DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2021 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 7 Patriots 45 Beating the Patriots

It will be interesting to see what Belichick cooks up to try to stop our O.
So much is unknown right now with the COVID issue, but even if Chubb is out D’Ernest is still capable of pounding it along the ground.

We might need to see Baker open it up a little more this week, but our identity is still smashmouth. The Steelers did a good job negating our run game, but even if it isn’t working early, keep hammering it.

On D, they don’t have much of a run game, and if we stop that early, we can pressure their QB into mistakes, especially if we continue to play good press/man. He ain’t no Tom Brady is what I’m sayin’.

Intangible: we won a game vs. Cinci when we played with our backs to the wall, to (sort of) quote our coach, and we need to keep playing desperation football.

What are you peeps thinking?

I believe they have a pretty good run game. However, two of their backs are in concussion protocol and their status for Sunday is up in the air.

I just saw they’re 19th-ranked as a rushing team

They have about the same chance we do. Haven't seen any RBs in the protocol get out the same week for I can't remember how long. And they have two.

Belichick's claim to fame has always been taking away the one thing you want to do and forcing you to do something else. Lots of coaches try to do it but he's really good at it. So what will he focus on taking away? As much as I do have confidence in D Johnson, he's not Nick Chubb. So does Belichick still focus on our run game with no Chubb/no Hunt? My guess is that right now he's focusing on how to limit our TEs.. so this game might come down to D Johnson running well and Baker going deep more often.

I agree - TE's are going to be important, as is a Baker roll out. But Johnson did enough in his chance to shine to merit the running game being the priority, our OL is built to run.

Apparently he was in a Wuhan lab a couple of years ago cooking up a plan to stop Chubb this weekend.

That's a good question. One thing I've always thought in the back of my mind when it came to the Patriots was that they never seemed great at stopping the run. They didn't have to worry too much about it historically because they had Tom Brady and could force other teams to abandon it often.

If you remember our last game against them in 2019, we lost because we beat ourselves, and Chubb fumbled uncharacteristically often. However, a couple of those fumbles came at the end of very, very long runs. Regardless of who's back there, I'd really like to see us come out and punch them in the mouth with our run game.

Defensively, I think the gameplan would be similar to the one we had against Chicago. Lets see how the rookie can handle intense pressure. If it doesn't work, then adjust. As much as I've complained about Woods this year, he's made some good halftime adjustments. I feel confident in our CBs ability to cover well, which counters (to a point) Jones' strength - his accuracy. If he has smaller windows to throw into and he's getting pressured he makes mistakes. I expect a lot of short passes with 3 step drops from Jones. I'm not overly concerned with their run game, but have enough talent to hurt us.

Offensively - well the Pats are second best in the league with respect to passer rating and middle of the league in rushing. I think they focus on stopping D'Ernest and put the game onto Baker's shoulders to beat them. Play action and our TEs will likely be important early. I also think we need to go deep early so they don't stack the box. I do expect Jarvis to have a big game in number of catches. I'd expect we'll see some end arounds and jet sweeps as well if they're keeping D'Ernest in check.

It'll be an interesting game.

This game is on Baker and KS and I think they will be up for it and take care of business

I'm actually starting to think all of our game plans begin with our defense and the O can then feed off of it.
Shut them down, then score.
Get it to where they're not the ones dictating the pace of the game.

This is a BIG game. The winner will be a legit playoff contender while the loser will be in some trouble. I naturally want my Browns to win every game but because I live in Pats land I especially would love to see us win this game and shut these obnoxious Pats fans up. BB will try to take away our run game because that's what he does; take away the other teams strength. Baker will probably have to win this game passing if we can't run. I'm sure KS realizes this and dials up some different plays to combat this. It will be a tough game for us.

We can't let a rookie QB beat us.

Browns In over 9400 football games,
No defense, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER lined up,

Like Eric Manginis' coached Browns team did agasint the Patriots, pre snap, and! It confused the Patriots offense, with Tom Brady, circa 2007 or whatever year it was, and I'd ask/hope the Brown will take a moment, to review that game tape.

What did they do?
The Browns, to disguise who was who on the defense, literally had their safeties and linebackers line up, pre snap,

standing belly to back and standing up. Then at the Snap they would break away into their assignments, but, pre-snap, with only about 3-4 players to look at, (because each cluster of 2 players appeared as only one player), it seemed the Quarteback, was unable to know what to do.
And the Browns won that game by a large margin.

The amoeba defense

So he just figured that out ?

We’ve had coaches who never figured it out (Jim O’Neil) and coaches who figured it out too late (Mangini). I’m just glad Woods seems to have figured things out pretty quickly given all the new personnel.