses. My son witnessed a loss by the Tribe in his first ballgame......and hopefully we'll get a win for him when I'm up in CLE for the holidays and take him to the Bengals game.

 

Here's a good . . .

Three games in a row without giving up a sack !!!

 

That's actually a great one Lym, considering that Houston was averaging nearly 4 per game over the previous 3 weeks. Shutting them out was a definite plus.

 

There was the hold by the Robinson(?) on the TD that was called back. That should have been a sack as the guy was half a step away before the ball was thrown. But otherwise, still impressive especially against the Texans......and three weeks in a row. Good combination of OL play and Mayfield being quick to make the read and throw the ball.

 

That might have been close, I remember it a different way. I didn't think he needed to hold him. I thought he had high leverage and could havepushed him back, instead, he stopped and reached forward which caused the holding penalty.

The other thing though, with a 4 man rush, there were many plays that Baker had all day to throw. When they did blitz, which was rare, Baker burned them a few times with perfect check downs that gained a lot of positive yardage.

 

I didn't get a good look at the replay on Watson's TD pass to their TE, but I swear it was an out route, and when he planted his foot to cut he gave the DBs inside shoulder a lil tug to get separation...anyone else catch that?

 

Oh yeah, there were quite a few push offs, I think they coach it a lot in Houston.

 

Do it enough and you get away with it... they can't call it every time.

Or any time, in some cases...

 

Seriously though... does any of this sound like a good idea? The gulf between Haley and Mayfield was pretty pronounced and that was what... five games?

 

Good (for the Browns at least):

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports A.J. Green will undergo season-ending surgery for torn ligaments in his toe and will be sidelined 3-4 months.

Green returned from his foot injury this past week after missing three games and promptly was re-injured, costing him even more time while needing to go under the knife. Green will be 31 next season and has one year remaining on his contract. He'll be a candidate for an extension, as this shouldn't deter the Bengals. Tyler Boyd and John Ross will hold down the fort at wideout.


Source: Adam Schefter on Twitter

 

Also good:

Browns activated CB Terrance Mitchell (broken arm) from injured reserve.

Signed to a three-year, $12 million deal in March, Mitchell went down in Week 4. Mitchell had been close to an every-snap player before getting hurt. He should return alongside Denzel Ward and T.J. Carrie, leaving Briean Boddy-Calhoun as the odd man out.


Source: Pat McManamon on Twitter

 

Week 13 @ Houston

The Good

• Baker Mayfield's second half. "They were in prevent defense"... to which I reply, you didn't watch. A touchdown and 350 passing yards in an effort to rebound was a good thing, the resilience to get out there and keep throwing and doing it well was even better thing to see. The last couple of drives, once Houston's offense had wrapped it up, could be considered garbage time stats, but the effort and attitude certainly were not.
  
  
• Myles Garrett. Garrett now has 12 sacks on the season. That's two away from the Browns' record (14) and Garrett is on pace for 16 this season. He's already 12th in total sacks for the franchise in its history. This is a special, special player. Watching him haul down Watson brutally in that game made me appreciate the fury he plays with.
  
  
• Jarvis Landry. Just when you think it's time to discuss if he's worth his contract after several disappointing games in a row, he puts together what, in my opinion, was his finest game as a Cleveland Brown. He caught nearly everything thrown his way, hauled in several tough catches, and got me excited thinking about what having a true WR1 could do to open up the field for him. Love the passion he plays with.

The Bad

• Baker Mayfield's first half. As good as the rebound was, the first half was a mess. Unfortunately, comes with the territory of a rookie QB and a young, incomplete overall team. Three picks, 47 total passing yards, and several three-and-outs on offense was part of the reason the team fell into a hole early and couldn't dig itself out of.
  
  
• The defense. They never really had an answer for Houston's offense and without thriving on takeaways, proved to be over-matched the entire game and couldn't really deliver the stops when they needed to. Especially disconcerting to see Houston convert on so many third-and-long instances.
  
  
• Injuries. Lost some key players in the matchup, which again didn't help, but more importantly shows the vulnerability in the roster. Seems in this pass-happy league, you cannot have enough good cornerbacks and coverage linebackers in the game.

The Ugly

• Getting blown out. Houston continued its win streak, extending to nine games, convincingly over Cleveland. Ugly for us, the fans, in that we have to temper expectations now for the remaining. Switch gears from outside playoff hopeful to evaluation mode.
  
  
• Mike McCarthy intrigue. Mike McCarthy is a good, not great, head coach. He squandered the prime years of Aaron Rodgers - a transformitive quarterback - and has one ring to show for it. Now, sure... if he comes to Cleveland and wins a Super Bowl I'll still be jazzed... but with the talent on this roster, the setup we've got in place from the last few years, and the QB of the future poised for greatness, I would be extremely disappointed with just one, too.
  
  Moreover, the noise around hiring a coach is an obvious distraction to not only the team, but the current coaching staff. They can try to block it out as much as possible, but they're only human and there's no way it can't be affecting them.
  
  
• NON-BROWNS BIT: Kareem Hunt. The brutality shown in the video should be a very clear signal this isn't his first time knocking around women. It shows the lengths the NFL will go to to keep and protect its talented players and this situation is particularly worth noting since it was our GM who brought Hunt into the league - and has had a reputation for overlooking checkered player history. Hopefully, the guys Dorsey is bringing into Cleveland avoid the negative behaviors.

 

Is it time for Cincinnati to blow the whole thing up?

Andy Dalton isn't getting it done and they've squandered A.J. Green's career away there. Move him for picks, cut ties with Marvin and Andy and let Hue Jackson take over.

And the Browns can lock in two victories a season for the foreseeable future.

 

Probably better for the "Game of the Week" thread (once it's started), but... uh-oh.

 

Nice stats SAS. Our D is turnover focussed to a fault, IMO. A little more emphasis on containment and tackling would help, but I don't want them to stop ball hawking either. In today's NFL you don't have to stop every 3rd down, but you do have to stop TDs.

The O is supposed to win the game, if you see how the rules are bent, so a dominating D is nice, but a "good" D with a potent O, is the winning formula IMO.

Helps to have a top notch QB. Oh yeah. We have that.

 

I saw this one floated on Browns' Twitter and, if I'm being honest, is the best-sounding lineup thus far:

Bruce Arians come in as head coach and keeps his promises. Freddie Kitchens remains the offensive coordinator and is groomed under Arians to be the long-term replacement coach for the team. Blake Williams (Gregg's son) is made the full-time defensive coordinator and Gregg becomes assistant head coach (assistant to the head coach?) and special teams coach (Amos Jones has got to go).

Keeping a majority of this crew together and allowing Gregg to still have that say in the daily decisions/operations. One of the concerns with Arians is his health and age and that he isn't a long-term solution, but this would allow for a very clear-cut succession plan after the 2-3 seasons (at most) he would likely coach.

 

Actually like that setup quite a bit.

 

I accept both the fact that Lincoln Riley isn't leaving Norman any time soon - and his dream job is the Dallas Cowboys when it becomes open. I also buy the theory that, while obviously looking at all options, Dorsey is a life-long NFL guy who likely isn't going out to the college ranks to get the next head coach (Matt Campbell). He's probably pulling a re-tread from somewhere already in the league.

Not my top choices (obviously, it's Condi Rice), but I can live with it.

Baker is responding to Kitchens and, like a previous comment, a great relationship between OC and QB can come from "just some running backs coach" and doesn't need to be some offensive coordinator master-mind.