DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2016 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 20 Redskins 31 Postgame Thoughts

Another? When have we ever had a 3-4-5 year rebuild plan seen though?

Yep. SF has won multiple Super Bowls, but there might have been more Cowboy fans at SF today than 49er fans.

We all argue a lot. I think it is mostly because we are all so freaking frustrated w/losing. I know I am!

But..........damn man....we have great fans and it irritates me when some posters act like our fans suck. The Browns should be thankful there are so many loyal people like us.

I keep saying I don't care anymore, but it's not really true.

<<sigh>>

Why should it take us 3-4-5 years to accomplish what other teams achieve in 1-2 years? I'm not even talking about contending for a SB, how about just not being an embarrassment as a franchise?? Win some frigging games!

We haven't. Problem is that when the losses mount, Jimmy "the Crook" fires everyone.

Why will it be different this time?

I actually didnt think that this time. I mean you have to give them a little credit. They came back after going down 14-0.

We did come back. But, in the end, we found a way to lose. Like I said earlier, as soon as we took the lead.............I started thinking about how would we blow it this time.


I wonder if the players had similar thoughts?

Losing breeds losing.

Kessler has been better than I expected, but he can't make all the throws. McCown should play when he is healthy because we nee dour young receivers to be able to go go downfield. Kessler is what he is, he can't throw downfield.

The defense is terrible. Many of the guys who played significant snaps today should not be playing that much in the NFL (Poyer, Meder, Paea, Davis, and several more). Shelton has played well, but was non-existent today. Haden seemed to play well against Jackson (I didn't see much on the PI against him, if anything I thought it was defensive holding).

Pryor is very good and he is still very raw. I thought he could have gone up stronger on the Kessler INT. He also gives up yards too easily (running backwards). He is learning fast and will probably have these things figured out soon.

The new center looked pretty good. It also looks like he blew out his knee.

I really think this 0-4 feels different, and yes, I am aware of how pathetic that sounds. They are fighting, they are young and they seem to buy in. For now.

J/c

No matter what else happens during a game you can't win if you turn the ball over 3 times.

I thought this was a very good game plan from both sides of the ball. Hue have the Run game going and managed Kessler through his play-calling.

On the whole the defense limited the Redskins offense which is quite potent. There were there were more than a couple guys here and there like having Demario Davis play the Middlefield hole in the cover-2 in the red zone that doesn't make sense to me when you have Christian Kirksey on your roster. But on the whole again with limited personnel the defense played about as well as can be expected.

Bottom line is you can't turn the ball over.

yep. the three TO's and the PI call were the biggest plays of the game

Malcolm's fumble was especially huge IMO

When he ran the ball I mentally left out a "WTF?"

So Johnson is in the concussion protocol and Crowell needs a breather. That means you don't get to run the ball.

I'm going to be contrary to most people on here and talk about a few things that are very encouraging that a lot of us are criticizing.

1) Play calling. For the most part, I really like the play calling. What Hue has done to mask some of Kessler's flaws is amazing. The difference with Crow in a power running scheme is night and day and our guards are really doing well with second level blocks and pulls in the running game.

2) The front office. We are picking up guys that are on the waiver wire and getting contributions from them. Reiter, Paea, Calhoun, Cam Johnson, Holmes, and Lemonier have all been pleasant surprises and I am sure I am forgetting a couple.

3) We have been in every game and I don't see anyone quitting. We do have guys making boneheaded mistakes that cost us games, but I expected a young team to make boneheaded mistakes.

4) Next man up mentality. If there is one thing that kills a young team more than anything, it's injuries. We have already had more than our fair share and guys are getting thrown in that would normally have the luxury of learning on the practice squad for a year. I have yet to hear any excuses from players or coaching staff.

Sorry for being different and trying to add some optimism here, but I for one like the direction that we are going. There are plenty of things that I can complain about if I wanted to, but there of plenty of guys here that have the complaints covered.

Congrats! The only team in the league without a win.

I'm seeing exactly what I wanted to see: a young team that is making progress, albeit in little steps, a young team that has been competitive in all the games (until the simple lack of depth shows up), and a coaching staff who calls plays that keep a young team in the games.

Are there some head-scratchers being called? Yep. Are there some dumb mistakes? Yep.

I can live with that, as long as the mistakes diminish, and the play calling gets a bit better.

We'll see what we have at the end of the year.

If you are going to run Duke, don't run him up the middle. He's not a power runner like Crow. Duke is one of the best assets on this O and he is being misused.

Crow needs 20-25 touches per game, period. He is running like his life depends on it and doing a great job.

Pryor disappeared in the 2nd half I assume to half time adjustments and double coverage. We need one of these other guys to be a deep threat and kessler needs to take deep shots early and often to open things up. I'd much rather see a deep INT than a dink dunk INT.

I think Kessler at minimum will make a good backup for years to come. However, I also think he has enough talent to start for us; he just needs time to develop. He could be our Andy Dalton.

I wish Hue would stick with what is working, I don't want to see Pryor line up at QB when the kid is moving us downfield. I don't want to see Duke up the middle when Crow is killing it. I don't want to see Malcomb carrying the ball when he has never done it.

After Pryor was taken out of the equation, why weren't we targeting Barnidge more? Why did Telfer (sp?) play so much? Where did all our WRs disappear to?

I think Kessler is tough, accurate and composed. He's going to make rookie mistakes as he grows, I'd like to get that out of the way this season. No need to start Josh when he comes back and we can move on from RG3 whenever we're ready imho.

Josh Gordon sucks. If he had been playing, regardless of his actual contributions, we would have won this game. Just another bizarre way we found to lose yet again.

Glad the kicker got it together. I would have cut him, happy we didn't right now.

Oline looked better today. Dline struggled to generate pressure without a 5th man. I think Nassib is missed right now. I really like Ogbah and Meder. When healthy we have the talent to be very good. New guy showed up nice a couple times too.

Just one observation/comment:

I like some of what Kessler has shown thus far .... but man, it is extremely hard to complete 75% of your passes and average only 5.5 yards/throw.

I think that he has some really good throws today. The TD pass was thrown in a perfect spot. I like that he takes what's available, but he has solid pass blocking on many plays that he quickly checked down. He has to take some shots down the field. I think that he has enough arm to succeed in the NFL, but he cannot continue to just dink and dink and dink.

Remember part of that is his throws to receivers 5 yards behind the los that got tackled immediately. That happened a few times today.

Yeah, that's true ... but still .... when completing 75% of your passes the bare minimum average should be 7-7.5 yards/throw. (and should really be even higher than that)

He throws nothing downfield. The only one I really remember was the one to Louis.

Yeah, and that's a concern.

I have long held the position that it is easier to rein in a risk taking QB than it is to get an overly careful QB to take shots down the field. If he is going to succeed at this level, then he needs to be able to take shots when they are there.

Not only that, but our young receivers need to develop their game and that includes running all the routes (and getting the ball when they do).

And that could be a contributing factor, but I saw Kessler check down rather quickly on several occasions where he had a beautiful pocket, and could have held the ball 1 extra second to try and let someone get open. (or to see where he could throw a receiver open)

if a game is close or we're ahead, kessler can maintain ... he knows what the defense is giving him

He just struggles to push iit down the field

Putting Duke in the wildcat was dumb. No one believes he will throw it, IMO Hue got too cute with the play calling.
Crowell was getting great blocking, and he's was hitting the hole with power/speed. In the second half our OL was dominating the Skins' DL.

The PI on Haden was just a terrible call, I'm watching the replay and it's like 'where's the penalty?'

The Malcolm fumble was a killer - we should have come away from there with at least three, and if we find the end zone there, the win was ours.
Kessler has shown a lot of things you want in a QB, but his arm is barely average. If that.
Nice to see the kicker redeem himself, he's got plenty of leg.
Another loss, but the wins wil come soon - probably not against the pats though.

the duke wildcat was dumb, so was Pryor back there and sprinting straight to the sideline

I do think Hue gets too cute sometimes with shifts/concepts

especially with the lack of playmakers we have

Damn don't you work (kidding)

Kessler is looking more comfortable back there.

Crow was a beast

Turnovers lost this game for us.

Pryor was very solid as well, but temper temper.

Lots is being made out of Hue letting the FB run the ball. What's the big deal, he's being paid to do a job, he didn't succeed at it yesterday.

But Crow needed to sit a moment and Duke was being checked for concussion. So Hue did what he thought was right, and it didn't work. Hue said this in his presser.

Honestly, I think this team is exciting to watch.. I don't like the results so far, but they are exciting.

You and me both Brother !

I'm with you Lamp .. If your going to run the WILDCAT it has to be Pryor .. Are u kidding me .. He is BY FAR the best player EVER to run the wild cat with ... A VERY ATHELETIC, HUGE ex QB with POWER and SPEED to spare ...

The first time he did it I was CUSSING at the TV ... Then he did it one or two more times and Pryor NEVER TOOD A SNAP ...

Hue has ISSUES IMO when it comes to play calling ..

- he gets way to cute ... WAY TO CUTE ...
- in the BIGGEST SITUATIONS he does the DUMBEST THINGS ..

Hue does get too cute at times and putting Duke in the Wildcat instead of Pryor is dumb.

On the other hand, Hue is devising very good game plans that are masking how weak Kessler is and how he is getting quite a bit out of not-so-talented offensive personnel.

We are four games in and people are already grumbling about the play calling. That is one of the troubles w/losing game after game after game. Imagine what will be said when we win 3 or less games this year and only have a win or two halfway through next season.

Do you trust Jimmy to tune out the negative waterfall that will come crashing down on Hue and the organization?

I'm sure this is a repeat...

Another game we should have, could have won. We always find a way to mess it up. This game it came in the form of fumbles.

Bright side, we're closer to the #1 overall selection.

yep, rinse and repeat

I just wish we wouldn't completely fall apart after one bad thing happens ... whether it's a bad penalty, turnover, miscue, etc .. it's like we have no resolve

in years past I thought it was a lack of leadership and toughness, but this year I actually think it's more of a lack of experience across the board

j/c:

CLE-WAS GRADES: RUSHING GAME PUSHES REDSKINS PAST BROWNS



Quarterback grade: Cody Kessler, 46.6

Kessler does not provide downfield threat

Although Kessler connected on 77.8 percent of his aimed passes, this figure is deceiving, as the average depth of his targets was just 5.3 yards against Washington. It seemed like the Browns’ risk-averse game plan was designed so Kessler couldn’t lose the game for them, but he couldn’t win it with his arm, either. For most of the afternoon, the former USC quarterback took good care of the ball and was accurate on 26 of his 29 passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. However, he attempted only seven passes that travelled more than 10 yards in the air, and forced one such throw to Pryor that was picked off by Norman in the second half.

Cody Kessler passing under pressure versus Redskins


Top offensive grades:

RB Isaiah Crowell, 84.1

LG Joel Bitonio, 80.3

LT Joe Thomas, 79.0

RT Austin Pasztor, 75.9

RG John Greco, 68.6

Crowell shines as other Cleveland runners struggle

Cleveland’s running game had mixed success, as fullback Malcolm Johnson lost the football on his first carry of the season, and Duke Johnson also had a fumble. However, on the other hand, starter Isaiah Crowell had a terrific day. Cleveland’s No. 1 runner forced eight missed tackles on just 16 carries, and he also averaged exactly 6 yards after contact. Interestingly, while Cleveland’s runners averaged just 2.6 yards outside the tackles, they were able to gain 8.2 yards on average between the tackles.

Top defensive grades:

CB Jamar Taylor, 81.5

DE Stephen Paea, 78.2

NT Danny Shelton, 76.8

NT Jamie Meder, 75.5

DE Xavier Cooper, 74.3

Browns’ inability to defend against the run leads to loss

While Cleveland defenders recorded 19 defensive stops—which represent tackles that constitute an offensive failure—they missed nine tackles, as seven different Browns defender missed at least one tackling attempt. Also, Cleveland had several key contributors who earned a run-defense grade below 50.0 in this game, including linebackers Demario Davis and Chris Kirksey.

PFF Game-Ball Winner: Redskins RB Matt Jones
https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-cle-was-grades/

j/c:

We badly need an upgrade at Free Safety. Poyer is not good.

I am surprised that Greco's grade is not higher. He was doing a tremendous job of sealing his man and providing holes for Crow.

I think Poyer was much better than Kindred. Kindred should not ever be the deep safety. He made the wrong choice in almost every instance yesterday, especially around the goal line.

Yes, Greco had a great game. The entire line did for the most part.