While I'm doubtful that they can go into NE and win, IMO, they have got to treat this game like the most important game this season. Pittsburgh comes off the bye and gets Miami, they win, all of a sudden with us losing, the Steelers pass us in the division.

This scenario has played out many times early in seasons where the Browns, for about a week lead the division. Every player on this team needs to look deep inside themselves and treat this game like it is the superbowl.

My fear is this team has the same mindset as many fans, thinking they can make it up on the back end of a supposed weak schedule. Many were considering Buffalo an easy win before the season, same with Pittsburgh. I see no sure wins anywhere on this schedule. The team is not performing at a high level consistently. In my eyes, it is across the board, offense, defense, and coaching.

Pulling out a win in NE, could jumpstart a playoff run. A loss, coupled with Pitt playing a tanking Dolphins team, puts us right where we usually are. At or near the bottom of the division and the AFC.

Be competitive and don't get any major injuries...

Give it up.

give what up?

That was awesome. Star Wars music makes it. I wish I could feel a disturbance, That the Browns are rising up, starting now. I love getting all wowed up for the next game. Hope we play them tougher than the Nyets did. Time to get it on.

Must win or not they are not going to win. I will be very happy with a 7-9 record the way this team is playing and I'm not sure we can achieve that. The offense is a shambles. We have nothing to hang our hat on. I had hoped we would run the ball this year but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Kitchens better have simplified the offense during this time off and started doing the things we did last year. Otherwise, he's going to be looking for a job in the off-season.

Nick Chubb was second in the entire league in number of carries after our last game.

True, but we also only have 136 total carries on the year. Which is 22.67 a game.

Other teams with 6 games that have more carries

San Fran
Indy
Oak
Buff
Det
Car
Tampa

I think the stat is misleading - because Chubb is getting a lot of touches, but the team as whole is not running when hes not in the game right now.

They also need to do a better of job of running the ball in certain situations like the goal line and clock management downs.

Chubb has 607 yards I believe, as a team we have 719 rushing yards. I get hes a bell cow and crazy talent, but we need to be running the ball a bit more as well.

**Edit to add, I will concede that we have been blown out twice - which will cause us to be throwing. But I think we should be running the ball at LEAST 25X a game.

That's a good point. It was so good that I just took the time to look it up.

We are 22nd overall in the number of rushing attempts per game this year with 22.7 carries per game.

I think you brought up another good point that teams throw more when they are losing. I don't know where our first half rushing attempts rank.

I'm always here for ya SB.

I'm always here for ya.

One thing I will say. Baker did improve last week. He seemed to win the battle with his happy feet. No longer rolling right every time he "perceived" pressure. He wasn't drifting back in the pocket after his initial drop back where defenders would be when the OL was blocking. He seemed more willing to step up in the pocket as he should have been doing all along. Those are bigger strides forward than many seem to think they are.

Now I won't fool myself into thinking that will be enough for us to march into New England and come away with a W. But I always look for improvement where I can find it. And this does show Baker is beginning to come to some sense of a comfort level. That's the first step towards success.

With continued improvement the second half of the season may be something we will all look at with an improved sense of moving forward and bring a larger sense of calm among the fan base.

According to NFL.com, Chubb has 57 first half carries for 279 yards and 57 second half carries for 328 yards.

It also says he has 4 carries within the final 2 minutes of the half (doesn't say which half) for 8 yards..

But his first and second half carries are about identical.. but more successful in the second half.

Thanks.

Sticking to the theme of the thread: This is not a must win game.

Exactly we have 9 more games and if we lose and win 7 out of 9 we finish 9-7 and if we miss the playoffs we will still have our first winning record in 12 years and looking forward to even more in 2020 ... GO BROWNS

I disagree. We will fall 3.5 games behind Baltimore if we lose. That would be digging ourselves into a serious hole. AND, it will get into their heads that they can't beat the good teams, which is needed if you are to be a legit playoff team. Think about how many times people in here have questioned another team's record based on the strength of their opponents. If we lose to NE we have no ground to stand on to question NE, SF, Buffalo etc.

Sure, there are 9 more games after today, but a win or loss against NE could define the 2nd half of our season.

It's an important game - more than anything to see what Freddie and Baker and the rest of the team can do to right the ship.

I disagree that it's a must win game by any stretch of the imagination. Not only is it a remarkably difficult game for any team to win against, BB is brilliant and making inexperienced QB's play really badly ... and the Browns inexperienced QB has played plenty bad all by himself so far this year. . . . but in addition to that - this is the last of the (on paper) truly challenging part of our schedule. Our schedule gets significantly easier and the Ravens schedule now gets significantly harder. We have no idea how the Ravens are going to perform in the tough stretch of their schedule.

Must win to me is a season defining moment. Playing the Pats, in their house, week 7 is far from season defining in my book. jmo

My concern is IF we lose this and it is yet another good team we have lost to. Not sure how that sets us up for success for potential postseason play. It also makes me seriously question the coaching. I get that FK is a rookie HC and there will be mistakes, but his roster is loaded...he needs to beat the obvious teams and he should beat the good teams too (and certainly shouldn't get manhandled by two teams, esp not a mediocre team).

But...let's see how today plays out. GO BROWNS!

Good parts and a good team are two very different things. I think the Browns have some good parts in 2019.

I agree, but I am beginning to wonder how to correct the ship.

Must win? Still waiting for the Will Show Up game.

The Browns did show up though.

If I told you going in that Nick Chubb would fumble twice, with one resulting in a Pats TD, and that quick shovel pass to Jarvis would result in an INT when Bitonio got absolutely blown up right into the play ..... I imagine that most would think "50-0 Patriots".

This was a miserable looking day for both teams. Turnovers gave the Pats an advantage that they never let go of. The Pats were allowing an average of 6.9 points/game. Their defense had scored 3 or 4 TDs themselves. People who thought that this was somehow going to be an easy game were only fooling themselves. Bad calls really hurt us and turnovers wound up finishing us off. Does anyone really think that Freddie told Chubb to lose the ball twice in 2 plays? I mean, come on here.

The team showed up and played hard. They made mistakes, but they never gave up.

Can't argue with your assessment. Just frustrated with the self-destruction. Like all the penalties. The questionable decisions. And all the losing from a team that is supposed to be so talented. It's frustrating, and it has been congenital.