DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2017 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 10 Ravens 24 We need a win.

It goes without saying.

"You play to win the game"

But with such a young team. We really, really need a win. Moral victories won't do for much longer.

General opinion of our season last year was LOLBROWNS. What a lot of them forget, is that the first half of the year we were the "tough team, that couldn't catch a break" then we were served up to Tom Brady's return and well.. Lol, Browns.

To be able to build on the "good" showing we had last week. We need a win.

Baltimore is coming in high off of a dismantling of the Bengals. But Flacco isn't anywhere near 100%, and wasn't asked to do much but hand off last week.

Show the world our run defense wasn't a fluke.

Show the world that Kizer can learn from his mistakes.

Show the team. That all the work you put it. It matters.

We need a win.

Screw Baltimore....we're winning this game

I agree w/you.

There is a lot of positive talk from the fans on this board. Even many members of the national media are saying the Browns are improved. They got noticed.

The team probably feels pretty good that they "hung" w/the Steelers.

But, the reality is that they were 1 and 15 last year and are 0 and 1 this year.

Continuing to lose games puts a damper on the "moral victories." After awhile, players begin to question the coaches and their teammates. Coaches begin to question the players that the FO provided them. The FO questions the coaches. The owner questions everyone but the opinions of the fans and the media, because the bottom line is that this is a business designed to make as much of a profit as possible.

Getting some wins is huge for this team.

I think this week provides a good opportunity to get one of those wins. It won't be easy, but we have a shot. I think.

Raven_Killer is long overdue!

When haven't we needed a win? I saw a much improved team last week. Keep improving and start winning.

There's no sports team I dislike more than the Baltimore Models. That hatred aside, it would be nice to get a W, not just to boost the confidence of a young team, but to give fans a little more hope.
A win Sunday would be huge.

no doubt here

We're winning Sunday. It's a good spot for the Browns. Im going to put down some money that they win outright.

I'm a little more pessimistic. I think their defense is good, especially the front 7. I do think it'll be low scoring, so maybe I'd bet the under

Win this one for The Ravenkiller. Always want him mentioned for these games.

We could shock them plenty.

Get one.

Rats are a mirror image of us in that there d is very good and the O is light years behind ...

The difference in this game to me is the OL's ... balt's is HORRIBLE ...

We should win ...

you know, eotab, beating Baltimore who just thumped cinci, could signal the beginning of a sea change within the afc north. it would also signal that we are capable of winning multiple games within our division which would be very nice.

it was nice hearing what Ben r. had to say about our d. The commentators of the game Sunday also said a lot of nice things during the game. been a while since that happened.

I am not so sure we outplayed them. That last drive, where we defintiely needed a stop, we did not stop them. That drive could have easily been points had it not been the end of the game. I would call it even at best.

No doubt we need a win. As many have said, you can only talk about improvements for so long. It has to start showing up in the won/loss column. Unlike last year, if we don't start winning, Hue stands a good chance of losing the team. Guys only buy in for so long before they opt out.

I am not saying it will happen as soon as this game, but this would be a darn good game to make a statement. Put all that other crap to bed. A win here could change the whole season. A loss? Well, it won't sink us at this point, but it puts us a game closer.

Let's just avoid that. Go out, be a bully and win the game.

I agree Ball that we need a win and it sure would be nice. Where I didn't agree is that Hue should not lose this team at least at this point. He didn't drop passes. miss the block on the punt or let AB catch all those passes and run wild. We had a good game plan our players didn't execute it fully by making mistakes. That's to be expected by the youngest team in the league but mistakes nonetheless. I believe this team is coached very well in all 3 phases. It's now up to them to minimize mistakes and execute. Their culpable if not.

The highest the expectation the biggest the disappointment.

The Ravens just torched a much better team than us, better O better D.

I would like to see an improvement on the secondary and to see Kizer continue to develop.

This game has the potential to be a blow up, not only O but on D, so if we can prevent that, I'm ok.

Now, I don't know how people are getting so excited. Most probably we will get torched.

Baltimore pass O will burn our DB's, it will be ugly. Only way that they don't torch us is if they don't need it and display a solid run game, I'm not that convinced of our running, it will be a major development if we can contain Baltimore on the ground.

Baltimore pass D will also be a major problem....

baby steps.. Baby steps, Crawl before you walk, walk before you run. From what I saw of our O last week, we are much improved but with a LONGGGGGG way to go. Our D is killer but still, we could use some improvement. (when isn't that the case)

We've only played one game this season, talking about improvement is perfectly acceptable at this point, but it won't last long. At some point, the score board has to do the talking.

I didn't see the Cinci/Bmore game last week but 20-0 Ravens says something.. Not sure what.

I've read that the Ravens D is really pretty good.

Those of you that saw that game, how do you think the Ravens D stacks up to the Steelers D. Better/Worse?

Cinci is not better than us ... NOT EVEN CLOSE ...

Ps. Baltimore isn't as good as us either .. you'll see Sunday ...

Folks are still living in the past ... CINCI IS A BAD FOOTBALL TEAM THIS YEAR .. VERY BAD ... and Balt. Is not good either ..

Balt's D is beyond legite ... there O STINKS ... as bad or worse than ours ... their OL is HORRIBLE!!! And their skill position players leave ALOT TO BE DESIRED!!!

Uh-huh...

Speaking of ugly:

Flacco week 1: 17 for 9 that's 52.9% for 121yds with 1 TD & 1 INT and a 71.0 rating.

It's not that I disagree with what everyone is saying (paraphrasing: screw moral victories, we should start winning). You guys are correct in that we need to get this ship turned around (culturally, performance-wise, etc.), and to do that, you need to win. This supposed tension in the FO is gone when we start winning. Players getting frustrated and mailing it in at the halfway point of the season, turnover in the roster, non-development of players (see previous), gaining the ability to finish games... all that starts going away when we start winning. It's important and it's the next step.

But

I'm not so naive that I'm going to change my whole outlook of this team due to one game (a loss, at that). When I looked at the team and set my expectations at the beginning of the season, I said that I would try not to pay attention to wins and losses. I would pay attention to what the team looked like when they played. Did you know they were going to lose when the score was still 0's, or did they look competent and could actually do some things? As well as they did on Sunday, I'm not about to raise my expectations because of 1 game. They could just as easily take a step back this week, letting off the gas because they're facing a weaker opponent after doing well against a better one.

Nope. I've been a fan long enough that I know these feelings. You're not getting me this time, Browns.

I thought he was 16-31, with 4 INT's?

Are you thinking of Dalton?

Sure was. Sorry, my bad.

Do the Browns present a trap game for Baltimore?

by Jacob Louque Sep 14, 2017, 6:00am EDT

The Baltimore Ravens are off to a good start after they went into Cincinnati and shellacked the Bengals on their way to a 20-0 road win. It really was a huge effort, and especially important considering they’ve only won four road games going back the past two years. They’ll definitely look to keep things rolling in their home opener versus the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, a team that they typically get it done against (as do most teams).

However, there are a few reasons why the Browns may present a bigger challenge in Week 2 than they have in the past. They played host to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, with the heavily favored latter team barely squeaking out a 21-18 victory thanks to a big special teams play as well as a mammoth of a game from wide receiver Antonio Brown. So what are some of the reasons that the Browns could produce a similar close effort in Baltimore on Sunday? Let’s take a look at three:

The Browns defensive athleticism

Since taking over in Cleveland, the Browns current front office regime has been unable to shake the “moneyball” tag whether people are using it in a derogatory fashion or not. Regardless, it’s hard to argue with the speed they’ve added to Hue Jackson’s squad on both sides of the ball. This season, it’s already beginning to show, particularly on defense. Number one overall pick Myles Garrett, the biggest freak on their team, wasn’t even suited up against Pittsburgh, and even without him, the Browns looked pretty athletic. Christian Kirksey is a big name player in that mold, but even beyond him there are lesser known players that pose a similar threat such as Joe Schobert, Jamar Taylor, Carl Nassib, and safeties Derrick Kindred and Jabrill Peppers. The Ravens offense will need to be ready to ground and pound as they did against the Bengals if they’re going to matchup with the Browns D.

Another sluggish effort from the passing game

The Ravens offense as a whole wasn’t terrible in Week 1, but it’s clear the gameplan was to simply do what they had to do and get out of the way of the defense and special teams. They ran the ball well against an athletic Cincinnati defense, but as was just mentioned, the Browns have speed and physicality on that side of the ball as well. As it’s unlikely that the Ravens defense will produce five turnovers again, the passing game will probably have to pick up more of the slack. Joe Flacco gets a mulligan for a pedestrian stat line as it was clear they wanted to ease him back into action, but he’ll certainly need to get things going in Week 2 for the offense to maintain a little bit more balance going forward into this season.

DeShone Kizer

The Browns spent all offseason (literally up until the end of August) waffling over the quarterback position, which is something they’ve been doing since Bernie Kosar threw his last pass in their uniform. Hue Jackson finally decided to go with rookie DeShone Kizer as his starter, the second round pick from Notre Dame with unique traits and high upside. Actually, unique might not be the right word; Kizer is unique in the sense that he actually looks the part of an AFC North quarterback, unlike a lot of his predecessors. This was on display in his first NFL touchdown:

On the sneak, the 6’4” Kizer gets walloped by linebacker Tyler Matakevich and still manages to plunge into the endzone. Not only did he score on the play, but he popped right up, clearly pumped to prove that he belongs in the NFL. While he made some mistakes like holding onto the ball too long and throwing a pick, it could be argued from his debut that Kizer very much looks like the guy that Cleveland has been looking for since 1999. He’ll be tested by a rugged Ravens defense that shut down veteran Andy Dalton in Week 1. But if he shows the same moxie that he did against Pittsburgh, there’s no reason the rookie can’t at least keep things somewhat close.

While they’ll have several days to prepare for a team that they usually manage to sweep each season, the Ravens would be wise not to overlook the Browns on Sunday. For the reasons listed, they might just prove to be a tougher test than normal. Considering they kept things so close with the supposed class of the AFC North in Week 1, they could in fact show an ability to so in Baltimore’s home opener.

Link

We have a shot to win our next 5 games, but, we need to focus on one at a time ... JMHO

I would say that every team needs a win every Sunday. Isn't that the object of playing a game, to win?

Winning games is all about execution. As we saw with the blocked punt last week, one big drop by Britt and others I could mention, with a young team you simply aren't hitting on all cylinders at the beginning of the season. Now that doesn't mean we can't win and from a talent standpoint I think we match up pretty good. My question is with so many young players that haven't had the time to build as a cohesive unit, will we execute enough of the time to win the game?

To me that's a big question mark. We have a QB that is not only starting his second game in the NFL, but also doesn't have a ton of NCAA experience. There will be growing pains. And no matter how much the fans clamor, improvement is all we can realistically expect.

We do have a chance in this game and hope springs eternal. But people need to keep in mind that a lot of our roster are first and second year players. As such, maturity isn't our strong suit and execution may be sporadic.

We need a win badly. We got a whiff of winning in preseason. But I believe we need a win against the Rats, and a no-doubter. We need to beat them, Harbaugh, Flacco, everybody and make it a convincing win. We owe them some punishment, an insult-to-injury win.

Once upon a time, you paid a price, win or lose, for playing Cleveland. In division, these games need to be a Nasty Bowl. Get your edge back, bring some swagger, and let it fly. This D is starting to bring that identity back IMO. But you gotta notch some wins to keep it growing. Punish them, no stupid, blind luck.

Cinci is not better than us ... NOT EVEN CLOSE ...

Ps. Baltimore isn't as good as us either .. you'll see Sunday ...

Folks are still living in the past ... CINCI IS A BAD FOOTBALL TEAM THIS YEAR .. VERY BAD ... and Balt. Is not good either ..

Balt's D is beyond legite ... there O STINKS ... as bad or worse than ours ... their OL is HORRIBLE!!! And their skill position players leave ALOT TO BE DESIRED!!!

I hope you're right. We need a win!!!

It's a fact that 7 1/2 point dawgs win ~ 25% of the time.

Pick a number from 1 to 4.

The biggest thing I worry about is that the Ravens KNOW how to win. It may seem like an intangible and obscure point, but we've all seen teams like the Ravens, Steelers, and Patriots steal victory from the jaws of defeat, while we steal defeat from the jaws of victory. It's a hard culture to overcome. I hope that we do.

I'm hopeful after seeing how intense our guys played last weekend that we are on the way of buying in and believing in ourselves. I was definitely pumped to see how Kizer reacted when he snuck in for that TD. It wasn't showboating, it wasn't over-the-top, it wasn't ill-timed. It was an airing of confidence from a position who is supposed to lead the team.

I just hope we can keep that faith and confidence. I hope we can find that spark like we did in '07 when DA and the offense hung up 51 on the Bengals. I think this is one of those pivotal games. Hopefully we capitalize against a team that is already very used to winning. It's no easy task.

The biggest mistake a lot of people make is looking at a snap shot, week one, and believing that is some indicator of what you'll see in a feature length film.

I agree Pit. Week 1 is only 1 of 16 segments. How many times have you seen a team play well 1 week and lousy the next. Happens all the time. I hope the way our Browns played week 1 is an indicator of what the season will be like but until we do it consistently and turn a good effort into wins it doesn't mean much.

Sound take.

I think we all saw enough to be encouraged and have some hope. However, we lost a home game and our 1 and 16 in our last 17. We are 4 and 29 in our last 33.

Probably not a good idea to run around talking about how we are better than other teams like the Bengals and Rats.

I'm NOT saying we won't be better than them, but I don't think we have earned the right to start the bravado at this point.

Let's win a few games before we start beating our chests.

Karma is a [you know what.]

Our D is good ... that was no first week fluke ... we FINALLY have TALENT on that side of the ball .... and just as importantly we have talent to fit the new dc's scheme ... hes agressive and we have some EXCELLENT down hill players ...

Collins and Kirksey were born to play in Williams scheme ... and there damm good football players ... Schubert can run also ... we have some good DLman and Peppers can run also ...

Our d's good ... another injury or two and it will be a different story ... but ones things for sure ...

THIS IS OUR BEST D by far since our return ,,, to bad theres not more depth in the front 7 ... oh well ... a step at a time ...

We did a damm good job against one of the best o's in football ... and i'm expecting a very good to dominant performance this week ...

This reminds me of one of the things I always love and loathe about early season announcers.

A player will do something good in Week 1, 2, or 3 and you'll hear the announcer with some emphatic gem like "... and he's been doing that ALL SEASON LONG".

Browns can win Sunday.

I think there is an obvious overreaction to the butt kicking that the Ravens handed the Bengals, but after seeing their game against Houston last night, the Bengals might actually be the worst team in the division.

There is always an overreaction in the NFL, especially in the early weeks. Every team that wins their opener is going 16-0, and conversely, teams that lost are already talking draft...

I really hope Hue was able to help Kizer with some of his decision making.

I do think there will be more of an emphasis on the running game, and maybe going with running Crowell between the tackles, and what that can bring in other avenues if successful..

I hope our defense plays as physical as they did in week one. It was nice to see. I actually thought our defense had more intensity and physicality than pittsburgh's last week (dirty plays don't equal physical football, but good luck getting that through the thick skull of the steeler fans who were crying about last week's officiating)

I think the thing that gets lost in the mix of last year's horrible year was the week to week development of this team, up until around the point where they had to bring in QB's off the street. Even with Kessler in there, it seemed like the entire squad was getting better. You saw individual players progressing each week, despite not getting the end result.

That's why it's so important that Kizer learn to make quicker decisions, and not make his OL work more than they really need to.