DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2023 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 31 Jaguars 27 Postgame Thoughts

- Phew, what a rollercoaster ... penalties, turnovers, injuries, great plays, bad plays, etc
- Flacco has really stabilized our offense .. I like mixing in a little DTR too
- Cooper had his worst day I can remember
- Hopkins continues to be a great move by AB

I hope the injuries don't keep piling up

We got some help with Houston and Indy losing

I like it

Another nail-biter. Flacco throws a catchable ball.
Our pass rush made Lawrence hurry, many times, but he hung in there. Good QB.

Do we ever win the coin flip?

Njoku with a great game, Loved the stiff arm on his second TD. We had trouble running the ball today but obviously we went pass-happy (props to pit). Tillman starting to be impactful, Elijah has stepped it up lately,

Gutsy play call on the 4th down play where Bell got his first TD. Etienne didn’t seem to be much of a factor, our run D bottled him up but he wasn’t used much after they fell behind.

Great win, back to loving Monday!

How about Hopkins with a clutch 55-yarder?

Harris didn’t seem to be an issue in pass blocking after Pocic went down. Man though, I hope we get some guys healthy.

Imo, the Browns desperately need to make the playoffs this year for a number of reasons...culture, stability, resume/tenure/reputation of those in charge. Today was another step.

Browns turn the ball over a lot. And always deep in our own territory. And the defense can never just hold the other team to a FG in those situations; always concede the TD. If the Browns didn't turn the ball over today, the game probably ends 28-3ish.

Going to need more from Garrett down the stretch. He's the team's best player. Has to be a difference maker. Max Crosby now has more sacks than Garrett. Garrett has lost the DPOY in the last three weeks.

Terrible game management at the end of the first half. 3rd and 1, two timeouts, Jax with no timeouts, FG still in reach. You run the ball and if you don't get the first, you take it into the half. We pass incomplete and punt the ball back to Jax in the field of play where any number of things can happen.

Browns never cease to make it interesting. Absolutely despise the prevent defense.

Having said that, the refs inserted themselves into the game and tried to determine the outcome of the game with that call on Walker. Refs should never, EVER, determine the outcome of the game. And it wasn't even a penalty.

Glad to see Njoku have a big day. He's played poorly but he's one of the few leaders on the team.

Bears should be a win next week.

Think about all of the nail biters we've had .. we've all aged a decade

The last time we had a ton of nailbiters, 2020, and won most of the games, Bill Barnwell had an article how the Browns would have a failed 2021 season since we were due to regress to the mean. He was right and it made a lot of sense at the time.

The only thing I kind of disagree with is nearly every game in the NFL comes down to the end. Occasionally you get the 28-3 game (like we should have had today without the turnovers), but almost every game is a nailbiter. The good teams figure out how to win more than lose those. See Baltimore.

Great game by two great football teams. Trevor will win 2-3 Superbowls in his career.
Njoku has hall of fame potential. Dustin Hopkins is one of the best acquisitions in Browns history.

Great win, but that game went on too long between penalties and injuries
speaking of injuries, will we ever come out of a game unscathed? Just knew when the news came out that Delpit signed an extension that he'd get hurt
Flacco made some WTF passes today, and it seems any pass he attempts to the sideline just flies out of bounds, happy he did it with the ravens, not so happy now
On to the Bears next week, can't overlook them

Very good win today!!! It really shouldn't have been that close. Too many TO's and the injuries ridiculous. We have to start taking better care of the ball. I expect Joe to throw a few he's still learning with the receivers it's the fumbles that have to stop. You won't go far in the playoffs, assuming you make them, with all these TO's!! Hope we get our OT's back too. Today was tough with those false start penalties!

Good game today, against a good team. The Browns are playing without many starters, and are finding a way. That is good coaching. Those bashing Myles should rewatch the game. He was doubled constantly, and almost got to the QB many times. He actually was forcing early throws. The Dline showed up, and it was a difference maker. Cinci beat the Colts, but the Ravens pulled one out of their butt. The AFC is wide open, and our Browns are in the thick of it.

Can't take any team lightly from here on out. If Baltimore stumbles, we have a chance at the division.

Another routine win......NOT. These guys are like the Cardiac Kids......WOW, a weird game.....we win with two normal linemen playing- 4th QB, on and on.....weird season and game......but I'll take the W for sure. Joe Flaco, a gamer- Go Browns!!!!

Great win today! I enjoyed this game very much despite the stressful ending. Flacco gives me so much more confidence in our team. I feel like every game is winnable. We defeated a great team today!

Njoku had a great game...he's been in the league 7 years and has 2,900 yard...far from any hall of fame career.

Flacco really runs the offense smoothly, I wasn't on board with signing him but man was I wrong. As usual lol

I saw three or four plays where Myles was held, on one of them he would have been half-decapitated if he wasn’t so beastly.

- Great job by Stefanski and the coaching staff today. The 3rd and 1 TD to Njoku on an obvious run down was a great play call. Big win today.

- Nice job adjusting back to play action after realizing Flacco not suited to run the bootleg well.

- Emerson had himself a game.

- Big Mo Hurst was hustling all over the field.

- Offensive has got stop turning the ball over, multiple times, no less.

- Congrats to David Bell on his first career TD

- Great day punting for Bjorquez. Get him his contract extension.

- Dustin Hopkins with another big time kick. He's having a Pro Bowl season.

- Joe Flacco with a 3TD and 300+ yard passing day. First Browns QB to throw for 300+ yards since Jacoby Brissett last year.

- Njoku had a monster first half. Surprisingly zero receptions in the second half.

Game balls: Joe Flacco and MJ Emerson

This win may have locked up the playoffs for the Browns. Remaining games are all very winnable. Browns will likely be favored in all of them. The Texans losing Tank Dell was a big loss for Stroud.

Forgot to mention Emerson .. that's a career type day

It’s amazing that this team is 8-5.

Imagine if they had none of the injuries.

After the way he played today, there is no reason not to have him as the Starter.

That guy still puts a lot of Zip on the ball... Geez You gotta ask, why didn't someone else sign him during camp? Sure made the Chief look great today,,

We’ve had four QBs win a game, Chubb went out early, our offensive tackles are like, getting us by, somehow, thanks Bill!

DBs going down all over the place. 6-1 at the pound , that helps.

QBs named Joe who’ve won a super bowl, besides our new QB: Namath, theismann and Montana.

Joe was the eventual starter when we signed him.

I saw that too and never got called. We are starting to get some respect cause at halftime the guys gave us props. Love seeing that finally.

no doubt. I think they just wanted to see it in action and then some confirmation.
He'll probably still immediately revert to the practice squad, but they may go ahead and move him to the 53 this week... although, there's really no hurry to do so; we can still elevate him one more time. An injury to someone else putting them on IR might create the roster spot needed vs having to waive someone right now to do it.

Congrats on a great win today. Wish my team would have had the sense to sign Flacco.

Congrats on a great win today. Wish my team would have had the sense to sign Flacco.

Loved the way Flacco spread the ball around. I can’t tell if Ford just isn’t that good, if our line can’t run block or if we just don’t stick with the run long enough. Seems like Hudson draws a lot of penalties. Great win for us, especially since Lawrence ended up playing.

that locker room stuff is cool

In Flacco we trust?

Man….so that’s what a real QB looks like, huh?

I just hope we can survive and gets some guys healthy.

Joe and Tillman are starting to get their stuff together.Eli had another solid game.

It is different this year vs 2020. This year the team has overcome the most turnovers in the NFL. If this team could just play clean games we would be competing with the Rats for the division and not contending for a wildcard spot.

I’d take Flacco’s play over DWs to this point. Seriously. Joe has had two good games. We only got one good game from DW.

I can't say I disagree but that might not be a good way of looking at it..shrug

At any rate, I doubt Flacco is on the team next year, but you never know. I think this season shows you need 3 QB's on the team.

Doesn’t matter now, we are where we are. JF is our QB. DTR isn’t ready and maybe never will be, P.J. isn’t good, Watson is our guy in 2024 probably (we hope).

I wasn’t saying that, I was talking games this year and going forward this season.

Or perhaps 4 quarterbacks.

another thing I just thought about ... how good was Bojorquez today? That one punt alone changed the whole game

I never saw DW look as poised and confident as Flacco. Not even close.

Flacco has surprised me and I'll be happy to eat my share of crow.

75 yards! The longest punt of the year that has not gone out of bounds.

I agree Jim ... Flacco has looked ten times the QB that DW has looked here

I also think part of it is that Stefanski seems to feel much more in-tune with a QB like Flacco, who is less athletic and more cerebral

I enjoyed streaming the game here in Nanaimo, BC. Where I'll be through 2/29/24. Love waking uo to a 1000am game.

good to hear from you Phil

I agree. Joe is more a thinker, maybe call it a game manager. DW is more the carry the team type mentality.

We'll see next year with Watson. My hope is he backs off just a tad and just ties to manage games. He is still going to be able to shine when necessary.

If not, the tandem of Stefanski/Watson might not be the best coach/QB marriage.

I have never loved or hated Stefanski. I’ve liked things and disliked things with him. I’ve been told you can’t criticize the head coach on this team anymore with a handful of some vocal posters. Haha, how times have changed. Don’t let homers take over the board, that’s the death of any message board.

Stefanski has done very well given the injuries and keeping the team together. I’m all in on these guys getting extensions.

agreed ... giving AB and KS extensions is a no-brainer

My hope is he actually plays at least 3/4 of a season next year. That would be a huge improvement of his total of what, 9 games played so far? $230,000.00 doesn't buy what it used to, especially when compared with a guy that was sitting on his couch 3 weeks ago.

Only real question that remains is will it be a three or four year extension?!? Also, safe to assume DePo will have a coinciding contract extension.

Someone made a good point: Flacco surely didnt have much rust, if any. Watson had that excuse going for him for half a season

It'll be 5 years.

A season and a half.

lol true arch

In 2 games Joe has made the Browns rethink the DW decision.

He simply looks better. The numbers are better as well.

I like a smart big armed QB. I know that mobile is the fad today, but there is something to be said for a guy that can throw a 20 yard out from the far hash.

He can read a defense as well.. There is enough gas in the tank to get us to the end of the season and hopefully the playoffs.

Weapons come in many forms.

Kudos to KS for adapting to the skill set.

KS seems much more at ease as a HC with Flacco than DW

....or even 20-25% fewer of the injuries.
This team was/is stacked as well as any front-runner in the league.
I truly believe that CLE's 2023 injury history has been the primary difference between their 8-5 record and BAL's 10-3... and nothing else.

Overall great win... Flacco looked much better this week... chief had a hell of a first half... glad we ran a bit more, hope we continue to feed ford and hunt... our special teams are a strength this year... defense played well.

Overall great win.... Jags are a tough team, coming into this week I didn't think we'd win... glad to be wrong...

Love Hunt... we have kickers. Ks called a damn good game. Flacco will take us to the playoffs. Garette always seems to show up when really needed. The last pass interference was bs

Whhy did we stop moving Garrett around the D-line? It seems like he was making more impact plays when he was moving between positions.

He moved some yesterday. He wasn't very good in the first half but was much better in the second. I don't think they moved him around much in the second half. There were some blatant holding calls he didn't get, but no more than the usual hack a shaq stuff. He's feeling the pressure of not getting the stats and losing out on DPOY after the last three games so he went off on the officiating after the game. He's not wrong. But he could make that same argument after every game. But usually he'll have some stats as well so he doesn't say anything.

I hope so too.

It is time to get over the money thing. As long as the team is competitive and wins games, it doesn't matter how the salary cap money is disbursed.

I did the playoff machine thingy (I try to avoid it before week 15 or so), and it would be awfully nice to get the Bengals or Steelers another loss or two because of the "top 2 in the division" tie-breaker thing.

Basically, IMO the season is going to come down to that last game in Cincy. Gonna probably have to win it.

Someone said Flacco is more of a “game manager” than Watson, and I know what was meant. But I think of a game manager as a cerebral, noodle armed guy who dinks and dunks and doesn’t turn it over. Flacco can do that, but he can also throw a football 80 yards. I don’t want to dump on Watson too much, because he played hurt and he did look good at times. But if both were healthy next year and you put money aside, I’d feel much better rolling with Joe. He’s had two games in a row that may have been better than any game DW has had for us.

Joe is just a proven, vested professional. He's not close to what he used to be, but his experience is noticeable and he commands an offense

We won't win the Super Bowl with him, but honestly he fits our team more than Watson

Does he ?

It's obvious you and others don't like Watson and that's okay

But Watson was 5-1 before the injury

Flacco is 1-1

Watson isn't the crap you try to make him out to be

Just want to say that I think Zadarius Smith deserves more blame than Myles. One thing I've keyed on over the past several weeks is that teams are - once again - rolling more blockers toward Myles like they did the last few seasons. Some of this is more speculation on my part, but toward the beginning of the year, Smith received more attention. Now, not so much. I think teams have concluded he deserves JAG blocking.

IMO this game exposed just how rusty DW still was and how ready a true SB QB is when his number is called. DW will never take the Browns there.

Sounds like a recipe to get a coach & GM fired. Maybe the league will step in and do us all a favor and take the team from Jimmy. FYI, yep, it's sarcasm.

as you said bone, the encouraging thing is when you look at the teams we have beaten:

Cincinnati with Burrow playing
San Francisco with PJ Walker
at Indianapolis with PJ Walker
Pittsburgh with DTR
at Baltimore
Jacksonville

I said that during game, KS loves having a QB like flacco, I think the playbook is even more open than with Watson. I knew when we signed flacco he was going to be an upgrade, but he has surprised me with how quickly he's picked up everything.. You knew reading defenses and all that would be nothing to him.. My only regret is we should have had him all season, I would even entertain bringing him back next year. Its clear he has a calming effect on everyone, even when the game was getting tight and they did a close up of him at the line you saw ZERO trepidation. I firmly believe if we had Chubb this season we are probably sitting at 10-3 maybe even 11-2. Our backs with this line struggle, but hunt picks up those tough yards. Hudson is such a liability that I can't believe theres nothing better on a PS somewhere. I thought we should be getting Wills back soon. Hopefully Jones is back next week as well. The biggest threat to our playoff chances right now is health, I can't remember a season with this many injuries to this many starters. Thats one thing I think KS has done well is keeping everyone focused and not letting them lose the fact that it's next man up and any given sunday. I do enjoy hearing his locker room talks and I like KS mostly, just some things playcalling that I wish we would clean up.. Yesterday there were a few scary calls but because we had flacco it was masked because he executed perfectly. The 4th down run by DTR i wasn't a fan of because of the injury factor but it worked perfectly. This team at full strength could do some damage in the playoffs. Browns vs Ravens in first round with Flacco at QB, that would be must watch TV and media would go wild with the hype. Then if the browns knock the ravens out...

Also, our kickers are probably the best pairing we've ever had.. they are both weapons. I think Hopkins is as good as phil ever was and CB being able to flip the field was huge yesterday when offense was struggling. Just wish we had a return game. On to Chicago, def. don't want to overlook them and they just stomped detroit. Hopefully fields has another game like his last one against us

Well, with Flacco we would have probably won in Pittsburgh and Seattle, so we'd be 10-3 IMO

no doubt

And the draft picks too, right? I mean nobody should actually consider ROI.

That's like saying that it shouldn't matter that you paid 75k for a 1997 Impala because you can still manage to get to work.

j/c:

Do you all think Berry, Stefanski, and DePo will get their extensions during the remainder of the season, the playoffs, or the offseason????

Maybe I'll make a poll.

I don't believe that's true at all. Against the Titans watson was 27-33 for 289 yards and 2 td's. The Jags pass defense was ranked 30th in the league going into the game yesterday. That made it obvious how easy it was to exploit them in the passing game. So I don't see Flacco as having close to a "better game" than watsion had against the Titans. I also feel if you actually think that Flacco played "well" last week you could look at watson's game against Arizona where he was 19-30 for 219 yards and 2 tds. as a game that was better than last week.

Don't get me wrong, dollar for dollar the Browns are getting a lot more bang for their buck with Flacco. But at the same time I think there are moments people go a little overboard with their claims.

Trying to keep this thing in context I think Flacco is doing a fine job. He's keeping the O competitive. I see him as playing above average. Nothing great but good. That's more than I had hoped for at this stage of the season. Let's just say if he continues on this path his ass won't be home sitting on the couch next year. While at the same time I don't have confidence this FO will keep him here.

A player going to bat for his coach.

First thing that came to mind:
Photoshop.

Still doesn't look right, but I'll take it.

No matter the date, it will be one day before mac ends up on the psych ward.

It’s an unpopular position to speak truth to irrational exuberance the day after a good win. I watched a good bit of Joe last year with the Jets as I live in NY market and have a lot of Jets and Giants fan friends. He had good games, he had bad games, he had very bad games. He’s absolutely the best option we have right now and his steady demeanor is just what we need. But people declaring that he should be next years starter and that he’s better than DW hands down… umm, let’s pump the brakes a little bit people. DW has been a big disappointment so far and many of us would much rather we never pursued the guy but come on now, let’s wait and see how the next 4 games play out. Browns fans are so predictable.

No doubt, he's not even close to being a good QB. He's just experienced and seasoned. However, I also think KS will put him in better spots to succeed than Saleh

To be fairrrrr.... as a Browns QB, he is far ahead of DW.



.... just wait until he gets rid of all the rust from not playing since last year.

I feel like I've heard that before...

If nothing else, watch his press conference. He went IN on the refs.

I think this is the most balanced take on the QB situation I've seen in this thread - it does two things simultaniously: 1. Acknowledges that Joe isn't some 38 year old super hero coming to lead the Browns anywhere in the future and there's every chance he'll stumble in games before this season is out. All things being equal I would MUCH rather roll with DW next season. 2. It acknowleddges that DW has been a big disappointment and woefully underperformed versus any expectations fans could have - even those wanting to make excuses for truly abysmal performances based on 'RUST'. People seem to conviniently forget just how much time DW had with the team the season he missed 11 games, how much work he alledgedly did to be 'ready' even before that, how very badly he played as a result ... and Joe comes in and plays after wat, a week? 10-12 days? and he looked 'just about good enough' in week 2.

None of which relates to DW's baggage and any of my emotions regarding him and the trade. It's a pretty simple comp based on what he's done in a Brown's Uni and what Flaco has done/looked in 2 games. Someone pointed to DW being 5-1 this year - which is true. I'd like to point out in 3 of those games, Cinci scored 3 points. Titans scored 3 points. Cardinals scored 0 points. So keep things in perspective.

As for Sunday and the Jaguars.

- I thought we played well and beat a good team.
- We would have dominated a good team excpect for turnovers and penalties.
- Joe looked comfortable and seasoned and his "steady demeanor" to coin a phrase from 10yrOvernight - is a perfect description and what the team is in need of right now.
- Ford ran well - I didn't see any glaring holes or cut backs missed. Personally as other have mentioned I think his biggest failing is he's not Chubb. As a back up NFL RB he is adequate and shows some decent speed now and then.
- For all that Hunt is a bit of a shell of himself, he does bring it to the best of his ability every single touch.
- Cooper who I love as a WR had a bad game. But I think he and Joe will do some good things as long as Joe is healthy. Cooper gets separation, Joe can throw with anticipation still.
- Stefanski called a good game - I didn't agree with going for it on 4th when Hunt got the yards needed. People always talk about only criticizing plays when they don't work - I don't agee that's it at all and this is an example. Conversely before Njoku made the catch, I was already happy with the play action on that play in the 1st Q.... low risk high reward because of the field position and score and time left. Hunt's 4th down had too much negative consequence for not making it.
- Another play I didn't like was the pass before the 55 yard FG ... if you are happy to kick the 55 yarder, run it for 2 yards if that's what you get. Take the 35 seconds off the clock.
- Delphit injury was such a slap in the face ... I have not seen any updates today. Hope he and every Brown that's fighting injury can get healthy for a season ending play off push.

- Defense did pretty good for 90% of the game. I don't know if MG is fighting injury or just fighting double teams.... someone somewhere should have stats on that?

- As others said, game balls to Hopkins and Flaco.
- On to the Bears .... a winnnable game. Will we win it??!!