DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2018 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 21 Steelers 21 What I saw Game# 1

Yes, yards per catch was a concern I had. Still is... That was his first 100+ yd game in over a year.

I did say he did some good things.

He was thrown to 15 times, caught 7, dropped 2. There was also pass that was almost picked off as he was running away from the pass not towards it. He should come at the ball, not let it come to him. You'll get picks that way.

Like I said, he was good, not great. Like the rest of the team he has work to do.

QB: I expected to see more out of Tyrod. First half, I wasn't impressed with not one throw. Accuracy was an issue for sure. Second half, I saw a little better play from Tyrod, but I still felt like I needed more.

RB: I liked Hyde and Chubb. Duke had like 1 good play that I remember, but struggled any other time he got his number called. Also, Chubb changed his freaking number! Now I gotta see if I can get an exchange for the jersey I have.

TE: I think the world of Njoku, but those drops hurt. They were definitely some difficult catches, but I think Devalve catches a few of those misses.

Oline: Not bad for Game 1. Overall, I was impressed.

Front 7: Played aggressive; Outside of Garrett, sometimes the pass rush took a little too long. Disappointed in the run defense. If we can't stop the run, we can't win games.

Secondary: Played physical the entire game; played the pass pretty well. I'm not a fan of the single high safety when playing QB's like Ben b/c he's gonna take advantage of the 1 on 1 matchups.

Collectively, the defense had lots of wins with all the turnovers. Happy to see it, as we aren't use to winning turnover battles.

One other thing I noticed was that Hue was really on the Refs about calls made, or not made.

I think that is because hue knows he doesn't have much time to show he can win a football game.

I think it's more a case where he has always been on the Refs about poor calls, but the TV is now showing it to you.

I saw Tyrod sitting on the sideline alone a lot and looking downtrodden.

I don't think Peppers botched anything. I was at the game. He was clearly waiving players away and the ball touched Chubbs helmet forcing Peppers to try to field the ball.


I was a weird game. The D had a bunch of take away's, but gave up a bunch of yards.

The O started to get it together when we started to commit to running the ball and pushing the ball down the field in the pass game.


Attention to detail is why we didn't win the game. That is a coaching issue.

What poor time management at the half? We got the ball near midfield with less than a minute left and 3 timeouts.. tried a run, not a bad idea.. lost 6 yards.. called timeout. Next play TT gets sacked and we are in 3rd and 20+ with less than 30 seconds on the clock.. Seems like crappy execution by the offense was the problem there, not clock management.

End of the game, used our last timeout before the punt, moved the ball across midfield, had the ball on the 43 with the clock stopped and 23 seconds left. It was first down, had time to run 2, maybe 3 plays, to the sidelines to try to pick up 10-15 yards to give us a reasonable chance at a FG.. TT decides on first down to underthrow a jump ball hail mary by about 5 yards and it gets picked off.. again, offensive execution, not a clock management issue.

Totally agree with the play of Mitchelle and Randel, both played solid football throughout the entire game. Mitchelle had coverage on A Brown on several plays and covered him well.

Steelers did a nice job adjusting in the 2nd half and started to make enough plays to where I thought they were going to come away with the win. But this Browns defense was not going to let that happen.

What a performance the orange and brown defense put on, the play of defense alone has gotten me excited and hopeful for the 15 games ahead.

Thanks eotab for the early thread, like having it right after the game much better. It has been more than a decade and hopefully a decade more with many in the POST season!

.

You realize Ben threw for 335 yard's , yes ?

You realize Ben also threw 3 INTs and had 2 forced fumbles , yes ?

ballpeen, he may have been referring to the punt peppers fair caught with about 15-20 yards of wide open field in front of him. I am not sure if a teammate is supposed to be nearby to help him decide or if it is strictly on him but a run back should have been done.

I think Peppers is overrated, but I can't get on him too much about the fair catch. There was no one around him to communicate to him, and when you are returning punts, it's wise to keep your eyes on the ball. LOL

They say that kickoff returns are way more dangerous, but when I was playing......I told my coach that I didn't want to return punts anymore, but I absolutely loved returning kicks. The reason why is that I like to see what is coming. I'm not one of those dudes who at "team building" sessions will fall backwards and trust someone to catch me. I wanna see everything. Returning punts sucked.

What i SaW:

OFFENSE:

-Last week I said give the offensive weapons we have, all we needed out of TT was to get the ball in their hands, just simply competent football. Unfortunately that wasn't what we got yesterday. I love his grit when he ran for the TD! but I don't know how much of an excuse I'm ready to let the weather be because I would think if it were that big a deal we wouldn't have attempted as many pass plays. I think for now I'm going to hold off any judgments on TT until we see some more.

-Hyde I wish we would have gotten a him a few more carries.. he did seem to get stronger as the game went on.

-WR's/TE's... largely a non-factor. As to Landry.. full disclosure I don't really follow the rest of the league so when we signed him all I knew was we got a really good WR who produced. I LOVE the fire he brings to the field! He pulled a complete mind job on Artie Burns and suckered him in to an extra 15yrds for us. I can't remember the last time I've seen a Browns player get inside someone's head like that

(On that same play, did anyone else notice Haley talking trash to Burns also? LOL Part of me thought it was cool, another feels like an OC should have more on his plate that he should be focused on.)

DEFENSE:

-Myles was all over the place. Great heads up play when Ben tossed it to Conner to avoid the sack!

-Ward... Not sure what else to say about this kid at the moment. He drew a tough assignment first real game and did as well as anyone could have hoped. AB caught the TD pass over him, but it was a perfectly placed all.

-I wasn't thrilled to see the safety really deep again. Maybe it was doing a better job containing the Steelers than we realize?

I hate giving up the middle of the field as often as we do. Something as simple as making it look like Schobert is going to blitz but dropping him back in to that short middle coverage IMuneducatedO could be effective.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

We have GOT to clean this up. Pitt started kicking/punting short of the of endzone because we giving them block in the back penalties ll day log. Why kick or the touchback when the Browns are likely to move themselves back half the distance to the goal?


OVERALL:

Honestly when it was 21-7 my attention started to meander toward YouTube videos on how to fix my oven. But I kept the game on and glad I saw it to the end. CBS got their money's worth making it a nationally televised game I think. I almost had an anurism though. My wife had just finished her Colts game in the other room (we have Dish)and wanted me to come watch our OT with her. After a few commercials it cuts back to Gumbel in the studio who says "Due to contractual obligations we can't show you the rest of the Browns/Steelers game... Truth be told I flashed back to the Heidi movie incident back inthe 90's LOL

Luckily I still had it on the local channel downstairs and didn't miss anything.

Last note: Sometimes you just don't realize how invested you are with this franchise. When Schobert was running that fumble back and looked like he was going to score, I remember telling my wife that this is the exact kind of play we've lost soooo many games on. I really feel like if Schobert scores (minus the penalty) it would have gotten that monkey off our back and how satisfying it would have been for the Steelers to be the ones looking like the clowns for a change.

Anywho... as the meme says: You can't go 0-16 if you tie

That was a fun read, devil. The personal touches were nice. I kinda knew we wouldn't kick that FG , though, I just knew it. I wasn't surprised. OTOH, we pulled half-a-victory from the jaws of defeat.

Thanks lamp. In any event I think we got a really good look at just what this team is capable of. It's going to happen where the defense is going to let us down at some point, but I think for most of the season it's going to be entertaining to watch. And even though the offense didn't have as much success as it could/should, we know we have the talent to be competitive. as much as it pains me to quote Hue, they've got some things to clean up. But the talent is there.

They say this team needs to learn how to win. Well, this game alone provides all the examples you need to show where and how that can be done.

forced fumbles had nothing to do with the DB play .. Two of the INT 's were tipped balls my line man .. there was one true int .. weather was disastrous and Ben threw for 335 yards .. Now you can paint with any color you want , but that is the black and white of it..

Dawg ... my friend ... this is exactly why i cringe when stats are used on here ... if u want to look at just that one STAT your 100% correct it was a HORRIBLE EFFORT and were in deep trouble ...

Agree 100% .. but bro .. thats not even close to the entire picture ... here’s some other STATS to consider when evaluating our D ...

And its really hard to evaluate from that game ... some on here (not U) want to evaluate this game and IGNORE THE WEATHER ... u can’t do that ... u can’t draw conclusions based off that game unless we play another game on that soggy of a field with the rain starting at some point and getting real heavy ..

We held the vaunted Stilers O to 21 points ... the reason we did that while giving up so many yards can be attributed to one thing ... PRESSURE ... we brought PLENTY OF IT ..

We gave up a crap ton of yards but we also CAUSED 4 TURNOVERS ... all but one directly attributed to PRESSURE ... Ward’s pick was a great play by him ... but u know what .. the pressure did have something to do with it ... one of the things about pressure ... QB’s have the internal clock ... bring consistent pressure and it speeds up there clock ...

That was CASUED 4 ... actually maybe 5 ... maybe he don’t decide to just throw the “punt” up if his internal clock hadn’t been sped up by then ...

CAUSING at least 4 TO’s in a game due to pressure says ALOT ...

Ben was also very innacurate ... how much of that was weather and how much was our pressure ... we’ll never know that ... but the pressure was definetly a part of the equation ...

Due to our PRESSURE ... PLAYING AGAINST ONE OF IF NOT THE BEST OL IN THE LEAGUE ... let that one sink in for a second ...

- we lead the league in sacks and turnovers ... *LOL* ...

Think about that ... us ... the Grieveland Frowns of defense LEAD THE LEAGUE IN SACKS AND PRESSURES ...

Crap dawg .. how many sacks and to’s did we have all last year ... this may have been TWO MONTHS worth of both last year ... *L* ...

We have TONS to clean up and IMPROVE ON on D ... but right now we do one thing thats really important to D success today VERY WELL ... thats PRESSURE the QB ...

That was game 1 ... game 2 is an even bigger test as the weather is indoors and I think the saints may be as good or better than the Stilers O ... Kamara is DIFFERENT and they have Brees and Thomas with Ginn Jr. To stretch the field ...

Either way .. its a DAMM GOOD O ... and i for one am looking forward to the CHALLENGE witch is quite. Change from last year when i would not have been looking forward to the MASSACRE ...

Good post. The majority of the reactions to Sunday's game w/the Steelers have been negative. We played a team that won 13 games last year and are either 3rd or 4th [depending on the house] on the list of odds to win the Super Bowl.

We have some impact players now. Ward, Myles, Landry, maybe Josh. We have also upgraded w/guys like Randall, Mitchell, Taylor, etc. Some of the younger guys are maturing and improving.

Our qb did struggle and he will probably hold us back a bit this year, but this is the first time in a long time where we aren't completely over matched in regards to talent. It was obvious to my eyes when I watched the game. In year's past, it was obvious that we were overwhelmed in the talent department. We're getting better, bro.

People are always talking about patience, but now...when we finally have some hope, the talk is negative in nature and designed to create yet another firing.

We have a tough early schedule, but I feel our future is bright if we can somehow weather the storm.

I walked out of the game feeling mostly positive.

We created turnovers

We moved the ball pretty well during the 2nd half.

We had a chance to win

I am bummed we couldn't close out the deal, but overall it was a positive step


We are better than Tampa and Tampa beat the Saints, so why not go down there and win the game?

I think we can and will. Clean up some of the slop of the first week and we will be right there at the end.

I would consider it a negative that we couldn't turn +5TO margin into a W. And as for the Steelers, they are notorious for starting seasons slow AND for playing down to the level of poor competition on the road. That is who Tomlins' Steelers are. We cannot say for sure if that is what we witnessed Sunday, or if we really have a competitive team that played in poor weather. Hindsight will tell us which one was more accurate...in the meantime, some will hang their hats on the positive, some on the negative.



I'm not sure many would disagree with this. But until the 0fer monkey is off our back, captured by animal control, and sent back to the jungle, there are going to be a LOT of doubters and haters.



And this is the problem. I'm a big believer in game-to-game narratives, because teams are comprised of human beings that look for patterns and have emotional tendencies, etc. And the history of the league skews toward narratives being more true than untrue...e.g. the idea of trap games is a real thing, IMO. The idea that players and teams are likely to undergo mean regression after uncharacteristic performances in a real thing, IMO.

Which leads to Sunday, where we're likely to get a better performance on O, lesser performance on D, and maybe only go +1 in the TO department. And this will happen on the road against a top10 team that just got embarassed. We're quite likely to lose by 14 points or more.

Then we hit a game against the Jets, which all of a sudden look solid and could be 2-0. That one would set us up well in the narrative department. BUT if all the talent we have acquired doesn't yield a W at that point...ugh...look out below!

The TURNOVERS WE CAUSED had nuttin to do with the Stilers playing down to their opponents ...

NOTHING!!!!

Wasn't that the same thing we said last year?

Maybe in 2-3 games we can have a better picture.


I think it was the Stealers that didn't play that good, but....

Not even close ...

You seem like a good dude .. not sure why u feel the need to TROLL this board ..

Everything u say is negative ... even when u say sumptin positive about one its only cause u want to prove a point about how bad sumptin else is ... *L* ...

I used to reply to U cause i wasn’t sure .. you’ve made it CLEAR OVER THE LAST TWO WEEKS ...

Have fun and enjoy your trolling ... i’ll Just IGNORE IT ...

Yes ... we will have a better picture in 2 or 3 weeks ...

Mr. Darnold will be in an entirely DIFFERENT ELEMENT come week 3 than he was in week 1 ..

And its not just us thats gonna have a clearer picture ...

Week 1 is always FULL OF SHOCKERS ... week two things usually return to “normal” .. by that i mean a better indication of what to expect the rest of the season ...

Like i said Rasta ... have fun and enjoy doing whatever your purpose here is ...

Out of curiosity, which turnovers do you credit more to the Steelers performing poorly than the Browns performing well.

With that said, we should acknowledge that all turnovers are inherently due to teams not performing well. Very few turnovers are an example of even decent play, much less very good play that inexplicably becomes a turnover. I would hazard a guess that 97% of all turnovers are an example of teams capitalizing on bad plays more so than anything else.

The point is, the Browns were in position to make plays and made them when they were there to be made.

Personally, I'm not sure how you can denigrate some of those turnovers. Ward's first interception was an ill-advised throw, but an example of an incredible heads up play from the rookie to read the quarterback. Both Garrett and Avery had forced fumbles that were fantastic examples of creating a turnover based on how they hit more so than that they hit anyone.

I get it if you're not sold on the Browns' improvements, but it seems bizarre to be down on some of the excellent play we saw.

I understand the euphoria of a Tie with Pit , lol .. Contar to being negative , I am being objective ..lol ... Thrilled to death we are moving in the right direction however we did not make the play-offs yet . Some real bright spots and also concerns ..

Now to admit my lack of understanding of the Williams D . Watched the first half of the game again / concentrated strictly on the D and number 53 .. Haven't a clue as what he is doing ?? Not a spec of dirt on the Middle Linebackers uniform at half .. Think he had one assist at that point . My eyes saw a non factor player .. Now I'm sure I'm wrong , so someone explain it to me ..

I don't think anyone is "euphoric" over the tie w/Pittsburgh, but speaking for myself, I saw a team that is better in year's past.

Far more people have commented negatively on the game than positively.

I don't know, but I think we are better than we have been for several years.

I'm a little late... I was at the game, sat in sec 132 row 11
Here's what I saw

Denzel Ward is a stud. I watched him closely and I would be making the same comment if he had no picks that game. His technique is great, great body awareness and fluidity and has the quickness to cheat at times and recover his position. I absolutely loved what I saw from him.

I like Kindred but he played pathetically. He missed numerous gap fills and was constantly out of position. He was confused and maybe the biggest reason Conner ran over us.

Speaking of Conner, the kid is really really good... Great vision and patience. I will say that we got very little push up the middle which resulted in Conner being able to get to the gap the play was designed for... You need to make the rb change direction in the backfield and we couldn't do it. It was exactly what I was worried about when we traded Shelton and released Meder. I am worried about our run defence going forward..

Avery looks like a great find... Great motor and very strong at point of attack. He was the first one on the field Sunday working on his footwork and hand fighting at 1105 am.

I was impressed with Mitchell... He is quick enough and covered his receiver well all day. Our second corner will not be a weakness for us.

Jamie Collins does not fight through blocks... Once someone engages him he sort of gives up.. disappointing. Kirksey was average at best. We need more from him. Schobert is always in the right place but he is limited athletically and not as strong as he needs to be.

I can't comment on much oline stuff.. My vantage point was not conducive to assessing it..

Tyrod was pretty close to what I expected.. I can't denigrate his play because that is who he is.. Yeah he needs to take more chances and doesn't throw with anticipation but he ran for77 yards and kept some drives alive with his legs..

Myles was awesome but lost contain in the run game at times..

All in all I am encouraged... Our secondary is really legit. I am worried more about our front 7.

Don't kid yourselves... Despite Hue portraying to be upset etc about letting one slip, behind closed doors he and all the coaches were giddy with the result and they should be considering where we have been.

Also, TJ Watt is an animal and I thought Garden played one of the best games of his career

Haden,not Garden...

That was a very good post. All football and some great observations.

To your point, the TD pass to Brown was probably more of an ill-advised throw than the INT, based on the positioning of the DB when the throw was made.

I saw this, as well. Just very concerned with our LB core. Apparently Schobert is a coach on the field...which is good, because he's not doing much else. Collins and Kirko are overrated at this point, also.

Now before people lay in, I understand it was 1 game. These guys have a tough test on Sunday. After the rush we showed, there will be a ton of run and/or quick-hitters to Kamara, which the LBs will be responsible for.

DIAM...

Maybe. Do we really force all 3 fumbles if the ball isn't wet? How many games do you get a punt-throw to your safety?

Look, I agree that talent and awareness are a reason for some of those TOs. But you have to reasonably expect less of a margin moving forward.

And I DO think that the Steelers played below their capability. The big unknown is whether we did as well, or not.

I agree w this, except maybe that one long INT. Maybe did not cause that one so much, as either a poor route by the WR or a bad overthrow by Ben. But it is still a INT.

I was disappointed at the end of the game, maybe because we had a sweet, sweet win in our sights. It was there for the taking, and we did not capitalize. After a little time to digest, I can see the positives. We went toe-to-toe with a good team, and a hated rival at that. There are things we need to do better, that's for sure. But, there is hope.

I am on a boat, and if I shield my eyes and squint, off in the distance, I think ... yes, I think I see an isle ...

Witch fumble dawg ...

The two i remember had ZERO to do with the weather ...

MG stripped Conner ... came from behind and chopped it out ... AWESOME .. not rubbing it in bro .. just LOVE saying it ... its been so long since since i wanted to say about anything we did .. *L* ..

Avery got Ben as he was throwing the ball ... nuttin to do with slippery ...

Can’t remember the 3rd one ... BRB ...

Third fumble was MG getting around the corner quick ... low snap that Ben dropped .. that playe into it ...

Yes .. i agree .... were not going to get 6 to’s every week ... not even close ...

If MG/Avery stay healthy .. we will get WAY MORE THAN OUR FAIR SHARE ...

Were also not going to play against that OL or those skill position players we had to last week ... this weeks tough also .. after that things lighten up considerably ...

Ya’all are focusing way to much on the negative and it seems the shades are drawn so no sunlight can get in ...

I agree ... mentioned that play in one of my posts .. it may have been this one ... at first i said it was a gift .. then upon re-considering it ... did ben throw it to soon cause of the pressure he’d been under all day to that point ... it was a very very uncharestic throw from ben .. prolly was just a fluke ... but u never know .. i called it the “punt” pick .. *L*



As much as i was dissapointed .. i was still SMILING .. thats almost as sad as how giddy i am i think we can win 6 or 7 games .. *L* ...



Tons and tons of things to work on .. but man .. SUNDAY DIDN’T SUCK ASS land it didn’t discourage me one little bit from wanting to watch next week ... nice change .. *L* ..





WELCOME ABOARD DAWG ...

Can u see the dawgbone shaped light house ... its only for decor ... its always sunny on the isle so we dont need no stinking light house .. *L* ...

Got any friends with u dawg ... the more the merrier ...

WOOF WOOF!!!!

L...man, I’m glad you’re excited. I know I haven’t posted much over the years, but I’ve been lurking on and off. And you were never a homer (except for maybe that offseason after we drafted B Quinn 😆). Anyway, there’s a handful of people I slow down to read carefully around here, and if you see something, that makes me hopeful.

All that said, I’m just gonna go ahead and stay grounded, maybe even overly negative, until I see some real success. Tired of getting my hopes up. And yes, no matter what you claim, Pitt does lack the killer instinct under Tomlin...frankly, the minute that they don’t have the 3 best playmakers in the division, that team will truly underperform.