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

I'm not sure how anyone else is getting consideration for Rookie of the Year Award. Everyone is touting Saquon Barkley, but he was added to a team that already had a 2 time Super Bowl winning QB. The Browns offense was offensive until Baker came to town.

 

https://waitingfornextyear.com/2018/12/browns-breshad-perriman-gold/

Nice write up on Perriman, and his impact on the offense.

 

I hear ya. The thing is, the difference between learning the RB position and learning the QB position is night and day. I take nothing away from Saquon, he's had a tremendous year. But preparing and stepping in as a rookie RB doesn't compare to what a rookie QB has to prepare for. The way Mayfield has taken over this team and this town and changed a culture in Cleveland has been unbelievable. Sensational. He's brought real hope to the most downtrodden team in sports. He's done it with style, and a swag like this team hasn't seen in decades. For the old time Browns fans like me, it feels like the team has FINALLY returned. Our 20+ year run through purgatory is over... The Giants have a nice running game, but the team has struggled most of the season. I'm sure there are those that will vote for Barkley, but there is no question in my mind who the rookie of the year is....This is a quarterback league.

 

Baker's biggest competition will be Saquon, and the elephant in the room is NY City vs Clevelnd. Sports writers, networks, media mecca. That will be a big hurdle to overcome.

If Baker was in NY and Saquon was in Cleveland there would be no doubt. Unfair but true none the less.

Win out and it will be hard to deny him. Win out and win a playoff game and (oh excuse me, I wet myself).........

 

THE GOOD:
- Browns defense vs Denver's (7th ranked) rushing offense; Broncos= 20 carries for 32 yards.
- Breshad Perriman coming down with huge contested TD pass on first drive of game to set the tone....
- Jabril Peppers. Best game as a Cleveland Brown. Kid came up huge when we had to have it...TWICE!
- Baker Mayfield. He wasn't perfect, but he was clutch when he had to be. Mayfield oozes confidence, and it is felt throughout Browns nation.
- TJ Carrie's interception. Huge play when we had to have it.
-Browns still alive in playoff hunt heading into week 16.

THE BAD
- Gregg Williams' horribly timed "time out" call at the end, just a split second before Baker had them jumping offside. We had game over and coach blew it.
- Gregg Williams compounding his horrible TO call by electing to go for it on 4th down. Take the chipshot FG and go up 4 points! It's "Mile High". All they needed was a FG to beat us. Make Denver go the length of the field and get a TD. That was a terrible decision by Williams IMO, and he's fortunate his defense bailed him out. Broncos had 3 defenders waiting in the backfield to swarm Chubb....If you must go for it, perhaps a little more creativity should be in order. Broncos were selling out on stopping Chubb that entire drive. In fact, I know we wanted to keep the clock moving, But Denver was SO aggressive in stopping the run, I thought we should have taken a shot a put the dagger in them. Especially considering ALL their CB's were injured. Baker could have carved em up.
- Robinson's block attempt on that ill fated 4th down call. That was the ole' special.

THE UGLY
Mayfield's pick at end of first half. That was his worst read and worst pass since he became a pro. I have no idea what he was seeing on that. Glad he got it all out of the way at once though... The good thing is, he didn't let it phase him one bit. Bake came back strong with a very efficient 2nd half, that included his game winning fourth quarter TD strike to Callaway.

 

One of the things being lost in the conversation about Baker's transition to the NFL is the idea that Perriman could never get a connection rolling with a tenured vet in Joe Flacco, but has had relative ease working with Mayfield.

It's a combination of a lot of different things, but it is definitely a positive looking long term as it may provide a glimpse into how well rookie receivers and signed free agents will acclimate to a Brown's offense led by Baker.

Developing talent doesn't just happen by the tutoring of coaches. A big part of it is the leaders on the roster and how much of a mentoring role they take on with the new guys.

 

I never realized how big Perriman was. All I really knew about him was that he was blazing fast and had serious issues with drops during his tenure in Baltimore. He has been a really pleasant surprise. His hands have been solid in Cleveland, and he is our guy that stretches the defense. Along with Greg Robinson, John Dorsey has done a nice job picking up a couple former 1st round "busts" and helping them resurrect their careers in Cleveland....

 

The Good: D, special shout outs to Jabril and Carrie. Run D was the best we've had.
The Bad: Callaway's bone headed taunt, Mayfield's accuracy (especially in the first half). The fourth down blocking at the end, and the decision to even go for it (Gregg, please explain)
The Ugly: Tackling! Baker's INT.

 

Baker made the right read on the route, he just threw it to the wrong spot/the ball sailed on him as it did all not on med to deep routes. The spot to throw to was in the middle of the field instead of up field. If it was roughly between the hash marks it would have been between the defenders and Landy is close to a TD.

 

Week 15 @ Denver

The Good

• Baker Mayfield. Even on an off-day, he lands on the good list. Why? Well, a win, and then the masterful touchdown to Callaway in the fourth. He recognized the man coverage, re-huddled the team and completely changed the play. Even took a few more steps to isolate Callaway pre-snap and then delivered a perfect pass for the go-ahead touchdown. Veteran-level stuff from a guy making his 11th career start.
  
  
• Jabrill Peppers. Over the past four or five games, few players have been as good as Peppers and Saturday night was a culmination of those experiences. He's finally starting to come into his own, it seems. His PFF.com score is currently 83.2, which is good for fifth among all safeties (free, and strong). Peppers and Randall might be the best, or at least second best behind Minnesota, safety tandem currently playing.
  
  
• Breshad Perriman. From washed-out first round bust with bad hands who can't stay healthy to a guy making absolutely freak grabs for Baker Mayfield within the span of what... six months? Baker is making his receivers better (again, as a rookie making only his 11th career start), but I can't help wonder what he'd look like with a true number one. For now, though, he's got a terrific rotational group going and Perriman is a big part of that success.
  
  
• Gregg Williams. He's winning his way into the full-time head coaching gig each week. He's got an extremely winnable match-up this week against Hue Jackson's Bengals (sport's media's term... not mine). If he takes this team, that was floundering at 2-5-1 and completely overhauled their coaching staff mid-year to an 8-7-1 finish (above .500 for the first time since 2007)... why wouldn't we keep him? I love the aggressiveness and confidence he shows - even the fourth-and-one play at the end was a great call in my opinion.
  
  
• Nick Chubb. When we needed to burn some clock, shorten the game, and preserve a lead, they turned to Chubb and he delivered. He marked another 100+ yard game and over the past six games is third in the NFL (behind only Ezekiel Elliott and Saquon Barkley) with 542 yards and tied (with multiple players) for third in touchdowns with 5. He's the number one back in the league in terms of yards-per-carry after contact and fourth in yards-per-carry among backs with 150+ attempts. In his starts (which cheats him his huge game against Oakland), he's averaging 18.6 carries, 88.9 yards, 4.8 YPC, and 0.9 touchdowns, which over a 16 game stretch equates to 297 carries, 1,421 yards, and 14 touchdowns - yards would be good for 5th all-time and touchdowns tied-4th all-time in a Cleveland Browns season.

The Bad

• No help. The Browns took care of their business, but literally every outcome they needed from other teams went the other way on the decision. It makes the playoffs a tougher road, if not altogether impossible. There's still plenty to play for and we can still win out, but the post-season just got a lot tougher.
  
  
• Tackling (again). It wasn't Carolina-bad, but it still wasn't pretty. Part of it was Philip Lindsey, who is a shifty player, but we're seeing a trend where the team doesn't always get the proper wrap or take the correct angle. Correctable, sure, but why are we still seeing this this late into an NFL season?

The Ugly

• Holding on Myles Garrett. No less than 11 blatant holds that should have been called. At some point, he's going to have to start getting some referee's help because it's completely ridiculous to watch.
  
  
• Execution of the fourth-and-short. Like I said, loved the aggressiveness but not the execution. The blocking wasn't solid and I'm not sure the play-call itself was the best choice. They had successfully converted on a fourth-and-one earlier in the game with the sneak... why not go back? Little things in the ugly (which is a nice change of pace) but these are going to be the small points this team needs to refine going into 2019 when playoffs shouldn't be a long-shot but rather a prerequisite for a successful season.

 

^^^^^

Future thread: 2019 Season | The Great, the Good, and the Just Okay.

 

Why start a Steelers thread on the Browns board?

 

Enjoy your last year atop the AFC North. It's been a great run, but the emperor has no clothes, and the Baker is dressed in orange and brown.

 

I'm just going to pile on "The Ugly". The officiating is has just been terrible all year. I think it was in the 3rd qtr there was a deep pass by Denver and Garrett put both arms up and the lineman had both of his arms out stretched holding Garrett and it still didn't get called. That and (even though it didn't matter much) the no-call delay of game where Denver got almost 3 seconds past :00. I was watching the game without the ability to rewind and just lost my mind. If I can observe that sitting on my ass, how are these guys getting paid to do it?

 

This bad outlines just how right of a call Dorsey made on choosing Baker Mayfield:

Mayfield on Saturday was 58% completion percentage, 83.8 rating, the first half was 39%...So one half of bad QB...We haven't seen more than that in any game this season.
Mayfield on the year is 63.9% 92.6 Rating

The rest of the rookie QB field on the year:
Sam Darnold 56.7%, 72.8 Rating
Josh Rosen 55.7%, 55.7 Rating
Josh Allen 52.2%, 52.2 Rating
Lamar Jackson 58.9%, 82.0 Rating

As bad as Mayfield's day was on Saturday, it was still ahead of all the other rookies season averages.

Now, I will say, I am actually impressed by this rookie class. I didn't expect them to perform as well as they did this season. IF Jackson can find a way to stay healthy, this could end up being one of the best classes in history. I think Allen will be the one to fizzle out after 4 years starting, Jackson-I will be shocked if he stays healthy, but I do think Darnold and Rosen could have bright futures IF their respective teams can give them a roster to work with.

However, Baker is in a class by himself early on. I believe he is a QB that will make any roster better. I don't think he will need a roster full of pro bowlers to win games consistently..Give him that, and I believe he will have the Browns in contention for the Super Bowl.


This is a GOOD thing!!

 

I was thinking the first 2019 thread for you guys was going to be Dobbs or Rudolph - Which Starter Should They Go With?

 

Crazy Crextin Mad Musings...

Week 15 @ Denver

The Good
Despite the UGLY nature of the whole game this team found a way to win; on the Road; in one of the more difficult venues to play. Bonus: Got the Denver Monkey off our backs (for now).

The Run Defense was outstanding. They held Lindsay and Den to 32 total yards.

BONUS: The Browns have been in the playoff discussion up until after Sunday’s games. Mathematically the Browns are still alive; but slim was packing his bags and booking his bus ticket. Lyman is correct in saying it has been quite refreshing to be talking Football and not the Draft at this point in the season. In fact I’m looking forward to seeing how the Browns do against Lamar Jackson now that they’ve beaten Flacco.

The Bad

An all too reoccurring theme; and THAT; is on the coaching staff.

Stupid penalties:
I get that there is a part of the whole game play where players jaw back and forth trying to get into each other’s head, when it leads to a drive killing penalty it is inexcusable:

Again that is on the coaching staff to get corrected.

The Ugly

Agree I love the aggressiveness, but I blame Williams for Phuqeing it up, and calling the time out; just as Baker lined–‘em up and drew them offsides. I was yelling at the TV in the Bar when they stopped the play. I didn’t get why Williams felt it necessary to call another time out right after the Broncos used their last one. How awesome would it have been to go into victory formation deep inside the redzone!

Hopefully the HC gives his QB more rein in the future. Mr. Mayfield has the “IT” factor
Am looking forward the next two weeks. The Browns have a chance to go 4-1-1 in the division and finish in second place

HERE WE GO BROWNIES
HERE WE GO
WOOF WOOF!

 

Irish, this was one of Bakers worst performances AH (after Hue), and we won. This game showed us and themselves they are a team, not a one man show, and that Baker can gut one out when his curve isn't breaking.

The question I have, isn't about where he ranks among Rookie QBs, it's where does he rank among QBs, period.

I looked at QBR and was shocked to find him at 25. So QBR is telling me there are but 7 teams with QBs who are worse than Baker???? That was quite a hit to my take on Baker as an NFL QB.

He had me at NYJets, but am I blinded by the Orange and Brown? Probably, but still, 25th??? There are 10 QBs, I'd even consider ahead of Mayfield personally: Mahommes, Brees, Rivers, Big Ben, Brady, Luck, Wentz, Wilson, Watson, and Rodgers, if I was talking about "right now".

On a 5 year plan: Brees, Rivers, Brady, Big Ben, and Rodgers all drop off leaving Mahommes, Luck, Wentz, Wilson and Watson. I think that's all there are to talk about, as of now. 6 guys who you could expect to be top tier QBs for the next 5 years. That's where I expect Mayfield to rank.

What am I missing? My heart tells me Mayfield is a top ten QB, but statistically I'm way off. ?????

 

PFF.com has him at #12 overall.

ESPN's QBR is a fantasy football stat, not a very good metric. And until they release the mathematics behind it, it's suspect to me. His QB rating (92.6) is good for 21st but his rating PH (post-Hue) is 109.3, which is sixth among all QBs since Week 9.