DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2017 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 18 Steelers 21 Post Game Thoughts

Chris Tabor historically has had many special teams flubs. Whether it's last year with all those missed field goals against Miami (Buck stops with him, period)

Or Danny Shelton/Cameron Irving's rookie year, when field goals kept getting blocked.


How about that year when we couldn't find a guy to return punts. We went so far as sending back Jim Leonhard, asking him just to fair catch the things, and we screwed that one up as well.



I've never been impressed with Tabor, and he's stuck, with all the regime changes. It's as if he dates Haslam's daughter or something

They are scheming to avoid big plays on young rush happy D? Keep everything in front.

I was surprised to see how we played with three linebackers. I wonder if this will change once Garrett is back. Schobert got stuck on a wide receiver a couple times.

Kizer was worse than I thought he would be. He held the ball too long and didn't look as composed in the pocket as he did in the preseason. He also missed a few times on open guys down the field. He really has a cannon though. The TD pass to Coleman was incredible. There was also a pass that should have been intercepted, but he threw it so hard the defender dropped it. He's a rookie.

We got a first down anyway, but Kenny Britt dropping that pass was not a good time.

Matthew Dayes was really good on special teams.

Where was Duke Johnson? Are we overhyping him or is he not used enough?

We got no pressure on Roethlisberger. I believe I read we only pressured him twice the whole game. That's really bad.

The run defense was great. Ogunjobi seemed to do a great job stuffing the middle.

Why did Hue Jackson go for it on fourth down late in the game down 11? That didn't make any sense. We need 11 points, kick the field goal, try to get the stop, and then try for a touchdown (we didn't get the ball back anyway). Bag process, good result.

Antonio Brown is unbelievable. I don't know how anyone stops him.

The kicker was good.

Corey Coleman ran some pretty good routes. The one where it was like a fake sluggo route on Haden was pretty cool.

I wish the run game got going more. Only 17 carries for Crowell and three for Dayes.

Something I didnt see mentioned:

Larry Ogunjobi had a fantastic game. Really, really good.

According to ESPN, this is the first time the Browns have scored a TD in the opening quarter of the first game of the season ... since 2010. And that TD came on a pass from Jake Delhomme to Mohammed Massaquoi.

Wow.

How much of this is on the WRs not getting open? I think Kizer showed pretty good poise for a rookie against a tough opponent.

See, I saw it differently. It was 4th and 2 and we were right near the end zone. If we were going to be able to score a TD, that was the time to do it. Kicking a field goal, we'd still have to hope for some prayer to get us back to the end zone.



It worked out, and gave us a chance to tie the game (or even win it). Unfortunately, Antonio made an acrobatic catch and we never got the ball back.

But I liked going for it there. Made sense to me. Much easier to score a TD from there, get the ball back, and kick a field goal. Field position-wise, that was to our advantage there, and we needed to execute if we were going to win or tie either way


EDIT: But.......



Here I agree with you. Kizer is getting a lot of praise, but I feel like most praise is deserved for our defense. That and our O-Line.

Kizer did some things well, but all those sacks were ridiculous. They make everything much harder. Losing 6 yards and a down all the time just sucks.

I really hope he can get that all figured out.



They kept saying that the offense did very well against a very good Pitt defense, but I kinda thought that Pitt looked pretty bad in general. Not the Super Bowl contenders that I kept hearing about pre-season

A kicker that can't get it between the uprights, cam erving getting knocked on his sorry but and Ed Reynolds was the best that dumpster of a roster had to offer for returns..but it's all tabor's fault. Perhaps we should fire Hugh for not taking us to the playoffs with all the talent we had last year.

I understand why Jackson did it, I just wouldn't have. If we don't convert the fourth down we lose the game for sure. There was too much risk involved.

Overall pretty pleased with what I saw, thought I'm fighting the notion to be happy with "moral victories"..

Kizer needs to throw the ball away for his own safety and to prevent negative plays.
Run defense was spectacular except at the very end when we needed the ball back.
OL will gel as the season moves along, a lot of new pieces there.
Blocked punt, dude just came basically unblocked. It was a missed assignment, confusion, whatever.. Glad we didn't just cave after that.
We have a DC who outcoached the Steelers offense..
Steelers head shots were ridiculous, they should be writing some big checks this week.
This team REALLY needs to win a couple games in the first 4 or 5 weeks of the season. I'm sure they are upset they lost but they see the bright spots as well... and they NEED to see the effort turn into Ws sooner rather than later to build some morale.

If you had told me before the game that the Browns would lose by 3 largely because of a blocked punt TD.. I would have thought, "typical Browns".. but I wouldn't have been terribly upset.

Disappointing stat of the day, Ben Roethlisburger has won more games in Cleveland stadium than any Browns QB since it opened in 1999.. New ways to highlight our ineptitude..

Go Tribe!

Edit: Almost forgot, blowing 2 timeouts at the end on the challenge was the only real coaching blunder I saw all day..

Did this really happen? I was watching and couldn't believe that was the case. I thought I missed us using a timeout earlier.

One more thing:

How is it that Roethlisberger didn't get a penalty when he grabbed Ogbah by the leg after the interception? The ref was literally standing right there.

lol he held on like his life depended upon it.

No he called timeout to stop the clock. Which he should have done anyway

He lost the last TO on bad challenge

i'll be honest, I would have called timeout ... then seen the replay and challenged it just like Hue did. I never saw Brown bobble/drop the ball at first glance. Of course, I don't have anyone checking replays or anything like that.

Is the wasted timeout why we lost? No. The blocked punt and Antonio Brown is why we lost

Kozer impressed, first game vs a a team most have in the SB. For once the 3 and 4th quarter are watchable , Ben always has that broken play that kills us. Kizer meed to learn touch not every throw like a laser beam. Coleman the omly WR we have. Bardnidge would have been nice to have today. Britt stealing money, we miss T Pryor. I did not hear he has all day to throw, a welcome change. With Garrett this D will be nasty. Crow still falls if you touch his shoelace.

crow always seems to have a weird lean or something ... he's like stumbling instead of cutting. but I will say that his pass pro was really why I was upset

I don't know but it sure was funny.

I don't know if it was the angle, but it looked to me like Kasen Williams should have been able to stay in bounds on that deep ball. Kenny Britt had the bad drop. Kizer's numbers were okay, but those 2 connect and they look pretty great. He needs to speed things up, but we've got something to work with.

We were just a couple plays here and there from an opening day win (easy to say, I know). That's progress. Have some things to clean up, but we looked competent for the most part.

The front 7 was getting after it. I can't wait for Myles to get back. The game "sealing" scramble-heave to AB probably doesn't happen if he's in there.

What was up with the holding call on Meder? I've seen them called on screens, but on a running play?

Kindred looked much improved. Peppers did a pretty good job of corraling AB in the open field. Need to clean up the communication a little bit, but the safeties pleasantly surprised.

We sure do. Hostile environment for a rookie QB but there's a project worth while to work with and pray he can improve.

I agree too, Kindred looked great.

Impressed overall by the performance but I'm am trying to temper my expectations. Bad Browns teams have kept it close with other teams before. It's football- that's the way it goes. An argument could be made that Pittsburgh just played worse than expected, too.

That said:

I really like Kizer's play. Like many have said, that internal clock needs to get a bit quicker but there is just something about him that has me excited and confident that he'll continue to get better.

Coleman, too: I liked what I say out of him. Hopefully, those two and continue to build upon the chemistry.

The defense continued it's theme from preseason of being fast and relentless to the ball.

Crowell was just Crowell. Nothing special. He'll continue to keep the defense honest because at some point, he will break one open. It's just that it's few and far between, IMO. I'm worried about the running game this year. I don't think Duke can run between the tackle well and Dayes is an unknown. Hopefully we'll see better games from the Crow. I expect so.

Saw Tretter get blown up on a run play. Looked pretty bad. Outside of that I thought Pass Pro was very good.

I thought the secondary played well and it's always a tough matchup playing A. Brown. He is just so good out there.

There's no reason to call a TO if you even remotely think you'll challenge. Just throw the challenge flag. It's the same thing as a timeout. There's no reason to risk the chance of burning two TOs.

That was terrible as well as Hue not using his TOs at the end of the first half. When the other team has goal to go calling TOs doesn't help them at all but it does help you so there is more time on the clock to try and score before the half. I see this mistake over and over again across the NFL and consistently with Hue.

I thought I saw Tretter get blown up several times.

He certainly could have. There was just one that stood out to me. I might go back and re-watch the game to see, but losses are so tough to relive.

Oh, and can someone break down what the hell happened with the TO and challenge? I think I got up from the couch and missed the timeout part, saw the challenge fail, and then after the break, PIT was kneeling to run out the clock.

Seemed like something bad happened.

Hue called a TO after the Brown circus catch.

During the TO he decided to challenge the play.

He lost the challenge. Bye bye last TO.

It was a poor decision any way you slice it.

Yep it was. I was cursing hue from my living room couch

Man, I was hoping we'd get past the game management issue.

The D is legit. Held the Steelers to 14 points. Offense not where it needs to be. Oline? Not sure we are as good as we thought we might be. Allowed to many sacks, we didn't run effectively.

Kiser has the skills I think. First game in the NFL against the tough team.. He's smart, he'll learn. I'm good so far with him.

I can't believe the hit that Coleman took for the TD.. wow, and he got up and walked away. Ricardo Lewis had some nice catches.. Njuko had a nice one.

I was disappointed that Haden was cut but I paid attention to him yesterday and I can see why. He's not the Joe Haden of old. Still, he'll be missed until we get a real replacement.

I think the components of a solid Offense are there, they just need time to grow together.

Average team age is 25.. Very young team. They will improve.

I get that you have a really wide TV, but how do you know that it didn't happen like this.

--Brown makes the catch

--Hue calls TO to stop the clock

--An assistant reviews the replay during the timeout and let's Hue know that the ball came loose

--Hue then challenges the play?

I think Hue should have challenged the call. I told my son I could see that review going either way, but you still have to challenge it considering the time and score of the game.

On the surface it appears that but for the either the blocked punt or the INT, we could have won, but I have to wonder what the outcome would have been had the Squealers not had a 144 yards in dirty penalties. They certainly extended our two TD drives so who knows? Had they decided to play it clean, it could have been a blowout.

I don't agree, vers. It wasn't even close to being a non-catch. Along with losing the final timeout, they then went 15 yards on a run play, iirc.. Ball game .

At first I would have agreed, but with all of the "complete the process of the catch" stuff that has gone on in the past I can see where it may be considered incomplete. The NFL is very, very inconsistent at calling what a catch is. To me, it was a catch, but we've seen times where the "process was not complete" on what appeared to be a catch - iirc it was a Calvin Johnson non-catch that looked to be one that started all of this.

Tough take the way it turned out, but imagine the outrage had Hue not challenged.

I was speaking more of Rish's claim that Hue blew the two TO's by not just challenging the call first. I was suggesting that perhaps someone from the box contacted Hue to challenge the ruling on the field and it was NOT a mismanagement of the clock like he is claiming.

I've cooled down a bit after the loss. Regardless of having a young team lead by a rookie QB, the expectation for me is still high/perfection.

Kizer was decent. He definitely looks the part, and can make the throws. The one knack against him was holding on to the ball too long. If there is no one open, then he needs to have conversations with Hue to have more hot routes available on the plays being called.

Run game was ehhh. Crow had his typical carries where he gets immediately hit at the line, and his typical 4-5 yards per carry. Only thing missing were the big runs. I think he is highly underrated as a pass catcher. I was also a little irked that Dayes got so much playing time. Crow and Duke should be getting those opportunities.

Defense.. Our formations make me nervous. Stack the line with 9 players and play two deep.. if anyone's assignment beats them, its a wrap. We were fortunate to have succcess. I really wanted to see Boddy play man on Brown. Brown was killing our zone coverage.

Run defense. I likes.
Pass rush.. disappointed. Ben had all day to make decisions for majority of his attempts.

Really like what I saw in Schobert. He has some hustle in him. Although Brown caught the tipped ball, Schobert's effort to even make a play on the ball to me was impressive.

Yea let's not forget the infamous no catch call on dez Bryant against he packers in the playoffs a few seasons ago.

I'm ok with Hue challenging that.

- Surprised that the D did not blitz much at all ... after all the talk about how much a Greg Williams D blitzes and how aggressive they are. Maybe a reaction to Joe jumping to Pit - maybe a reaction to MG being out?

- Pit play calling early was predicated on a LOT of fast throws and WR screens. We handled them brilliantly. In past years we've seen Browns defenses gouged by these types of plays. It speaks well of tackling and discipline.

- Hard to hold down a future HOF QB, the NFL's best WR and one of the top 3 RB's ... regardless of hold outs (Bell) or how they prep'd in the preseason. Holding that team to 2 TD's is really outstanding.

- Blocked punt - pure fluke or damning indictment on ST play??? I do not know - hopefully that is the low point of the season because I know every one of us had a pit in the bottom of our stomachs and thought 'oh no we are the same old Browns' at that point.

- Kizer was ok. Showed some ability and some pocket presence... held on to the ball too long and s.l.o.w to move on from his primary.... as long as he shows improvement through the season the signs are very encouraging. . . . he needs to NOT take hits. Even on the TD, I hated the call despite the result.

- Crow was pretty much what we've seen for the last couple years. Seems to run into the back of his blockers. Seems to be off balance and fall/tackle easily. Duke I guess was hurt on the sideline block? He made a nice 1st down beating off tacklers and making a move.

- WR's other than Coleman look like a work in progress - I liked the look of the Kasen Williams .... not withstanding the OB catch.... he looked like he has good hands and got separation. . . . Britt is Dwayne Bowe mark II until he does something. Maclin, Decker, any one of a number of other options seem like it would have been a better option at this point.

OL - Played well enough ... I think Coleman at RT had a good game since I didn't see constant pressure from that side or notice any glaring issues. I am hoping for more in future games.

Encouraged provided we see improvement through the season - from Kizer, from the WR's and the running game.

*** I thought Pittsburgh lead with their helmets for most of the game - just looked dirty and I was really pissed. Especially with Shazier and TJ Watt's hit on Kizer - and the Coleman TD hit .... and Personally if they have one play like that again in a future game I retaliate and try to lay a helmet on Ben or Brown or Bell. To hell with it.