DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2016 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 24 Dolphins 30 Other Games Thread

Maybe not, but if you didn't see his potential then you weren't paying attention. If you didn't see his measurables then you were blind. As is the case with the pick greedy, no experience, oblivious to the single most important need of the team FO.

We have no choice, but first he beats us, the he goes 2-0 then he CRUSHES the Squeelers. Could the $#!% be rubbed in our faces any more? Right now, I hate the FO. The only saving grace is seeing the guys play with heart and desire, that tells me we may have a coach. Then I see him call a kneel down 46 yards out with 20 seconds on the clock and one time out after the guy who hasn't kicked all year blows two, and I have to wonder: when are these assholes gonna stop outsmarting themselves?

the bears should be awful

Maybe you should go root for philly since you hump Wentz so much.

Chicago is very, very bad. And injured.

not to mention dallas oline is NO JOKE

Just watched the "All of Wentz' throws" video on NFL.com.

He looked good, and had the one "wow" play to Sproles.

However, I noticed he had a lot of "easy" throws early. Lots of misdirection and behind the line of scrimmage stuff to get him going. I was impressed with the playcalling and play design. I didn't think the Steelers' secondary was great to begin with, and they looked pretty bad today. The plays were set up to spread out the Steelers zones and Wentz had pretty big windows to throw into. I don't know if it was good eye use by Wentz or not, but all of the DBs seemed really slow to react and had little idea where the ball was going.

I like Wentz, and he was the QB I wanted if we were taking one, but I'm still not sure he's faced a good secondary yet.

He did seem to have great command of the offense, and did a better job of not taking hits tonight.

Only slightly less sharp than your other comment.

I especially liked the way Wentz held the Steelers to 3 points.

Blake Bortles is bad.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is worse.

The Vikings are the best team in the NFC.

Carson Palmer is past his prime.

The Ravens are the worst 3-0 ever.

'NFL Winners and Losers: Cam Newton gets crushed. Again'

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl-winners-and-losers-cam-newton-gets-crushed-again-033116683.html

Good video of Cam getting sacked multiple times. Superman wasn't so super this game. I like that!

Is there a more fraudy QB than Bortles? Dude just is not a good QB, but some analysts will put him in those "young guns" categories, etc.

And Baltimore continues to win, when in reality I think they're about as good as we are lol

Baltimore wins are against teams that are 1-8. They've struggled in those games too.

The problem w/that thinking is wrong on many levels. You don't pass on a franchise qb because your team sucks. That's weird.

Also, before the season began, CHS--and others--said that no way were the Browns going to be worse than Philly this year. OCD and I even made a wager on that.

Cha-ching.

The Rats don't have a ton of talent, but they know how to win while the Browns know how to lose.

Yeah, they have the culture to win. And Flacco isn't a super star, but is way better than anything we've had

Patrick Peterson's interception from yesterday:

wow

tried to pay attention, but did anybody else notice if Gilbert was active and/or played yesterday?

I did see that Billy Wynn made a few nice plays for INDY

that would be tough... he's on the broncos.

oops my bad

I saw Gilber in uniform on the sidelines yesterday. He had his usual jovial face on.

I saw him too. And speaking of Gilber, what ever happened to EOTAB? I haven't seen a post of his in ages. (Hmmmmmmm, I wonder......)

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

is there a worse defense than NO? my gosh, it was like a sieve last night

and just watching the highlights .. Kruger and Robertson are on the field most of the game for NO

Robertson played an outstanding game last night.

I like Demario.

Would probably take Robertson over Kirksey.

But either would eventually still need replaced.

Falcons ran for 217 yards last night

I watched the game. Did you?

Shanahan's running attack leaves so many gaps it's crazy. given the right OL (Mack included) and stud WR (julio took so much attention) the system is great

I was one of the few who really, really liked Shanny when he was here.

I did not like the hire at first. But, it didn't take long after watching his offense to convert me. It's such an evolved offensive system. And he is one guy who will stick w/the running game.

I was too. I know he's not well liked, but he was at least creative and had a plan with a game.

He also had us playing as well as we ever have for a stretch of a month or so

I didn't watch the game last night, so I have no idea how either guy played ..... but I was curious, so I went and looked up each guy.

Kruger has 5 tackles and 1 fumble recovery in 3 games. He also had a face mask penalty last night.

Robertson looks like a tackling machine with 35 tackles in 3 games.

Man, the Saints have allowed 96 points through 3 games. Yikes. The only team that is worse is the Bucs with 101 points allowed.


We are 13th in the NFL in rushing defense, at 3.9 yards/rush. The Saints allow 5 yards/rush. It is still very early in the season, but we have dramatically improved in that area thus far. We have allowed 2 rushing TDs so far, and there are only 7 teams who have allowed 1 or 0 rushing TDs. The Saints have allowed 6 rushing TDs so far. The Saints are also one of the worst teams as far as allowing rushing 1st downs as well. (with 24 rush 1st downs)

We have allowed 16 rushing 1st downs, which is 14th in the NFL.

Our run defense has really improved this year. It is still early .... but the early returns are encouraging. The pass defense is in the bottom third of the NFL, but given that we have had a lot of very young players, that's not really surprising. Frankly, I am shocked that we are not dead last, given that youth has been served so strongly on the Browns defense. (and on the team, in general)

It was quick to warm up to Shanny... factoring we were running the ball well there prior to the Mack injury warmed our little hearts up real quick to him.

I still think the play, legal or not, where Manziel went to the sidelines confused and etc and they snapped it and he waved JF to go was just a hint to his creativeness.

Are the Vikings the best team in the NFC?

For now.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-vikings-and-ravens-are-in-for-a-rude-awakening/

The Vikings And Ravens Are In For A Rude Awakening
By Chase Stuart

Filed under NFL


The Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings are both 3-0 to start the year, two of just five undefeated teams remaining in the NFL. But given the way that both teams have played so far, there are a lot of questions about how sustainable their success will prove to be as the season continues.

Let’s start with the Ravens. Although 27 other teams wish they had Baltimore’s record, I’m not sure 27 other teams wish they had Baltimore’s team. Being 3-0 is great, but the Ravens have managed to achieve their perfect record while racking up about as few style points as possible.

All three of Baltimore’s games have been close, with the team winning by a combined total of just 13 points. And its three opponents were Buffalo, Cleveland, and Jacksonville — teams with a combined 1-8 record, all of whom ranked in the bottom six of last week’s ESPN Power Rankings. In fact, we noted back in July that the forgiving schedule should help Baltimore get off to a strong start.

What does history say about 3-0 teams that feasted on bad opponents? From 1990 to 2015, 63 teams started the season 3-0 against opponents that, like Baltimore’s foes, went 1-8 through three weeks.1 On average, those teams finished with 10.9 wins — only a little worse than teams who had beaten better opponents:

So maybe the Ravens’ easy schedule isn’t a big concern, but it is smart to be worried about their low points differential. The Ravens have the worst points differential of any 3-0 team since the 2004 Jaguars, who eventually finished the season 9-7. From 1990 to 2015, there were 119 teams that went 3-0 through three weeks, and only four of them — the 2004 Jaguars, 1999 Patriots, 1993 Eagles and 1991 Bears — had a lower points differential than Baltimore does this year.

If we use a simple linear regression between a 3-0 team’s points differential through three games and its final win tally, we’d expect Baltimore (at +13) to win 10 games, implying that they’d go only 7-6 the rest of the way.2 Things were even worse for the 10 lowest-ranked 3-0 teams by points differential: That group averaged just 6.3 wins over the rest of the season. So although Baltimore should be happy with its 3-0 record, a low points differential against a cupcake schedule is enough to fuel skepticism about the team’s chances right now.

The Vikings’ success so far is based on equally unsustainable performances. They’ve compiled their 3-0 mark despite gaining only 796 yards of total offense, becoming only the fifth team since 1990 to start 3-0 with fewer than 800 offensive yards.3 Only one other team this year has played three games4 and produced fewer than 800 yards of offense: Los Angeles, with 788 — and it’s never a good thing to be compared with the Rams’ lowly offense.

Minnesota ranks last in rushing yards per game and rushing yards per carry, so the running game hasn’t powered the Vikings’ undefeated start. The offense is also in the hands of quarterback Sam Bradford, who hasn’t managed many long stretches of competent play over his career. So how have the Vikings raced out to 3-0?

Bradford has a passer rating of 107.8 this year, far above his career rating of 81.6, but two games of solid play don’t overshadow a career of underachievement. (His 22nd-place ranking in Total QBR also suggests that his lofty passer rating will come down to earth soon.) The biggest reasons for Minnesota’s success, then, have little to do with the offense and a lot to do with a fluky scoring performance from its defense and special teams, as well as a sky-high turnover margin.

In terms of fluky scoring, so far this season, Minnesota has scored as many return touchdowns5 (three) as it has offensive touchdowns, and that trend is unlikely to continue. Even good defenses and special-teams units can’t produce return touchdowns every week. Last year, Seattle and Arizona were the only teams with at least three return touchdowns through three games, and they combined for just five more the rest of the season. Digging deeper into history, from 1990 to 2015, there were 22 teams with exactly three return touchdowns after three games, and those teams averaged only 3.3 more return touchdowns the rest of the year.

As for the turnovers, the Vikings have an NFL-best +8 margin in that department through three weeks, and that trend is also unlikely to continue. From 1990 to 2015, 74 teams had a +6 or better turnover margin through three weeks. On average, those teams averaged +7.1 more takeaways than giveaways through three games, but they finished the year with a +9.5 margin. That means that over the remaining 13 games, those teams only had about 2.4 more takeaways than giveaways. Some of the Vikings’ early-season success has been built on performances that are simply not sustainable.

The good news for Minnesota? Last year’s Broncos showed that a defense-driven team can still win a Super Bowl, even when paired with a below-average offense. The Vikings’ defense leads the NFL in sack rate, and the run defense is allowing a mere 3.5 yards per carry. So it would be unfair to describe Minnesota’s 3-0 start as entirely fluky, even if that’s an accurate term for how the team has scored half of its touchdowns. That said, the Vikings have just two runs of 10 or more yards this year, tied with Jacksonville for the fewest in the NFL, and zero runs of 15 or more. And with only six passing plays of at least 20 yards, Minnesota ranks among the bottom three in the NFL in that category, too.

In other words, despite their 3-0 records, Minnesota and Baltimore are each playing with no margin for error right now. Eking out close victories or winning with turnovers and returns can work for a short while, but both methods are cause for plenty of doubts about the teams’ ability to be serious title contenders.

CORRECTION (Sept. 26, 11:15 p.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated the number of games that Sam Bradford has played through the first three weeks of the NFL season. It was two games, not three.