DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2018 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 35 Bengals 20 Postgame Thoughts

I'll take an "almost loss" that wasn't an "almost loss" over a "real loss" that was an "almost win"

if that makes sense

What are you all going on about? We destroyed them.

And one of them is phenomenal amounts of scoring. Nothing always works; those other things admittedly will happen at times. Our second half with the soft D can cut your throat even if you have big leads. Great win. This lame coach deal we are drumming up is wanted by the QB controversy types who must be terrified that they will need to work for a change rather than post snarky, snide abusive articles about us.

Just win, baby!

Help me understand, Eve. What is this noise about? It was a methodical beat down.

That's what I'm wondering, it was Epic Beatdown in the first half.
Then trying to run out the clock, somewhat haphazardly in the second half.
(Because I think we haven't ever been in the position before)
But I have no doubts, that we could have flipped the switch at any time in the second half and put up a bunch more points.
They had no answer for our offense.

Oh I just thought of something else.

I liked it when GW ripped Coley a new one when he came back to the bench after he jumped offside on third down. I can't remember if it was the 2nd or third quarter, but Williams gave him an earful, then hollered out this big F-bomb. He was pissed.

Did you actually watch the game or did you just see the highlights?? Again, I understand the excitement but you do know the game is 60 minutes, not 30? Also, so you believe the browns executed so well that they could just "turn it on" again??

Again, we were 1 penalty away from being 35-27 and the HOPE of recovering the onside kick! Love the win, but the Browns have to clean that up.

Yes, I watched the game.

Do you understand the concept of playing conservatively and trying to run out the clock when you have a massive lead?

Go back to your dungeon and wallow in your misery.

Some of us choose to celebrate a beat down.

Misery is responding to fans that have no idea of what they are talking about!!
Running out the clock is fine.. especially when you are moving the ball down the field, not going 3 and out!!

You do know Orange kool-aid rots the teeth right??

Bottom line is, even if we're complaining about little details: victory formation in Cinci, on to Houston...... and yes Houston, you're gonna have a problem.

Pulease honey, when was the last time the Browns ran up 35 points on someone and had to run out the clock?

They probably didn't practice for that lol

I'm not saying they were perfect in it. But damn son, did you even watch the team in the first half? We could have bent those bengals over a table any time we wanted.

They had no answer for dealing with both Baker and Chubb!

+1

Orange kool-aid doesn't rot your teeth IN SPACE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7qcvFslpyE

No, no, that's cannot be correct. Garrett isn't a factor [/sarc]

He was getting held almost every pass attempt. Their 3rd string LT that played a while would just grab him around the neck every play and somehow never got called. Garret was way too fast for him and beat him right off the bat a ton and the guy would just headlock him with no call.

I can't remember too many times when Garrett has gotten a holding call

j/c:

Baker Mayfield takes another shot at Hue Jackson, calling him ‘fake’ in response to First Take telling him to ‘grow up’

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2018/11...art_river_index

I don't mind Baker sticking up for himself, but I hope this doesn't put a bullseye on his back. Those sorry ass "sports reporters" (or whatever you want to call them) like this guy, cowherd or even some locals will do anything for a story, and knowing they can push his buttons isn't good.

Yeah, keep the edge but don't go overboard

Ask James Conner, he has caused them 2 wins w/ fumbles this year.

I love it. Baker is the type that feeds off this stuff, he loves anything he can use for motivation.

This IMO is less about the reporters, and more about Hue.

Baker knows Hue was a fraud and acting for cameras w/ HK. He knows his practices were a joke, and he knows the dude didn't care about winning here.

I agree. Hopefully this too is a learning experience. I have no problem with his demeanor or remarks after the game... don't go to twitter and make someone famous.

Yeah, to me you gotta move on now. Time to gear up for the next challenge

Actually it's the entire point at this time. Emotions run high during and immediately after a game. Sometimes rational thinking isn't nearly as much of the process. Upon further study and reflection can you get the full understanding of the situation.

Which is why I'm fine with the way executed the game plan in the second half.

I watch football games on a 'Tape Delay' of an hour.
Let's me fast forward through the commercials/half time and rerun every play instantly.
Watched Hue get the ball about 5 times and was HOWLING!
Same w/ the OL Touchdown.
Chubb's catch was a thing of beauty and WHAT a feat of concentration.
He looks solid in all phases.
Baker continually moved the D w/ his eyes or body language... that hip hide was as good as it gets.
Garrett was held on at least 50% of the plays and at one point tripped.
No Calls!
A little better clock management in the 2nd Half is one aspect Kitchens needs to work on.
But in fairness who ever would have thought we'd ever need it! lol!

Wore my Vintage Gear to Lowe's and HD, down here in Cincy, yesterday and saw/met many others doing the same.... THAT has never happened!
Got handshakes from people or high 5's from Bengal Fans... WOW!

We won by 15 points and you're whining about it. Who doesn't know what they're talking about?

Here's the funny part. Before this season everyone said the season would be judged based on progress and wins. Now that we won, everyone has shifted to putting the focus on "the process". This place never ceases to amaze me.

Some people in life are too busy nitpicking things to ever be happy.

He doesn't understand the difference between Kool-Aid and Tang.

As far as the second half "preservation offense" - the fan in me wanted us to run up the score. Besides that, I have no problem with the approach. Approach wasn't the problem, execution was. The Bengals came in with the mindset that they would take away the run, for the most part they were successful.

I would bet money that the halftime speech to the players was that we were going to grind it out and run the clock. Kitchens and Williams stuck to their guns. They never panicked because they never needed to. It was a great learning experience for both the offense and defense and the perfect scenario for it - a 28 point lead. You know how we talk about a team learning to win? A team also needs to learn how to close out games with a comfortable lead. If we were to grind out just two or three more first downs during the game, we would be talking about the strategy as a complete success. It takes time, but the strategy was time well spent in my eyes.

I agree FATE. I think (mostly Williams) said let's churn it out from here on out

I didn't have a problem with their strategy in the second half ... I just don't think that the execution was what it needed to be.

I agree, and again, my only "bitch" is that they didn't make a better decision by calling a higher percentage play to get the first down on 3rd & 3. The short pass plays had been working well, and a first down at that point would have accomplished their goal and killed any chance of having this discussion.

I’ve probably said something along the lines of “process over results” 100 times on this website.

People can be happy and nitpick.

It was closer than it needed to be. But for a penalty, the Bengals had 1st and goal on our 4, with over a minute and a half left and one timeout... still a difficult task to pull off, but I admit, until they called the penalty on that play, I had visions of the Bengals throwing hail mary's into our endzone to see who won the game.

We can what if ourselves to death. But we didn't "almost lose".

Oh you can but it looks rather petty at this juncture.

That's the approach some folks take if we won but you still find some things to be critical of or areas where we could have improved. You should just be happy and not reflect back on where you could be better...

They say you weren't happy with the victory or you wanted to score 60 or you were playing for style points...

cfrs made an interesting point that I like process over results.. and that is partially true. A process, a successful repeatable process, leads to consistent repeatable results. The Browns have chased results without establishing a successful process for 30 years and we see where that has landed us. Flipping QBs, flipping coaches, flipping GMs... all to chase wins instead of establishing a process and giving that process time to work...

We had a lead and a chance to coast to victory in this game, our lack of process made it a lot closer than it should have been. I don't really care how big the lead is, you should still want to move the ball, pick up first downs, shorten the game, reduce the other teams possessions, etc... What if it was a 17 point lead at the end of the 3rd quarter? What if it was Drew Brees or Philip Rivers on the other side of the field? When is the time to just shut down the offense and give up trying to pick up first downs?

At some point, maybe not even this year, we are going to have a 10 point lead or a 17 point lead and we are going to try to slow down and chew up clock... at that point, we better have a better game plan in place to do that.

The process changes depending on the opponent and the situation. Against this opponent, given this situation, the approach worked well. Against a high powered Texan offense, the process would most likely be different. Different situations dictate different actions.

Sorry Pit, maybe it's the old athlete in me coming out.. The Browns don't care what I think, nobody calls me and asks for my weekly report on the game...

But the old athlete in me walked off a lot of fields happy with a win but never walked off the field 100% satisfied with my (or my teams) performance.. there is always something to work on, something to improve...

One area where we agree, I would have said this season was about progress and wins.. we have seen substantial progress and we have some wins, that doesn't mean AT ALL that we should stop looking for progress.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I'm a little OCD about it sometimes.. can't help it. I notice things.

Did you notice in the Falcons game that, early in the 4th quarter with an 18 point lead, we had 2 false start penalties on our own 1 yard line, then Mayfield hit Callaway with a really nice out route for 15 yards to get us off our own goal line and pick up a 1st down.. at the end of the play, Callaway extended the ball and lunged forward.. he lost control of the ball but was ruled down... I noticed that because it was totally stupid. We didn't need the yard, it got us NOTHING.. but it was dangerously close to being a fumble.. it was stupid.

I'm guessing you didn't notice it because you were still fuming over the fact that we threw the ball from our own endzone on 1st down with an 18 point lead in the 4th quarter when we could have run it into the line 3 times and punted from our own endzone.