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

Why did the Browns lose to the Ravens in week 17?



Ravens 296 rushing yards...which led to 38:30 time of possession to Browns 21:30... SEVENTEEN freaking minutes more, they had the ball...Yet Baker still managed to throw 3 TD passes on the league's #1 defense. Admittedly, 3 INTs hurt the team.. I just have to ask, did you watch them closely?

The first one was two fold, it was a thinly tipped pass that Jimmy Smith made a great play on, however, upon further review... Callaway ran a poor route, with Smith all over him, including pass interference or at the very least offensive holding. He finished the route haphazardly trying to get separation from Smith, all he did was pull Smith into position to make the INT.

The second was the worst of the 3, throwing into double coverage, the ball being tipped and intercepted.

The third one was a 4th and 10 with a pass rusher in his face and no where to throw it...But, he did what any good QB does, he got rid of it. Even had it been completed, it would have been short of the 4th down marker. There simply wasn't any where to go with the ball. The credit goes to CJ Mosely, but it should really go to the secondary on that one play, they had the Browns blanketed.

He made up for THREE picks, with THREE TDs that kept the Browns in this game, despite the ineptitude of the Browns defense.

 

Me, if you think I won't hype Baker Mayfield ahead of Tom Brady:



To be fair, he was with Tom Brady and the Patriots for all of five days, didn't suit up in a regular season game, and was cut to make room for Josh Gordon (clear upgrade). I'm thinking, specifically, of his second rookie game against Baltimore where he went for 5/104/2 with Josh McCown at QB.

I'm not advocating we bring him back, just to be clear. I'm just thinking to myself how good Baker is making his receivers and what a wasted talent like Coleman's could have been with guys not named Kessler, Kizer, and Whitehurst.

 

I agree that Callaway wasn't sharp on his route that play, but the ball was tipped at the line. And at least Callaway did make the immediate tackle, which shouldn't go overlooked. The point of the post though is to say that other than that, Antonio Callaway had a helluva day. Great footwork on those sideline dimes Baker was dropping in. And also, why the heck hasn't he been returning all our kicks all year? He was really solid on Sunday. I'm excited about Antonio's future as long as he stays out of trouble off the field...Looks like another GREAT pick from Dorsey right now.

 

The crazy thing about that goal line play where we got hosed with the ol "quick whistle" was the very next play...After the reversal, from his own 7 yard line, Baker drops back into the endzone and finds a wide open Jarvis Landry streaking up the right hash. Complete busted coverage. Should have been 93 yard strike. Somehow it hits Landry in the head and falls incomplete. I honestly think he lost it in the lights. But what a freaking play. Only a fool would count Mayfield out. That kid is a baller, and he is just getting started.

#6 has made it fun again to be a Browns fan...I can't wait to see what's coming in year two.

 

The first one includes the Williams/Kitchens games, so just think about how bad that offense was performing Weeks 1-8.

I don't know how you look at that and don't retain Freddie Kitchens if you're John Dorsey. He literally just found his Sean McVay and he did it (1) in house and (2) in only half a season.

 

2018 Good

Just think... eight short months ago, the Browns "would be foolish" not to draft Josh Allen and Bradley Chubb.

 

I couldn't agree more. The Browns were dynamic. They were creative. It was truly fun to watch Baker run Freddie's offense. Retaining Kitchens should be offseason priority #1.

 

Hmm. Highest passer rating in the 4th quarter. 2nd highest passer rating when losing, aka the time you have to pass and the defense knows you will. Not bad for the NFL oddity/flavor of the month/fraud

 

Yeah, I saw that remark too. Totally ridiculous comment. ..I was waiting for a Raven fan to chime in on that.

 

Teams get tired of chasing these running QBs, and eventually they get injured. Jackson has to learn to protect himself better. He doesn’t like to slide feet first.

 

Yeah, I'm late coming back to the thread. Lamar is definitely inconsistent and misses some of the easiest passes he should make, but that's due to his base and footwork. He's made many amazing throws in his short career including many into tight windows. Tech has likely not watched him play at all, but even highlights would show him same great passes.

Lamar isn't Baker when throwing, but he also isn't a fraud as a passer

 

I'll agree that he needs to protect himself better. He started running out of bounds more around and started diving to avoid the big hits (although head first instead of feet first).

I'm sure they'll pound the concept of self preservation into him in the offseason. For now, his competitors mentality takes over and he just tries to get as many extra yards as possible

 

No doubt. The thing is, Lamar doesn't have to be as good of a passer as Baker. Thank god he isn't. Athletically, he has no equals. Dude is legit as hell if ya ask me. True game changer. I hate that Baltimore drafted Lamar...Beyond the impressive late game stats; For his age, Lamar Jackson is as accomplished as a QB has ever been. Just because he's not traditional prototype NFL style QB, doesn't make him a "fraud" by any means. He's a true leader. A winner. He's got a Heisman. He unseated a "traditional prototype" SB winning QB, and took his team to a division championship, without missing a beat...What's his record, like 7-1?

"flavor of the month fraud"? Not hardly....

 

One more thing about Lamar. I don't often agree with Deion Sanders, but he was right about the stress that Lamar puts on a defense. Deion mentioned that a week is just not enough time for a defense to prepare for Lamar. The guy is too fast. Like I said last week with the Willie McGinest plan. If ya try to read and react to Lamar, you're beat. It's too late. The only way to defend him IMO is to attack ultra aggressively on D, and hope that he doesn't burn you with his arm...I don't even want to think about how scary he'd be if he had Baker's arm talent.

If Lamar was as good of a passer as Baker Mayfield, he'd be the most "dangerous" QB, that ever walked the face of the earth.

 

Uh oh. There I go with the bold statements again. lol! Cue the Bears fans to put me in the crosshairs at any moment now...

 

I'll say this. I look forward to Lamar's progression next season. He's improved as a passer with each start. Yeah he's only needed to throw between 21-25 times per game, but to not throw a single INT the entire month of December is amazing for a rookie. I wish he had started sooner (assuming he'd have played similar to how he did when he did start). He might have given Baker a run for that OROY award. Or at least helped the team start better than 4-5.

 

Boomer Esiason does those sports updates and had one recently with the rookie quarterbacks.

On Josh Allen: "truly, a gifted and dynamic athlete with an incredible arm -- the perfect QB for Buffalo".

On Lamar Jackson: "exciting, but I don't know that his run-first style will last".



Allen is, by the very definition, a run-first quarterback who cannot make it past his first read. He's already missed time with injuries, despite being the "prototypical" build. His completion percentage on the season was 52.8 and his passer rating for the year was 67.9.

 

A little flavor to this one...

Mahomes (trailing): 112 of 163 (68.7%), 1,516 yards, 17 TD, 4 INT
- 28.1% of his total attempts
- 29.7% of his total yards
- 34.0% of his total touchdowns

Jackson (trailing): 39 of 57 (68.4%), 495 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
- 33.5% of his total attempts
- 41.2% of his total yards
- 66.7% of his total touchdowns

Mayfield (trailing): 186 of 291 (63.9%), 2,322 yards, 15 TD, 9 INT
- 59.9% of his total attempts
- 62.3% of his total yards
- 55.5% of his total touchdowns

Jackson may be more efficient (right now) trailing, but Baker is playing 60+ percent of his game trailing. He's used to it.

 

I don't disagree with anything you said. 5his breakdown make it interesting though. It shows that, for Lamar, is more than likely passing because the team is behind and yet that's when he's doing some of his best work in the passing game.

The same holds true for Mayfield, to even a higher degree