Ok, to start, I'm not even mad nor am I gonna say a lot of bad things about the Browns. In fact, the Defense looked great, for the most part. The Scottish Hammer always looks great with htose boomin punts. lol I have to say this one very negative thing, the offense looked terrible, very disappointing. OL needs to be a priority in the off season...if we had any offense, we would have won the damn game.
I'd also have to say there were too many runs up the middle, again, the OL just could not get the job done, no holes for Chubb, although I believe his best runs came off tackle anyways, not up the middle. I'm not a fan of draw play after draw play, usually gets next too nothing if done too many times.
As for the Defense, hard nosed play, gave the offense multiple chances with multiple turnovers and time after time, the offense dropped the ball and could not take advantage of the turnovers. The Rams p.ayed decent but gave the Browns opportunities to win, but the offense failed to capitalize.
I don't know what Freddie was thiking calling a draw play on 4th and 9? WTF? The D has settled in, pretty much, and is starting to play very well, despite some key injuries, which I know the OL had some, as well, but still, the OL looked like garbage. If somebody had told me the Rams will only score 20 points, I'd have bet the farm that theBrowns would win, guess who would have lost the farm. lol Still need to work on the penalties, but it was better.
All in all, I think the Browns are moving forward but at the same time, this offense may have been grossly overrated coming into this season, especially the OL. The Browns will need to address the OL next draft and FA period more than anything else. sWe're headed in the right direction but we're still a ways from our destination. Oh, and the schedule isn't getting any easier. lol
A few more observations. I have thought Baker has been holding the ball too long a lot this season, and he did some of that tonight, when he wasn't running for his life or on his ass, due to a very weak OL, have I made it clear that I don't like our OL. ha Also, I don't think Freddie was very clever tonight, he should have known his OL is weak and probably not that good, he should have had some razzle dazzle plays in mind, I'm not talking every play, but a few throoughout the game. I'm also wondering about Higgns, is he worith keeping? I think he's had one TD in 3 games but to be sure, I'd have to look itup, butI rarely hear his name , so he's not doing much and even Freddie was calling him out in preseason. Of course, with the way the OL played, no WR had much chance tohavetheir name called, cause Baker didn't have much time to throw the ball. I do belive, if we fix the OL, we start winning many more games than we lose.
Mayfield is regressing and not because of his skill level but I don't think he's in sync with Monken. He's bailing out way too much and not throwing those beautiful and accurate spirals when last year he had time throw off his right foot. He's lost confidence in the OL if he wants to take off and run it seems and, the reason for that imho is the lack of proper protection and time.
Next, as mentioned by others here is our upcoming schedule @ Ravens; @ 49ers; Seahawks; Bye Week; then Patriots; @ Broncos (old nemesis in Mile High Stadium); Bills (3-0); Steelers (upset); Dolphins (Tanking); @ Steelers. I won't go any farther because how we perform in the aforementioned games will define our team and just how tough and resilient they are to adversity.
I just hope we don't add another promising young QB name to our graveyard uniform.
I also don't see Dorsey being inactive if things don't change. He's proven he is a 'man of action'.
Still time to keep cool heads and address needed areas that have to be fix if this team doesn't collapse out of futility. And, if we do collapse and end up drafting high; if I'm Dorsey I hope he wheels and deals to get into position to fix OL first and foremost. I'll say it now we gave too much talent to Giants in trading away Reiter, Guard along with young Peppers. OBJ is special but, after watching Giants game they came out ahead imho on the trading with Browns and that's on Dorsey. Now, he's got to fix that right side of OL and find a franchise LT next year.
Right now, this team could use at least two bye weeks to get reasonably healthy to be able to play up to preseason hype.
Nice summation, Stabbs.
I never have liked a HC that calls his own plays. That being said - I think the biggest mistake that we can make at this time would be to relieve Freddie of that duty.
I parallel this to a golf swing that has suddenly gone awry. If you start making fundamental changes right away, you change so much that you invariably lose the point of no return. It is now time to stay the course. Freddie has admitted that he messed up with his play calling last night. Hopefully, he learns and grows from that.
We CANNOT try to hit 5 and 6 run homers to fix the problems on offense. We need to get in the film room, figure out what went wrong and what can be done about it with a minimal amount of change. We have a real opportunity in front of us on Sunday. If we win, we take over first place in the division. Last I checked, that gets you into the playoffs.
We also cannot fall into the trap of crying in our beers. That was an ELITE NFL team that beat us, and the game was in doubt until the last few ticks on the clock. No, I am not into moral victories, but I do think we need some perspective. The Rams are good enough to put a hurting on just about every team in this league.
So we do what we do - show up ready to go back to work. We have too much individual talent to struggle forever. Gelling into a team is what takes time. Step away from the ledge people, we will be fine.
I noticed a few badly called plays, but I would hardly blame Freddie for the entire game, it was clearly the OL that could not handle anything, poor pass protection, and poor run blocking. Yeah, this season is looking like a character builder, which means, probably not as many wins as we hoped or hyped, and now injuries are gonna make winning even harder. You can say next man up til you're blue in the face but at some point it becomes too big of a problem to deal with and the OL is just that bad.