DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2021 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 42 Chargers 47 Postgame Thoughts

Burrows suffered the same injury today.

Joe Burrow hospitalized for a throat contusion following Bengals' Week 5 loss to Packers - CBSSports.com
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/joe-b...oss-to-packers/

Great game! Someone had to lose... Sad it was us.

Points during the middle of the game are fine, but real winning coaches are made in crunch time. His play calling during that time was atrocious.

- Not sure why John Johnson is getting grief...those 2 blown coverages sure looked like Delpit both times.

- Speaking of blown coverages, there was one earlier in the game on OBJ that was to be a gift TD. Baker threw to Njoku for 20 instead, and I'm pretty sure we scored on that drive, but those are still the sorts of misses he needs to clean up.

- Honestly, I'm getting worried about Stefanski. For one, his playcalling in the most crucial drives is at least equally as anti-clutch as Baker is knocked for. From the Chiefs playoff game to the Chiefs game 1 to this one, just terrible. Second, although I disagree with RISH about Baker's potential, I do agree that his best attribute is being coached out of him because Stefanski is so afraid of TOs. He's trying to re-make Favre 2.0 into a guy that just makes safe throws. Rewatch highlights of Baker in 2018, or heck even 2019, and tell me why Baker has regressed.

- Not only the horrible PI call, but the Tretter "hold", the non-fumble call, no holding on Garrett take-down, these were horrendous. Usually, bad calls even out over the course of the game...we did not get the benefit of a single one.

- Does anyone think we can hang with the Cardinals with 3 missing OTs, 3 missing CBs, and a QB that is not seeing the field well right now? This game was so critical, because it was right in front of them, and now another loss takes us to .500.

- Has NFL started releasing the all 22 yet? I'd really like to know if receivers are getting open.

- Time to move on from Jamie Gillan. Fun story, but he's just not good. Another anti-clutch. Perhaps that can just be the name for these Browns.

If you had told me earlier this week that a team in the NFL would put up 42 points, have no turnovers, put up 230 yards rushing, 530 yards of total offense, give away no turnovers, actually get 1 takeaway, and dominate time of possession by 36 to 24, then I would have said that is impossible for that team to lose.

For LA to score 47 points in 23:30 is over 2 points per minute of offensive possession. That is absurd.

OBJ still trying to extend his career off of 1 catch 7+ years ago...when is the trade deadline again?

Tough game....

defense just got torched in the second half... had some horrible calls and non-calls by refs...

offense was good most of the game... OBJ basically non-factor.... Njoku, Hunt, and Chubb were fantastic.... poor play calling late.

You get the ball with a one point lead and 3 min left... no way you should give the ball back.... then you get the ball down 5 with 1:30 left... you have to give yourself a shot to win... horrible play calling and 2 min offense on that last drive.

injuries really hurt us but that can't be an excuse... we had ample chances to win this game... this hurt...

Here’s a weird thing IMO: the XP miss actually hurt us. They could play the run and we lost the threat to pass/run. I would have actually preferred a tie game, even though it sounds weird

Baker wasn't the reason the Browns lost today.

But a lot of fans would like him to be the reason the Browns win a game.

He had a chance to do that today and failed. Again.

Baker is average. Adjust your expectations or you're going to have to do the same mental gymnastics as your post a lot more this season.

And you might pull something.

Question: What would Browns fans think if he suddenly goes to a team and plays like he did with the Giants? Wouldn't that essentially be the referendum on whether or not Mayfield is a franchise QB? Ironically enough, the way the Browns are currently constructed is the team that needs a prime Josh Gordon right about now.

OBJ is open a lot.

Mayfield refuses to throw to him.

I've noticed. It's starting to become a trend; and if it continues, that doesn't bode well for Mayfield's long term prospects as QB of the Browns and their potential championship aspirations.

It’s what I don’t get about the anti-OBJ, if he was getting targets and doing nothing I could see it, but I see him open a lot, especially by nfl standards and he just doesnt get the ball. Mayfield is always taking the safe play and not challenging the defense and I have to believe a lot of it is stefanski, because we’ve seen Baker make some insane throw ala the 55 yard landry bomb rolling left against panthers. It’s becoming apparent stefanski isn’t all everyone thought he was as a playcaller

They coached out of Baker the best part of his game...plus level, downfield throws. He was never very clutch to begin with. Now without any gunslinging at all, if you don't have the lead late, you basically have no chance.

I love Baker but 2nd Year Herbert > 4th year Mayfield

This is one thing I said today: baker is sufficient when we have the lead but as soon as we get down late he’s way less effective

Our D gave up 26 points in the 4th quarter. How is that even possible?? We didn't work any clock in the 4th. So disappointed in our D on 3rd and 4th downs. They were gassed in the end and looked to have thrown in the white flag when player after player was going down.

Aside from the obvious missed plays in the game this is where the game was lost. The Browns went conservative in a game were you needed to outscore the other team. I don’t understand why we ran on third down. I can’t accept the reasoning that it was became of the tackles. Staley went for it 3 times to get back in the game, and the Browns folded under pressure.

Either Stefanski was telling the truth or he didn't trust Baker.

One paints Stefanski in a bad light, one Baker.

Both are bad.

Yada, yada. I wouldn't throw to him either after hitting in the numbers and watching him use both hands to drop it. I would have benched him the rest of the game and put in our third string WR behind him. It would have been an improvement.

In regards to the series with 3 minutes left:

I would have told Schwartz to take the touchback

I would have wanted Chubb in there instead of Hunt

You then have to do one of two things IMO: either pass on 1st down or run on 2nd down. They were expecting a run on 1st down, maybe that’s a great way to go safe/PA (like an arrow route off PA). 2nd down could have been the draw play call IMO when they were expecting pass.

the 3rd down call wasn’t good, but the series up to that point sucked

Never clutch? He has 7 fourth quarter winning drives in 4 seasons. Not every game comes down to a final drive

I learned something today and that is no matter how well you play you can't beat crappy ref's.

We had a 1:30 to beat them.

Seriously, if we aren't going to use OBJ, please trade him before the trade deadline

would anybody trade for him right now? With his contract I doubt it

One other note I just thought about (the game was so long and so many twists/turns) … after our take away with :38 in the first half, our clock management was atrocious. We could have squeezed out a TD (they were on their heels). That was a bad series IMO

Based on what I saw all game long if we had gotten close a holding call would have been made, the fix was on.

I saw things in this game I never thought I would see. Angry about having to play the other team and the ref's too.

The hold on Tretter (when he was being shoved in the face) was abhorrent. Such a drive killer and phantom call

That's because Stefanski refuses to just go all pass and put it in Baker's hands in shotgun, 2 min type drill. He just refuses, no matter what's on the game clock.

That's either a Stefanski issue or a Baker issue. It's probably some combination of the two.

At some point you are going to have to let Baker pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. And I'm not talking about screens. Shotgun, 2 min offense, lead us down the field.

Our clock management has been awful all season at the end of games/halfs. It's because Stefanski tries to run his offense no matter game clock.

Sink or swim with Baker.

The Browns are a very well coached team they rarely make holding penalties to start with all of a sudden we are collecting them like that is all we do.

Every time it seemed we were ready to put the Bolts away here comes another phantom call. I had a weird sense something was up from the very start of this game. Never felt nerves all afternoon and I always do. I felt we had this game in hand all day even towards the end and in spite of the poor refs I thought we would win anyway. But in the end the Bolts along with some creative ref work was to much for us.

This one leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and I hope it does the Browns as well. Maybe we just blew it and the refs were helping, yah that's what it was.

Garrett was held the entire game. I'm not sure he got one whistle.

My biggest thing with refs is they shouldn't impact the result of the game. What I mean by that is the 4th down DPI was not egregious enough to call (it wasn't a penalty at all), but if it is not crystal clear, you do not make that call. Because it impacts the result of the game.

If you are going to make that call, then you have to call pass interference on the hail mary at the end. Njoku was tackled. Now, typically I'm ok with not calling that. If you need a hail mary to win, you shouldn't get bailed out by that kind of call.

But the 4th down DPI was the same thing. If it's not crystal clear on game altering plays at critical times, you simply swallow the whistle. They blew the whistle on two guys both fighting their butts off to catch an uncatchable pass.

Made no sense.

If there is a positive from this, Baker's accuracy was much better. Maybe getting used to that injury/harness.

Stefanski has been coaching scared in crunch time. This goes back to punting back to the Chiefs in last year's playoff loss to them. Could have closed the game out with a first down.

Chose to put it in the hands of the defense that has proved incapable of stopping the offense when it mattered. Same story today.

Great at scheming, scripting plays. Clams up when game on the line and offense needs to be aggressive. Goes conservative and hopes defense bails out the team, which it's been unproven to do so. Same story on 4th downs.

To be clear....Stefanski is a great coach and will be here for a long time. Everyone can improve in their job.

Jake Trotter
@Jake_Trotter
I don’t mind the #Browns going for it on fourth down, but at some point they’re going to have to start converting more of them. Under Stefanski, Browns are 12-of-33 on 4th down dating back to last year, the 4th-worst conversion rate in the NFL. @ESPNStatsInfo

https://twitter.com/Jake_Trotter/status/1447307805283655683

Giving up a 4th down when the opponent goes for it on their own 20 and giving up another 4th down when it was 4th and 7, is inexcusable.

Wonder what next week's injury report will look like? 12-13 people?

Don't care about any of this. Keep going for it.

But I don't want the defense giving up 4th downs especially when the other team goes for it from their own 20 in the 3rd quarter.

And I want Stefanski to free Baker. Baker is completely neutered. We've lost the two most important games of the year doing it coach's way. It's not working.

The Browns have beat Davis Mills, Justin Fields, and Kirk Cousins. They've lost to Mahomes and Herbert down the stretch of both games.

Not a good start to a supposed Super Bowl season.

Both our coach and "franchise" QB have been average.

I care. Choking when it's on the line. It's notable.

Another game with a bunch of contributing factors to the loss. The 2 wide open TD throws that anybody with the physical ability to throw a football 40 yards could have completed. Crappy officiating, not just on the phantom PI call but the non-holding calls all game long. Defense giving up multiple other 4th down conversions and making them look relatively easy.

Our crunch time offense just isn't very good. And I'm not just talking about final 3 minute stuff. Even on 4th down, not very good. I don't know what it is, I can't explain it...