DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns News & Notes (Continued)

We are SAVED LOL

Your link took me to an NBA page. But I'm guessing since you told me I may have to "back it up a few seconds" that your predicating your game analysis on a single play. Anyone who has ever played football knows if you run a route in the opposite direction the running play goes in, you take your defender with you. As such you take him out of the play. This isn't complicated.

was't he a previous plater?

Yes but the presentation of the food on the plate was excellent!

He is the brother of our previous punter.

Colquitt is who The Hammer replaced, right?

Good signing.

Ahhh, I should have read everything before posting.
Maybe good, maybe not good.... eh, it's better than signing nobody.

Colquitt is going to come in and not screw things up. That’s the most you can ask of a punter under most circumstances.

The Colquitts are NFL royalty when it comes to punting. Father Craig had a long career, and two sons Dustin and Britton had some good years too. They're like the Zendejas family is to placekickers.

Fun fact:

The Zendejas family has a restaurant near where I live and it is probably the worst Mexican food I’ve ever had.

Their brother, Chi-Chi Zendejas, had a pretty good Mex restaurant before that pesky virus outbreak from tainted produce put him out of business.

Trusting my memory here (not always a good thing) I believe he was averaging over 47 yards per punt this season for Atlanta, and he has been a holder on kicks for years.

I hope Colquitt stays on with us. I don't trust the Hammer at all. Inconsistency.

And based on our injury report going into Sunday's game, I'm surprised we won to be honest. We could have used Newsome for sure.

Sounds like we'll enter our game with the Raiders much stronger with our Covid "injuries" over, and Newsome hopefully over his concussion protocol. I don't think we were too banged up after the Ravens game.

Newsome was greatly missed yesterday; Greedy got owned by #12 most of the afternoon.

Just thinking out loud -

The team doesn't look as well coached this year. Do posters generally agree with that? More penalties. In game coaching issues and struggles. 12 men on the field (after a time out). A hands team that has a FB that doesn't look at the ball. Too many cute plays trying to trick NFL teams who are too well coached to buy the fake....

So I was wondering/speculating - KS as a younger and technology embracing, analytics using HC ... he might have benefitted last year? He was able to prepare and do more with less time for traditional team activities/coaching than many of the stalwarts?

This year it's more a level playing field. That advantage has gone... It seems we are struggling more. OR ... is it as simple as our QB got really badly busted up in week 3 and nothing has been the same since? IDK the answer.

The attention to detail & discipline is definitely lacking. We had another 12 men call this week, after taking a TO to avoid one in the last game and then still getting it AFTER the TO. That is as clear an indicator that from coordinator on down, people aren't knowing their jobs.


One of Steven Wright's jokes that I reference all the time is "Experience is that thing you get right after you needed it."
I think the middle of that joke is where Stefanski and his staff is, currently. This is THEIR learning curve and growing pains..... hopefully, they're all actually learning from it instead of looking at a 'W' and blindly thinking everything is ok.

Obviously there is more to it than this, but last year was a freakshow in terms of the hoops we had to jump through sometimes ("Guy named Blake", all the WRs out for that one game, etc) and we seemed to still execute really well and no breakdown in discipline. With that in mind, it's difficult to explain the discipline issues.

He is still a young head coach for sure. He is currently 18-11 in regular season games and 1-1 in the playoffs. That ain't bad at all. I think the Baker injury has hurt the team but this team has been stung by the injury bug all season long. As fans we have expectations for our team. I think as players/coaches they have even higher expectations. Pressure is higher on this team to produce than last year. Hunter vs hunted mentality so to speak. Yesterday was not pretty in the 2nd half but how much of the offense especially with the lead was not available to the team with Njoku and Harrison out at TE? with Hunt out? Heck we have a back up right tackle for the rest of the season. The Ravens wre banged up but so were the Browns. If this teams wins 3 more ugly games I will be really really happy!

Yeah, it really ticked me off yesterday to hear about Baltimore's injuries and basically nada about the Browns.

Well there has to be a reason why the Ravens lost… it couldn’t be that the Browns just won.

Last year I thought we were supremely well coached. This year not so much. We do have more penalties and other teams have us playing left handed. It’s not nearly as easy for us to make splash plays. Bootlegs/misdirections are taken away. Run game isn’t as smooth.

To be fair, their injury situation is much worse than ours and ours is bad.

We did. We played just well enough in the first half to outweigh our putrid second half performance. And that's all it takes to get a W.

j/c:

And no Troy Hill too, apparently.

Bingo and spot on ! As I have said over and over again. Ski has taken the Baker out of Mayfield .

But only during the second half yesterday, right? So did Baker do so well despite Stefanski during the first half and so poorly because of Stefanski in the second half?

I'm not picking sides here, especially since you're in one of your tunnel-vision moods with this, but you DO realize just how simple it is for exactly that to happen, right?
If Stefanski goes ultra conservative like he in fact did, it definitely hinders how the offense runs and how everyone plays.

j/c...

I would really, really, REALLY like to know how our audible protocol works and what kind of options Baker has when he steps to the line. Has anyone ever offered any pertinent info where this is concerned?

I asked that during the game when baker didn't check out of a run against a 10 man box...it was ridiculous and was obviously a loss on the play

I don't have anything concrete as confirmation, but I've read where he is very limited. Two plays are called in and that's all there is too choose from. When you hear him yelling some catch-phrase, that is them switching to the other play; usually calls of "REWIND" or "KILL" or something like that take them back to the original play. If neither play is good, then you're stuck with the lesser of two evils.

Kill, kill always results in a run play being executed.

Baker did express in his post-game presser that they went "conservative" in the second half. Wish he hadn't gone there, but "it is what it is."

We were too conservative and it almost cost us the game. I want to know why the NFL referees are helping the opposition and NOT throwing the flag when a DEFINITE penalty was committed. Video exists of a referee on the ONSIDES KICKOFF coached the Baltimore players to get closer to the line....preventing a running start, yet did not throw a flag due to this obvious breach. It would have wiped out their recovery......something is fishy and we keep getting the shape end of the stick. Go Browns!!!!

I posted that video, probably in a different thread though.

This is directed to you, MGH and Prp about penalties and discipline.
Another difference this year to last year is fans and the whole stadium experience.

That disrupts, communication, focus, added stress, vision, etc.

I am not saying it’s the main reason, but it has a piece in the whole pie.

To date, that hasn't been their M.O.
They've been pretty studious, and the analytics won't allow them to hide from their deficiencies.

I really think that these growing pains are stemming from all the injuries, forcing them to improvise with personnel, game-to-game matchups, etc. This team is not the team that played KC in Game One. If I take the long view of things, I could see where this season will actually help, as disappointing as some of these games have been.

It really is crunch time for a 2021 playoff run. And even as lackluster as some of these games have been, this team is one game out of first place. To me, that's pretty remarkable.


.02

conservative ...pass pass pass punt...is what i saw

Agreed they seem capable of self reflection and honest evaluation. Doubtful they blindly think everything is ok. Also agree I think this season has been greatly impacted by injuries. But then that is absolutely part of every team's season every year. Learn and improve!

Regards to the clear philosophy - that I assume is analytics driven - that with a big lead, you are more likely to lose by continuing normal/aggressive play calling -vs- conservative play calling, reducing clock time for the opponent, reducing opportunities for big plays by the opponent at the expense of giving them softer coverages and nothing over the top....

The issue I see with that - especially for a young team - especially when you are dominating like we have in multiple games that where we let a big lead slip to a single score as time expires .... It is preventing the team from gaining momentum and confidence. It prevents the team from refining and perfecting the bread and butter plays, routes, play action etc that the team will need in other games later in the season. The result of the long drives we seed to the opponent is a loss of confidence by the D. A loss of momentum. A loss of the thrill of dominating. It gives the other team momentum. . . . The number of times we have clung on unconvincingly to a lead due to the conservative philosophy has done more to undermine confidence after a win than the potential benefit of walking of having given the opponent a true butt whopping. Just how I see it. This year and last.

Another potential angle: People have claimed Baker is mentally weak - the truth is the opposite in my opinion. When he throws a pick. He doesn't go into a shell. He comes out swinging with the same determination and focus as before the pick. When we threw a pick vs Ravens - Baker wasn't suddenly bad afterwards. And taking a 40 yard heave on a 3rd down play that results in an interception is really no different from an Punt by the Hammer. It might actually be a net gain.

Anyway just my .02 back at you.

I'm actually not. Baker had a great first half. He blew chunks in the second half. What I realize is that you can only blame the passes delivered on the person throwing those passes. If your players play worse because they don't like the coaches game plan, that's on the players. You either give it your all on every down or you don't. Blaming the coach because your claim is that the players are mentally fragile is a non starter for me. It does change the game strategy, but if changing the game strategy effects the accuracy of your QB, the issue isn't with the coach.