DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2021 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 14 Cardinals 37 Postgame Thoughts

Baker openly complaining about the officiating after the Chargers game may not have helped his or the team's cause.

I see other teams blitz and baker freezes. We blitz other teams and they easily distribute the ball to relieve the pressure. It’s so annoying

At this point I would take 2019 Baker. At least he pressured the defense.

We have no play action
We have no slants
We have no basic come backs.
We have no intermediate or deep passes.

G Bush is always a good time!

And our screen game was gone today most likely due to having no OTs

First, unless something happens to reverse the trend I am modifying my prediction from 10-7 min/13-4 max down to 8-9 min and 10-7 max.

Second, the defense needs help. Whether is is the scheme or the wrong personnel at the wrong time I do not know. The results speak for themselves.

Third, time to sit Baker. He is injured. That it is not his throwing arm is irrelevant. Imo, he is altering his delivery due to his left side hurting. That can damage his right arm not to mention causing bad throws.

Fourth, the play calling has been bad on offense.

Fifth, the injuries dictate a response by the FO and the coaching staff. They better get a sense of urgency.

Where is this guy?



https://twitter.com/jake_burns18/status/1080901159471276038

We can't wait until the end of the season to demote Joe Woods. We must do it now. If he refuses then he must be fired outright.

Winning programs always have a sense of urgency. They don't wait around and accept mediocrity. See what OSU did with their D coordinator? I get that it's college and this is the pros but the behavior and short leash needs to be there at some point.

I've seen Greg Williams get playoff caliber defense from scrubs. Certainly worse players than we supposedly have on defense right now. It's the coaching and it must be addressed sooner rather than later. What are we waiting for? Where is Joe Woods? Why is he still in Berea? Sack this guy if he won't take a demotion. Guy has ZERO clue how to actually run a defensive unit. ZERO CLUE!

Ask Stefanski.

Take a deep breath and read the last line of your sig …

Joe Woods is on Stefanski.

Who is helping Woods on game day and during the week?

The book has been written on Joe Woods, we've given him talent and time and it looks no better than any point he's been here.. Its time to move on. Stefanski isn't the same guy we hired, he's regressed and his game management is some of the worst we've seen. A HC and his decision making shouldn't cost the team and he does several times a week. Compounding that is putting more pressure on a defense that can't stop anything or anyone. Stefanski needs to relinquish playcalling and concentrate on the other parts. This game was a perfect example, AZ is 8th against the pass and 28th against the run and we open the game with 7 out of first 8 plays passes. It just makes everything that much harder. There was no short passing game, there were no outlets for Baker, even when there was Baker was erratic, recievers constantly having to adjust to poor thrown balls.(which don't show up in the stats) His slow eyes get him in trouble and his mechanics are the worst they've been. This team needs a Bye week more than any other team. We are back in the cellar with everyone else in the division looking good. Hell even Ben is slinging it tonight and that pittsburgh defense is still stout. Given the injuries and the difficulty of our schedule, its evident we aren't as good as the preseason hype, but probably not as bad as it appears the last few weeks. They haven't had a chance to regroup. Team needs bodies back and a couple easier teams to get momentum rolling. This season has been a worst case scenario from upcoming contract standpoints too. Worst thing they could do is give Baker a big contract and he never turns the corner and we basically have a Blake Bortles situation.

That's my quarterback.

its becoming more clear that Stefanski was the wrong hire for Baker. Baker needs Air Raid not WCO. Hopefully they can meet in the middle before its too late. Last year it seems KS let Baker be more aggressive than this year. You would think it would be the opposite given the experience in the offense now. He's going to turn the ball over sure, but he's going to make some wow throws too and put up some points

Nobody. Stefanski working on how to use 3 TEs, running Felton in circles for a 2 yard pass to Hooper in the flat. Zero chance of YAC because Hooper looks like he's running through a kiddie pool full of hummus.

The thing is - IF you KNOW he needs help then why NOT help him? This is where I think Stefanski misses the point. You have to adapt your play calling to the skill set of the players you have available to you. This is why he has to give up the play calling. He just doesn't understand this very basic principle.

Not nice.



https://twitter.com/AZCardinals/status/1449874943332818952

That's a coaching/play calling issue vs a qb issue

Our defense needs a lot of help.
Our offense needs a triage and a bye week or two.

After Denver, we will get a mini bye week. It couldn't come at a better time.

Look at all the 4th down sacks he took and I bet you will see receivers open, just like OBJ was today.

Fourth down

You cannot win when you are negative 3 in the turnover battle, all of the penalties (though some were b.s.) and cannot get off the field as a defense on 3rd downs. Especially 3rd and long. After the Chargers game, they are still blowing coverage assignments or playing way too soft. Jmho. I’m a Baker fan, but this isn’t Oklahoma where he could scramble around and outrun people. Granted, our starting tackles were out..but when the defense is baring down on you, throw it away or tuck it and take the sack as a last resort. That is a lot better than giving the opposing team the football at your end of the field

I thought this was 3rd down and almost got clobbered .5 sec after this and didn't get to his 3rd read. I think he scrabled just short of a first down.

Jordan Zirm is a nobody with a blue checkmark. His career peaked as board operator for wknr and then briefly had a part in the short lived Thomahawk Show podcast.

I'd question the still shot. Seems opportunistic.

*This is not a Baker Mayfield apologist comment*

My issue with that, cherry picked or not, is you just know Allen, Mahomes, Jackson, Murray, etc. make the play. That's the long and short of it for me. Has Baker made one impactful play yet this year? I can't think of one.

This isn't Charlie Frye or Kizer bad, but this current version of Baker is basically Derek Anderson all over again. You knew Anderson could make some plays and some throws but in your heart you knew he wasn't going to be able to get it done. That's basically what Baker has become. Baker seems to be regressing in an alarming way.

I can't take that particular play (snap shot) seriously. And what the top QBs would do in that situation is impossible to say.

What I do know, is at this moment, Baker, in this particular offense, is fantastically average. He's been neutered. The Browns are a a dink and dunk offense that's disgustingly conservative and awkwardly throw a 20 yard pass for an incomplete pass every now and again.

Zero rhythm.

I don't know that the analytics is wrong, but it is proving wrong for this team. Other teams might be converting at a good number, but we aren't.

This is a good point. Analytics may be different for different rosters. Us going for it on 4th down with Baker/OBJ having no chemistry (and no OTs/Chubb) probably isn’t wise in the 1st quarter

Penalties and Injuries

Also, while I'm not considered a bandwagon type fan, honestly, we appear to have regressed..

Not thrilled with the play of this team.....

I agree. We seem different than last year. It sucks.

The sad thing is that you and I know it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I just had a dream that Stefanski and Mayfield would go into the film room by themselves and there would be tape playing Bakers rookie year and so on.

"Remember this guy?" Stefanski says. "Let's see what we can do to get him back. What kind of plays do you want to run?"

Unfortunately this will never happen, time will be wasted, egos in the way and in the end Stefanski will be fired. Either that or Baker won't be signed, which would be a mistake. As soon as he gets to another team I can guarantee he'd be ripping it up and down the field again.

I do generally wonder why you're here! Everyone is entitled to their opinion but the only opinion you have is that Baker sucks. I can't figure out your motivation because I'm pretty confident Baker's not going anywhere anytime soon! You and leadtheway wait for every negative play by Baker and can't wait to post.

considering how bad the officials were in the game does it matter! Clearly there's an agenda with the official this year!

Baker has shown the ability to work through whatever he needs to work through early in the season and attack the second half. I'm worried, but nowhere near as worried as the D. Good grief we are terrible. What good is talent when you can't maintain a count of opposing players? This secondary is failing on pop warner football concepts. We stop them on the first two downs, are faced with 3rd and 10 and they pick up an easy 20-30 yards. We have talented man-press corners playing 10 yards off. We have our talented and smart safeties letting receivers free behind them. How do you lose track of Hopkins?

Coaching fail.

Maybe I am not clear or you are taking it out of context.

It's not that the analytics are wrong, but for this O, in those situations, at this time, we aren't getting it done. I am still in favor of putting points on the board in the way of field goals.

I think overall, the odds are the odds and will even out, but no doubt you have to go with gut feeling in some situations, or more on point taking in to account other factors..

As an example, the analytics don't take in to account you being down both starting offensive tackles. I don't know if analytics gets so deep in to the actual players on the field across the league. Somehow I have to feel that missing good starting players is going to impact the odds in a negative manner.

Being in favor of analytics doesn't mean you don't add in a bit of good old common sense. That has never been my position, nor as far as I know the position of anyone else.

How many sacks do we have to take on 4th down for the analytics to have us take the points? Based on our performance so far, the vast majority of the time we go for it, we take a sack.

That comes down to the coach making a educated decision based on the players on the field. Something tells me the odds are back in statistical favor if we had our starting tackles in the game.

And remember, it is a fairly small sample at this point. The odds aren't factored on a short sample. The odds are probably accumulated over several years worth of plays. Take the odds at playing blackjack. If you play the smart hand every time the odds are you will win slightly more than not. That doesn't mean on any given hand or night that play or plays are going to end up winning plays.