Getting this one out early.

I’m typing this out as we just got stuffed on a 4th and 1. Again.

This was a complete team beat down. Everyone sucked. Everyone.

Our OL got bullied all game. While they provided decent pass protection, we are a running team, but we couldn’t run for damn. Just straight up owned.

Receiving group didn’t get much separation today. There were some opportunities, but it was a vanilla day.

Baker sucked today. Bad. And I want to be clear here: while the injury affected him, NOBODY can credibly claim that the pick 6 was due to injury. Baker made bad reads the whole freaking game.

Defense tried, but overall, they got their asses beat.

This was probably a worse beat down than the ravens.

Shame on all of you in the GAMEDAY thread being giddy and lustful at Baker’s failures today to get cut or traded.

He bad at the moment yet it’s super embarrassing to see “Browns fans” wishing him to fail.

Go find a new team to root for.

We are not a team built to play from behind.

The QB is among the worst in the league when pressured. He has no clue and panics.

This was the exact same game we’ve all seen since 99. Faces change, results stay the same.

Steelers OWN us. We embarrass ourselves every time we walk into that stadium.

I was most sad about our OL and DL play. Just got owned.

Seems like we’re nowhere near where we want to be ...

And, for some who think Pittsburgh “isn’t that good” or whatever .... I’ll continue to sing their praises until we can line up with them and compete. We are JV and they are varsity.

The Game is still being played.

This team cannot hang in our division.

We're a middle-of-the-pack team, at best.

Bad Performance all around along with Murphy's law but we are 4-2 so let's get healthy and regroup for the Bengals ...

Not bad considering the circumstances. With better QB play we can be a great team. Maybe next year.

The Colts are at the 23 and miss a 3rd and short

up 28-27 at home vs Cincinnati. with 4 minutes to play in the 4th.

Wow I understand we got mashed today but this season is far from over and we still are 4-2

OL needs to get healthy.

Also need to grow a pair. Cause they got bullied hard this game.

I meant maybe we’ll get better QB ply next year. I think we’ll win 7 to 9 games this year which is more than I expected.

The Bengals game is not going to be a gimme.

We love folding like little bitches against this team. We step up one time, it turns into a debacle, and we’re back to folding like bitches all over again. Browns are a lifetime of misery.

Colts get a FG, 31-27 over Cincinnati 4:03 to go in the 4th quarter.

Browns play at Cincinnati next week, and the Bengals played over their heads with a big lead most of the day today.

And the Browns are searching for a healthy #1 at RB.

This was a good ole fashioned whippin'

Learn from it and move forward.

Not saying it is

I’ll say it.

I didn't read the game day thread, so someone has probably already said it. But:

Very simply (and like the Baltimore game) we were manhandled by a team that, right now, is better than us in almost every facet of the game.

Maybe not that big of a surprise.

Nothing too much more or too much less.

Not a time for outrage or meltdown.

Onwards to next week.

(imo)

purple, I think we are way, way closer to the bottom of our division than the top.

you know, it defies the laws of probability that a team can consistently draft 15-20 slots above two other teams, year after year, and still not ever reach a point of competitiveness. both teams get more impact players drafting 25-30 than we get drafting 1-10. Very frustrating!

We need to get healthy, we need upgrades on defense, and we need a QB. Our coach needs to learn from this and the importance of ravens and steeler week

The Browns only score today was a touchdown to Rashard Higgins.

Everybody else, the Steelers effectively shut down, mostly because of turnovers and turnovers by going for it on 4th down.

We got owned today. Again.

P.S. I normally record our games and then watch 'em again during the week. Today I stopped recording it. I'm not watching this mess again, it's just too deflating.

This game was over on the first drive.

We missed Teller today.

Baker is not a franchise QB, he can not lift this team.

Sendejo is a liability.

Injuries have turned a decent defense into a horrible one.

They will struggle with Cincy, mark my words.

Pwned from start to finish. Every aspect of the game.

Tennessee and Houston are going to overtime Tennessee won the toss and Houstons qb, out there for the coin toss, acts like it's all over.

Bengals facing a 4th down after a scramble for 5 on 3rd and 10 at midfield. all over the colts helmut painted into the turf

4th and 9 about the final chance for Cincy 1:48 to play 2 timouts for cincy. They get a first down to AJ Green barely.

Interception Cincy's going to lose. Tennessee with a big run up the middle to the 10 yard line.

Quite the claim! Would love to see your reasoning why a QB in his 3rd year in his 3rd system can be evaluated soo quick!

Because he has the same problems he had last year.

The Great Joe Burrow Picked Bengals lose !!!

Man so many people wrong about tannehill

Derek Henry wins the Game for the Tennesee Titans, in OT on 3rd and goal from the 5

Direct snap to Henry, wild cat run, off to the left Breaks through one tackle at the 1, otherwise no penetration by the D.

- The Browns are still the kid brother to the Steelers.

- 17 straight losses in Pittsburgh.

- Absolutely nothing went right today.

- 1-12 on 3rd downs, 0-3 on 4th downs, -2 on T/O ratio.

- Baker looked completely overwhelmed. The early pick 6 was pitiful.

- The o-line got abused. We missed Teller.

- The team clearly misses Chubb.

- OBJ checked out and was walking around in his socks on the sidelines.

- The Browns are a team that will beat bad to middle of the road teams, but are clearly not ready to play with the big boys.

- The Browns looked intimidated by the Steelers today. Sad.

- Browns will beat the Bengals next week because that's what they do.

I picked Philladelphia to beat Baltimore today, didn't think they had a shot after seeing the lead earlier.
I'll watch the rest of it, as long as it stays on as it's an 8 point game.

So quick? This is his third year. Good QBs make plays even in new offenses. They make plays to ice games. Baker didn't do it last year, and he definately hasn't done squat so far this year. If he wasn't the number one pick, his rope would be way shorter. I will give him the rest of the year, and I hope he improves. His height is a factor, no matter who claims it isn't. I,ve noticed that when the rush is in his face, he has trouble putting any arc on the ball, causing overthrows. He can't read defenses very good, and has become very skittish when pressured.

We will see, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

4th OC/HC

He’s not forcing it to his first read as often. At the same time he still is looking frazzled reading the field and managing pressure.

I’m glad you’re willing to give him the year. I feel the same but I’m not calling for him to be yanked, cut, or traded at the moment.

Just a bit much imo to say he can’t improve.

Frazzled = worst in the league against pressure

--So disappointed in how scared the team played.

--I don't think people realize how poor QB play affects the entire team. It affects both sides of the ball. It's like a trickle down affect.

--Not sure what to make of Baker right now. It's tough to tell if he's going to get better. He was a better QB under Kitchens. Tons of explosive plays.

--I'll reiterate something I said earlier in the season - it might not be a bad thing for Baker to sit for a few games. He's clearly not improving. What about taking a break and decompressing. It's not the worst thing in the world if it helps in the long run.

--Kitchens had the team much better prepared to play the Ravens and Steelers.

--We are wasting OBJ's talent. To have that kind of talent in his prime and to pretend he doesn't exist on offense is really hard to wrap your head around. I feel for him. I really do.

--Hopefully the team can recover from this. I don't think we make the playoffs, however.

I am not quite sure who played well today.

Baker got a sack today all by himself. Nobody even touched him. Pathetic

It was a QB scramble. Geesh.

Did Baker play well? Nope. Did anyone on the Browns side play well? If there is, it's not a very long list.

Worst game of the season so far...

Hope we turn it around for next week...

Not so much just a knock on Baker, it was a play that summed up the whole game.

To me the most disappointing thing of the day is how poor the offensive line played. I really had high hopes that they were going to hold their own. I know we were down Teller, but one guy shouldn't have made that much of a difference.

I have to say, Jarvis Landry really steps up and takes the media, even after a really bad game like today. He never runs and hides.

The team chooses who the media gets to talk to.

I think that if Jarvis said he didn't feel like it, they would pick someone else.

There have been players who have pulled a "Bill Belichick" after a bad loss.

I didn't watch game, thankfully, but what I don't understand is they had 277 total yards to our 220. They didn't exactly roll over us. How did we lose by 31?

Well the first half a pick 6 and another INT set up another score in the second half they scored after we went on 4th and 1 at our 28 and their 48 .. Thats 28 Points

The defense did fairly decent today, I don't think they played terrible at all.

Baker pick 6 to start things out, then the offense just not being able to move the ball and turning it over. They we're not able to control the clock and constantly set the Steelers up with a short field. The defense just played with their backs against the wall all day long.

This loss is on the offense.

That answers it thank you. I knew about the pick-6. Seems like with a little better decision making it wouldn't have been so bad. We can never do anything right at their place anyway.

I thought Conner ran well and Claypool continues to flash. Their DL was fierce as well.

I think our loss was about our offensive line being absolutely destroyed.
And not scheming for it.

I only watched the first half. I know it's October and Halloween season and TV is full of horror, but I just couldn't take any more of this game.

What I saw (first half):

- Didn't take long for us to get into the groove. Sandejo in position to make a play, and completely whiff (run blitz), and Baker with a complete WTF was he thinking throw. Pick 6.
- Felt like the game was over then. Actually, it was.
- We got beat like a rented mule this entire game. Our OL was pushed around. No run game.
- Our pass rush neutralized by Ben not holding the ball.
- Seemed like we were ready for the quick slants.
- Baker ... seemed lost. When faced with pressure, he folds. Franchise QBs do not do that.
- Apparently, offsides is no longer a thing.
- This felt like one of those Alabama games where they play the Jesuit College of Lower Loompaland.

We will lose that game. We seem to split with them most seasons. Im hopeing we can beat the raiders so we can go into thw bye week 5-3 and hopefully get healthy

Immmaculate Mother Mary's School for the Halting and Infirm. BM looked awful. Ravens 2.0.

The double clutch on throws, missing open guys, blocking bypass, and we can all name more.

KS needs to self-scout for first down calls. We get schooled because we failed. Not the stuff we needed,

I know you don't really mean that. I understand the game isn't a gimmie. But come on you really are chalking a game against the 1-4-1 Bengals as a loss?

Raiders are playing well.

Lose to Cincy and you'll likely lose to Oakland.

4-4 going into the bye.

it’s hard to believe we can beat anybody of substance after today’s embarrassment. I believe the Cincy and Las Vegas games are probably toss ups ... same with the Eagles and Texans

I blame today's loss on the white jersey / brown pants uni's. Its our worst look. We need to stick with brown / white jerseys over white / orange pants from now on.

White on white all the time. It's just a classic look for us.

Browns not ready for the big boys yet. Our safeties blow. Very little creativity against a team that blitzes HALF the time. If I know the stats then Stefanski should. If all you ever do is run up the middle on 3rd and 1 against a physical team then you will not succeed. OBJ can leave town. He is a whiner and a quitter. Baker Mayfield is NOT a franchise QB. He is a game manager who cannot play from behind. Cannot read a defense. It's too bad because this team has enough offensive talent to win. The Browns will not compete until they have a franchise QB. They should be able to beat the teams that we think they should. But being a legitimate competitor in the playoffs? Nope. Today sucked but when you play a solid football team and you don't have all the parts to compete, this is what happens. Chubb wouldn't have mattered today. On to Cincinnati.

Used to be a end-of-the-pack team so we're moving up!

TANK FOR TREVOR!! Just kidding. Browns had a bad game today. We will beat Cincinnati next week.

It was hard to watch.

Baker could not beat the blitz so it kept on coming.

We are not a bad team. We are a team that can only play a certain way and when forced to do so suck royally.

We should have our Safeties and hopefully Tiller back for the Bungles

Browns are out shopping for a guard now.

Something tells me Teller will be out for awhile.

Should? What makes you think that. None of them practiced even a little this past week.

An extra week should help

Obviously.

It was stupid to ever start Baker this game. I like Baker but he was clearly injured from the get go and not playing to his potential. Should've let him rest a week and get ready to go on a win run.

Add to that barely playing Higgins when all he does is get wide open.

Add to that boneheaded play called like running up the middle on 4th and short vs a team that was just stacking the line all game.

I still have faith Coach Stefanski can grow into a great coach, but he's not there yet.

That says a bunch. We are cutting our own throat. I suspect some of this is our own sideline and calls. Ie was hard to watch. Flat and clueless. Too nice. Looked like the home team had fun again. We never did figure out what we wanted to attack. And running the inside, usually first down or when we needed a yard just to get stuffed again and again is stupid. Don't need analytics to see those two-yarders are no help. Did we run the corners? Just random stuff.

Don't forget this one. Not until you dwell on what went wrong, tackle all week long, and come ready to play. We have won too many to Tank for Trevor, so we may as well win some more games. Anybody can beat us with today's effort.

I’ve wondered some games why our offense looks different ... in terms of formations and play calls. Maybe it’s just that we can’t run the ball and don’t trust Baker to drop back (haha, that’s sad)

I think you might be on to something.

No were not. We lost to an undefeated team at their place. Still have a chance to make the playoffs.

Ultimately every team is only as good as their QB.

I was kidding about tanking for Trevor. I still think this team can make the playoffs as a wildcard.

They'll make the playoffs. The schedule is too easy not to make it.

I agree.

The fact that he got pressured that much is a huge problem (although the Steelers have done that to everyone they’ve played this season). It is also a huge problem that Baker can’t succeed when pressured.

The Steelers played their best game on D against us today. They seemed to be more motivated than we were. They heard about how good our O-line and running attack is and they had something to prove. They didn't want us coming in to their place and push them around. let's face it, we got punched in the mouth today. Also, they probably still had the MG incident from last year on their minds too. It'll be a lesson learned for our young team going forward.

There have been very few times over the years where I haven’t thought “Man, the Steelers are FLYING around the field and we look like we’re in slow motion”

I’m tired of being the whipping boy to them. It seemed like we took the field scared

whatever the coach had gameplanned should never be used again. it was horrible.

I guess Rodgers is Trash accordioning to some of you guys, I mean losing 38-10 pick 6 ???

i would like to remind my DT brothers and sisters that we have another crack at the steelers later in the season.

and we're still 4-2. thats why i'm not freaking out too much, and just chalking it up to the fact that we still have a new HC and a new system, so we might catch a beat down every now and then.

Have the QB pass to win?

Did anyone really expect that we could win this game?

OUT:
RB1 Chubb
RG1 Teller
SS1 Joseph
FS1 Harrison
CB1 Greedy
OLB2 Phillips
FS Delpit


PLAYING HURT:
QB1 Mayfield
WR1 OBJ
WR1 Landry
RB2 Hunt
DE1 Vernon
DT1 Ogunjobi



4-2 is a great place to be in

I made a conscious decision not to watch today. I checked in on my phone but stayed busy. We were ripe for a beat down and though I wasn’t sure it was coming today, I had a deep suspicion it was. The needle is pointing in the right direction but there’s fundamental, systemic things wrong with the team. They can get fixed but not in the front office first year in a season with no real off season. Anyway, I had stuff to do and chose that.

The single most important thing this team needs to do is learn how to bounce back from ass whoopins. We can win against bad teams and probably win half of the games against other middle of the pack teams but when we get beat bad by good teams we cant take it in and spiral. That’s the browns way of old. We have to get better. We all knew (most of us anyway) that a proper beat down was likely again at some point this season, probably earlier than later. We’re still a green team with holes and no established habit of winning and believing. 4 wins in a row is a great step but it’s not like we’re in the promise land. We might still get to 10-6 and sneak into the 2nd wild card but let’s all pump the breaks. This isn’t your Cleveland Browns Super Bowl Championship year. It’s a foundation year. I reiterate that the best thing to come out of this is a robust bounce back game next week.

I agree that 4-2 is a great place to be but we should not make excuses for getting thrashed the way we did. It wouldn’t have mattered if everyone was healthy.

How many starters did Pitt have when they played us last year...

We can't be dominated like this against 2 divisional opponents and stand any chance.

The Browns are a run first offense whose only healthy RB's were Johnson and Hilliard.

I wish I could have seen them get the ball to Landry more.

I agree, if you would have told me at the beginning of the year that we would have won 4 of our first 6 games with a couple of beatdowns at the hands of the Steelers and Ravens I would have said.....sure please give me that! So I'm pretty happy with where we're sitting, usually I'm pretty negative but I'm feeling good about what Stefanski and the staff has done with this team.

This week was a great learning expierience for our younger players, just have to learn how to step up to the next level of competition. Of course we're not there yet, but in due time we will be. Next 2 games are winnable, just win those and see what happens from there.

There’s a REAL problem when our 1st Overall QB ... in his third year as a starter ... can’t be relied upon to make a single play. Baker is an anchor to the team.

Dawgs I agree with you. The thing that sticks out to me is they only totaled 277 yards to our 220. Our O played lousy and their D great but our D didn't give them much and we did have a lot of injuries. I know stats are for losers and we shouldn't use injuries as an excuse but it is what it is. Our game plan was probably good our execution poor a lot of due to their excellent D. We should and will learn from this not only the our player but our coaches too.

I watched Green Bay Tampa today just about the whole game. Aaron Rodgers looked like Baker did today. The Tampa D was physical, manhandled the Green Bay O- line and was all over Rodgers. Green Bay got punched in the mouth and they are a wining veteran team. We are young and still learning. I don't like what happened but its football.

Last WC? This was rotten in so many ways, it was sickening to watch. We have our reasons, many valid. Game plan didn't work apparently. BM took a step backward. We need some healthy players. They didn't do more to us because: A) they didn't need to, and B) they were doing whatever they wanted to. Not sure why some of our people were out there, but we need to fix some things.

I think we lose to the bengals because we seem to always split with them. Im hopeing we beat the raiders then gwt healthy during bye week. I think of we are relatively healyhy we can beat the Steelers last game of the year

J/c

If you watch just about every game at Heinz Field since its opening ... they beat the Browns in a similar way.

Heck, look at the highlights from the 99 game when we played on opening night ... it’s like the same thing: they bully us and we go into a shell.

It stinks to admit, but we’re the weak franchise and it will take a monumental turnaround to take them over

Splitting with the Bengals in the past has literally nothing to do with this year.

I had to sit next to a Steelers fan at the bar today.

Where did you see/hear we are shopping for a guard?

4-2 is nice - but getting kicked in the teeth by the two best teams in the division, again, got real old like 15 years ago.

Greedy and Delpit though? Really?

I am watching the NIners playing the Rams, and I have to wonder why we never seem to run screen passes anymore. The Niners get 5-10 yards on almost every one. Screens spread the field and keep the defense from packing the middle.

We rolled Baker out once, that I remember. Someone mentioned that he was hurt, which I had not taken into account. Screens are a great way to help with pressure up the guy, especially when it's blitzes up the gut. We seem to have forgotten they exist at all.

both were projected as starters. so, yeah. they count as being out LOL

It seemed like any time we tried a screen today they were RIGHT on it. Remember the TE screens? I wonder if we are tipping them somehow?

I thought we ran more screen passes today than I could ever remember today? Someone correct me if I'm wrong....

It just seems like we can't ever execute them very well. Which burns me.

We have no reason not to screen to our RBs. That's a great way to get the rush to back off a little bit. I think we had 3 passes to our RBs today.

I should edit to swing and screen. Get the ball out to the edges, spread the field, and take advantage of the defense attacking the OL like they did.

The issue is the QB has to execute.

Baker can't beat the blitz so they were relentless.

Baker has been VERY bad at checking it down to backs. He doesn’t go through his progressions enough to get to them. If his first read isn’t there he clutches and stutters and it’s done

Long and short snap counts, quick slants and screens are a few things you can do to slow down the blitz. But the QB has to execute properly.

j/c:

I thought we ran quite a few screens today. I don't think the play calling was the issue.

It wasn’t. Their defensive line dominated our offensive line. It led to pressure. Our QB sucks when pressured.

Dominated is the wrong word. Destroyed is the correct word.

It's not the end of the world, still 4-2

I hate saying it because I wanted it to work out - have a franchise QB in Cleveland..... but .... he’s running out of chits. He needs to be better. Soon.

Or there’ll be a Case for Keenum.

Today was not his fault. He contributed to the downfall, but there are a whole bunch of OL who need to buy him dinner. Because they about got him killed.

Everybody was crap, but the QB can’t be crap, has to be better then Baker was .

The pick 6 felt like “game over”.

It seemed like the Steelers were playing with 14 guys on defense. Run, pass, screen it was always covered right away.

Lol, I had the same thought during the game.

“I thought they could have only 11 guys on the field”?

Their D was relentless.

My thought was that Stefanski should study their D and do the same thing. I want that D. lol

I think Baker has severe issues both pre and post snap. I think he puts his OL in precarious situations. I'm not sure how much leeway he has at the line of scrimmage, but how many times a game does anyone say to themselves "Baker checked into the right play there?"

I have stated this for the last 10 years and always get pushback, but bad QB play has a trickle down affect to the entire team. Most teams are not going to be the Ravens winning the Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. Those are outliers. It's why QB is the most important position in sports. Their play has the most impact on how everyone else plays.

When QBs don't play well, the entire team knows their chances of victory are greatly diminished. It affects play, effort, morale, and the ability to feel like you can come back when down in a game. It's a real thing. The team can see on the sideline when their QB isn't any good. Just like we see it on TV.

You will never see a Kansas City defense give up because they know they always have a chance to win no matter how much they are down.

At some point this season Baker has to show improvement.

To tell you the truth I don’t mind the beat down. It’s just a wake up call for the players! After winning 4 in a row, maybe they thought they could just show up and win.

I’m looking at Cincy, and I think we blow them out. Just my $.02.

Heck GB got blown out and they are super bowl contenders.

Wish we would have run a couple of wr runs, something different, to have kept them honest. Maybe a couple of quick slants too, didn’t see either today.

Hate to complain about refs, but it seemed they were jumping a lot of snaps, they lined up offsides many times as well. Like someone else said, change the snap count and we would have gotten them offsides many times.

Until we can get talent and play like the Ravens and Steelers Defense, we will continue to get punched in the mouth. We need stud Linebackers.

I still think we split with them. They are starting to play like a team. Almost knocked off the colts. We ate cominh off a tough loss and i think thetecwill be a hangover so to speak

Browns haven't beat any good teams they suck.

Browns will lose to the Bengals they almost knocked off a great team like the Colts. ( a team the Brownns did beat)

Am I missing something?

This is why i dont like rookie head coaches who also call plays. To much on the plate. Sure, he does a good job when the running game is working or we are leading or the game is close, but when we get behind and adjustments need to be made, i think he just has to much on his plate to process everything. Let van pelt call the plays and concentrate on being the HEAD COACH .

So what about all the rookie head coaches who successfully call plays?

Few and far between. If any organization knows that it SHOULD BE US. Pat shurmwr, hue jackson, freddy and now stefanski. If we are going to have a rookie heas coach can we please for the love of wverything good have one who does not insist on also calling the damn plays

Few and far between is the wrong answer. Try again.

Lol and why is it the wrong answer? Because you say so. I listed you some reasons in the form of former browns head coaches. Its not working for us.....in the end thats all that matters

Damn, gave up 38 points. That pick six took the wind out of their sails and the Oline couldn't give the qb any protection. Multiple bone-headed coaching decisions. Green Bay sure sucked yesterday.

Well, that was a beat down. And it’s over. Now, plan and practice to beat the Bengals.

j/c:

Just a terrible game all around.

I understand the concern about Baker not being able to perform under pressure but the offensive line was horrendous yesterday. There were countless plays where Baker literally got no time to throw. Their defensive line owned us from the jump.

That said, even with there wasn't much (or any) pressure, Baker didn't look good. I mean the TD throw to Higgins was nice but that was few and far between.

If there was any bright spot, I like how our defensive line played at times but that's about it.

We had no chance with a depleted secondary, a patchwork OL and no Nick Chubb. Doesn’t matter now if we lost by 30 or one. But I think we will know definitively at the end of this season whether we have our QB or just another Trubisky situation.

Baker and Trubisky are the same exact player.

I mentioned how Baker would be the X factor this game, and would be called upon to step up. He was and it went horribly. His stock keeps dropping. Betting on him to turn it around at this point after what appears to be a pattern of folding against top-tier teams is turning more and more into a long shot.

The Stefanski Monday morning apology in which he blames himself and says we must do better have worn beyond thin with me. And having Mayfield carry on about what the team has to do to get better is galling. Heal thyself first. He had no idea on almost every pass. As a group, we stunk it up. Just worn out watching lousy football.

First and foremost. This is an extremely talented team with gaping holes. Matchups are huge with this team (as it is). The upper-echelon teams will present problems for us because they have the means to mitigate our strengths, and we have a hard time responding.

Then add in our injury issues.

I'm really disappointed in our Oline. They got absolutely manhandled today, and being down a RG is no excuse. Our run game never got off the ground because Pitts Dline took whatever they wanted. Pitt jumped out to an early lead and simultaneously took away our main strength.... Browns are not a team equipped to play from behind. Playing ahead allows our strengths on defense to show up and gives our O room to breathe/operate. Yesterday is what happens when we give that away.

Baker was awful. I'll put it this way, I was kinda positive after watching the Ravens game a second time. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to feel that way this time. Baker's picks were BRUTAL. There was a stretch that started at the beginning of the game and lasted (I think) until early 2nd quarter where Baker couldn't make a positive play. Look, playing the #1 D doesn't count for nothing, but the dude has to show SOMETHING out there. He's supposedly a guy that rises to the occasion, but I didn't see any evidence of that guy out there.

Defense did better than I thought they would. Offense did just about all they could to make their lives as tough as possible.

I can appreciate Bakers desire and toughness.. But honestly, he shouldn't have been in there yesterday.

He looked like he was in pain the entire time.

D didn't do enough.... No nearly enough.

I think we also found out that Keenum may not be the answer if Baker goes down. Maybe with reps at practice?

Baker needs far too much around him to be good in order to be successful. The plays where he elevates the team are few and far between. He can’t read a defense (pre or post snap) effectively enough and panics under pressure.

He’s a very poor man’s Jeff Garcia.

I saw one good thing yesterday...well...maybe two:

Sheldon Richardson is probably my favorite Browns player to watch...with Chubb out anyway...too bad his effort wasn't contagious yesterday;

Kudos to Higgins for continuing to simply find a way to get open and for nixing his signature TD "walk" yesterday. We were playing like supermodels and didn't need to highlight that fact.

That hit the nail on the head for me. Terrible all round - that includes Baker but by no means limited to him, though it was his worst game as a Pro (going from memory and eye test only). I don't think it looked like we had a game plan either - certainly nothing that was prepped to counter Pittsburgh's D which was outstanding. They bullied us from the first snap of the day.

Going to see what happens the rest of the way.

Key will be our performance in the second games against BAL and PIT. Bakers performance against teams with winning records is concerning, last year was like 1-5 with more ints than tds. At some point soon he's going to have to prove he can carry the load for stretches. I don't care about the whole "x number of systems in x number of years" good qb's, playoff bound qb's and guys that can take you where you want to go can play in any system. Being in a system for 3 years doesn't help alot what's wrong with Baker, reading a defense is the same in any system, good decision making is the same in any system.

I think where we really failed in the offseason is not addressing safety and linebacker. That exposes basically the whole middle of the field. Our tackling is abysmal and we don't play with energy. Some of those hits yesterday by PIT i'm not even sure we have someone on the team capable of doing that. They bring it every play. We need that mentality

All teams/players play poorly at times. I hope/wonder if that is all we can say about yesterday. Heck, GB got whooped on as well.

Thing is, you can only shrug off so many of these types of outings. I think, under all the bluster, everyone in Berea understands this.

We took Delphit - S at the top of the 2nd round - someone with 1st round grades from many scouts. We took Philips - LB in the 3rd or possibly the 4th round. I would have liked to see Schobert resigned or more talent added to the LB core, but we did address both positions. Delphit and Phillips are both hurt - Phillips has been a little more athletic when than I was expecting when we saw him play.

And Rogers - universally regarded as one of the top 3 QBs in the NFL looked bad.

Player == CP/ATT YDS TD INT
Aaron Rodgers 16/35 160 0 2

Looks a lot like

Player == CP/ATT YDS TD INT
Baker Mayfield 10/18 119 1 2

And - no - I am not saying because Rogers had a bad game that Baker is like Rogers.

Mostly j/c:

Rogers looked bad under severe pressure...whodathunkit?

There is pressure and playing against pressure...and then there is that thing that both Rogers and Baker faced yesterday on a whole other level. Simply calling yesterday playing against "pressure" is not coming close to telling the whole story.

The LB pick ( to me was } Malik Harrison ..And my pick at safety was Jeremy Chin or Ashyton Davis. Deipit was never in play on my board.

Every snap was a frigging jailbreak.

I agree about Sheldon. He lays it on the line every week

Let me add the word "adequately" we lost contributors from last year and didn't fill them even though both groups were weak last year too. I do agree, even though kirksey and schobert were meh, meh is alot better than what we have there now. I wasn't that high on delpit. I wanted Winfield or Chinn. Jury still out on Delpit, hopefully he recovers, but thats a tough injury for a football player

I can't remember which LB I wanted in later rounds (other than hoping we'd land Patrick McQueen) .... there were several safeties that were in play. The two you mentioned plus Delpit and Winfield. Winfield is short (5' 8" ?) but is playing lights out apparently.

Interestingly (nearly) everyone's draft darling Isaiah Simmons has had a rough transition to the NFL his first few games.

Tony Romo doesn't bash players very often, but he has an astute football mind. He called out our LBers for being slow to the spot at least a few times yesterday.

And rightfully so. We have no studs

WE need at least 2 really good LB's added to this group. WE could also use another SS along with Delpit returning next year. Another run stuffing D-linemen couldn't hurt either. With these additions we should be a top 10 D.

You are 4-2. How many of those have you heard?

Also just 2 quick notes

The Steelers started their 2nd string LT and their 3rd string 4th round rookie RG.

And I do think the AFC NORTH will be the first conference to have 3 playoff teams this year. Steelers, Ravens, Browns.... in what order is still to be determined.

HACK

I also passed on Winfield because of his height . And yes he is playing lights out !

The Steelers are also perennial winners with decades of dominance over us. We are your doormat and it does mean something IMO

You are right, Hack. Pattern of this coach and BM telling us what needs to get better. Hasn't been happening until after the game. I do not stand corrected. Plug in an OC to deal with this play calling. We need better people, or fewer bad people.

Congrats on the dominating win.

This is because we've never stuck with anything long enough to actually build it. Hell, how many times have we flipped from 4-3 to 3-4, only to flip back? I remember at least once or twice making that flip in back-to-back years.

We only have the offense we have because a few years back we FINALLY stopped the pattern of throwing out other guys' players to bring in guys for the new regimes. We actually managed to acquire talent in every position group, and then double-down with more talent in every position group. We now need to do the same with the defense, which is still a work in progress.