DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2021 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 29 Chiefs 33 Postgame Thoughts

How many times did Garrett and Clowney run right past Mahomes while he stepped up in the pocket? Seemed like almost every play.
I noticed Garrett and Clowney consistently running by Mahomes as he stepped up in the pocket and allowing him to complete passes with ease or run for a bunch of yards.

We better correct that or else Lamar is going to run all over us once again. The Raiders collapsed the pocket from the interior and edges pretty well on Lamar.

Maybe they should run to where he isn't in hopes he will move up to where they are instead.

I Think you were watching the Steelers/Bills game, certainly not Browns/Chefs.

That is the definition of Separation.

So you have nothing to say about which adjustments you're talking about? Hmmmm.....

Take it for what it's worth (talking about my knowledge of playing Dline, which is nil), but I feel like Garrett and Clowney could stand to play with a little more discipline against QBs that are a threat to break the pocket and make plays when the ends over-pursue.

I also have a feeling that that pressure% stat is heavily biased to the first half. It looked to me like our interior Dline ran out of gas at some point in the 3rd.

One thing that confounded me was repeatedly seeing one of our slow LBs failing miserably trying to cover Kelce 1-1. Our D isn't a finished product and I didn't expect perfection, but I would think that that is something you maybe see once and say "let's not try that again".

I'm betting that the weather/temps were a HUGE factor in that.

For Garrett & Clowney, I almost feel like they need a 5th guy coming off the line to get in the gap created when they go too deep.... but, I'm betting they were going deep expecting him to be taking the deeper drops, but he just didn't do it. It would have been good to have one push to one depth and the other go deeper and both try to adjust as they go. They're big enough and powerful enough to plant a foot and push inward on that OT and use the OT to fill that gap... of course, ya gotta do that without letting Mahomes get outside ...it's all a tall order.

j/c...

BEREA — Running back Nick Chubb was hurting Sunday after the 33-29 loss to the Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium. His third-quarter fumble was part of a disastrous second half that saw the Browns blow a 22-10 halftime lead.

“I was thinking like the season was over again because that’s how it ended last year,” Chubb said Wednesday, referring to the 22-17 playoff loss in Kansas City in January. “I had to take a second, step back and realize we have 16 more to go. So it’s not the end of the world.

“We did lose, but we can correct some things. Me personally, I can correct a lot of things and we can go from there.”

Quarterback Baker Mayfield supplied the message Chubb needed to hear. Mayfield listened to the discussion in the locker room in the minutes after the game and decided to address the team because so much energy had been poured into the opening rematch.

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“Definitely all the time you put in the offseason, the extra week of preparation against that Week 1 opponent,” he said. “Both messages were kind of going around the locker room of, guys had their heads down, you want to tell them to pick their heads up, but then also some guys are saying we’ve got 16 more, we’ve got 16 more. That’s why I said, it’s a fine line of walking. Be critical of yourself, absolutely should be, and I’ll be damned if we’re not because we expect to go in there and win. But there’s also more opportunities, so you have to roll with the punches, face adversity, how do you handle it.

“This one should sting and you need to learn from it because we had that game and we gotta close it out.”

Analysis: Perfect wasn’t required to beat Chiefs, and that’s a big step even in loss

Receiver Jarvis Landry made a point in his postgame interview to mention the importance of Mayfield’s speech.

“He’s a great leader,” Chubb said. “Him and Jarvis both said something after the game. Just kind of dwell on it for a little while. Let it soak in again and after that we’ve got to move on and keep moving forward.

“It’s a long season. The first game, it’s behind us. We’ve got to put it behind us. Now we’ve just got to look forward to the Texans this week.”

The sting was sharper because of the way the Browns lost. They played a near-perfect first half on offense, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives. But they made too many mistakes as the Chiefs took the lead, then the offense didn’t score on its last three drives, including a Mayfield interception with 1:09 left from the Cleveland 48-yard line.

Safety Daniel Sorensen grabbed his feet as he tried to throw the ball away, causing it to hang up for cornerback Mike Hughes.

“Yeah, I definitely wasn’t trying to throw it straight to 21, that’s for damn sure,” Mayfield said. “I was trying to throw it out of bounds, Sorensen just got enough of me to keep it inbounds.

“I want to throw it out of bounds. You can say throw it away earlier, but then the coaching points of me trying to use my legs and scramble out and take advantage of some of the yards, there’s going to be criticism either way regardless. Just try and find a way to not have a negative play.”

Mayfield has thrown an NFL-high 16 interceptions in 47 games since 2018. Philip Rivers, who retired after last season, has 15 and Jameis Winston 14.

There are plenty of mitigating factors, including he was a rookie in 2018 and has dealt with three coaching changes, but Mayfield said he’s harder on himself when a mistake happens in the fourth quarter.

“Yeah, it’s critical situations,” he said. “You know, those are the moments where you look back and everybody’s going to remember that last play and that can be the difference.

“No matter what has happened previously, you can throw all of that out the window as long as you have a chance. And whoever has the ball last, if you can make a play, those are the ones that matter.”

Despite the ending, he left Kansas City with a sense of optimism.

“We started fast, that was a big emphasis for us,” he said. “Now we just need to obviously finish. But it comes down to us doing our job. All the little things matter. Like the illegal shift penalties, staying ahead of the chains, all those little things matter, especially when you’re on the road against a great team like Kansas City.

“We played a good game against a great team on the road. We have to play a great game against a great team on the road. It’s a good lesson for us as long as we learn from it. So as long as we handle it, it will be a blessing in disguise that it happened in Week 1 rather than later on down the road.”

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NEWSMyles Garrett feels like himself in opener after difficult finish to last seasonby Scott PetrakSeptember 14, 2021

Myles Garrett exploded off the ball. He flew around the edge. He made life difficult for new Chiefs left tackle Orlando Brown.

Garrett looked like Garrett on Sunday during the 33-29 loss at Arrowhead Stadium. That wasn’t the case for the final seven games of last season, when he struggled to recover after missing two games with COVID-19.

“I felt good,” the All-Pro defensive end said after the game. “First game, going to be a little bit tired, it’s a different pace than obviously what you’re going to get in practice. For most of the game I was feeling good, feeling like myself, feel I could get off the ball, doing things that I’ve been showing that I can do. For the most part, I feel like I put on a good showing.”

Garrett saved his best play for last, sacking Patrick Mahomes on third down to force a punt in the final three minutes. Garrett gave the offense a chance to pull out a win, but Baker Mayfield was intercepted.

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After 2nd straight loss to Chiefs, focus is on finishing, playing “clean football” for 60 minutes

Garrett was credited with another quarterback hit and had several other pressures of Mahomes, but the Chiefs quarterback is so slippery and aware he’s infuriating for pass rushers.

New Browns end Takkarist McKinley had him in his sights for a loss in the red zone in the second quarter, only to see Mahomes make a move, get past him and score on a 5-yard run, turning a field goal into a touchdown. Second-year tackle Jordan Elliott closed in on Mahomes toward the Browns sideline in the fourth quarter, but Mahomes threw deep across his body into the center of the field — a no-no for mere mortals — and receiver Tyreek Hill turned it into a 75-yard touchdown when safety John Johnson III lost sight of him.

“I don’t want to take away from the greatness of those two players, but he was under duress, he threw it up, it wasn’t a good ball,” Garrett said. “I mean, those guys make plays like that. We have to be a little bit more aware and bat that down and it might be a different game.

“We’ve just got to make those plays when they’re up in the air like that, it’s a 50-50 ball, we’ve got to take it the next time.”

Garrett joined coach Kevin Stefanski and Mayfield in lamenting the mistakes that turned a 29-20 fourth-quarter lead into a loss.

“They started to come on, we had too many MEs (mental errors) and missed assignments on our part,” Garrett said. “They took advantage of stuff like that, they’ve shown that, we just have to be better.”

Garrett wasn’t including a pair of offsides calls against him in the first half. One was declined, and the accepted one didn’t impact the game. He flinched on Mahomes’ cadence both times.

“I don’t feel like I jumped off those two, but the refs are kinda really keyed in on that right there,” he said. “But finally had it timed since about halftime, third quarter, jumped off the ball.”

He believes an occasional penalty is the cost of having a great get-off. And he won’t let the officials slow him down.

“Hell, no. Just like my boy Bake’s a gunslinger, I’m going to keep on firing, as well,” Garrett said. “I’m going to try to minimize ’em, but I’m going to take my shot when I get it. If I feel like I’m keyed in, I’m going to do it.

“If he changes the snap count and I get one, two, I’m going to keep on firing because that’s my job. I can’t slow down because that’s what they want out of me. If I start slowing down, that gives them an advantage. If I start slowing down, that enables the chips to start getting a little bit more of a hit on me and I’m not able to get into my rush. I’ve got to keep on doing what I do best and that’s getting off the ball and making plays.”

Stefanski wants Garrett to find the perfect balance.

“We have a mindset as a defensive line that we want to get off the ball,” the coach said Monday. “Teams are going to constantly use a snap count, particularly when they are at home. They will always use the snap count against our front, Myles in particular, because they are going to use it as a weapon against him.

“He has to be disciplined in his approach while obviously still maintaining that ability to get off on the snap

I'm going to be the turd-in-the-punch-bowl here...but

The press blows too much smoke up MG's butt...MG talks too damn much about effective play and making mistakes for a guy who regularly runs right by the play or jumps offside - not just in the opener either.

In that very interview he's so focused on himself and how he "looked"...he even poo-poo'd his penchant for jumping offsides and declared HE doesn't care about being hit with the penalty/penalties...cuz he's got to EAT (paraphrasing).

Comparing his MISTAKES with a gunslinging Mayfield is crap. Akin to Baker saying "Yeah man...I tossed a big INT to end the game for us, but that's who I am and I'm gonna keep doing that same thing." People's heads would explode.

For those who think I'm nuts for being all po'd about not playing the D starters in preseason...I give you MG's own quote:

“First game, going to be a little bit tired, it’s a different pace than obviously what you’re going to get in practice..."

And again I'll say...NO...I don't want to trade him. I just want him to actually BE somewhere near the player that his accolades place him...even his own accolades of himself.

I will say that he did a relly good job playing them run against KC. Really better than I have witnessed in the past ..

I actually don't disagree with you that MG gets a little too much love (people have him supplanting Aaron Donald as best defender), or that he talks himself up a little too much. IMO, he didn't get to 'eat' as much as many would've thought with who they lined up against.

But I also don't think anything of his comments have ever jumped to the top of the 'things players shouldn't have said' list.

I just get frustrated with his offsides lol … 1-2 times per game it seems