A little late on this one. So Minnesota is no joke, could be 3 and 0 with a couple better bounces of the ball, but then we should be 3 and 0 also. Such is the NFL. Who's better? O Line Browns D line Browns RBs Browns WRs Vikings TEs ? LBs Vikings DBs ? Safety ? ST ? QB Toss Up Gonna be a dogfight. We need our secondary and LBs to step it up, and cover the middle. Need D line to handle the run and apply pressure. I've got all the faith in the world in Chunt, but our recieving group has to get better. This week Odel will get primary focus, and we need DPJ, Schwartz and Higgins to be where they're supposed to be, and our TEs to find the holes and make the catches. Baker could have a big day if we can find the holes and the Chunt train will just keep rolling, but with Minnesota we're going to need to pass to win. A little long winded but thought I'd provide some fodder, since it's so late.
Baker was beyond awful today. I'm not sure what he was smokin? Wow,.. The fact that the Browns can roll into a place like US Bank Stadium and have our QB play like shit all day, yet still emerge victorious is a testament to how far this team has come....
Good GAWD he was awful. One bad decision(throw/non throw) after another. The defense appears to be coming into it's own. I like the improvement in the RUN D, and the secondary isn't looking so scary. They definitely bailed Baker out this week. Stephanski, while I like his aggressive play calling, on 4th and 4 Kick the damn FG. Next week will be another tough game. Hopefully Baker gets his head on straight.
Amen. Especially on the road and trailing early. Get the points. I think he's just so confident that the defense will keep them pinned deep if he doesn't make it, that he's just going for it every time. followed by one overthrow after another... The only thing I can say is, at least he wasn't turning it over, sans the 4th down fail. I can't remember a game where Bake played much worse than he did yesterday. I hope that shoulder isn't the issue because he's normally very accurate, but he was missing everything yesterday. When ya got a WR as open as OBJ was on the deep ball, just put some air under the ball and let your guy make a play. I don't know what Baker was doing. Maybe it's my fault. I did buy a Mayfield T-shirt to wear yesterday. That was ugly. It's going back in the closet until he redeems himself....
Okay, just have to ask it. Odell is back for two games and both games Baker stunk it up, this week being worse than week 3. Looking back at last year, Baker got much better after Odell's injury. Is Odell a detriment to Baker? Is Baker keeping his eye on him too long and passing up other quicker/shorter options? Nothing against Odell, he's a pretty damn good receiver when he's close to or at 100%.
Yes. Literally cannot explain it, but Baker's QB rating dips by a full 30 points when Odell is on the field. One time, it's Odell unable to separate and Baker forcing him the football into a dangerous coverage. Next time, it's Odell unable to get open and Baker taking too long trying to buy him time and taking a sack or throwing it away. Another time, Odell manages to get *wide* open and Baker misses him badly. Here's the third-and-short where he doesn't even seem to see Felton in the flat wide open for the easy completion and first down: Just feels like you and see the #6 waiting for the #13 to come open until it becomes too late.
Odell has every right to be frustrated with Baker, by the way... he missed him twice on big-time throws Sunday, one of which was a certain touchdown. To his credit, he's not whining or being a distraction about it. On the other hand -- Odell is very rarely getting himself wide open. Maybe unfair to ding him for this since he's coming off an injury, but it's a recurring trend since he's joined the Browns. He'll never be the same since his 2017 injury and that probably took so much off his ceiling than he or anyone close to him would admit. His catch rate (43.8%) is second-lowest on the team to rookie Anthony Schwartz (37.5%) - bad in and of itself, but he's also leading the team in targets, despite only playing half the games this year. He's tied - at 16 - with Austin "Brick Hands" Hooper who's also an immense disappointment and contract suck... but he's at least at 68.8%. Sure, it's got to be disappointing for Odell who's career was on an HOF tragectory until his 2017 injury, but right now he's a liability both as a receiver and in the mind of his quarterback. Worse, he's on a bloated contract that he's not living up to, meaning the dollars will resolve the situation, but at the moment it's taking away looks from young guys like Higgins, Peoples-Jones, and Schwartz. Berry and Stefanski need to resolve it - and the sooner, the better.
Bake needs to settle down and realize he has all the weapons in the world. Good lord, how he missed wide open Felton on the 4th and short is ridiculous. That play was obviously designed to go to him, and yet Mayfield sits there and double clutches until it's too late. That's the one that pissed me off more than the 10 overthrows. Seriously, any of us could have completed that for the easy first down. C'MON 6! When the coach designs the perfect play for the situation, there's just no excuse for that. And my gawd that was the perfect play for the situation...What was that? Im not going to panic on Bake. It wasn't his day...Using his own words ""That was piss poor."...I'm certain Baker will rebound in fine fashion this week... #6
I suspect his eyes were watching Odell looking for a bigger play. He didn't throw downfield by design - that much has already come with between Stefanski's own admission and the disclosure of his shoulder injury. In that case, Baker's his own worst enemy still looking for the downfield strike when the plan all along is to take the shorter stuff and not risk exacerbating the injury or taking too many hits. As you said, @TopDawg -- I'm not hitting the panic button like some folks on the bird app seem to be doing, but we aren't wrong to call this stuff out and hope Stefanski sits him down and has a chat about how they need him to operate the offense at the moment.
