DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2015 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 28 Titans 14 Post game comments

I just don't understand these people that still want McCown to start next week. We know what he gives us and he is a journeyman. I want to see our 1st round draft pick play and he now has confidence. The worst thing in the world would be to NOT have him start, would be idiotic in my opinion. Stop switching QB's and work with Johnny already, it's getting a little bit ridiculous at this point.

At least JM showed that with first team work, he can get the O moving. Not sure how long we can live by the long ball but I'll take it short term. Would like to see use use more TE and middle of the field more.

I like the continued growth shown on the field..you can see him go through this progressions, he stood in the pocket and waited..he used his feet to gain some time and not just scramble - all of these were improvements over last week..

What benefit is there to sit him now?

Holy Jeebus! Johnny's qb rating was 133.7 today.

Pettine didn't sound all that excited about Manziel's game today in his presser.

I think for sure McCown starts next week.

And again, unfortunately.

I would prefer to keep Manziel playing.

I'm no Johnny fan and even I want to see him start next week. McCown is in no way the future, I'd at least like to see if Johnny can build on what he did this week.

Then again, I can kind of understand if he doesn't. Aside from 2 abysmal coverage bombs (that to his credit, he hit perfectly), he was 6/13 for 62 yards with 2 fumbles. He HAS to protect the ball better or he's going to lose games on turnovers alone.

Best in the league. Guy is worth whatever we gave up for him.

Lock'm down, he's the new punting version of Phil Dawson

The numbers are a bit misleading.

He lead the team on 2 TD's to open the game. After that, the coaches really put the offense into Tressel-ball mode.

Then they went up 21-0, so his passing stats of course were going to be stagnant.

He moved the ball. Seriously up 21-0 if this team has any sort of running attack, it's blowout city.

On The Plus Side:

1. Nice 'complimentary football' today- all 3 teams executing the game plan.

2. Fewer st00pid penalties. (Desmond flagged for 15 on 3rd & long irked me... too much 'playing like a brown' on that one-)

3. Better effort (results) from the running game. Broke some tackles this week... and they got us 1st downs when we needed them in the 4th qtr.

4. Better play from JM (still has to feel backside pressure better).

5. Better overall Team Morale: I saw individuals step up this week, where everyone seemed to be waiting for 'the other guy' to do it v. NYJ.


On The Minus Side:

1. Alex... are you still trying to get back to pre-injury form? Dude- you CAN'T let yourself get punk'd like that. Word will get out around the league, you know...

2. I put the second TN TD completely on Jim O'Neil. Obvious passing down, MM in the 'gun... and you dial back the pressure? Soft D led directly to points... and changed the way we had to close out the game.

3. Running game was better, but our OL still hasn't proven that they can block a dominating run game for us. Still a concern, going forward.

______________________

These entries are off the top of my head. The game is recorded, so I may find other observations later. HOWEVER: it's really nice to see more bullet points on the plus side of the post-game ledger.

Time to build from this game, and continue to tighten up the little things. We have time to pull the total package together before we hit that 'murderer's row' portion of the schedule... but juuuust enough time. One or two 'setback games,' and it could still get ugly for us.

For now, I'll savor this CLE win as my final birthday present for the year. Very satisfying, indeed.

This place is kind of dead after a win.

I thought that this TEAM played well. The defense was able to dial up the pressure and made a rookie QB make rookie mistakes.

Benjamin is definitely surprising me. Prior to the season, I felt that he was the odd man out, now I'm glad I was wrong! Benjamin is coming on strong and the mistakes from last year have seemed to be in the past. As a returner, he is simply finding daylight and running to it verses the dumb end around he would do last year. As a WR he is our legit deep threat, which is surprising given the lack of height on him. As long as he can burn his defender, he will be fine.

As for the other WRs, we need someone to show up because it seemed to be TB all day with a slight hint of Hawkins. Bowe is a waste and I'd rather have Pryor than him, IMO.

The ground game was excellent. Duke Johnson showed us why he was picked in the 3rd. Crowell played well too. This tandem will work fine for a long time! West who?

The line played as a unit protecting the QB and clearing some running room. They still need a little work, but gave it enough.

My only complaints were the play selection on offense and how the defense kinda stopped bringing the pressure in the 3rd quarter. Flip is way too predictable on offense. I would like to see more variety on the selection given the downs. I could predict at least 90% of the plays, thats pretty bad! O'Neil seemed to go into prevent mode in the 3rd and containment on the outside was still a problem. The team still has issues setting the edge.

yeah, I think he we had a consistent running attack and JFF can work out of PA a bit we could throw more..but we don't.. Anyone that thinks we had a good game running are fooling themselves..we struggled for every single yard..And I don't think it was the backs faults, I never once saw a hole they didn't get through problem is deflilipo only knows metcalf up the middle for his run plays.

I agree with most, we gain nothing letting mccown start... you don't take a rookie qb, off his first win, again at home against a team he could probably and should probably beat and go back to a guy who was playing CFL 2 years ago..I think one thing that annoys me about pettine besides not being HC material, is he doesn't handle personnel decisions like this well.

It's much more fun to complain.

Well, at least for me its hard to remember the last time Pettine got overly excited about something. He's probably one of the most even keel people I've ever seen. Hopefully they have a nice long discussion about who will be QB this week. And if its not Johnny, then McCown better look adequate against Oakland.

It isnt Benji coming into his own as much as he finally has a QB that will get him the ball when he is open. in the 4 years he has been in here we have seen him often behind the defense only to see the ball underthrown horribly or overthrown miserably. Benji has been getting open for awhile.

Theory: one of 2 things is at work:


1. Too many years of "Battered Dawg Syndrome" has tied the tongues of the Browns Faithful... they'r not accustomed to it

2. They are all away from their computers, dancing in the streets (or backyards)... or discharging firearms from their garages *cough*arch*cough*... and will be around later.


-but I've noticed it too. Plenty lively after a humiliating defeat, tho. Yeah- I've noticed THAT, as well....

I see where our old friend Weeden is now the starting QB for Dallas.

Go Browns, old and new.

#2 for me

That's a good portion of Browns fans in general...

Although I think most of the people here aren't like this, but I know a lot in my own group of family and friends who watch the game with this attitude where they aren't excited, but rather they cannot wait to pile on after the game. Seriously, my twitter timeline and facebook was REAL quiet today.

Johnny also brings out the worst in people. There are people genuinely mad that he played well. They wanted to be right about him as a failure, they can't stand all the media attention, and otherwise. Those people aren't real fans.

I, along with probably most of us, was not huge on drafting Weeden, but I'd be damned if I didn't get behind the dude and pull for him. I tried to find the positives. I wanted him to do well. You can say the same for Colt and any other QB. I've had a lot of people come after me last week and last year about Johnny. That I'm some kind of fanboy/apologist.

I'd rather be that than some loser who just sits around and can't wait to be right about a Browns loss. Why even watch? Are you that miserable?

That's why I come here. I think for the most part, people try to find the positives, and to discuss how we can get better. We don't agree on everything, but I think that's a good thing. There's a lot of good back and forth.

Sports are supposed to be fun. Sometimes people would rather be right about something than see their team win, and that's a huge problem with a percentage of Browns fans.

u are right. Hell we had a couple posters criticizing his TD pass to Benji last week. They ripped him last year for running for a TD against the Bills. Their negativity made me even more vocal in my support for the kid.

yeah like i said in an earlier thread, he's a polarizing player, not much of middle of the road with JFF. I think he gives us the best chance moving forward, and if it isn't enough, well then we know what we need to do..playing McCown doesn't really give us a single benefit as to knowing that or not. McCown will be himself..even if he does a 180 and turns into Kurt Warner...he's 36...we still need a QB of the future.

Clem: Perhaps we are merely pleasantly sated. Like the way a person feels after devouring a delicious meal...

Hot topic of the day is Manziel.

I thought he looked OKAY....not great, but OKAY.

I didn't like how flat, vanilla and PREDICTABLE our offense was most of the afternoon. Had it not been for Travis Benjamin today, it's extremely possible we lose 14-7.

I hope if Manziel continues to be the starter, that Flip will open up the playbook more and more each week.

Where are these RB passes we were promised? Why aren't we running some no huddle, with more bootlegs and zone blocking? I guess I understand keeping things simple for Manziel, but at some point in the VERY NEAR future we're going to have to chance up the tempo and play calling a bit.

We won't get to play the Titans each week.

That was pretty much my biggest beef with today's game.

I'm not ready to call Manziel "the guy" just yet, because even Quinn, Frye, McCoy and Weeden had some nice games. I want to see some consistency with Manziel and the offense over the next few games before I'm jumping on the bandwagon and starting a Manziel church in my basement.

I don't know about "fun", but certainly more entertaining...

DJ will be on here today or tomorrow to tell us that Manziel can only complete long passes, and teams will eventually shut Benji down and Manziel will falter.

While I think there will be a valid point buried in the criticism, he will lay the criticism on hot and heavy instead of just enjoying the win.

Cue DJ in 3, 2, 1...

Some people just aren't capable of joy.

No, it's much EASIER to complain.

Hey...........ain't nothing wrong with that. In fact, my next door neighbor (my pastor) would probably come over to see what was wrong if I wasn't shooting when the Browns score. (in a real game). Another neighbor is a big Browns fan - same with him. And I have friends that live a few miles away that, their kids will run outside as soon as the Browns score to see if they can hear the shotgun. (most times they do hear. Not all the time - depends on the wind) (I want to get a cannon - but, wife, and cost, and cost of black powder are prohibitive at this point.)

Manziel with the Hoyeresque performance. Completed the passes he needed to, but nothing else. If either of those fumbles are recovered by the other team we are probably talking about him differently.

Either way, it's good to see Manziel show some improvement. There is no reason to start McCown.

If hoyeresque means winning I'll take it all day long and twice on Sunday.

I should clarify, Hoyer before turning into a pumpkin. For example, last year in the Pittsburgh game went 8/17 for 217 yards and a TD. No turnovers. He almost hit on quite a few deep balls. That's what Manziel did today.

I agree with this with two exceptions.

Bowe gator arming the slant on 3rd. Would have been a big play and helped Manziel's game look alittle better. We didn't see a lot of intermediate game from him today.

And the last TD play to Benji. There might be 5 guys in the league that can make that play.

If Manziel can keep improving and sprinkle in those kind of plays like the last one, we may have something.

Oh, and I love that Manziel's last TD came at a time when we needed it the most.

I do wish we had a more dynamic pass-catching TE for Manziel ... a safety valve type player to be a reliable target over the middle

Don't get me wrong, I am excited about Manziel's improvement. But he DID only complete eight passes.

The most athletic play he made was probably the incomplete dump-off to Malcolm Johnson. I saw a still shot of that pass and Manziel was like two feet off the ground.

The sidearm to Hawk was nice too. I think he saw he only had one angle to complete that pass and was able to adjust and do it.

Don't forget the majority of the second half they were only running the ball. They weren't call pass plays much.

If only we could have had a guy like that on our team. . .

In other news Jordan Cameron had three catches for 62 yards (last week he had four for 73). Too bad there wasn't an easy way to keep him on the roster for relatively cheap.

Obviously he'd be the first name to come to mind ... he very well could get another concussion and be done next week; however, yes it would have been nice to keep him

Also awesome. I've seen Stafford do that, but not many guys pulling that through off either.

Hoyer is not on the team to hang him out to dry anymore. He'd be fine.

i think you guys are wrong.