There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Man I’m so proud of our QB. We finally got the guy, and the QB position is the one thing we ain’t worried about going into the offseason regardless of how the season plays out.
We got the HC, we got the QB, we got the Oline and RBs.
We can freaking go toe to toe with anybody!! All we need is experience!!
I love this team man I’m so up on them right now.
Hey Swish, on the first drive did you hear Baker call out "Stiffler! Stiffler!" At first I was like did I just hear that??? Then as they went to commercial break the announcer said "Baker Mayfield giving us a little American Pie"
I heard that. It was funny.
That was funny. I was surprised no-one brought this up a couple weeks ago (unless i missed it) from the Jags game. I can't post it on here (language), but search Baker Mayfield cute. We were set to run a play and the Jags D-line did a line shift. Baker makes a comment in this cadence that is hilarious and very cocky, that you can hear in the broadcast lol.
lmao. Nothing like busting the D's balls at the LOS. Good stuff, I missed it the first time.
Baker had an entire new system to learn.... again.
And i think Stefanski is a very good HC. Just from the eye test, Stefanski seems to game plan for who our opponent is rather than have a single minded approach to what an offense should be week in and week out. In other words, he adjusts the game plan according to the opponents weakness rather than try to jam a single minded approach week in and week out.
This was a debate we had on this very board before the season began. Many were trying to claim that we would be a strictly heavy, run based offense. My contention was that a good HC game plans against each opponent. I felt we had far too much talent and investment in the passing game to be a one dimensional offense. My prediction was that we would be an offense that was balanced using both the run and pass equally.
Thus far this season we have passed on 49.39% of our plays. In the past three games we have passed on 53.81% of our plays.
As for my view of basing your game plan according to your opponent, I think the last two games gives us a sample. The Titans have a questionable secondary and do not apply much pressure on the QB. However, they are much harder to run against. The Titans rank 15th in yardage given up in the running game while they rank 29th in passing yardage allowed per game. As such Stefanski chose to attack them with the downfield vertical passing game more. In contrast the Ravens do apply a lot of pressure and going into the game, prior to the injuries they sustained during the game, their backfield was very good in coverage. Thus we used a totally different approach to the game.
So IMO the game plan is not designed around Baker's strengths and weaknesses. Watching both the Titans game and the Ravens game shows Baker can execute anything he is handed. The game plan is designed around our opponent.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Not only is the game plan very-well crafted for each opponent, it seems to be a living, breathing thing. It is adapted and adjusted very well within games. The Titans loaded the box and said "make Baker beat us", Stefanski obliged. He had nearly 200 yds and 4 TDs before halftime... and there we're still 8-9 in the box. Vrabel was stubborn and stuck to his guns, Ski out-coached him.
People bag on him for second half adjustments in the blowouts... but there is actually a time to play checkers instead of chess. Which is to say, there are only so many moves left on the board. Those games got a little dicey in the end, but imo it was the right approach.
Love our coach... it's about time we got it right!
Agree with you and Pit. I think that the other thing is that he has brought Baker along slowly and hasn't "thrown him to the wolves" so to speak. He didn't encourage bad habits by throwing too much at him and forcing him to throw in games where he didn't have to. When he did throw, they were safe throws for the most part. It allowed Baker to come along to the new system slowly, while the bottom line of getting W's was also happening. Ideal scenario right there.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Not sure why we EVER go empty backfield but we seem to do it a lot.
I'm going to give my view of the reason why. I could be wrong, but this is my thinking/reasoning.
1. It spreads the defense out
2. It gives the defense a different look.
3. It creates mismatches between our excellent pass catching RBs on LBs or DBs.
4. Spreading everyone out makes it easier on the QB reading the pre-snap D and O-linemen on their blocking assignments. Since the LBs aren't playin closer to the middle.
5. The blitzing LB or DB will be a little farther away from the line, gives Bake a extra possible one second or two to go through progressions before the blitz arrives...also gives the O-line a better of view seeing the blitzer.
6. Step understands our O-lineman is one of our strengths and has confidence they will win their individual matchups and give Bake plenty of time to find the open man
7. Step has confidence Bake will find the open man.
8. Less congestion in the middle means wider throwing lanes for Bake to see through and also less paws in the air to worry about a batted pass.
9. Spacing things out can possibly mean more open space for YAC. Hoping the ball carrier can break that tackle.
I added the first video I found that showed an empty backfield and how the D played it. I added it for a visual on why i came to these thoughts......naturally the first video that popped up was against us, lol.
People bag on him for second half adjustments in the blowouts... but there is actually a time to play checkers instead of chess. Which is to say, there are only so many moves left on the board. Those games got a little dicey in the end, but imo it was the right approach.
Love our coach... it's about time we got it right!
I'll agree here and throw out a reminder of some execution boogers in those second halves that turned 1st downs into punts.
The name of the game is to do your best to always keep a defense on it's heels. The empty backfields have increased as Baker's confidence has. I hate to make this a coach Ski lovefest, but I almost feel like he has fazed Bake out of bad habits and into this offense about as well as anyone could possibly ask.
Now comparing Baker to some really bad QB's doesn't make him good - he has to stand alone and be compared to the best in the NFL to be considered a franchise QB. I happen to think he is on the path to do that. But man I think we forget how bad our QB situation has been in the past. Even without the Cinci and Titans games Baker was playing better than all of these guys and we still had posters saying we should move on.
Last edited by mgh888; 12/17/2009:36 AM.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
The way I take the argument is not that 'Baker is better than these guys so he's the best thing since sliced bread', but more to the effect of, good QBs don't grow on trees. These were the guys we had before Baker, and it wasn't because we were trying to start the worst QBs possible. Finding QBs that can play at least mediocre is hard... and it's a crapshoot. You can have all the football brains and try as hard as you can and still end up with a dud under center (Darnold, Rosen can be good, recent examples... there are many others).
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
I agree. We've had 20 years trying to find a competent QB, it's not easy. As I said - Baker isn't good or a franchise guy because he's better then those guys, that's not the metric to judge by.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
I think from that 2011-2017 list, Hoyer was the only one I had any real confidence in, misguided as it was. It's been said Gordon's return doomed him, but there were certainly other deficiencies.
Beyond just having the confidence, I was really, really pulling for that guy (more than just wanting to believe in a Browns QB).
I had to look. Johnny Foosball played for us in 2014 & 2015. 2014: he had 175 yards passing. 2015: 1500 yds
In 2015, we also had Josh McCown who had 2,109 yds. In 2014, Johnny was 3rd on the team behind Hoyer (3326 yds) and Connor Shaw (177 yds) who also happened to have fewer attempts.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
See how that works? You were giving me advice of how to get him off my mind while you couldn't help looking up his stats. Looks like I'll need to find a different strategy.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
See how that works? You were giving me advice of how to get him off my mind while you couldn't help looking up his stats. Looks like I'll need to find a different strategy.
Trauma is transmittable, lol
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
I think we're all trying to pretend that era never happened. Also, was he ever the leading passer for us in any given year?
And you just triggered our PTSD.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
and throw out a reminder of some execution boogers in those second halves that turned 1st downs into punts.
