DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2015 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 28 Titans 14 The Good, The God-Like, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good:

--Manziel made two beautiful long throws.

--Crow ran really hard.

--The front seven got a lot of pressure in the first half.

--Gipson is a very good player.

--The run blocking was better.

--Hawkins made some plays.

--Hartline's blocking.

--The team played hard and did not give up.

--Good job of not committing too many penalties.

--Andy Lee had another outstanding game.

--A. Bryant w/some good pressures.

--Blocking on special teams.

--Robertson is really improving. He makes plays.

--K. Williams has good closing speed. Quick twitch guy.

--JM didn't throw a pick.

--Schwartz had a nice game.

--We won our home opener.

--The unis were a lot better than last week's gaudy costumes.

The God-Like:

--Benji. Amazing performance.

The Bad:

--Johnny needs to secure the ball.

--Run defense looked poor again.

--Bittonio w/a couple more penalties.

--Haden continues to give up big pass plays at inopportune times.

--Other than the big broken play, the offense was trash for most of the second half.

The Ugly:

--Bowe ducking on his one attempt at catching the ball.

Good: aggressive play for calling offence and defence in he first 1/2
Bad: going into a shell for the last part
Ugly: watching Mack get manhandled more then once.

I can't add much to your post; it captured the essence of the game. However, the above comment: IIRC, we picked up two critical 1st downs on that possession mostly by running the ball. We did what we had to do when it counted...

That is why I used this word: "most"

Good:

JF long balls. Dead accurate and hit Benji in stride. The pressure and abuse we put on Marcus. Special teams kicking by Andy. We got less flags, always a plus there! WEST FUMBLING LOL!

Bad:
We started to crumble there on defense and allowed them to get back. Two more yards and they would have had a 100 yard back.

Ugly:
Bowe, totally useless. I don't think Hartline made any catches today, but he at least made some solid blocks, many on the key plays for us this game. Bowe is worthless.

Good list and just a few adds..

On the good - yards after contact I thought was great. Everyone was pushing for extra yards. Also, JM looked comfortable in the pocket and seemed to trust this line and hung in there..also all the PF calls on Tennessee ... also 30 run attempts and when we handed off on 4th down we got it...best of all got a full team effort win!

On the bad - Mack getting blown up a few times..middle of the field recievers - didn't seem like we look there...I keep hoping for Hartline will be hit on some slants .. JM on QB sneak may not be the best.

On the ugly - Corner run containment overall - why so open? and Mingo's angel on MM (still bugs me) in the 4th (i'm nit-picking probably)

Good
- Johnny's first few drives ... you could tell he was prepared.
- Robertson and Kirksey were all over the place
- Haden was on his A game today I thought
- Crow with a few big carries
- Benji ... nothing else to be said
- Andy Lee and the coverage teams got an A+

Bad
- Johnny's (and the offense's) lull in the 3rd quarter
- Mack's overall play ... yeesh
- Our run d in the 3rd quarter
- Donte Whitner plays poorly 90% of the time

Ugly
- Tennesse for most of the day

I still think that Ward > Whitner.

There is no question in my mind.

for sure, if he wasn't from ohio people would be bashing him more than they ever did ward.

I haven't posted in a bit (been busy) but I couldn't miss the chance to jump on here and read some thoughts on the game today. Here are mine...

The good...

-Manziel made a couple of nice throws and showed nice poise in the pocket.
-Crowell & Duke both ran hard.
-The run blocking, to a degree, showed up today.
-The front seven and the entire defense looked very good today. I give them a total pass for the 4th quarter as our offense absolutely refused to stay on the field. FACT is that if you're constantly on the field, you'll eventually ware out and get tired.

The bad...

-Ugh I hate the right side of our offensive line.
-Alex Mack got handled today. Al Woods is absolutely huge though, so I'll give him a pass....
-Barkevious Mingo & Dwayne Bowe. Are these guys invisible?

The ugly...

-I thought our play calling was absolutely atrocious. I appreciate trying to get the run game going, but outside of the TD drives we were vanilla, boring, flat and PREDICTABLE. Where are these passes to the RB's we were told we'd see!!??? Attack the edges, throw some RB screens, bootleg with Manziel more. In my own opinion our offense was a major eye sore for most of the game.

-Not scoring off of the turnovers. This game could have easily been 24-0 at halftime (or at least 17-0).
-Second half pass protection.
-Dwayne Bowe & Barkevious Mingo, I said their names already, but man have these two been disappointing...

I think you have to add in the play calling on O as a good.

In general, they did the right thing to not take a bunch of chances in the 3rd quarter. you are up by 21, why take chances on O.

They flipped the switch when needed at the end.

For me, that says a lot about coaching.

And that was key...

The Good...Armonty Bryant has shown more today than I've seen from Mingo in his multiple years...

An actual pass rush and fired up defense...Kirksey and Dansby looked much better......Desmon Bryant showed up

The bad...Whitner a step slow on every play...Bitinio 2 penalties...Schwartz still gets manhandled alot...Mingo, takes him 20 yards to get to 5 yards...Manziel needs to hold onto the ball

Great...Benji (I was really hard on him last year...no longer timid and that speed is our best weapon...if not for Benji...I think we have the slowest offense in the league...zero threats at RB, WR, TE) Manziels two passes...Tramon Williams play...Harry Douglas for being horrible lol

Along the same vein, you play hard the whole game..you execute your gameplan the whole game...you don't coast, you don't play it safe...Good teams don't do that..good teams go out and try to hang 50 on you. Thats what we should have done. We won and thats great, but to say playcalling was good was a stretch..That being said, given who we had at QB and all that, I totally get the reasoning. But you aren't going to win alot of games when your QB only throws 15 times

I am torn on that aspect. I hated the playcalling in the 2nd half as we handcuffed the QB and didnt allow him to get into any rhythm but at the same time, our D was playing great and we have a young QB that we havent learned to trust yet.

I think going for it on the 4th and not getting it kinda sent them into even more conservative mode as well.

Yeah I think you might be on to something there..it really felt we lost some momentum there. I think you have to give it to your back there and not you 6' 200lb QB...especially as bad as mack has been this year. I really hope they just let the kid play and see how this plays out...we lose nothing doing that...its not like McCown is taking us to the super bowl. I think JFF may have won over some of his doubters in the locker room as well. I think he's in a much better position to try to get this QB thing figured out live than last year. I also think the QB room is much more cohesive and suited for him to be coached up by both Kevin and Josh. The biggest piece of this, I think Josh would be JFF biggest fan. He came here I almost think hoping this scenario played out.

+100

I'll keep if like this...we had Weeden start for us for 2 years... Manziel deserves the same

Manziel appears to be way smarter than Weeden, IMO.

I just haven't seen a lot of head scratching plays from him the last couple of weeks.

And he hasn't gotten clowned by any pre game flags.

My comment likely doesn't belong in this thread, but I haven't seen anyone give due recognition to those two for the improvement in Manziel since the debacle of last year.

The God-like?

The Good -
We won
In comparing to last week, everything looked good.
Manziel overall had a good game
Running game was somewhat productive
The pass rush was awesome
Run defense was pretty good
The reduction in mistakes and penalties was HUGE
Overall intensity, it was noticeable from the very first play

The Bad -
Several times in the second half we picked up 5+ yards on a first down run and failed to get the first down, going backwards
The QB sneak call with a 6' 190 lb QB, I was a fan of going for it, but did NOT want to see the sneak right there.

The Ugly -
Manziel putting the ball on the ground twice, very lucky we picked both of those up.

I'm with you. I think a better mix was in order. If we broke off a decent run, it was a 90% chance we'd be running it again. I'd like to see more bootlegs and screens with the way the Titans were stacking the box.

I kept waiting for that 2nd down playaction fake and go deep but it was just another run lol

For -3 yards.

Overall good game but I'll add my 2cents on a couple things:

1 - Not a fan of Pet saying he played more conservatively in the 2nd half. Allowing a team to hang around striking distance is stupid. Teams that consistently play well do not do that. They keep the pressure on. That doesn't mean we do stupid risky things... it just means keep blitzing them, keep passing when they stack the box. Don't force a run play to "eat clock". Dumb and is a big reason we seem to always see our opponents make a big 2nd half push when we previously had a lead.

2 - QB sneak on 4th down normally is the right call there. This game it wasn't though and Our OC should have picked up on that. How? Easy... look at how Mack was getting pushed around. QB sneaks are great when you can count on decent push from center and/or you surprise them (quick snap). Neither was there for this play which is unusual for us given Mack is usually solid.

Hard to trust a guy the coaches asked to drop back just 5 times in the second half and who still managed to fumble it twice. With two and three score lead and coming off of that, Pettine did the right thing by playing it ultra conservative.

It also speaks volumes about what they really think of him, but that will get overlooked in the Manziel-mania this week.

Yeah a win and Manziel mania is so excruciating to endure right?

Run defense is terrible and will cost us a few games this season

Having JM run the sneak was absurd.

It wouldnt have been bad but Mack was getting no push. Crow or duke would have been the smarter move. Actually the smarter move would have been to take the 3 but thats for another debate lol

Mainly on the right side edge, it seemed... some on the left, some in the middle, but they were able to run outside to the right all day long. I wonder if that's why we always run to the right: because when they run to the right in practice, it's always successful.

Qb sneak is your for sure play when it's inches. JF just needs to learn how to execute it. I liked the quick snap, he just has to get low and push forward.

JMO

No, I get that, but I don't think it was inches, was it? More like a foot or two? (I'll have to look at it again.) And Johnny isn't big enough to help with the push from that far out. It just seemed ridiculous when Crow and Duke were having success on the edge, IMO. I like seeing fakes up the middle then going outside in those situations, that seems to work a good deal of the time.

.

You get credited one post for a period?

I can agree with that. When he said he was worried about keeping the clock running... in the THIRD QUARTER... that's a little too conservative for me. Maybe if it was 35-0, but not at 21-0.

And it wasn't just that we got conservative, we got very vanilla... even the runs and passes had no imagination. 2nd and 5, why not run the boot? Get Manziel out of the pocket and if the guy is open, throw it, if not, get what you can and get down? We didn't try any of that.

I was wondering that myself, and then I wondered if maybe they kept the plays calling a little more simple in case McCown got cleared, they didn't want to plan too much with him having very little practice time.

Will add one thing as most ahs already been covered...

That side arm throw on the bubble screen was sic... DJ may be right he looked like a shortstop.

That sidearm throw shows his athletic prowess IMO ... and he did it so naturally

Johnny is a FABULOUS athlete. He's so quick-twitch and compact.

He's just got to keep progressing with his ball control, accuracy, and decision making