DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2019 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 13 Titans 43 Postgame Thoughts

J/c

In fairness, up until when the game was out of reach, our run D was pretty strong ... but the penalties on the DL were concerning too

/endthread

Freddy came out last season knowing he had to get the ball out quick. He made it appear that he understood how to cater to a 'weak' oline, and a rookie QB, by creating quick decision plays.

I didn't see a lot of that on Sunday. I also didn't see enough contribution from Nick Chubb. He got 17 carries, which seems like plenty on paper, but he was so effective (4.4 ypc), I think he should have gotten more.

Its too premature to make any hard calls on saying this or that needs to change on offense, but I hope the play calling trends on the side of what we saw last season.

Agreed, the LB were awful. Slowbert needs to go.

Schobert isn't the problem. He is one of the best run support ILB in the NFL, he is average in pass coverage which is good enough. This guy made the Pro Bowl in 2017 and lead the league in tackles, folks need to stop creating problems where non exist. Schobert is a good player, he reminds me alot of a LB the Patriots used to have the name of Teddy Bruschi...Scobert is the least of our concerns.

the 1st change we should make next week is putting Terrance Mitchell back at the #2 Corner spot where he belongs. Greedy Williams is an AWFUL tackler, and isn't a starting a corner. Mitchel had a great year last year before his injury, and Mitchell is a much better tackler, and much better in run support...he is a very very very slight downgrade in pass coverage, but Mitchell is the overall better CB than Williams at this stage by quite a margin. Williams is a guy in as year or so, once he becomes a batter tackler, can maybe take that spot. Right now Mitchell should be the #2 corner. He is the better player.

I hadn’t noticed Greedy at all during the game, so I’m glad you mentioned him ... was he bad in run support?

Agreed on all counts

well he certainly avoided stupid tackling on sunday...by not tackling.

...makes sense. Gregg was the one who advocated for him to be drafted.

I am a little worried he said "hopefully" though...

Agreed. I came away thinking that this game was a poor display of organizational management across the board. They knew they were weak at OL and they didn't accommodate. Last year, after Hugh got the boot, they were so good at quick out play action. I really thought that was a major key to the turn-around and big part of the decision to retain Kitchens; adapting effectively to the teams strengths and weakness. But apart from the first drive it looked like Hugh's slow develop offense on Sunday. Add to that the penalties, the loss of composure, the "watch"... it adds up to a team that wasn't effectively managed. More than anyone Kitchens has got to turn it around.

I agree with all of this and at the same time find it very confusing. I agree with the poster who said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". We used max protection on long pass plays last year to give the OL some help blocking. We used the run game to help slow up the pass rush. Short passes to back off opposing D's or we would burn them. All basic, but effective concepts that just seemed to be thrown to the wayside in the Titans game.

While you must use your strengths in making a game plan, you must also find ways to minimize your weaknesses. It seems we managed to do that under Freddie last year but I certainly didn't see that same approach against the Titans.

Baker was holding the ball way too long trying to make the big play early in the game. I also feel they abandon the run way too early, you beat a good pass rush by running the ball and forcing the defense to change.

This ^^^

Then...we doubled down as things got away from us. Freddie was asked if he thought they abandoned the run too quickly...he said no. I think he DID. Hopefully we learn from that.

You can't abandon the run too early if you never really tried to run it in the first place.

Yeah, from the get go Monday it’d be nice to really commit to Chubb and use some bigger formations .. especially if Williams and Mosely are dinged up

Is it just me or did Baker look uncharacteristically skittish fairly early in the game? I know the OL wasn't great down the stretch but I think it was pretty early in game when I first got that impression.

Really? More mouthing off?

Seems like the inmates are running the asylum.

No one should be mouthing off after last week.

Maybe I missed it, but it sounds to me like he is saying his tackling sucked and he hopes to avoid that.

I thought Gregg was critical of his tackling last year and let the media know it. I thought that's what he was referring to.

But I could be wrong on that.

No, I'm pretty sure you are correct.

I think you are correct, but I don't think he was mouthing off. I just think he was trying to be humorous. Lighthearted humor. I don't think it was meant to be insulting or anything close to that.

I hope you're right.

The team doesn't need anymore negative exposure right now.

Taking an objective "stats only" look at things in order to remove emotion from things, I noticed something interesting - we played each other pretty even, except in a handful of important categories.

https://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2019090801/2019/REG1/titans@browns?icampaign=scoreStrip-globalNav-2019090801

Total/Passing/Rushing Yards: all about dead even.
Yards per Play and Sacks Given: just about the same. While it felt like Baker was getting killed every other play, we gave up 5 sacks. They gave up 4.
Time of Possession: almost perfectly equal.



Now, here's the differences:

3rd Down Efficiency
Turnovers
Penalties (as is much talked over already)

All three of those were DRAMATICALLY in their favor.
As depressing, demoralizing, and dejecting that game was, I did not expect to see so much of it as even as it was, and for only three things to really be the difference was a little surprising.

Of course, there are a myriad of details under each of those three things (like the Oline Hokey Pokey)... in the end, for as much of an unholy beat down as it was, it was a LOT closer than we think. In fact, it was close enough that just a few things tipped the balance WAY in their favor.


The loss hurts, but it still only counts as one loss and it isn't as horrible as it was to experience it. It is a VERY simply corrected thing.

to be critical of ones tackling would imply you actually tackle...Ward didn't sunday

We need to make Gillan a 2 way player ...... Punting and defense. We know he can tackle.

This actually crossed my mind during the game: I expect him to run a fake punt at some point this season. He’s a good athlete and w/his rugby background it may work

We,and the team,will have that opportunity,as I believe all playoff games are televised.
The Titans look like a playoff team.The Browns look like 11 shiny turds running around.

I'm still surprised there isn't a penalty count thread...