DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2019 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 21 Steelers 7 Keys to the Game

A couple quick observations to start the thread.

Biggest key: Make a rookie QB uncomfortable. Wilks is going to have to have the confidence to put his secondary in man coverage and dial up some blitzes. We are 28th in the league in takeaways. The biggest reason, in my eyes, is because we've relied on our front four as the strength of the team and expected them to do it all themselves. Inexcusable against rookie QBs.

Protect the ball: Steelers are 2nd in INTs and 1st in fumbles. Only the Patriots are better at taking your lunch money, but the two teams are head and shoulders above. Two hands on the ball in traffic. WRs? Sometimes you have to play defense in this league... OBJ and Landry are about the worst I've seen at fighting to finish or breaking up a pass they can't catch. They. just. quit.

Speaking of taking your lunch money: Hunt blocks people like they're trying to steal his mother's groceries.
It's hard for me to digest the contrast between Hunt's emergence and OBJ lagging along behind the curve. Dude has had three weeks of practice and he came out playing like a man possessed. Don't bother comparing the roles and learning curve... He was a lead-blocker, runner, lined up in the slot, lined up out wide, ran jet motion, bubble screens, you name it - all in his first game. And he didn't just "do it", he excelled. Hope he lights a fire under this offense. We've waited all year for a "pick your poison" offense, with the addition of Hunt - it might finally be here.

1. Mason is not a rookie, this is his second year in the league.

2. The reason we don't blitz is simple. That's the scheme we run. The entire defense is built on the front 4 getting pressure. You drop basically everyone else. This is a bad team IMO for our defense to be playing. They rely on running the ball and dominating the LOS with their Oline. We need LBs on the field to help shut down the RB's. Conner looks like he will be playing Thursday, as well as Ramon Foster. We need to stuff the run.

3. Completely agree with protecting the ball. The steelers have 26 Takeaways to our 9. We simply stink on defense. They are very good and well coached.

Biggest key to the game. FEED THE BALL TO HUNT AND CHUBB. Plain and simple. Run, Run, and Run. NO REASON on earth we should be throwing the ball for 25+ times unless we are down 2 scores going into the 4th. 0 other reason.

I hope he can gear up the "Anywhere-but- the- Red Zone" offense. Better score from the twenty on out.

And that is all Oline. I know some on here said the OL has been playing well, but I don't care what play you call, if you need a yard and cant get it, that's solely on your oline.

They have to be part of the conversation, I would think. Especially the sixth, seventh, eighth time. A blind guy on the sidelines must be calling for it over and over.

It sounds simple, but we cannot afford turnovers. They feed off of them .. it’s the only reason they’ve won games. Heck, I think if we just handed it off 60 times and ran straight ahead ... then either punted or kicked a FG without one turnover/sack/fumble, that we’d win the game

Exactly.

I wondered before but I REALLY wondered on Sunday if we aren't tipping our hand in those goal-to-go situations. I don't know who or how but it wasn't just them beating our OL, in a lot of cases, they were getting to the spot before we did with more guys than we could block.

And ironically, after complaining about Baker's QB sneak the week before, one of our plays from the 1, their tackles had a pretty wide set and and the MLB was 2 or 3 yards deep in the endzone.. if Baker had the ability to just tap the center and have everybody fire off he could have slid in pretty easily... but I don't know if he can do that.

These are the keys to the game and Freddie better use them on every offensive play:

What I fear with FK is that he seems to outthink himself ... almost like “Well, they’re expecting us to run Chubb so we won’t here”

I agree with how you believe we should win, Bone.

Problems are this:

1. Freddie is too dang stubborn to get out of his own way. He's not going to stick with the run, hes going to pass the ball 30+ times.

2. Our D against their Oline and their D against our Oline, im taking their their D against our Oline.

3. Dumb calls. Pittsburgh loves to draw out games this year. They will run and dink and dunk all day on offense. Their goal is to control the game, or bust a 5 yard pass for a big gain. They will do this until you make a mistake and give them the ball. We can be doing stupid things like calling 4 and 9 draw plays, going for it on 4-16 etc. etc. We have to play smart and focused, or they will win this game.

- Do not turn the ball over, make the Steelers offense beat you. They can't.

- Minimize TJ Watt's impact.

- Run the offense primarily out of two back sets.

- Jump out to early lead and force Rudolph to throw more. INT's will come.

Chubb is going over 100 yards to get to 1000 yards, and Kareem is gonna have about 120 yards total.

Just let it happen Freddie.

This is pretty much what I think is happening. He is trying to be too clever, even if means not going with what has been shown to work for us.

They think I will run Chubb. Well, I'll show them. I won't even have him on the field as a decoy.

Oh, he wants to run the clock out in the 3rd quarter? Well, I'll show them. Time out! LOL, now you have to run your 4th down play this quarter. Timeouts are cheap in a close game.

It's not even like there was wind where we wanted them to kick in one direction over the other.

With Wilkes 4/2 line-bakers will be out of position when they are not getting blown up .. Schobert will 2 or 3 really good plays ( like he does ever game ) then be missing in action. You need to run a 4/3 with Schobert and Wilson ( or Taki ) on the out side and Avery in the middle . Opps !

I think a big key to the game is going to be the defensive line finally deciding to show up like we've been expecting them to.

These guys haven't been bad, but we seem to have built an entire scheme around them without them having earned it. They've got to be monsters, and that starts with stifling the Pitt running attack... which is a tall order given our defense's track record.

Like we forgot this. One of the keys to any of our games is which refs show up. So, how much are game planning to help them beat us? We need to bring more pressure and score points. Crappy tackling and lousy showboat routes need to go now.

I said it before in a different post. They play hungrier than we are. Easy enough to fix that.

Run Stop the Run Pressure their QB ...

Things are looking up for the steelers....they play us twice, the bengals, Bills, Cards and Jets before the last game vs the rats.

In addition to running the crap out of the ball.. Please, please keep the Ref's out of the game. Let's not do stupid things.

Saw the stat the other day, against the Bills, with Hunt lead blocking, Chubb had 7 carries for 87 yards.

Steelers pass rush isn't as dominant as it has been in the past but their secondary is excellent. Baker will need to be patient and throw it away if needed.

You should probably just ask for winning Lotto numbers, instead.

Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue.
Hopefully, the early part of the season was the humbling this roster needed to pull together and start acting like a team.

All credit to Freddie for this.

agreed Prp .. our penalties and turnovers and mistakes have decreased, so that’s credit to FK and the staff (although, they could only improve on those categories lol)

These are exactly the keys!

j/c

Aside from basing our game off of the 2 RB set, in the passing game I think Baker needs to go with the guys who are doing what they are supposed to. Assuming Jarvis has his head out of his butt finally and we get the guy we signed last year and saw again last week, and Bake finding Higgins... than that's where he needs to go. I'm not saying we need to ignore OBJ, but let's be honest, he's not being consistent enough. If any other WR was having balls skip off his hands we'd be talking about how he has to earn Baker's trust. Targeting OBJ 10+ times a game just because he's OBJ seems to me to be a waste of opportunities. I'm not trying to suggest he's bad, because he's not. But he needed more opportunities and he got more opportunities. He's uber talented so I don't think it's unfair to have expected more once he got those opportunities.

I completely agree. I think a good portion of Baker's struggles this year has been the lack of a player he completely trusts and is always where he needs them to be. Last year that was mostly Higgins, some Njoku, and some Duke. All of which have been gone this year. RSJ has been the closest to that this year, but has been hurt. I don't think its been appreciated how out of place OBJ has been on routes and how this has affected the whole offense.

I see Hunt's role in the passing game growing even more because of this.

I am going to go way out on a limb here and say the keys to the game are scoring more points than we give up.

I look for Garret to rise to the occasion. Just like he did last year in the opening Steelers game.

Rudolph has yet to play against the kinda guy Garret is. Garret is going to be in the backfield around him pretty much every pass play, he has a way of getting strips, strips sacks, and sacks. If Garret makes a few big time sacks early it will really set the tone.

Cleveland Browns Pregame Scribbles: A test for Freddie Kitchens, who has yet to impress

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/11...to-impress.html

By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Scribbles in my notebook as the Browns prepare to face the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight in FirstEnergy Stadium (8 p.m., WJW Channel 8).

1. It’s been this kind of season for Freddie Kitchens: Last Sunday, the Browns beat Buffalo, 19-16, but after the game the primary focus was on Cleveland’s failures in the red zone. While Kitchens is the head coach of the Browns, he also calls the plays on offense. He almost sounded like a losing head coach in the postgame press conference.

2. The Browns did win that game. QB Baker Mayfield had his first fourth-quarter comeback this season, leading the Browns on an 82-yard touchdown drive. But for the most part, the offense was frustrating. It’s doubtful most fans came away from that game thinking, “Maybe Freddie will be OK as the head coach next year.”

3. That’s why this game is huge for the 3-6 Browns and Kitchens. Browns fans know, when their team plays Pittsburgh...their team loses. The Steelers have beaten the Browns with starting QB Ben Roethlisberger and backups such as Landry Jones. Consider that Jones is 3-2 as an NFL starter...all three victories are over the Browns. Roethlisberger has a 23-2-1 record vs. the Browns.

4. With Roethlisberger out for the season (elbow surgery), the Steelers have Mason Rudolph at QB. He was a third-round pick in 2018, the same year Mayfield was the top pick in the draft. On the surface, this game should favor the Browns. In fact, the odd-makers have the host Browns a 2.5-point favorite.

5. But that brings us back to Kitchens. He is 1-3 at home in his rookie season as head coach. The Browns won last week almost in spite of his offense and play calling. The Browns have not scored at least 20 points in 6-of-9 games. The Pittsburgh defense is allowing only 17-points a game since acquiring safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in week 3 of the season.

6. Just as there comes a point in a rookie player’s season to have a big game, it’s the same for a rookie head coach. Mayfield did it in his first pro game when he replaced an injured Tyrod Taylor late in the second quarter against the Jets last season. He led them to a 21-17 victory.

7. Mayfield has had a lot of ups and downs since then. Other than that stunning 40-25 victory over Baltimore in Game 4 this season, there have been no big wins for Kitchens as a head coach.

8. A year ago, Kitchens took over in Game 9 as offensive coordinator. There were zero expectations for him or the team. With Gregg Williams as interim head coach and Kitchens wearing his Dawg Pound sweatshirts, the offense came alive. The team finished 5-3. They were fun to watch.

9. In this season of great expectations and a return of some discouraging Browns drama, Kitchens has done little to inspire belief that he was the right choice as head coach. A victory over the Steelers and veteran coach Mike Tomlin can be a start to change the “Freddie’s Overwhelmed” narrative.

10. Granted, there are mood swings each week in the NFL. When the Steelers were 0-3 with Roethlisberger injured, Tomlin seemed headed for the first losing season in his 13-year coaching career. They were 1-4 after a 26-23 loss to Baltimore. Then came a 4-game winning streak.

11. I’ve spent most of the season looking for reasons to believe Kitchens has a future as a head coach. Suppose the Browns were 3-6 as they are now, but they were scoring 28 points a game. And suppose Mayfield was playing like a top 10 QB. And the reason the Browns were losing was defense. Then I’d think, “Keep Freddie, get a new defensive coordinator.”

12. But Kitchens’ failures have been on the final scoreboard and offense. He has seven games to change that, including two against Pittsburgh. This can be a start to a different narrative with a strong performance vs. Pittsburgh.

13. My Prediction: Browns 20, Pittsburgh 17. It’s done far more with my heart than head because I’m sick of writing stories of Browns losing to Pittsburgh.

J/C

They better win this dang game. I been talking too much crap this offseason to my steeler fan friends for us to lose

He has a good point: if our struggles were mostly defense based then it’d be way easier to accept FK. But Our offense has been so inconsistent and bad at times, so it’s not easy to give him a pass

To be clear the defense has been an utter disappointment to match the offense. After OTA's and training camp we heard the defense, not the offense was the team strength, and the D-line was going to be unstoppable. Our O-line was sacrificed for the D-line and they have been average at best. In retrospect that was a terrible Dorsey decision.
This is the third game in a row where an elite defense should dominate and our offense should at least hold serve against their elite defense. Our defense was far from dominant against Denver or Buffalo.
I predict if we win tonight it will be because the offense does well, not the defense.

Who can run the ball and have less TOs will win. I'm picking us because of Chubb and Hunt.

Keys; on D put pressure on their young QB. Dial up some blitz packages. We don't Blitz much, do it this game. On O use our new weapon Kareem. Run a lot, use play action off that, no TO's keep penalties down.