DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2020 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 49 Cowboys 38 Post Game

It always has been. The degree to which playcalling gets talked about has ALWAYS been completely overblown.

I wasn't overly upset at the comeback. A lot of those yards came against a Prevent D. And we are talking about the Dallas Offense which has been the best O in Football. The D was getting tired too, especially the pass rush, due to the lack of depth. I actually blame the O more than the D for the comeback. If the O did their job in the 4th...we may have only given up 8 points instead of 24. And holding Dallas to between 14-22 points "would have" been extremely impressive. And it was possible even with our D.

I understand that we were practically running at will, so it is understandable to keep the ball on the ground. But the important thing was to take time off the clock. And you do that by making first downs. And even the Dallas D can lock in on an opposing Offense if that O is going to be single minded.

We may need to understand that we are very similar to Dallas with a little better Defense.

Baker missed that pass to OBJ...but overall was efficient. Had some great throws as well. and most importantly...no INT's

Game ball to D'Ernest Johnson. Easy to see why they kept him over Dontrell Hilliard, who also had a good day.

The Browns have done the past 3 weeks what we have been waiting 20 years for them to do. When the chips are down, they are not flinching. Past Browns team would have said..."here we go again". But not this team. They believe they can find a way to win.

This growth is what I have been waiting for for some time. Every coach we have had kept talking about growing from game to game....But this team is ACTUALLY DOING IT....They have been taking the steps that have to be made to become a great team.

They have a ways to go...but my impressions have been that there is no reason they can't keep making those steps...

j/c:

I have a question. I have seen a few posts talking about being in a prevent defense. Has that been verified?

It's hard to see the alignment on TV, but it didn't look like a true Prevent defense to me. I think we were playing a soft zone, but that would make sense when you have such a large lead.

Fair question.

I think people are figuring it was a prevent D because Dallas was able to move as if it were. It may have been a soft zone.

Teller is an absolute animal the first 4 games

Why must you backpedal or distract when someone points out your opinion was wrong?

Personally I'm shading more toward "great call" than a "lucky call" if for no other reason than there's nothing about how this offense has been run the last 3 weeks that appears to have been attempted without a purpose. It didn't strike me as having run out of ideas.

Of course I do reserve the right to be completely wrong in my assessment and be found to be unjustifiably confident.

j/c...

I agree w/Fate that that particular play could have backfired. OBJ bailed him out.

However, one call does not tell the entire story. I was skeptical about Stefanski when we hired him, but I have to say this:

I have been impressed w/his overall play calling and schemes. I think he has a good run scheme and is taking advantage of a strength.

I have been impressed w/how he has been able to cut down on Baker's responsibility and subsequent mistakes. I also like how he has rolled Baker out at times which makes his reads easier.

I also have been impressed w/the team's overall discipline and preparedness. We are not nearly as sloppy as last year and are playing more focused.

I want to throw out another shout-out to Callahan. This OL has been absolutely fantastic. He almost certainly been a huge factor in that. I also have always loved the ZBS. It's more complicated than man blocking, but I think it is very effective. You need smart players to run it well and it appears we have that.

Evaluating the coaching staff is an ongoing thing, but I am pleasantly pleased w/what I have seen thus far.

Let me put it a different way (because I really hate sounding like a wet blanket after a win).
The Landry to OBJ TD... I was thinking to myself "man, Stefanski has brass you-know-whats to dial up that play". Execution was there and worked to perfection to start our steamroll of the Dallas D. Then fast-forward to the end of the game, and our offense (while still doing some things) was overall very ineffective. We were NOT bleeding clock (we had one drive that bled off a whopping 15 seconds). We were bleeding our lead hoping the clock would hit 0 before we lost it. Obviously, I'm happy that the OBJ run worked, but it was really close to not working, and would've been the cherry on top of an offensive meltdown. The D is what it is, it's the production out of the O that was most troubling at the end of the game. IMO, our D is missing a player or 2 on the backend, and could very easily be one of those not-great-but-opportunistic D's that have ended up working out well for teams that have a strong offense.

While radio guys said the secondary "was focused on keeping everything in front of them", I'm pretty sure I heard we had dialed up a few blitzes at the end of the game. Doesn't sound like full-on prevent to me.

Definitely one of the best in the business, we're lucky to have him. I think he deserves some credit for Teller's improvement. And hell even Hubbard hasn't played bad when he's been in.

This OL reminds me of the OL that protected Bernie and run blocked for Mack and Byner in the 80's ... LT - Paul Farren LG - Larry Williams C Mike Baab RG Dan Fike RT Codey Risen ... That was a great OL and so is this one

We ran the same end around earlier in the game for a big gain.

Not sure what's going on with the snap counts that were linked. I distinctly remember Kevin Johnson being the guy that got chucked into DPJ as he caught the punt on the one return. I commented in the Discord that the awkward collision probably wasn't good for his liver. Thought I saw 28 on a couple defensive snaps as well, though nothing that really stood out.

The dropped interceptions drove me nuts throughout the game, but I will say that our D coaches are doing the most with what they have to work with. But Sendejo has been a real disappointment. I hope Harrison can come back from his pre-game hammy real quick. And Mitchell and Phillips are really coming on.

Eagle eye award!...

Just a couple of comments about the running game. Chubb gave a training session of how good a RB he actually is last year. The RG and both OT's were not something one could call good. Actually both OT's played poorly and the RG position was barely adequate. Teller wasn't the same player he is now.

Callahan certainly deserves a lot of credit for getting this group in shape. Maybe even more than some realize. You see, as great as Chubb is and and as much as we all wish him a speedy return and recovery, what we saw yesterday is that with a great OL, you can produce in the running game by "inserting RB here". We had third and fourth string RB's looking great.

They're not Chubb. They never will be. But with a truly great OL you can still produce in the running game and win.

j/c...

I briefly forgot Njoku was on this team.

- Sendejo needs to be benched. WTF was he thinking on the play where he gave up a TD? Go for the ball or go for the hit. Don't go for Denzel Ward.

- Harrison made an excellent play on the ball, but couldn't reel it in

- Baker was up and down

- Hate to see Chubb get hurt

- Joseph made a bone-headed decision when he went for a hit on the TE rather than wrapping him up to keep the clock running. This allowed the TD during Dallas' 4Q drive.

- Glad to see backup RBs playing well

- Excellent offensive playcalling in the red zone

- Glad to have a win

What does we'll see how it goes mean?

Lol...talk about vague.

Side note: is it just me or does Mike McCarthy have trouble effectively using a runningback?

I hope Larry O is not a significant injury

I feel this was a great game where Big Players made big plays! What we have watched for years is our stars padding their stats in garbage time, not doing it when it was needed most.

Yesterday. Garret, turned the momentum and game around with the strip sack. Odel, made a play when it was needed. And Denzel, to ice the game!

All big time players, making a plan when it was needed most. Great to see!

Apparently a strained oblique. MLB pitchers and hitters miss 6-8 weeks with that injury, so I'd guess Larry will miss a game, maybe two. Football players are a different breed when it comes to playing hurt.

Zeke says yes....

j/c

fun thought this morning:

Yesterday, CLE scored 49 points in one hour. Browns have had seasons where it took 3 entire games to reach 49 points.

Baldy doing a cute breakdown on the TD party the Browns had on Dallas.

Love the call out to Baker for blocking on the first TD...

Njoku > Hooper

** ducks **

I hope no one sees you or anyone else as being a wet blanket for your comments because I don't think you guys are. Stefanski has a few times this year made calls like going for it on a couple 4th downs that made me say "That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off".

I guess for me when I see these plays attempted, I don't see a tam attempting it out of desperation, or trying to be cute, or because we've been backed in to a corner and need a 'spark'.

Wet blanket? Not at all. Just a Browns fan who's seen their fair share of those plays getting called at the worst time and blown up practically before they left the huddle

I think this was the signature win we were looking for that could help galvanize this team. All our stars got involved and made big plays.

We need to follow it up this coming week by not laying an egg. Even if we don't beat the Colts, we need to be in it and holding our own.

Agreed. I think letting the Cowboys back in it is something the coaching staff can latch onto this week in preparation for the Colts.

Colts have the #1 D in the league so far. Will be a good test next Sunday for sure.

trade Njoku for Myles Jack

I find it ironic that we are 3-1 and in 3rd place. We have a tough division and we have to play the AFC south which, is also a tough division.

You're going to have to narrow this down some.