DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum The Schedule

The current record is disappointing and there has been a lot of talk about who/what is to blame for that, but we've faced some good teams and more importantly--we have a lot of new pieces.

We brought in new players in almost every unit on the team. Maybe every unit? We also have a slew of new coaches. It makes sense that it might take some time for all these new pieces to mesh and run cohesively.

We have a favorable schedule in the second half of the season. Our team should mature [if it doesn't implode due to adversity] as it gains more experience.

So, we have Seattle, New England, and Denver in our next three games. That will be the halfway point of the season. We are 2 and 3 now and I feel that if we can get to 4 and 4 or even 3 and 5, we will have an excellent shot at winning our division and making the playoffs. Take a look at our last 8 games of the season:

Buffalo: This could be tough because of their D, but we're at home and their O isn't very good.

Steelers [x2]: We should beat them both games.

Miami: Should be a breeze.

Bengals [x2]: They stink and we should dominate them.

Cardinals: They are terrible and we should walk all over them.

Ravens: We already dominated them in their house.

So, let's be pessimistic for a moment and assume we are 3 and 5 at the halfway point. Looking at the remaining schedule, I see no reason to think we still won't win 10 games. I think 9 wins probably wins this division, provided we have the tie-breakers and right now we are one-up on our closest competition.

I think it's time for some positivity!

On paper the schedule does look favorable the second half of the season. But I think there are things to consider. We aren't the only team that will improve with reps and time.

As of right now I find it an uncomfortable situation to be in when it comes to predicting who we can actually win against. I'm not trying to predict doom and gloom, but I would find it hard for anyone to convince me that we're better than many NFL teams right now and the future is an uncertainty.

I'm just being real. Unless we improve while other teams remain stagnant, I can't name many teams we can beat right now. So far we've only actually looked good in one game.

I don't think either Steeler game, Buffalo, Arizona, or the Ravens will be easy.

Bengals (x2) and Miami are the only games I think we should win.

The schedule makers did no favors for a team with high expectations and a new coach ... first 7 games are pretty brutal honestly. Getting to 3-3 today is obviously important ... and I have a feeling the Ravens win at Pittsburgh will end up being huge

Would you agree that we have more new pieces than most squads and therefore, it is plausible to consider that it takes some time to become cohesive?

Would you agree that cohesiveness would’ve been less painful had we not completely swapped offensive and defensive schemes?

jc


lets all be very clear about something: at this point in the season, we now have a WORSE record than at the same point last season. sad.

after this pathetic loss against seattle, im not circling any game as a win. especially seeing as now we're 0-3 at home.

so that means home games are NOT an advantage.

we are 2-4, with a bye next week.

Patriots is a loss.

broncos we COULD win. but thats at mile high, so that could easily be a loss.

Bills with their defense? loss.

that puts us at 2-7 before facing the steelers.

we aint winning the division if we're 2-7, because i will NOT assume we can beat the steelers, or even the bengals at this point.

and quite honestly, i can see us getting wrecked by the dolphins.

This team just seems so porly prepared and coached. Until they quit shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and penalties I have little confidence that we can right the ship.

We had an opportunity to put Seattle away but we just kept hurting ourselves. I don't think anyone is an automatic win the rest of the way.

We always play the Patriots tough, we seem to be a jinx team for them so not considering it an automatic loss.

This team and staff has a lot of self reflection to do in the next two weeks....this was a BAD loss in a game we had control of early on.

We talk about the favorable schedule in the 2nd half, but if we can't beat these decent teams then who are we? I mean, really? Playoffs won't mean anything if we can't compete with teams. Also, we critique other teams saying "they haven't played anybody, yet" and then we start looking at a favorable schedule or complaining that our schedule is "hard".

Honestly, this team needs to do some serious soul searching. The bye couldn't come at a better time because this team looks in disarray.

This team is a 6 win team at best right now. We’ll beat Cincy and the Dolphins ... but lose to about everyone else

Winning either the Rams game or the Seahawks game would have been huge but we didn't.

I expect the Pats game to look similar to the Seahawks game.. we play them tough but in the end, Pats will be Pats and they will make enough plays to win..

I know this isn't "2nd half" but in the final 9 games we need to go 7-2 to get to 9 wins.. which I think is about the best we can hope for... Could we go 8-1? Yea, I suppose we could but based on the lack of consistency I've seen.. I doubt it.

Steelers are going to be much tougher than expected a few weeks ago... Both Bengals games and the Dolphins are the only games I would be surprised if we lost.. the other 6, I think we should win most of them..

While I like the Jets and Ravens game where we had comfortable leads in the 4th quarter, we NEED a game or two where we have to score late to win and we actually do it. This team needs to build that level of confidence that they can win close games..

Optimistically, 9-7, pessimistically 7-9.

j/c

IMO, we needed to win the Titans or Seahawk game to remain in a good frame of mind. Being 3-3 right now would be a HECK of a lot better than where we are.

We’re going to be 2-5 with a trip to Denver and then a home game with Buffalo coming up. Yikes

I would agree with that. But I for one have seen things change in the play calling sometimes even from game to game. When you look at the packages it seems we aren't sticking with any one major scheme. I know you vary your packages on both D and O, but usually you have some sort of pattern.

We saw the changes in the Ravens game, then yesterday we saw the same thing. But in between we look like a different team with different play calling. I for one was much happier with yesterdays performance. At least on the O side of the ball.

I guess my concern is that to establish cohesiveness I feel you must stick to a scheme and establish an identity. That hasn't been what I've seen.

If we can stick to the run game and use Chubb like we did in the Ravens and Seahawks games, we can establish an identity that we can build on. If we revert back to a lot of 11 packages and play the game plan like we used against the Rams and the 49'ers then we will be going backwards in creating an identity and cohesiveness.

I just haven't seen the consistency in scheme thus far that indicates we have the ingredients moving forward that builds consistency on the O said of the ball.

I am however not buying a few of the latest posts claiming the play calling is why Baker has had accuracy issues. That kind of seems like a cop out to me. He looked somewhat better yesterday and there were times the WR's could have caught some of those balls. But he knows the plays and has been behind the WR's. That's not a Freddie problem.

Versatile, prior to the season everyone agreed that we had a really tough schedule to start the season and we did. We played two crappy games and we lost two close games to teams that are strong super bowl contenders in the nfc. To me only the titan game is a real negative mark against us.

You have mentioned something in the past that is sometimes overlooked but I think is important. And that is a team learning to win. We could have won both Seattle and ram games but we are just not quite there yet.

I agree with your assessment of the last half schedule except I think they will all be challenges for us. But they are all winnable and I think 9-7 or 10-6 is still possible.

I can see the Ravens snatching that second game from us. They're not that good, but they're not that bad, either. If we lose any games to the Bengals or Steelers, I'll be pissed. Still, I could see us laying an egg vs the Steelers. It's kinda what we're known for so far.

Buffalo could be a really tough game. Their D could set us up for a VERY tough day that ends up snowballing.

Hey guys, I was not saying that we will win every game. I was pointing out that second half schedule is favorable. Yesterday's loss hurt. 4 and 4 at the break would have had us sitting pretty. We can still get it done if we are 3 and 5, but it just got tougher. We should have won that damn game.

I still believe the Browns finish 10-6.

Vers, I agree with you on a lot of points including saying the rest of the schedule after the halfway point is favorable. However, after watching that debacle of a game yesterday I have next to zero faith in this team. The ref's were somewhat to blame, a few of those calls were ridiculous, but the way we shoot ourselves in the foot is ludicrous. The penalties, dropped passes, poor play calling etc. doesn't give me much hope. Right now I see 6-7 wins for the season and I hope I'm dead wrong but I don't see anything more.

Jc

I saw this posed on another site:

Would this year’s team lose to last year’s?

I gotta rewatch, but when talking about the rest of the season and extrapolating, I almost take yesterday's game as a positive.

I thought Freddie has continued to (slowly) improve. I also thought Baker had a better game. We put up 28 points against the Seahawks (not that same D, but they're still legit). You can see glimpses of a good offense in between bouts of self-inflicted damage. The things that killed us yesterday are (mostly) things that should get better with just time. Stupid penalties and dumb execution mistakes should reduce over the course of this season.

I stand by my 8-8 overall prediction. The Stealers aren't going to lay down. I bet we split with them. And the Ravens aren't bad, that second game could very easily be a loss. We sure haven't shown much home field advantage, that's for sure. The Bills are no push overs either.

The interesting thing is I think our year could end in much the same fashion as last year; on a promising upswing leading into the off season. And next year (yes I know how that sounds), without the garbage hype baggage of this year, some more major holes filled, Baker's sophomore year behind him, this team could hit its stride. That is of course if, as you mentioned in your first post, we don't implode before then. And also if Kitchens finds his way out of the wet paper bag. I still have my coaching doubts.

I think we lose to Patriots, Bills, Steelers once, and Ravens.

That puts us at 8-8.

Another wasted season.

Good times!

I will say we either beat Steelers twice or split with Steelers and beat the Rats at Cleveland. In other words, I'm going with 9-7, a winning season, but as you said, another wasted season.

This team has proven it can beat subpar, sub 500 teams, but that's not saying much, they have to be able to beat the better teams and until they can, this team goes nowhere.

The truth hurts...really hurts...

at New England Patriots L

at Denver Broncos L

Buffalo Bills L

Pittsburgh Steelers L

Miami Dolphins W

at Pittsburgh Steelers L

Cincinnati Bengals W

at Arizona Cardinals L

Baltimore Ravens L

at Cincinnati Bengals L

4-12

Baker 16 TD's 29 INT

I agree. I don't like that we have lost as many as we have, but it looks like we are losing to top teams...mostly in close games. in close games.

Maybe we aren't a top team yet, but we will be, even if not this year. The hype machine maybe geared up a year early.

I can see us stacking 4-5-6 wins and all of a sudden everything will be good with the world.

Like it or not, we have a young team. We aren't starting seasoned veterans at our key positions. Youth breeds freshness and enthusiasm. Experience breeds making better decisions because they now hold a roadmap to the pitfalls made when young, fresh, and enthusiastic.

It's called gaining experience and growing up.

I am a firm believer that people aren't true adults until around age 40. You have kicked around the clubs, bounced a few checks, missed some payments, maybe a flub up with the law, now you have a child and you are in charge of shaping them, and now you are going to PTA meetings rather than meeting the boys or girls for happy hour after work.

At that point you are adult. Before, just some stage of advanced stage of adolescence.

Remember what I said about holding the roadmap? Just as your parents could tell you what was likely to happen, so can older people like some of us...we have been there, but just like my Mom or Dad told me there was a big pothole in the road just around that corner, I had to flatten a tire and screw up the front end to be sure.

It's life being human.

2-4 Sucks and feels worse than it really is.

Looking back ... and despite the embarassment of MNF... The worst loss was Tenn... a team we got smacked by and who really arent that good. Rams are trending the same way as us, down. But SF are legit very, very good i hated the beat down but i dont think we beat them even if we play them back to back 10 times.

After the break... IF we can find a way to beat The Pats, I'm going to say we can beat Den, Bils, Pit x1, Cinci x2, Miami and the Cardinals.... an unlikely but not impossible 10-6 record. Heck, depending on Hodges we might beat Steelers twice... but their D looked V good last night.

A loss to the Pats and i think we' also find a way to lose to Den and the Bills ... taking us down to 8-8. We could even lose to Pit again.

8-8 with this roster and division is BAD. 7-8 and Freddie is gone.

J/c

BYE
At New England - the only non-winnable game left ... LOSS
At Denver - one of those 50/50 games ... I’ll say WIN
Buffalo - one of those 50/50 games ... I’ll say LOSS
Pittsburgh - one of those 50/50 games ... I’ll say WIN
Miami - this better be win ... WIN
At Pittsburgh - one of those 50/50 games ... I’ll say LOSS
Cincinnati - this better be win ... WIN
At Arizona - this is a close one too ... I’ll say WIN
Baltimore - game of the year perhaps ... WIN
At Cincinnati - this better be win ... WIN

That’s our path to the division and the playoffs ... 9-7

Anything less and we’re out

We can beat New England. We always play them tough.

We can pressure the QB. Brady doesn't like pressure. If we can get in his face early, we will then get in his head.

We can beat them.

New England's offensive line is horrible. It would be great if we could pressure him, but the problem is that Brady often gets rid of the ball really fast.

Yeah, they are good at game planning and calling plays to get it out quickly. I’d watch the Buffalo game over and over if I were the coaching staff; they really bothered Brady and disrupted that offense.

Of course, that would mean that our front 4 will have to play well I’d assume

I think McDaniels is one of the best offensive minds in the entire league, but "they" get it out quickly because Brady processes information faster than any qb in the league. Well, Brees is right there w/him. Both are lightning quick at going through their progressions.

Yeah it’s definitely a jointed effort ... coaching and Brady. It’s a good concerted chemistry

Correct. I'll throw in a comment that Brady and Brees - while certainly great QBs - have also enjoyed the benefits of being with the same HC and essentially the same system(s) since Lord-knows-when. That makes for a great combo-to-success.

If for some reason they moved on from Freddie - and my goodness I hope not - McDaniels is my number one choice for coach...although I do have a hard time getting over what he did to Indy.

Beating folks in our division will help greatly. We need to have some of the dead wood carry its weight and roll some folks. "Too much talk, and not enough action" is playing through my head. Less 'plain' and more winning would help a bunch. Part of any upside runs through Freddie; during the bye he should seriously consider sharing or surrendering some of the play-calling job. But we need to get BM untracked, hand him Higgins, and keep Callaway out of the red zone. Maybe none of those help, but I am ready to see some different stuff. And Baker running some hurts people. He also seems to be channeling Anderson with his "Mister Potato Cannon" delivery. Not sure we can get a handle on NFL refs, but our game and the Cheeseheads' win invite some attention.
I don't care how we win or who wins us games really. I am way too busy watching for who killed that drive? Why are we punting again? How many flags again? How many drops? That list goes on, and it is not a product of "Control the things you can." We seem to be crystal clear what is needed Monday or in interviews. Play harder in the moment.
Go, Browns.

New England is a perennial top team. That being said, this is the NFL and anything can happen. Although the odds are stacked against us, we do have a chance. In order for us to slay the giant we must avoid costly penalties and turnovers. Which has been two of our biggest issues thus far.

But, I will mark it as a loss for this hypothetical post.

@NE- L
@DEN- W*
BUFF- W* 1st home W of season. I will be in attendance.
PIT- W*
MIAMI- W
@PIT- L*
CIN- W
@AZ-W
BAL- W*
@CIN-W

* 50/50 game

Extremely optimistic for 10-6
9-7 is realistic
8-8 probable
7-9 possibility

Nobody knows how it will shake up, but there is still a chance for a very good season. A win in New England and look out!!!!!

I'd bet we win against NE. They are in need of an upset and we have just the team to provide them with one.

Totally agree. And I'll admit that I was drinking the Kool Aid about this team pre-season and all that talent. However that was a media orchestrated theme. The team wasn't putting out those expectations.

But the change in personnel tied with the total change in coaching positions, AND the first head coach experience...it makes my head dizzy in hindsight.

Even so, wasn't everybody saying 2020 was THE year for this thing to really gel and to expect great things?