DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2023 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 24 Bengals 3 Postgame Thoughts

The push from the Dline was nice to see. Coverage looked good the whole game. Chubb is just doing what he always does. As for Watson, I was pretty hard on him at first, until I noticed Burrow struggling also. I really thin the rain was a factor. Jones just became our RT for the next ten years. After he came in, I never heard Hendrickson's name again.

The defense was the star today. They just held one of the best offenses, at full strength, to less than 200 yards total offense. That my friends, wins championships

On to Pittsburgh, and the mighty Kenny Pickett.

Heres to everybody staying healthy, stacking some wins.

Jim Schwartz is my hero, best defensive performance we've seen in ages.

Back and settled in the room after the game.

A great day at the stadium.

The D looked like the type of D I have been hoping for. I am sure Burrough was a bit rusty, but we smothered the guy. The man by the corners was great.

The 4th down stop we made in the 4th qtr...that was the loudest i may have ever heard at the stadium. Maybe the Run William Run play
was close.

The negatives....I just read Conkin may be out for the season. To be honest i didn't even see him get hurt. You miss some things when you don't see the game on TV

The other, Ford wasn't very impressive, but it was the first game with him as the #2, so I will give that more time.

Things weren't mid season form. You could tell both the players on O and Stefanski were trying to figure out various roles and tried to force things a bit. None the less, they got it going a bit in the 2nd half, and how much can you complain about a nice opening win?

I sit here happy and can go home happy.

agreed. Schwartz brought some fire

Good grief!

What a dumba**

Don't mess with the elves!

Good win but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Bengals started 0-2 last year and Burrow isn't up to speed yet. The weather affected the game for sure. Defense looks solid. Watson is still a work in progress as the passing game was pretty shaky at best. Chubb MUST get the ball 20-25 times a game. Ford looked good. On to Pittsburgh who will be ready after getting blown out at home today. Let's go!

What a dumba** quote]

Yes, he apparently is. Been reading too many of his prep clippings.

Great win! We haven't started too many seasons at 1-0... Watson had a few good plays, but obviously needs to be better... I'm hoping it was more a factor of the weather...

defense was amazing

Chubb was great

Great win! Congrats Browns

Some observations…

Smith is was an extremely valuable and disruptive force on defense. His presence changes that front 4. Garret is going to love having him week in and week out.

What a change in scheme can do for a secondary! Let’s see how teams game for us moving forward but that was the single biggest change from last year to this to my eye.

Ford was getting tested (by us) at the end there when the game was in hand. When everyone knows he’s gonna get the egg, it didn’t seem like he could make the omelet. Still an important role to play but you can see he’s probably not a future starter or Chubb replacement. It’s just one game tho

If we didn’t make those early kicks I think the tenor of the whole game would have been different. Maybe the game shifts? Anyway, having a solid kicker matters boy, it really matters.

Watson did seem to improve as the game went on. He looked very marginal early but seemed improve as a passer when he started running more. I think he’s going to be a guy that will be at his best when you allow him the latitude to mix it up a lot. That run TD changed him.

I thought coaching had a solid plan and good play calling. Didn’t over think it or get cute.

We need Watson to be much crisper, especially when we have dudes WIDE open. You can't miss the layups

Hopefully it was the weather. See Joe Burrow's stats.

I appreciate his candor

Personally, I think that's just dumb. Drink water/gatorade. Not just game day. Eat bananas - during the week. No reason a pro football player should be cramping up on a day like today. JMO

Please, this games...Grant Delpit played a game that we have been waiting for. I mean that dude balled!!.. and then Emerson and Ward locked the bengals up!!.. The D played their butss off and even thought I was critical of the LBs.. JOK and Taki played a good solid game. I just hope that it keeps up!!

We have a defense

We have a kicker

We have Chubb

Just need a QB to stop throwing the ball at receivers feet and we might have a fun year.

Fun game to watch. Nice to finally win a home opener. Nice to see a defense hold the lead. I was sitting at the bar with another Browns fan and we're both getting nervous in the 4th quarter expecting them to blow the lead.

It was great to see a defensive effort like this vs a legit Super Bowl contender. Let's face it the Bengals were in the SB two years ago and AFC Championship game last year in a game that went down to the wire. They are a really good team and our team's defense shut them down. Highest paid QB in the NFL held to his career low in passing yards. Less than 150 yards of total offense, and 3 total points. The weather was a factor but both teams played in the same weather, and this was an AFC North game that many times is played in the snow, ice, wind. I don't think the Bengals would use that as an excuse so I'm not going to take that away from our defense.

Nick Chubb is Nick Chubb. He is a great back no matter the offensive scheme. Great players fit all schemes.

Was really great to see Deshaun Watson find other ways to win. He was much more successful passing in the rain than Burrow that is for sure. He also had some great runs. The 13-yard TD run was fun. And it was great to see that huge smile of his when he scored that TD and played the air guitar in celebration.

Nice to have a kicker that just business like went 3 for 3 on field goals and 1 for 1 on extra points. Watson muscled the 2-point conversion across the goal line.

Next game is going to be tough. The Steelers will not want to fall to 0-2 with 2 home losses. They will play angry. Tomlin will make some adjustments. Browns can win there on a Monday night then this could be the start of a special season. I'm just saying I expect a really tough game.

Only 5 penalties total in all 3 phases. I don’t believe we had any presnap penalties.

If the weather is to be blamed, does that mean the Browns defense (particularly the secondary) really wasn't as good as we witnessed?

The conditions were not ideal but Watson has to be better because he's going to be playing in much worse weather than today. I think he'd even say he needs to be much better.

I think we had an illegal formation

Ward's DPI was the right call. There was also a Bitonio hold at some point. But it was pretty clean for the first game

0:35:
"When it rains and it's windy, I still have to keep my same technique..."

Welcome to Cleveland football.
Mr. Watson, you are right about maintaining your fundamentals/technique in inclement weather.
I'll also suggest this: you'll also have to learn/develop some new techniques to cope with the crap Lake Erie spits out from Nov. through Jan.

If you find/make a way to consistently play in CLE as you did pre-holdout, you'll not only win yourself some NFL jewelry, you will have also developed the skill set necessary to enshrine you in Canton.

This place will either make you or break you.
I can't wait to see how you play out your own story.

____________________

Postgame thoughts, 3-and-out:

1. We ain't stupid. CLE will heavily feature #24 for the first quarter of this season. 3 divisional games in the most hardass division in the NFL? If you have a weapon like #24, and your #4 is still trying to pull it all together, you ride the hoss that can make grownass men want to quit playing the game of football... while they are still in uniform, with 2 minutes left in the 3rd qtr (please see my sig). We may be able to open it up later in the season, but expect glitches in the passing game.

2. CIN had the same number of days to prepare for this season opener as CLE did. They had to play under the same weather conditions as CLE, but they had nothing that could answer what our Jim Schwartz-run D had for them. Stoned. Shut down. Limited to three points of offensive production.

3. I think that this game showed fans what they can expect for the near future: a smothering D that will allow CLE's O to find its stride in the 2nd-3rd qtr. of this season.

Clem/postgame/out

to me, the best feeling is when we are up by a score or two in the 4th quarter and we are just hammering the with Chubb and the pulling guards for like 8 yards a clip

The D was great, DB’s played a great game. Didn’t hear about the LB’s all game. D-line played great, plenty of rotating in an out, never saw Garrett gasping for air, maybe his covid issues are gone or maybe he just didnt feel like he had to do it all himself.

Chubb is GREAT, really hope we keep him til he retires.

After Conklin went down, D Jones came in and we didnt miss a beat. They never talked about him til they said how well he was playing, like someone else said, he is our RT for the next 10 years.

And we have a K, so nice not having to worry about kicks.

Teller just dominated that LB

love when our guards get going like that

And Burrow is now 1-5 vs the Browns. Maybe we are his kryptonite

When your D punishes the other team so badly that at the 9min mark in the 4th, they just started running plays to burn the clock. Then pull QB1 (which I really don't blame them in week 1) which was a true surrender no mas moment in the NFL. Loved that it happened to Cincy after J'marr Chase's comments. Hoping the same performance against Pittsburgh on prime time. Thanks Jim Schwartz for bringing some hard nosed D back to Cleveland.

The O did the best it could in bad weather; typically the offense which requires more timing in execution gets to where it should be by week 4. I'll take what we got and love opening week going in the W column.

Thank you Dustin Hopkins. For the first time in many years, I wasn't chanting voodoo stuff just to get a kick through the uprights. Job well done all day in yuck weather.

On to next week!

We had an illegal formation. Still, a pretty good outing from the penalty perspective

When it's pouring down rain the entire game......victory comes in the trenches. We absolutely dominated on both sides

I'm glad we've had their number of late... hoping we can get into the playoffs and farther than them... because that's all that matters...

so we've got the steelers next week... they looked horrible today... could we actually start the season 2-0 against two division opponents? Hate to jinx it... but man that'd be sweet... hopefully our defense can keep Pickett skittish...

oh boy.
they don't need to hear the vitriol after losses, they don't need a LACK of criticism after a win...

The offense was a clown show in the first half, and it wasn't the opponents good play,
Moore, ... I was tuning in to see something cool, ... not much to look at,
The @uarterback bad decision making, or the throws in the dirt to wide open players...

Conklin, out, hurt bad, and well, it hit me that the backup Rb they didn't keep x 3, Hunt, Felton, D'Ernest, ... and the whatever type decision to try for I week with a guy from indy, who fumbled and waived, but,
... Ford comes in and a fumble play one, a penalty play two, and he's still getting carries in the first half.
now, ?? is York still trying kicks?
or does accountablility only work for the kicker but not the backup Rb?
and
if they had kept ANY of the 3+ rb's, they wouldn't have had to trade their next up back up to the injured Conklin, in the trade that brought in Pierre Strong.

..... Hey, we don't have to be critical, we can wiave a banner and be happy with a five hundred 8 and 8 or worse season,
but
look at the year they had the Chicago game with nine sacks
the D can't win every game, while the O ruins drives in the first half, and
CONTINUALLY freezes up if they get a first and ten inside the opponents 24 yard line,
game after game after game,
time after time after time, over the last, 20, 30 games, 3, 4, or more years
Hey, Waive the flag,
THEY WON, they got a win today, if you want to, you can pat everyone on the back,

Nobody has to care enough to say,
WAKE UP, something is going wrong here, and, it could be so much better.

David Bell, had one target, one drop, and one time me explaining who Austin Watkins was and ...
D Watson, one int, and the O had 2 turnovers, one Td pass, one TD run, and
a couple of drives of...
One time I was thinking they should put DTR in the game.

Coach Kevin, middle name being 'negative 3 points in the first half' Stefanski, had me so worried in the middle of the game,
at 3 to 0 I was saying with five on the clock until halftime,

they'd be lucky to be down ten to 3, not fourteen to 3 at the halftime.

How many years / times do I have to be proven right, when, when they changed the D coordinator, anyone else chiming in that they fixed the wrong side of the ball,
the Offense is still a major problem, ... if not named Nick Chubb, ... still a major problem that played well enough to lose today
five min before midnight
and well they ran the ball and defended the pass and it ended up being enough to get a win for one week
but,
if they are going to be real,
the offense... ? what's new? Where is the new and improved offense?

Why don't we have a coach, who raises a bigger issue, that Cincy,
got a do over,
on an incomplete pass on a 3rd down,
after they threw a flag and picked it up,

Cincy literally got a 2nd chance to try and get a 3rd down conversion, and where was the Browns coach when this happened.

^that may have happened twice in the game where an unexplained do over down gave Cincy another chance on offense.

At Least the O, attempted some over the top deep pass attempts, .. and they won the game...
^ which is notbable, b/c it's been about the only time since they were throwing them to T. Benjamin,
so Kudos to the O,
for attempting a couple of over the top passes in a way they have barely done in a long time.

Someone peed in your Wheaties.

It is a victory, and that is more important than anything else.

You are the guy that complains about the free beer at a party, aren't you?