DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Four Downs: Why Mike Pettine is sticking with run-focused formula amid Browns struggles

Are you guys just trying to argue? That's fine. I'll argue.

But damn man............look at the freaking title of this thread. That is WTF I was talking about. Sheesh.

Calm down Vers... I get what you are saying... they said they wanted to run the ball, it was a close game and they threw it a lot more than they ran it... and the run was doing ok...

I'm not going to defend them..

Sorry DC, I'm just so freaking sick of losing. I probably shouldn't even care.

Grrrrrrrrr

No problem bro. I'm sick of losing too, and losing like that makes it even worse.

Not so worried about the run/pass ratio because what they are doing on offense is at least having some success..

Much more ticked off about them telling us they were going to be a tough, physical, hard-nosed defense... because they aren't that, and what they are doing isn't working.... at all.

No way we should have lost that game. Huge difference between 2 and 2 and 1 and 3.

I get on the team, but man, I want them to win. That was a big game and SD had no business winning that game.

Oh well..........I'll get over it. It's what we Brown's fans do.

Btw----do we play you guys next week? You'll probably take us to the limit. Oh, and pm me if you get back to Columbia. We can hook up. We had a bad flood here today. Lot's of clean-up going to be needed.

I am not as worried about the run/pass ratio today, because they used a lot of throws to the RBs in place of some runs. Our RB caught 13 passes today, and I cannot remember the last time that happened. I kind of look at total touches by the RBs, and they had 21 runs and 13 catches, and to me that's acceptable.

I hated the way our defense played today. I hated the lack of discipline. There were some throws by Rivers that were just about as perfect as could be ..... and 2 where Rivers made perfect throws against extreme pressure. Those are going to happen, and you just have to tip your hat in those instances. He just made perfect throws. However, there were too many where the defense overall just blew it.

The sad thing is that it's always something. The offense plays one of its best games, and the defense blows up. The opposing kicker misses a FG try, and we jump offsides. It's always something. Pettine has to get this fixed. This team can win, but they have to be able to stop "out-mistaking" the other team.

isnt that something. havnt seen that in... well like forever!!!

That's one of the reasons I'm not as concerned about our run/pass ratio.. most of those were glorified running plays, dump offs, etc..

I feel ya... very upsetting.



I seriously doubt it. In the last 2 weeks against WVU and Michigan, Maryland has a grand total of about 450 total yards, 9 turnovers, and 6 points.. I doubt Maryland scores more than maybe a couple FGs.. or a punt return if OSU is dumb enough to kick it to Likely.


I will but I don't get to Columbia very often... I do spend quite a bit of time in Charleston. Plus, everybody I want to meet with in Columbia is in facilities and construction, I'm thinking they are going to be really busy for a while.

when your 2 starting corners are out on injury and your d-line provides zero pressure against the back up o-line your prob not going to win.

Our offense scored 27 points. They are not why we lost.

Our defense gave up 30 fricken points. THAT is why we lost. We are turning out to have the worst defense in the league. Freaking SAD. Pettine better go back to focusing on defense because it's a mess without him.

I understand what you're saying and completely agree with you.

People can say, "Well it worked pretty good this week so it's no big deal". And they would be right. But that's not a plan for the season. It's not what we were told was the focus or the strategy that would be employed.

If people think that McCown throwing for 40+ times every week is a recipe for success, I want some of what they're smoking.

Fact is, running the ball was the focus of the off season. Fact is, it's a strategy they now realized is a failure.

Let's see how throwing the ball 40+ times works for us going forward.

The penalties and defense lost the game this week. But let's the how this new found "recipe for success on O" works out before people say it's no big deal.

I think we were told it was a focus.

I don't think they actually focused on it when they practiced.

Our Defense sucked even when Pettine was involved with it.

Our Defense sucks because we took out two best playmakers(Dqwell Jackson and TJ Ward) and ran them out of town.

Jackson was a big reason The Colts Run D improved 10 spots last year, TJ Ward is a hammer in the middle for the Bronco's

Dansby and Whitner are garbage in comparison to those two in this division...there is a Reason the Steelers,Bengals, and Ravens always double teamed and put guys on those 2 all the time.,

We had a really good D here with those 2 and Ray Horton, but we ran them out of town...

So you actually believe the focus all along was to have McCown throwing the ball 40+ times a games?

If that's so, it's actually worse.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is them talking about running the ball and stopping the run was lip service.

I think training camp was just a "show up and we'll figure it out" kind of thing. I don't think they focused on the things they said they would focus on. I don't think they focused on anything in particular.

Pettine strikes me as a check the box kind of guy. Did we conduct a training camp? He can check the box yes.

You may be right but I would certainly hope not.

I mean we were 32nd against the run last year.

If you look at our run game after Mack went down, we basically had none.

I believe one would think that given training camp and pre season, a HC would focus on the teams two most glaring weaknesses.

If not, I believe that points out huge concerns.

-We pass the the ball twice as much as we run.
-We are 25th in rushing.
-We are dead last in total defense.
-Our coaching staff is either completely full of crap or they have no idea what they are doing.
-Or both.

We're following Seattle's blueprint for success.

I believe somehow they're reading the wrong blueprint.

I think Manziel can be a similar player to Wilson.

But he needs experience and reps.

And we're rolling with Lundgren.

Perfect storm, McCown plays too well to bench him, not well enough to win. Pettine, fearing for his job, just can't take the chance of benching him. McCown dinks and dunks, we develop no run game and Johnny sits. Hello 4-12.
With Kyle, who learned from his father, who could find 1,200-yard rushers in the couch cushions, we would be piling up yardage in the ground game. But we ran him out of town (I think it was Farmer's meddling that did it).

We're following something alright because we're good, damn good even, at losing football games. One of the best, the duck's guts if you will.

Hmmm...successful teams. Let's see: Pass attempts/game

Sea - 31.8 (2015), 27.7 (2014)
Cle - 34.2 (2015), 31.4 (2014)

But wait!
Patriots - 44.3 (2015), 39.2 (2014)

Seems to me the Pats are a fairly successful franchise. Nobody is knocking their "formula" (and yes, I know it's Tom Brady).

I think you missed the point.

Unless I'm mistaken, the point was we are getting away from our "run-first" philosophy. Yes, we have been edging away from that, but we are nowhere near that of the Pats. If Flip believes that we must pass more often to set up the run, then so-be-it. Our "run-first" philosophy has not been working, and I give Flip kudos for making adjustments in order to make the running more effective...

We are 1 and 3.

Were we not solely addressing the offence here? The "O" is not the reason we are 1 and 3...

We suck because our defense can't stop anyone not because we can't score points. The jets defense is the only one that has suffocated our offense and they have been doing it to everyone not just us.

How many 1200 yard rushers did we have last year?

Our "run first" philosophy has to keep getting thrown out because our Defense couldn't stop a herd of stampeding geriatrics with walkers.... so, we're either playing from behind or in a shootout, trying to keep up. We haven't been able to stuff a team and work long time consuming drives which is what you want to do with that type of philosophy.


Personally, if the defense is going to be this bad, they just need to scrap the run first stuff and go with an attack offense.... actually PLAN to be in a shootout every drive. Heck, at least then if the defense ever wakes up we should be pretty darn solid, and in the interim maybe these guys will be prepared to be in the fight the whole way.

Purp', let's look at Time Of Possession:

Cle 29:34 (2015). 28:12 (2014). last game 34:19
Sea 31:26 (2015)

Not great, but not bad either. You can be a ball control without necessarily being predominantly a run-based offence. Note that our T-O-P is up over last year...

Well the first part of your post didn't seem to realize it. lol

Like I said, let's see how the rest of the season looks with McCown throwing 45-50 times a game.

We are letting teams score quicker so we can get the ball back.

I don't think you do. If you did then you would understand why it is the best thing for them to throw as much as they do.

I noticed Benjamin going deep on a lot of plays. On several of them McCown just didn't have enough time to get the throw off or he had another read.

OK, what am I missing? The Brady vs McCown thing, or are there other variables that I am not taking into consideration?

Pit, I asked cfrs the same as I'm now asking you. What am I missing?

You're trying to equate teams with top of the line franchise QB's to a team that seems to wish to use McCown in implementing the same game plan.

Now if you wish to say that we have a coaching staff desperate enough to try to use McCown the same way the Pats use Tom Brady, I'd agree with you.

The problem with that is, you can't really compare what the Patriots are doing, or even Seattle is doing to the Browns.

Mccown isn't going to produce like Tom Brady over the course of a season. There's really nothing to compare there. You have to have a good QB for that to succeed.

Like I said, and I'll keep saying...... Let's watch McCown pass 45-50 times a game over the course of a season and see how that works out.

That's why this coaching staff said they were going to concentrate on the run. They know they don't have a QB to run a pass happy offense.