DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Jim Schwartz and the Defense

I don't pay attention to point spreads unless I am betting, which I don't do very often. Points are established by the book to even out the betting on each game. If one team is drawing to much money, the points are adjusted to get more money on the other team.

It more about the sports books and betting over anything it has to do with the game.

I believe that's true to a great extent. The reason I pay so much attention to the betting line is that I am in the pickum pool Hooper has been running since what seems like forever now. As such you pick against the line every week. And while I think you're right that they even out the bets by using the line, for some strange reason it still ends up being eerily close to accurate a lot of the time.

That is true as well. If the Bookies made predictions that are way off, someone is going to lose their butt. All I am saying is I don't pay much attention to if it is a good way to forecast if we win or lose. The books don't care who wins or loses as long as they get fairly equal money each way.

And I didn't make it clear in the previous post, it was more a general comment and not really directed at any one person.

players always know most

I want to see what they do when they get smacked in the mouth during a game. Last weekend was awesome to watch, but I'm only cautiously optimistic.

Hear ya, oober. We won’t dominate every week in the manner in which we dispatched Cinci. We need to see them play very good D on a consistent basis. It’s much too early to make ‘85 Bears‘ comparisons, but if we stay healthy this defence will keep us in a lot of games.

No doubt, one game doesn't make a season. Schwartz said as much in his PC. I agree with something Boner mentioned. What we saw can carry over.

No matter what, players can always control preparation, attitude, and determination. What happened the week before or in the current game doesn't have to impact those things.

Spot on and I agree. Want to see them win a gut check and win it convincingly. Schwartz needs to receive a pillow with his magic word cross-stitched on it: "Badassery." I will forever have that word and attitude paired with him. LOL

What we are seeing is exactly what we needed to see. We have been outmuscled, bullied, and plain out hustled last few years. I am eager to watch some more hungry defense. I suspect and I hope that badassery is contagious. Our DC is the spark and the fuse. Go, Browns!

It is a pretty good word!

The other side of that coin, however, is that the Steelers are NOT the Steelers of the past, and this team does not appear - thus far - to be like any Browns team from our past.

Honestly, I fully expect this game to beat an unholy beatdown of the Steelers by us. That isn't be being a fanboy and getting overly hyped, because the "fan" in me is pretty well dead at this point; this is just looking at it objectively. Their OLine is kinda trash and their DLine just took some MAJOR hits. There is literally NO EXCUSE for us to not outright control the trenches completely on both sides. If our secondary does what it showed it can do, they don't have the WR's to challenge ANY of them.

That said, it is a division game, and those always seem to play closer than they should for like three quarters, but honestly, barring mistakes on our part, I see little reason that they should be in the game at all by the end of the 3rd.



For the last several years, pretty much ALL of us on here have been screaming at our keyboards for a DLine like we have now. Somehow, mst everyone on this board could see that our DT's weren't up to standards, but Berry simply wouldn't deliver on fixing that and we got what we saw. Bad defense. The same thing applies for our WR corps, but that is for another topic, not one on defense.
Those transgressions have had amends made and now we're seeing what we had hoped to see the past several seasons: a DLine that is capable of stopping the run AND killing a QB's dreams while giving him PTSD.

Berry might have knew he messed up. Or big investments in that D-line may have been a demand from Schwartz to accept the job as DC in Cleveland. I would highly doubt Schwartz would accept a job where he was destined to fail considering the weakness of that D-line. It's a question we'll never truly know the answer to.

Most of us knew he messed up before last season started.

This usually when the Browns , in this case, have their offense, on the field.
More often you lose with your offense on the field, against a team with a really good defense.

I think that's mostly true.

I also think the Watson suspension created a 'stand pat' situation on a few fronts though. Maybe it became easier to play close to the vest in defensive investments, so that we could see if there was any chance in hell of Woods panning out? It's a lot easier to secure your next DC when he knows you aren't married to bad contracts and have plenty of ammo to let him craft his defense the way he sees fit.

Just my over-analyzed, esoteric two cents.

As in his face looks “Ed Zackery” like his butt?

I don't think any of us know the answers to your questions.

I think all we can hope for is Depo has a good game plan for tomorrow's game.

Do you know for a fact the "guardrails" used when building the team are the "guardrails" of today?

Looks like not. Looks like we are smart enough to change as situations change. Building a team and finishing a team are different things.

Once again 100 percent bullcrap. Berry has not been saddled with anything.



In 2022 Woods was given the total support or Berry and the rest of the Browns staff, just like Schwartz is being given now. The difference is Woods was not good enough at his job, and Schwartz is.

Why didn't Berry secure the defensive help that was needed in 2022...?..good question.
...was Berry operating independently or under a top-down management style..?
...Berry is the #3 man in the organization working under ownership (Jimmy+Dee, Whitney, JW)...
...and CSO-DePodesta (the author of the Guardrails)

Why didn't Woods ask for help instead of saying he thought we were good?
Berry was working within the framework the Browns have set up. Advice is asked for and listen to from multiple sources including Stefanski, Schwartz (and Woods before him) and every Coach and scout as well as the Analytics Department with the Browns. Berry is in charge of processing that info and making the decisions. At no time has Berry been working UNDER Depo

Your which hunt is getting really old bud.

Hell even your IT guy Yes That's what Chris Pokorny does for a living. He is an IT guy, states at the end of his article "Presumably, the Guardrails document doesn’t exist under John Dorsey. That’s not to say the principles aren’t in practice, as much of them should be common to all NFL teams."

It changed by an entire .8 years!? Oh the humanity!

....players being about a year older a year later doesn't really seem like a radical shift.

For a few years the plan was to tear the team down to the studs and rebuild, Yes that included loading up on draft picks and keeping a low salary cap. The plan also included spending more once we got "Close" which we are now. We are in our window now, that's not a surprise to the front office.


We agree on the no trophy lol Just remember their is no Trophy for keeping a few vets and spending more when It would only slow the rebuild, and tie up money we needed when got close. I mean do you eally think it matters if we went 1-31 or if we would have gone 10-22?


They did remain focused, no matter how much people outside of the building whined and cried, because we didn't add a player or two who would have made us good enough in the long run to still be losers.


Agreed 100 percent. and you also can't win games with the desire of Rudy and the speed of a turtle. Which is why I am glad the Browns look at both.


Once again something we can agree on

GM explained the process to you. Either you get it or you don't. If you don't that's not everyone elses issue. Only your own.

Players getting experience and age guardrails disappearing are two rather separate things.

I don't disagree with what you say in this post.

D Ward can't tackle.

Gunner would like a word with you.

Browns defense should be 2-0 ... Browns everything else should be 0-2

the Browns defense has allowed only one TD in two games. No opposing team has reached the Red Zone. The opposition is 7 of 29 on third-down situations. The Browns defense has 18 QB hits in two games. This is a unit that can carry the team to a lot of wins if the offense stays away from major negative plays.
https://www.cleveland.com/browns/20...n-pittsburgh-terry-plutos-scribbles.html

Schwartz and the D has been awesome. Literally as good as imagined.

This is why I was so high on our winning last night, we only needed average out of DW and Ski, they failed miserably.