BUCKLE UP BROWNS FANS!!! This is the season we've been waiting for

One other huge issue right now is the redzone offense. Last season, in Weeks 9 - 17, Mayfield was the best in the NFL in the redzone. This season he's completed just 3 of 14 passes (21.4%) for 10 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions (49.4 QB rating). So not only has that area of the offense dramatically fallen off, but you've got a head coach and play-caller who's dialing up four passes from the four with all three timeouts in a seven point game.

*deep breath*

HOWEVER... everything we're seeing is still 100% correctable. Last night's game was a good barometer for where this team was. Yes, the bad taste left in our mouths from Week 1 is still there -- the Browns basically sat that one out and let a worse roster out-play them to a boat race victory. They beat the struggling Jets by 20 in New Jersey and hands were still wringing -- notice the New England Patriots only beat them by 16 at home? No? -- but they just went blow-for-blow with the defending NFC Champions who have a supremely-talented roster and a terrific group of coaches.

The defense played heroic football yesterday and put the team in a position to win it. In fact, I would argue the Browns lost that game more than the Rams won it. When the team needed it's star quarterback and "Wunderkind" coach -- they faltered. Freddie's a first time head coach and half-first-time (??) play-caller. They've got a combined 28 games of experience and have gone against Dean Pees, Gregggg Williams, and Wade Phillips - three guys on defense who account for 125 combined years of coaching with over 80 combined seasons of being defensive coordinators. Youth vee experience.

The metrics are there for the whole world to see: when Mayfield throws quickly, he's one of the best in the game. Freddie needs to ditch the Air Raid approach and move to a shorter game with some rhythm passing. The slant to OBJ was there *all* night. Once you get a defense reeling, you can try to open it up with a couple longer routes. What you absolutely cannot do again is call three verts on your own goal line when you need 10.

The Ravens are a beatable team. San Francisco, despite being 3-0, is *not* a good team -- very beatable. Seattle right now is beatable - just lost to a Brees-less Saints team at home. This can get corrected quickly. And if the Browns are 4-2 or 3-3 heading into the BYE week, the schedule gets *much* more favorable.

 

I'm not ready to suggest that Kitchens can't call the right plays or that Monken would somehow be an improvement. Play-calling needs to improve, but the offensive playbook itself looks like it needs re-examined. The offense is tough to watch right now because they're making the routine seem difficult. They're not changing things up - we're not seeing any of the creativity we saw from Freddie last season.

The difference between Weeks 9 - 17 (2018) and Weeks 1 - 3 (2019) isn't the play-caller... it's the playbook.

 

Who's playbook is it? Freddie's or Todd's ???

 

I don't think we have that information, do we?

 

I'll be ecstatic if we can get to the bye at 3-3.....

 

This undisciplined team makes me drink .I was anticipating some growing paines on offense but this is not what I expected . Give Vernon back to the Giants and give me Zeitler back . also Baker cant stay in the pocket and make a throw ? . to many time he rolled out right into a sack when the line gave him time .

Fat Freddy put a boot in there asses and quit shooting yourself in the foot with all the penalty's.

YUK !

 

Must be Monday . double post /Grrr

 

So what's up with Bake?

 

It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Baker Mayfield, whose trial by fire was assumed to be his six games under Hue Jackson last season. His eight under OC Freddie Kitchens appeared to be the table setter to bigger things. Mayfield averaged 8.57 yards per attempt and had four three-score afternoons, none more electrifying than his Week 17 performance against the Ravens.

What you may have forgotten about that game: Mayfield tossed three picks. Flash forward nine months, and touchdowns are in short supply while interceptions have been plentiful. It’s not so much the turnovers that are a concern, troubling though they are. It’s how Mayfield is arriving at them. His INTs have not been the result of biting off more than he can chew, trying to make too many plays down the field, but a byproduct of all-around awful play. Setting up behind a barely-there offensive line, Mayfield is seeing ghosts, bailing the pocket at the first sign of pressure. That’s a real problem since the Browns are allowing so much of it. Refusing to let plays develop, Mayfield is only having success when he can rifle it to his first read.

There are many factors at play. A line everybody knew would be bad — literally, Greg Robinson is the left tackle — has been even worse than expected. A skill corps that was promoted as deep has been exposed to be anything but. There is Odell Beckham and a slot receiver. Injuries and suspension have played a big part in that, but none of Rashard Higgins, David Njoku or Antonio Callaway are proven to be anything more than role players.

Finally, there’s the coaching. Kitchens was a breath of fresh air when he took over play-calling from Jackson. Right now he looks like a fish out of water, having no answers for his sophomore quarterbacks’ struggles. They will deepen and compound if Kitchens can’t summon a quick fix. Turning over play-calling duties to OC Todd Monken, who briefly made an All-Pro of Ryan Fitzpatrick last season, is one potential solution. The doomsday scenario is that there is no way to fix this in 2019. Perhaps the Browns’ line is that bad, scrambling Mayfield’s confidence and leaving an untested head coach left helpless. There is still time to turn this around, but Weeks 1-3 made something pretty clear: Don’t bet on it in Week 4 against the Ravens.

 

While it's true, Baltimore, San Fran, and Seattle are beatable, it's the D that has to do it. Last night we forced 3 turnovers, but the O just can't get out of their own way.

Coach Kitchens is asking to take the blame. OK, it's yours. Now what? It feels like he doesn't really know what to do next.

I have no idea what goes on in the building, but it feels like Freddie hasn't learned how to demand performance. Wilkes seems to have "his guys" on the same page, but the O is lost. Is that a function of the "built in" split personality of Monken/Kitchens, or just the growing pains of those two learning to mesh, and can either survive another 3 games like the first 3, before the whispers start?













says the team is improving weekly, and again if you're talking D, yeah. If your watching the O.......... I've seen little that I would call improvement. The O line is weak, and yet the play calling seems to ignore that fact. Chubb is legit, Beckham is ? Last year Jarvis would have made that catch in the seam. Njoku and Higgins being out hasn't helped, but mostly it's the O line and their weakness that has put the pressure on Baker, and lead to so many penalties for illegal motion, holding, and lack of holes for Chubb, who despite that continues to make it work.

Gotta love the D. Gotta be happy with the Kicker. The Scottish Hammer is fun, but not yet reliable. It's the O. Freddie, I'm looking at you. One of our posters pointed out that it seems there is no continuity or purpose on O (possibly the combo of Monken/Kitchens), from a plan that doesn't suit Freddie, who then appllies a different set of priorities, than the "plan" was designed for. I don't know. It just looks disconnected, and out erractic.

 

So how about a view from the top?
Dorsey really went after marquis guys in the off season, but it appears his judgement of Corbett was faulty, and has caused an unraveling of the O in general. Yes play calling has been poor, and Baker hasn't been sharp, but if we hang it on the coach, and a lot of it we should, how do we evaluate Dorsey?

Should it be a surprise that our first time HC is struggling? A new OC, new DC, and a weakness up front on O, have contributed to overall poor performance. Should this be a surprise?

I would have to believe Dorsey wasn't unaware of the risks of making Freddie HC, or that he truly thought the curve upwards would simply continue. So how much rope does our HC get from the man who picked him?

The line woes are multifaceted, and in fact giving up our RG was 'a lot" more impactful than I expected. The push up the middle is particularly hard for Baker, at his size. It messes with his vision of the field, and helps to cause panic.

I don't see this part of the team getting any significant help in season, so it's up to the O line coach, the OC, and Freddie to accept that and adjust to minimize it's impact. Freddie's in year one, and struggling, but he has to recognize the things he can effect, and those he cannot.

Dorsey has to take responsibility for the line's weakness, as he failed to address it, and in fact weakened it. Not pretty, but true. Given that, Freddie's struggles are not purely of his own making, so how will Dorsey evaluate his HC, and how patient will he be in allwing him to learn.

Does any one wonder if the Dorse was too aggressive, and blind to the foundational part of the team.

 

I don't think you can fault Dorsey for anything this season, right now. We're three weeks in. It's easier to point to bad OL play, but it's not like it's just one guy that's not getting the job done. If OL play doesn't improve, and that trade still looks really bad, then hammer him for it.

I don't think you can get on Dorsey about the HC choice until at least next season, providing there's not some catastrophic collapse or mishandling of things the rest of the season. Sure, it was a tough game against the Titans opening week. But they handled the Jets like they were supposed to. They went up against a very real, defending NFC North Champ team in the Rams and lost by a score.

I think this goes back to what so many on this board and elsewhere have said - expectations. As a Browns supporter looking in from the outside (not a diehard fan from Ohio, for example), it was pretty obvious to me that this fan base was just buying too much of the hype. The totally uncalled-for boos in the last game back that up. Fans seemed to think the team was title-bound before games were played, despite a first year HC, a ton of newly added pieces, and a sophomore QB. None of these things, historically, add up to Super Bowl success (or even close to it).

If expectations were properly set, there would be no boos or meltdowns. Maybe fans should take a moment to reset their expectations. This team does not have a 1 year window - they do not NEED to win it all this season. This team is set up for sustained success, provided the players and organization continue to work for it. I'd advise setting more realistic expectations for this season, and I think it'll make everything easier.

I think I said that months ago. It might have been in this very thread. It wasn't said with malice then, and it's not said with malice now - maybe it'll be received better, given the start of the season.

 

Dline, I agree Dorsey shouldn't panic, and if he truly felt Freddie was the guy, then he won't.
He should give him the year to take his lumps and learn, then maybe revisit the whole Playcaller/HC idea once the dust settles. It could make for a dissappointing season, but there's those expectations again.

If we can dial those back a little, maybe we can grow into the team we hyped ourselves up for by year's end. Still, coming off a season that fell a half game short of 500, what shuold our expectations be?

I could deal with 9 and 7, given that we beat Baltimore so the division doesn't become out of reach. I'm not convinced they can do that this week, but I'm also not convinced Balitmore is "all that" either. It's just now, the arc for these two respective teams are different. A win for either may propel them to dominance within the division.

A lot on the line this week IMO. We win, we can afford to go 50/50 in the first half, and build to winning the division, as the second half eases up some, and hopefully we work out our problems. We lose, and the margin for error gets very slim, very fast.

Here's to Freddie, Baker, and the D putting together a cohesive effort this week, and keeping Baltimore from sproutiing wings.

 

As bad as the line played week 1, they have been improving. Though it is sacrilege to fault my Baker, he is gun shy from week 1. Film can help this offense more than anything else. Baker needs to SEE that his protection was there on a lot of those plays and stay in the pocket. Hell did you guys see him step up into the pocket at all on Sunday? It was like an alarm clock was going off in his head, time to scramble out of the pocket and look for something the play wasn't designed for.

Film can correct some of that.

Do I think Zeitler would have improved the line play, well that's an obvious answer.

Do I think the line cost us a Sunday night win, no, I personally do not.

Look, we wanted a team that can go head to head with ACTUAL Super Bowl contenders... We've got that now. The Rams are still ahead of the Browns, but damn if we haven't closed that gap.

 

Browns CBs Denzel Ward (hamstring) and Greedy Williams (hamstring) didn't practice again Thursday.
Both Ward and Williams are trending towards missing Sunday's matchup against the Ravens. The absence of the Browns' speedy outside CBs is great news for Hollywood Brown, who caught just 2-of-9 targets for 49 scoreless yards in Week 3, but he did get behind various Chiefs CBs on numerous occasions and racked up an asinine 217 air yards.


Made of glass .. Get your candy asses back to work!

 

Entire Ravens team right now needs a couple of massive asterisks. The JV Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals -- where they did all their damage offensively -- are not top flight defenses. They've played the 32nd, 30th, and 24th overall defenses.

 

The offenses probably aren’t very good either

 

Likewise, we're excoriating the Browns' offense and lack of cohesion. I agree they must improve, but I gave the years/seasons stats on the defensive coordinators they faced (120+ years, 80+ seasons). We've played 7th, 8th, and 19th rated defenses.

 

Crazy Crextin’s Mad Musings...

Happy Friday Lounge Houndz.

As to last week’s matchup with the Rams two things I did notice. Other than a few mental errors in the secondary that led to first downs when they had the rams stopped the Defense as a whole played well.
Offensively, IDK what the Phuque Freddy was doing spreading the offense out and calling four pass plays from inside the 4-yard line. Chubb was averaging OVER 4-yds/ carry. RUN THE DAMN BALL. CALL A PLAY ACTION PASS. Not getting into the endzone was entirely on the Guy calling the plays.

The offense was most effective when the plays called for a quick pass / play action pass mixed in with a solid run game. The offense stalled when trying to let plays develop 15+ yards downs the field. The O-line is not talented enough to provide the QB with that much time against the better D-line and pass rushers in this league. We will face a number of them this year. Aaron Donald is only the beginning.

I agree with Lym the O-line is still the Achilles Heel against better defenses. BTW We play one this weekend. I do agree that Baker bailed on those guys several times when the protection was there. Growing Pains or Bad habits? Let’s hope that it’s the latter and the former doesn’t become the norm.

GAMES ARE WON OR LOST IN THE TRENCHES,
but poor play calling away from the strengths of the players doesn’t help.

On to the RatTurds…
Defensively:
Contain Lamar. Keep him in the pocket and DON”T let him escape ANYWHERE! If we take away the threat of him running chances of winning improve. So far the Run Defense has shown improvement this year. Containing Ingram will be a challenge. If they can hold him to under 3-yards a tote and not let him break any big runs 10+yds they will keep the team in the game. Will they finally activate Avery for this game? I’m not sure why he’s not been active at all this year given how well he played last season. Lock him onto Jackson as a spy and keep him contained.

Offensively:
Mix in enough run plays with a quick hitting pass attack, keep the chains moving. Don’t worry about the BIG plays, they will come. Get the ball into the WR/TE/RB hands and let them do their thing. Both Landry and Beckham can get YAC given the chance. Sustaining Drives and keeping the Defense rested will be the key to winning this game. I don’t think the Browns are ready to get into shootouts. The O-line just isn’t talented enough.


As Always GO BROWNS!

 

Another unnamed team in the AFCN has played the 1st, 2nd and 11th (with a 1st year QB for 6 quarters).

I can't talk intelligently about my team on my own board. Please excuse the brief interruption.