DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Kevin Stefanski II

Even the Mangini teams left a lot to be desired... I remember one of the people that had an axe to grind re: Mangini posted the average penalties/game year-to-year, and there wasn't that big of a drop.

And the penalties I don't see out there aren't really the 'discipline' sort, but more of the organizational type, and that's what I was expecting to see with the crazy year.

I don't think we are getting anything back considering the severity of that injury. I believe OBJ will be a Cleveland Brown for a while. I am reading he is going to miss time next year too. It really sucks.

I do agree that we need so many upgrades on defense. Losing Delpit before the season even started really put us in a bad spot. I hope he recovers well because he is going to be such a good fit for that defense. We also need someone else to keep teams honest when it comes to Myles Garrett. You need another good threat on that line.

I recall reading somewhere that last season Freddie would call a play that the team had never run through in practice.

This is true.

I love that we now have a coach that is good at time management

that’s been big. Managing ends of halves is so important

j/c

While I don't believe there is a one size fits all in the demeanor a HC must have to find success, I like the demeanor of Stefanski. I've seen debates on this board in the past about how some think a HC must be animated and fiery on the sidelines. That if not, it somehow means he lacks passion or will have trouble motivating the team.

I think what we're seeing is a prime example of how keeping your composure in times of competition has its own attributes. I'm of the belief that composure is a strong character trait. I feel seeing your HC remain calm and composed leads to your players remaining calm and composed. It's hard to stay focused when your emotions are all over the place.

As I stated in the beginning, there is no one size fits all here. Some HC's have used that fiery approach to motivate their teams.

But what I do know is that in seasons past I've watched my team find a way to lose games when it was on the line and now we're finding ways to win games when they're on the line. That takes an entire change in the mind set of your players.

It's still early and the jury is still out. But there's no doubt we're seeing a different mentality on this team. We're seeing a calm and focus. We're seeing a team that is motivated to win unlike anything we've seen in years. For a team to be able to accomplish this, first they must believe they can accomplish this. Stefanski has made that a reality. And so far, so good.

The formula will never change.

You need a great owner, great coach, and great QB.

We can only hope that Haslam will leave everything untouched for awhile, Stefanski will keep impressing, and Baker has the light come on.

There are no magic formulas here. If these three things are consistently good, the Browns will be good.

I have said this in the past, one of the biggest things I have noticed this year, other than the lack of procedural penalties, is the quickness that the play calls come in and the time that Baker has when he some to the line. The vast majority of the time, there is at least 10 or more seconds left on the play clock when he is under center or in shotgun. Night and Day difference from last year.

We still need Baker to vastly improve on reading the Defenses pre-snap and making adjustments accordingly.

Bottom line is we are better. Matter of fact this is the 1st year we are actually a better team than the year before with the possible exception of 2018. Now we have to keep building on what we have. The injuries are stopping us from realizing our full potential but we are not the only ones. Another good draft and FA period and we could be legit contenders.

Stefanski actually made that a big point of emphasis when he first arrived.

It is good he stuck with that. It shows promise for sure.

The thing that impresses me about Stefanski, is the way the backups are prepared and play when called upon. That is the sign of a good Head coach and staff. Coaching the whole team.

We aren’t committing many dumb penalties - by that I mean the mental ones such a illegal motion and false starts.

Someone pointed out in this or another thread about how we never seem to be forced to burn a time-out because we couldn’t get the play in.

Stefanski seems structured and organized, unlike several other HCs we’ve had. So far, this hire has shown to be a good one.

To start winning, you have to stop beating yourself. That seems to be something he hones in on, which is good.

I thought about one other thing today, when it comes to the Steelers and the Ravens. Once you learn how to stop beating yourself, you have to beat the teams that you should beat. We seem to at least be on that path. The next logical step is to go toe-to-toe with the big boys. I feel like you accomplish that by not beating yourself first of all, and making the other team play with a sense of urgency. The Steelers and the Ravens always seem content to just play sound football and let us crap all over ourselves. Almost like they are just sitting back and having fun. The next time we play both, I hope that we find a way to collectively punch them in the mouth from the start, and give them the realization that "oh crap, we need to get our ish together." We saw that the first game with the Ravens last year and they really buckled.

Fingers crossed.

Yeah, that’s one thing about last year’s team: we literally beat ourselves more often than not. Turnovers, penalties, time management, etc. It was the prototypical poorly coached team

I couldn't imagine Stefanski pulling a stunt like Kitchens did at the end of the first half of the Seattle game last year.

My own personal feeling is the mismanagement of that and the end results of that mismanagement completely sank the season.

It was the single most deflating moment of a season that had plenty of them. I know people will say the Garrett incident but by that game the book was kind of out on the Browns. The Seattle game was the last chance to turn the season around. And the team came out and played like it, and their coach let them down.

Yeah, that was an unmitigated disaster. We controlled Seattle .. about to go up two scores ... they were dormant and on the road at 1PM

Dumbest move of the year

I don't remember the last time I was angrier at a series of plays than that end of the scenario against Seattle last year. We were in control and allowed Seattle to get back in the game by horrendous mismanagement of the game circumstances, clock, and sloppy execution.

I am not a "yeller" during games. I tend to be more analytical. However, I left my Bonus Room and shouted down to my wife who was watching her Steelers' game about freaking stupid the Browns were. She was surprised because I hardly ever get emotional about the games one way or the other.

Gawd, that was stupid!!!

My reaction was the same.

In the fall we usually have our front door open (we have a screen that allows some fresh air into the house). I'm pretty sure people were about to call the cops based on my reaction.

I don't think I've ever been more deflated as a fan, even during the 1-31 stretch. I can handle losing. I don’t do well with stupidity.

Dare I ask...

...what happened at the end of the half during that game last year? I probably suppressed it from my memory.

I think the nail in the coffin for Kitchens (besides the record, obviously) was when he wore the sweatshirt that said "Pittsburgh Started It." Just a complete lack of awareness and professionalism.

We were playing Seattle. We were up (1-score) and got the ball back with a pretty decent amount of time at the end of the half. We marched down the field and ate up some time... all positives. We got into the red zone, and I don't know if we ran Chubb once or not at all, but the fact is we have the ball at the half (hawks get the ball second half) and have the lead. We are in position to guarantee to come away with at least 3 points while not allowing Russell Wilson another crack at the ball before the half.

Instead, we hurry up and start throwing. We bleed off no clock, get picked in the endzone and Wilson marches them down the field for a touchdown. Pick was bad, but the coaching was far more egregious.

Didn’t they end up scoring TWICE even? I was seeing red so I can’t even remember haha

By shooting ourselves in the foot, we killed all momentum going into the second half. They got the ball back and Russ did Russ things the rest of the game.

That is pretty close to my recollection. I will add that we were in the red zone and the half was almost over. We could have easily have used up almost all the time on the clock and scored to go up by two scores. Instead, we hurried up. I remember yelling at the screen to use the clock, instead we were snapping the ball in the play clock. Baker ends up getting picked in the end zone. Seattle zips down the field behind Wilson and they score at the end of the half.

Freddie was asked about why he was playing hurry up or something like that. He answered that he was trying to score quick, stop Seattle, get the ball back and score again.

That may have been the dumbest thing I have ever seen.

Btw....this is all from memory and I'm not positive I am have the exact details absolutely correct, but it's pretty damn close.

OMG, you're right. Not only was he hell-bent on scoring 7, he wanted another crack at the endzone before the half.

Haha it was just so idiotic. At that point I was like “yeah, this isn’t good”

That whole scenario in Seattle gets blown out of proportion because of Freddie's stupid comment "Shoot, I wanted to score again".

It all started because Romo was foaming at the mouth during the entire Seattle drive to close the half "The Browns left too much time on the clock".

We were running a no huddle (or quick huddle) the entire first half and about to score for the fourth time as a result. Yet, during our final drive (starting at about 5:00), we only ran a no huddle once (at +4:00) before the INT in the endzone.

On that play we came to the line early, Baker snapped the ball at :20... as a LB was yelling, pointing at the mismatch, and running toward Landry. Ball bounces off Landry's chest for an INT.

All that whining by Romo was because we snapped the ball with 20 seconds on the clock... Russ snapped the ball for the TD pass with :22. Math doesn't lie.

We lost the Seattle game because of three Mayfield INTs, a Chubb fumble and several egregious calls by officials (clear TD by Landry - marked short and a phantom block in the back, to name a couple).

I respectfully disagree w/some of that. Romo isn't an idiot. He is very intelligent when it comes to football. Secondly, I was screaming that we should be bleeding the clock and I didn't need Romo to tell me that. Snapping the ball w/so much time on the play clock several times was an epic fail in my opinion.

I don't usually bad-mouth our coaches for play calling and clock management like many others do, but that series of events infuriated me.

The league favors the teams that bring the highest ratings. I've maintained that position for years and it sure seems true.

Brady should be ripped up and down, just like the others.

He SHOULD but he probably won't...however, if someone DOES rip him, somewhere a ref will throw a flag for 'roughing the passer'.

Agreed. Be a man about it win or lose. How many times have losing coaches and players shook his hand after a game. Too many to count.

Yeah, it’s part of sports. Even if I didn’t always want to, I always would. I’d think about all of the good moments I’ve had in sports and just say congrats, well done. There are two sides to the game

Brady has always been a sulky little beeyotch.