DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2021 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 31 Texans 21 Post game thoughts

Cool play. Could have been better if we would have blocked somebody down field.

Tyrod did a good job of getting rid of the ball in 2.5 sec. or less by quick sideline passes, slants over the middle, bootleg left. etc. etc.

That was one of the oddest coaching decisions I’ve ever seen in our stadium … and that says A LOT

I believe that was Wills, and given how his ankle must've been feeling, him being out in space at all was a plus. :-p

I don’t think many coaches would walk it back like this. Respect to him. Also, he’s still terrible. I just don’t get how a 66 year old who has never been a coordinator (or head coach) at any level gets an NFL head coaching job. The Texans are the worst run team in the league.

That is a scary thought. What if Taylor would have remained in the game.. He was pretty commanding.

I'm thinking that part of the problem with the team may be that some fans (me included) thought to much of the team that would start the first couple of games.. My mind was made up that Clowney and Garret would eat opposing QBs for lunch on every play.. Maybe they will in time,, Apparently not yet...

One game was against Mahomes and we got consistent pressure. But Mahomes is a magician and does whatever he wants. The next game we went against a surprisingly solid offensive line. If we don’t kill the Bears o-line there is a problem.

I think you mixed up the order of those last 2 sentences. Texans are the worst-run team, ipso facto they hired who they did.

Again, there are so many elements of Houston's whole situation that remind me of recent Browns teams. The Pettine hire kinda seems similar here.

Pettine was at least a successful coordinator in the league.

I always thought Pettine was at least competent. His problem was ownership and the FO forcing Manziel on him. He had the Browns at 7-4 with Hoyer at QB when the shtf.

Pettiness always seemed like a no nonsense guy. There was a lot of nonsense in that time period.

Alright, fine. So maybe not the best parallel, but Pettine was in over his head and that HC spot came too early for where he was in his development as a coach. He was also racking up quite a few in-game head-scratchers.

Overall, my point was that I saw a lot of similarities between the Houston team and some of the things we've seen over the course of the last 1-2 decades.

Crazy that David Culley is 66 and it’s still too early for where he is in his development as a coach.

Seriously though, he’s been a coach since 1978 and was an offensive coordinator once at UTEP in 1989-90. And then he gets a head coaching job at age 66. That’s nuts.

I was listening on the radio at the time when it happened. Donovan and Dieken were so confused lmao.

j/c...

Hot Take Alert:

This indeed puts a spin on things that harken back to CLE's 5-11, 4-12 days.

I remember watching endless hours of uninspired football where the clearly superior team coasted through yet another gray Sunday that featured a Browns loss. Not a humiliating loss... but yet another mind-numbing, soul-sucking loss that strips the fire and dignity from a (formerly) self-respecting fan base.

It's a take that I hadn't considered. And you know what? I don't want to consider it now.

I'll tell you why.

When I look at the FO, the coaching staff, the Head Coach, the message, the mantra.... The Culture that's being instilled here, I don't think 'coasting through a gimme' is part of the new mindset at 76 Groza.

Firstly, this would be an example of a player's in-game attitude that runs absolutely counter to the buy-in that KStef & crew preached/insisted on from Day One, 2020: "Excellence and accountability."

Secondly, this team hasn't proven itself enough to approach ANY NFL game with a 'phone it in' attitude... and we have the kind of staff that would remind them of that on the daily. I've seen too many recent "Building The Browns" episodes to consider the hubris involved with a 'coast to a win' scenario. It's not what we're building. It's not what we're trying to be.


I think this tweet is a 'wishful thinking' rumination. And I think the reality in BrownsTown is very different tthan that.


My take: the simplest explanation is probably closest to accurate: A superior team had a sloppy day, and still managed to get a win. Had they been on their game, the margin would have been >20. I think this team would have run up the score on any opponent, had they not stumbled through parts of this game. It was the home opener, after all.


If I'm wrong, and this 'Twitster' is right- CLE has the same systemic cultural problems they've always had. My eyes, my brain and my gut tell me otherwise.


.02

Lol.

Ok, Jake. Ok.

I agree. I don't think Jarvis would have fought for those yards, Baker would be trying to make that tackle, or Delpit would be throwing his body around like that if this were the case.

I could buy that we're not trying to show our best plays and schemes, but not that people are holding back on effort. I also might start buying in to the fact that Joe Woods isn't the man for the job if we see a couple more lame defensive showings.

We’ve seen many good teams stroll into our stadium and go through the motions the first half, turn it on in the 2nd half, and get out with a ho-hum win.

Maybe we’re on the other side of it now.

Maybe. I'd say we need to get to game 6 before we try to pin it on scheme. Scheme isn't the one missing tackles.

Scheme could be responsible for coverage looking soft and defensive line weakness. I say "could" be because we don't know if it is scheme or players not getting in to the right spots or getting there at the right time.

I want to preface my post with I was NOT happy with the defensive showing on Sunday, it must be much much better.

I see a defense that is learning on the job, that is playing slow and who's pieces don't fit together well YET.

I can't say they ever will fit because they just haven't shown they do to date.

What I know is that this defense didn't even practice together until training camp had broken.

I know that 80+ % are new players in a new defense.

I also know that Fans, yup you and me start believing things and they aren't always true. Case an point the absence of a pass rush.

At least early in the game we had a very good pass rush, if you recall Tyrod was very focused on getting the ball out of his hands, which actually plays into my next point. At least 3 of the 1st passes thrown by Tyrod where the very same passes to different people but the very same play. A quick slant from left to right. Each time Myles was within a half a step of planting Tyrod.

But what is missing here is tighter coverage off the line tight enough to get Tyrod to hold on 1 tenth of a second longer. I didn't see the adjustment from a coverage stand point. I would have gotten Ward closer to the line and to the man he was covering and I believe it would have meant Tyrod getting a mouth full of Myles. And that played out thru most of the game. The focus on Houston was to get the ball out and our coverages were to loose to get Tyrod to hold it even a 10th of a beat.

There are a lot of moving parts here if Ward tightens his coverage but doesn't have deep help he could give up a whole bunch more then 5-10 yards. That means he has to have help over the top and that top help needs to be up to the task of handling the coverage and that the CB and the safety LB have to communicate how that is going to unfold with several scenarios covered based on the route run by the WR's.

When emotions get set to the side and the reality of what has to take place with some level of precision you know that this defense is very much a work in progress.

Reason tells me that the way this unit looks now was and is pretty predictable, and that it should get better week to week, but man there is a ton we need to work on, and it is likely to be done incrementally versus on a wholesale bases.

I don't like any of it, I want a polished well executed aggressive defense, and I believe we will see that but for now it's going to be a growing process, and in hind sight I think this defense should have played more together in the Pre-Season. As is we are week 2 of pre-season and the schedule says we are week 3 of the season. We have a lot of ground to make up.

We also have a tremendous amount of talent on this defense so it becomes how long is it going to take to get this defense working well together? From what I saw we have a lot of ground to cover and it's week 3.

Teams are going to start throwing quick against us obviously … I’d expect Woods to counter that in some way, right? Seems like we don’t adjust much

To counter I think that is a part of the scheme. Keep it in front of you.

Although done differently, it isn't all that different in theory than when Williams had Peppers lining up 40 yards deep to not allow the deep, quick strike.



Also, is it possible our view(fans) of a guy like Wards ability to stick one on one with a receiver is greater than the coaching view? Press coverage is great until the receiver isn't covered.

The odds say that giving up a field goal on every one of their possessions is bettered by us scoring a TD on every other possession.

At the start of the game, after the 1st few passing plays, I had to look up who #21 was. They were playing what looked like 12 yards off the ball (I could be wrong and it could have been less, but it felt like 12). I assumed it was Newsome or Greedy. Surprised that it was Ward.

Didn't notice this later in the game.

I think that happened when he was on Cooks with no deep help. Cooks is one of those guys who can score in a hurry.

I seem to remember at least one of those being against a rookie. But not 100% sure. If you are correct, then this definitely becomes a scheme issue. Why would you put a Cb on Cooks solo with no safety help over the top?

I don't know that there wasn't safety help. There didn't appear to be any double coverage, and to be honest I mostly watch the football when at games. I don't sit there pretending to be a scout watching various players from snap until play completion.

Maybe you all saw Terry Pluto's pre-game article where he predicted 32-20 for the Browns. Pretty prescient. He also pointed out that Garrett and Clowney had 0 pre-season plays. Kind of calms my mind that this defense truly is in a "gelling" mode right now. Hey, we be gelling !!!!

First play Ward was covering rookie WR Nico Collins when Collins gained 32 yards.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/playbyplay/_/gameId/401326130

Ward played one of his worst games I can remember. Seemed totally slow and/or unwilling, at least when I watched him

I'll check back in with ya in about 4 weeks .. lol

One of my pet peeves is that most DC's refuse to disrupt WR at the line of scrimmage .. I get there apprehension of getting beat bad. The habit of playing not to loose rather than sober knocker football goes against my being .. Houston's last score was prefect example .

I am sure we will both be here. I hope it improves as you do. I am not ready as an example to give up on JOK even if he isn't looking like the guided missile some projected.

WATER,

Agree wholeheartedly on this. I would think a major point of getting great corners is so that you can have them disrupt timing at the line, and they still have the talent to flip and run with receivers.

I don't mind that we play a good deal of zone, but would be a lot happier if we mixed it up the way that Stefanski does on offense. While we all know that our O bread is buttered with the run game and PA, we do run a significant # of snaps out of empty sets to keep defenses off balance. Why can our defense not do the same by sprinkling in press-man 15-30% of the time? I guess in the case of KC I get it, but Houston?!

It sounds a lot like what I posted before this game when I see a comment like water's.

It's not enough to win if you don't win pretty. I don't get it.

You saw "not winning pretty" in his post...I saw playing passive and not tough results in giving up ridiculously-easy and crazy-significant yardage.

Ward is crazy-over-rated by Browns fans. He's good...he's not a star. He's not being used properly IMO and his body language sucks.