DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2018 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 5 Eagles 0 Postgame Thoughts

That was one UGLY offensive game ... for both teams.

- I'm really concerned about Tyrod's lack of big play ability ... rarely throws it down the field, check downs a TON

- Baker was not as good tonight ... it was a better defense and he seemed a bit over his head ... though he wasn't terrible

- REALLY hoping Ward and Hubbard are okay

- Garrett played the best I've ever seen him ... single handedly won the game for us IMO

- Peppers is not a good player ... I'd honestly be okay with cutting him

- Our D is playing with a lot of confidence right now ... getting plays from everyone

- Our play makers could NOT get open tonight ... that's concerning

- The play calling from the ONE yard line was ATROCIOUS ... we were probably trying to work on throwing it, but YIKES

- Gonzalez won the kicking job IMO

- Colquitt won the punting job IMO

- Penalties were a BIG improvement .. nice work here

- We probably do miss Gordon and Callaway

- Jeff Janis has dropped a pass each game ... he's probably gone

- 4 turnovers is great!! ... 5 points off 4 turnovers is an abomination

- Jarvis Landry does a lot of talking to do very little thus far ... hopefully he's a beast when the season starts

- One of my favorite players: McKinnon

- Ogbah has been mostly non-existent ... did he play a lot?

- Brantley was more active than I've seen him

- Greg Robinson goes in ... gets beat like a drum immediately

- Our offense seems too horizontal to me ... not enough north and south

- We won ... I guess

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5-0 has happened three times in NFL history

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/game_scores_find.cgi?pts_win=5&pts_lose=0

Our D played really well, most of the time. They look good!

Our O play calling was boring as all hell, I hope they mix it up during the regular season.

Chubb looked better.

That's all I can think of now, dead tired.

If that was the dress rehearsal don't think I'll go to the play ! lol

Are we allowed to throw on first down ? Don't know much about Taylor , but he sure looked unimpressive .. Still don't know what folks see in Shobert , slow and out of position a ton .. Defense showed up and Coach Williams has to be happy .. Hope Ward is OK .. Don't know the Team is going to do for a back up Tackle .. Glad we are on CBS and not Fox .

Our 0-16 team looked like a far better team in the first half than the Super Bowl Champs. When can we have said that?

O was soft. Missing JG and AC mightedly. And I will say it...missing Colemen after missing those 2.

Hubbard went back into the game.

We need Zeittler back, and the OL needs some time to gel. I do like Corbett's ability to pull, but he also makes some rookie mistakes. There will be growing pains, but I think he'll be alright.

I think that we went really, really vanilla tonight. I hope that's by design, to work on certain, specific things, because it was excruciating.

Jeff Janis looks like he's never played the game sometimes.

Higgins showed up again. He's made a great step up, a real improvement.

Man it was great to see the defense really pressure the opposing team, and create turnovers. 4 turnovers and 7 sacks. Myles Garret was a beast. An absolute beast. He had 2 sacks, and just destroyed their LT tonight.

Avery had a really nice game. He looks really promising.

I think that Gonzalez won the K job tonight.

Both Punters kicked really good tonight. Whoever loses the job stands a good chance of getting a job elsewhere.

Our return game needs a lot of work.

Team still needs work, but the 1st team defense really seems to be coming together.

My Thoughts:

- Haley's play calling looked very similar to Hue's play calling tonight, especially after that TE screen, lol (smh). Think he was trying to prove a point with all the passing from the 1 yard line.

- I hope Tyrod is okay. That hand bend looked nasty. I could tell he was in pain even when he came back in the game as he had to use his right hand to snap the strap on the left side of his helmet.

- Wasn't impressed with our passing game, especially 1st half.

- Really impressed with Hyde's running ability. For his size, he more nimble than most. I think our run game will be our bread and butter this year.

- Defense played lights out. Garrett was out there looking like a create a player on Madden with 99 attributes across the board. Magnificent play tonight!

- Super Bowl champs with 0 points after 4 quarters? wow.

- Gonzalez, you've earned your stripes.

- Jeff Janis, you have not earned your stripes. The turk will find you.

- Mayfield wasn't crazy impressive, but each game he consistently makes 2 or 3 great throws with nice zip. He also consistently keeps his eyes down the field.

- I like our young guys. Good to see Brantley out there finally.

- Start Terrence Mitchell next to Ward. He's earned it in practice and the games.

- I'll be darned if we trade Collins. I'd be really disappointed if that happened.

- I'd like to see more from Ogbah. He should be getting more pressure than he is.

OL depth is horrible.
Goodbye Janis - see ya in Sausalito, or somewhere near Salinas, where I let you slip away..

Garrett and Avery looked good on pass rush, our DL had push.

For all that the O lacked, the D was very fun to watch.

On O I enjoyed Hyde and Chubb and that was about it.

I know we are down some guys, but come on, gotta make some plays happen.

I extremely dislike the horizontal throws.

At times, TT looked like a blind dude stumbling around the pocket.

I smell QB controversy by week 4-5.

Kinda not happy with O at this point. Gotta hope the coaches are just trying some things to try them. And the finished product will be better.

But, hey, held SB Champs to a nothing burger.

D looked really good. If I'm not mistaken, our 1st team D allowed a FG on the first drive of game 1 and hasn't allowed a point since.

O was frustrating, did a few good things but couldn't sustain anything.

Chubb looked pretty good (but then I was one of the few who thought he looked decent in game 2)

Duke had a phenomenal pass pick up on a nice play, then a few plays later completely picked the wrong guy and gave up a sack.

No real vertical threat tonight.

Hope Ward is ok, was in a bar so couldn't hear if they gave any updates later, looked like he got bent backwards and grabbed his lower back.

When I saw the replay of Tyrods fall on his wrist, I thought the Baker Mayfield era was officially going to begin, glad he came back but he was still unimpressive.

The playcalling (and the play execution) from the 1 was horrible... unless the thought process there was, "Let's figure out what not to do from the 1" then that was a total failure.

Had some penalties early and I thought we were going to end up with another 10 penalties for 90 yards again but we got it stopped..

OL is going to be the biggest ?????????????? all season.. the media will focus on Baker, but the OL is going to be the big thing to watch for improvement... hopefully they gel as the season goes on.

Still can't help but think this is the team that, in the super bowl, put 320 yards and 22 points on the Patriots.. in the 1st half. Still trying to temper my optimism.

I had been entertaining quick thoughts of calling my niece in Vegas and sending her $50.00 to put on the Browns to beat the over.. I'm reconsidering that right now...

One other thing ...... Collins looks slow out there. He is working back from injury, but I see little way he starts week 1.

our starting OL was shaky, gave up ground too often, and too soon.

Jesus that game was hard to watch.

Only checked the highlights and the "every play by baker"

Baker makes throws like an NFL QB, He's got the arm and accuracy. I'm just a bit curious about his reads. Wonder if he was able to audible out of some of the calls. There were some very ill advised run plays called where the Philly D were already in the backfield before it even got handed off.

There were also a couple where he totally didn't check protection and had guys running free on him.

D looks very "Bend don't break" at the moment. hopefully as the weeks move on they seal up a bit more.

- The Defense has looked phenomenal. DC mentioned the first team has only given up a field goal all preseason. And that was after one 43-yard fluke run on their first play and a 15 yard taunting penalty that I believe was on third down.

- Myles Garrett looked like a complete Monster tonight. Like Lebron versus the Raptors type of Godzilla showing. I hope he can keep that up all year.

- Even after Ward went down, the rest of the DBs stepped up and did a job. Considering that the Offense wasn't exactly giving them a breather I thought they did well most the game.

- Now yes, I realize the offense looked horrific tonight. There are still a few things to consider:

1) The Philly Defense is pretty darn good. I think someone mentioned they finished 4th overall last year in Team Def. They did hold the Vikings to 7 points in the NFC Championship just a few months ago.

2) We still don't have a legitimate #2 receiver. Higgins has been alright, but we were running out guys like Board and Ratley during key drives. If Calloway or Gordon can live up to their potential, or we sign Dez or something, our QBs might have some other options.

3) This is STILL the preseason and I'm not sure we're running everything we might run in the regular season. Those 4 downs on the one almost seemed like a "Let's try and see if we can do this with a pass", rather than a "Lets play smash-mouth and run it in like we know we can and possibly risk an injury". If this was the Regular season, I'd be ticked off. In the preseason, I'm willing to let them experiment a bit.

- Baker is still showing why he needs to sit a few games. He's not recognizing things as quick as he needs to yet. And I'd rather he not get killed in the spirit of "learning". Still, every game he makes a hand-full of "Wow!" plays that makes you think we've got an actual NFL QB in the making. Once the game slows down for him, he'll be great.

- That said, I'm not sure the receivers were really getting open for both Baker as well as Tyrod. A couple of times they showed that over-head robot cam, and none of the receivers were open when I had a look at it. They even showed a couple of plays where they showed the routes of each receiver, and they were all pretty well covered.

- After all is said and done. I know the offense looked bad, but we STILL beat the defending Super Bowl Champions with both our first unit and our remaining units. Like I said in the game thread. This is the same Philly offense that hung 79 points on Minnesota and New England just 7 months ago. And we blanked them. I'm not sure how people can think the sky is falling when we just went toe to toe with the Champs. We'll win games this year.

Way it sounded on radio ward may have bruised his spinal cord or a very bad muscle pull

Although tyrod came back in the game dont be surprised if he misses significant time. I would not be surprised if he broke a bone in his hand.

Ogbah is terrible, didnt like his play that much last season and dont like it so far. Should have never made orchard a LB. Should have let him play DE like in college.

We need Kevin zeitler back, pass protection is terrible.

Hyde continues to impress. I think once our FB is healthy and back he will be even more impressive.

I'm still not sold on our run defense. Maybe I'm just being paranoid lol

We cant cover punts very well at all. That is going to hurt us during the season.

Does Greg Robinson know the plays? Third quarter when we were pinned inside the 10 we ran on first down, everybody drove off the snap except for Robinson. He dropped into pass protection and Sweat cut across his face to blow it up. So... you didn't pay attention in the huddle or you don't know the plays. Tells me that high pick lacks the nuts and bolts to be consistent; Coleman over Robinson.

Saw Peppers shadow Ertz with mixed results. Peppers made the stop on the 4th down out but got taken out of the play twice in short yardage when Ertz motioned inside to set up an outside run.I

Baker really does stare down his targets.

I like Jeep Willies. He's long and might develop into a redzone option. We seem short of those.

Jarvis Landry is fast becoming my favorite Brown. The knock on him is yards per catch and ineffectiveness in the red zone. I saw him cry for a flag while the ball was still in play on our first red zone possession. He's young , but needs to be one of our vet leaders; give it your all to the whistle then try to lobby the ref.

Back to Baker. We all wanted to see time with the ones. He needs to learn who he can count on. AKA where is Jarvis. Granted he hasn't had a lot of time with him, but recall broken play where Jarvis broke back to the sideline and Baker either ran or threw it away. Was it the 4th down throw away?

My favorite play of the game was Avery blowing up Ertz and Bill rushing lineman to force fumble. Philly likes to have Ertz chip and strip, but even so Avery knocked him off his feet. I've been pretty wait and see but that play had my rabies kicking in and me foaming at the mouth.

Maybe you could expand on this a little bit.

Do you think it is lack of opportunity at his natural position, time lost due to injury, or he just doesn't have it? I think it is between him and Nassib and gotta say Nassib gets the nod.

I keep thinking about who flashes versus who is consistent. The first dude cut has immense skill and can flash,but who turns those flashes that get you noticed into consistent proper positioning and playmaking? One I'll watch next week is Jordan v McKinnon. McKinnon looked money today with deep sideline breakup and outside contain on the swing pass. Jordan is the guy who made squad last year and needs to show growth. Williams must like him as he came in for Ward. Can McKinnon do it again? Maybe you know Jordan won't be spectacular, but serviceable. On the flip side McKinnon might flash, but lack consistency. Who do you keep? The guy who can make the highlight reel or the guy who doesn't give up any YAC?

since I said this too ... it means we throw a LOT of passes parallel to the line of scrimmage (or very near it). Nothing down the field, nothing to stretch the defense.

It really puts us in a bind.

D looked great, apart from some selected plays.

Having someone who can play FS makes all the difference.

Play calling wasn't good. Can't understand why we pass in 1st and goal. A TD there would make all the difference.

Why did we stop running? Clearly there was nothing to throw,keep the ball on the ground and slugg it out.


TT can't make the difference, but he is functional. Play-calling is key and we need a running game.

Baker was unimpressive, but in his defense we had nothing going on O. I still don't like him running around, holding on to the ball.

Trust the D and slugg it out, don't try to make something where there is nothing. And pound it on 1st and one...

Chubb was unimpressive

Relax. It's preseason still. Haley ain't showing it all yet.

McKinnon needs to be on this team.

1st and Goal at the One. We won't throw 4 straight during the season. And why did one of those not go to Njoku. Red zone SIZE.

Landry, Higgins and Ratley is nowhere near the combination of Gordon, Landry, Higgins and Callaway.

LOVE the turnovers.

Pittsburgh fans would argue that some of the dumb play calls (TE slip screen, quick bubble screen, etc) are not going to change

The O STUNK ...

- We played extremely vanilla ...

Are u guys kidding me with the whining about the calls at the goal line ... we lined up in a spread formation 4 plays in a row ... he was obviously working on something ... not sure why as it wouldn’t shock me if we NEVER line up like that from the 1 ALL YEAR LONG ...

- were missing Zietler. Flash and Calloway ... they’ll help a SMIDGE ... ...

The D played GREAT against an O with more missing parts than ours ... they were short there LT, 2 starting WR’s and their first 3 RB’s ... and Phili’s O has been ABYSMALL all pre-season ...

Give the O some time ... temper your expectations on what u saw from the D ..

9/9 ...

j/c:

Hard to evaluate teams during preseason. I'll look at some of the players and what that might mean for the team this season.

-Tyrod was Tyrod. Kinda blah. Not much of a play maker in the passing game.

--Baker misses some easy pre-snap reads and hold the ball too long.

--I think the QB position could really hold this team down this year. It will be better than last year, but not good enough.

--Ward has amazing closing speed. I hope he's okay. Mitchell made some nice plays. Carrie got beat badly on one play. Jordan is a bottom of the roster kind of guy. I really like this McKinnon kid. I think he has potential.

--BBC looked pretty good at FS. I didn't notice Randall. Kindred and Peppers are really bad in pass coverage.

--I think our secondary is much improved from last year. I worry about our SS's coverage abilities, but our corners are better and we will be better at FS.

I'll try and add more later.

I think I prefer Kindred to Peppers ... but it's pretty close (in a bad way in coverage)

What the hell was that TODD? The running game was rocking. Then you call nothing but pass plays from the 1 yard line? Geez ...you punch it up the middle bro. This game was our reoccurring nightmare. Get your crap together Todd!

BBC was all over the place .... *crossing fingers* ... here’s to hoping it wasn’t a one time thing ...

Missed Callaway, did he even play? Injured? what did I miss?

Hope Tyrod is ok.

D was pretty tough. They allowed almost nothing to they Eagles did to look good.

Garrett is improving nicely. nice job securing the safety.

Mayfield had his first taste of a real NFL 1st team D. Funny, he didn't seem a bit worried.. He just went in like any other time. Of course, he wasn't as successful but still, doesn't appear the game is too big for him.

Landry caught a few nice balls, so did Higgins.

Some drops but against that D, I suppose it's to be somewhat expected.

I'll watch it again in rerun on NFLN, I didn't pay that much attention..

A win is A win.

This was the dress rehearsal. No doubt we’d lose this game if it wasn’t pre season. I put this poor performance by the offense directly on the coach’s for going away from the running game early. They had the Eagles completely off guard with it.

j/c:

So why did Tyrod go back in the game?

To get reps w/the ones.

To head off a QB controversy. Our offense took a huge step backwards. The OC let the Eagles off the hook. In the first series. And he never got them back on track because of the shock of TT’s injury.

This seems more likely.

Still, I don't think he should have gone back in. We all know he is the Week 1 starter and I would rather have him healthy than risking him hurting his wrist even more. Did you see him handing off the ball? It looked like he was using two hands to do it.

I would have just kept him out and played it safe.

After sleeping on in it , Watching the O last night gave me flash backs of the horror of last seasons Offense ..LOL .. Think I will let it go at that .

D is legit, Miles is a Pro Bowler this year, nice to see RB fall forward, Crow would always trip over nothing. Playcalling has no flow its always run on first down, no downfield passing. BakerBoy do we need Josh to be Josh. Mckinnon was good, Special teams will cost us a game this year,( punt coverage) no dumb flags, Avery impressed, saw no targets to TE at all

I’m ignoring the great play of the defense. They played like champs. That was a true team effort to keep the Eagles scoreless. A shut out. Props “D”

They really did play well. Garrett was a beast. I can't wait to see him play over the course of the season. Really excited about our front 7 overall. I think there is good depth everywhere. Burgess as our 6th LB? Thats a good problem to have. The line rotation seems like it could have some upside as well if everyone can stay healthy.