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

Can't say enough about that D! The defense was Dominate! That's with a capital D! Za'Darius Smith seemed to be everywhere! Having the combination of Smith and Garrett on the field at the same time will be an issue for OL's across the league. The secondary played much better when playing man coverage more. But I think many of us were confused as to why Woods ran so much zone coverage when these guys were drafted due to the man coverage skills. I certainly felt this D would be much improved but I actually never expected it to be this much, this soon. Hats off to Schwartz!

The O seemed to do well in the run game and well Chubb was Chubb. And I don't mean that in a dismissive way. IMO he helped carry this O yesterday. We are blessed to have him on this team.

Watson certainly did well with his feet. I don't think he ran too much but when he did he made it count which we needed. I thought he did pretty well on the short, underneath stuff. But anything intermediate to long he was well off the mark for the most part. I felt like his pass to DPJ as the fist half wound down was an excellent pass. Just over the head of the closer defender and right on target to DPJ to make him the only one who could catch the ball in regards to the defender over the top. Great touch on that pass.

In regards to the weather I hadn't really made a lot of conclusions about that until I read this thread. Hearing from people who were at the game it seems the only actual impact the weather had was keeping the football damp. Hopefully that isn't something people are relying on as an excuse. And saying Burrow sucked even worse doesn't really make sense to me either. Our D was in his face all day and his WR's were well covered.

What I saw was the same footwork issues we saw last season when he planted his feet to deliver the ball. That led to ground balls last season and we saw the same results yesterday. The good news is that's a very fixable issue. How long it will take to get that bad habit out of the way and back to good, fundamental footwork is anyone's guess. But it is quite doable.

It was also nice to see a kicker perform his job successfully. There will be games where that will be the deciding factor between a W and an L and I feel much better that the odds of that swinging in the direction if an L are greatly diminished now.

I know you and I were both very high on Delphit coming out and thought we got a steal where we drafted him - it's truly amazing to see him have such a great game after Woods put him positions to consistenly look bad. I'm sure there is more to it than that - but man, what a difference.

For next week, not only did pittsburgh get humiliated, but the had quite a few players dinged up. They had 5 that exited and were not able to come back and a couple others that were dinged up and came back in.

Diontae Johnson and Cam Heyward left early ... not sure if it was just precautionary though

The Browns have spent a lot of draft capital on teh secondary teh past 4-5 years but UI am OK with that. It is so nice to be able to cover like that, not to mention against that quality of WR group.

Can't find the video, please post a link if you have one.

Our defense was so scary that we made them bench their QB1 and kneel in submission. I have never seen that before. It was awesome.

How many times have we blown out a divisional team and made them bench their starters with more than half a quarter left?

DL Cam Heyward Heyward left the game early with a groin injury before trying to give it a go and being ruled out shortly thereafter. The Steelers' front seven was exposed without him and they will obviously need him going forward.

WR Diontae Johnson Following one of the few explosive plays of the game for Pittsburgh, Diontae Johnson came up clutching his hamstring, headed to the locker room, and was ruled out almost immediately.

TE Pat Freiermuth "Muth" was hurt in the first half and returned to action after being labeled questionable with a chest injury before missing the final drive.

RT Chuks Oforafor Chuks missed the end of the game and is officially in the concussion protocol, per the team.

DL DeMarvin Leal The most minor (if there is such a thing) of the injuries, Leal also didn't finish the game but he returned after originally being listed as questionable with a tricep/arm, as clarified by Coach Tomlin.

You are not the only one. Far from it. My guess is that this was because of a coach who tried to fit players into a system instead of developing a system that played to the strength of his players.

My post-game thoughts:

- The D was so much fun to watch. The DBs were blankets this entire game. Which allowed the rush to be what it was. Energy the entire game.
- The only time Burrow had anything approaching success was the dump passes, much like his rookie year. Tight coverage kept those to minimal YAC for the most part.
- I am no expert, but those times where it looked like Burrow and the receiver were not on the same page it looked to me Burrow unloaded the pass before the receiver got to the point where he needed to decide which way to break. Might be my imagination. But the pressure from the start got into his head.
- At any rate, it was nice to see the newly anointed highest paid QB in the league sitting on the bench with 5+ minutes left in the game because it was over then.
- Chubb is still Chubb.
- So far so good on the kicker. There was some speculation that the issue was the holder, as when he was in Green Bay it was a problem. But, so far so good. Down the middle.
- Boroquez had a nice game punting.
- D Jones came in for Conklin and you didn't hear his name called. Except when the announcers were talking about how big he is. Hope it's not too bad for Conklin.
- Seems like the penalties were down.
- We got a feel for what Elijah Moore can do.
- Z Smith > Clowney

Hayward is the big injury concern for them. He, Watt, and Fitzpatrick are key

How many times have we had the opposing coach rip out the white towel with 10:32 left? Zac Taylor handed Myles Garrett the exclamation mark! Going for it on 4th down at his 30 was telling his team "if you can't do it now, we're done". And truth be told, I can't even say that was a bad move -- that's just how badly they were beaten -- he knew it and they knew it.

That's a signature win. Hopefully it transcends some of the petty, excuse-driven, "finding ourselves" bs that can prevent a talented team from a fast start. Isn't that the trash we've heard annually from a Woods defense?

If anyone is interested hearing the Bengals' fan side of things, check out this show starting momentarily. Mo Egger is easily the best radio personality they have in that town and pretty level-headed. Should be interesting.

Thing I like... is that I've never really heard many stories about a Vaunted Browns Defense in the past 20 years.

Totally have that this year.

j/c...

Greggggg Williams tailgating in the muni lot is one I didn't see coming...

Heyward is going to be out multiple games; prob going on IR. May need surgery.
His backup also had a tricep injury.
They probably will go with a rookie

Really impressed with the entire team yesterday with the exception of Watson.

From Berry (player acquisition) to Stefanski (having the team ready to play, one of my biggest criticisms of him) to the assistant coaches to the players, it was one of the most dominating performances I can remember witnessing. This was different than the playoff win over the Steelers where the Browns got out to an early lead because of mistakes by the other team then spent the rest of the game holding on for dear life waiting for the clock to expire. This was a dominant performance from the opening whistle until the end (sans Watson).

How about Garrett making the biggest play when it mattered the most pretty much sealing the game? Not some meaningless sack in the first quarter. Listening to him as well, I think he's starting to get comfortable being a vocal leader, which we desperately need him to be.

I really hope this D is top 5 caliber and stays that way the whole season. We have been waiting on a dominant defense since the return. Then Watson can short hop more throws and the defense can get him the ball back. Guy needs to find his mojo in the worst way. He missed wide open receivers all day. Hope he gets it figured out.

I see the ravens also had some injuries too

No, it wasn't that.

However it was humid as all get out. The fog would drop and rise all day. so while it may not have been raining, it was very damp. Maybe call it a mist. Upon reflection i could see how the balls would remain wet. The ground would have had a ever present dew.

+1 across the board.

However, yesterday did nothing to make me worry any more or less about Watson. He outplayed Burrow on a day when he resorted to chucking the ball like a shotput or tossing it to the ground like a dirty gym sock after quickly quitting on plays. Obviously enough to do with game conditions to not hit the panic button (not saying you're doing that, just saying). But yes, Watson's body of work in Cleveland proves that he definitely needs to find his mojo, can't even think of a better term for it.

I like that the D set the bar this high for themselves. It shows they are capable straight out the gate of a change in coaching and philosophy. I hope that spells the end of the 'finding our way' defense, non-accountability and finger-pointing. Best way to end that chapter is to slam the book shut. It looks like Schwartz and his pupils may have done that on day one. It's pretty exciting.

I'm more forgiving with Watson due to the weather than I would be if he had that performance on a typical September afternoon. I'm really hoping he's more accurate and reliable Monday night. We need him to be

Watson will have to learn how to adjust for weather conditions in Cleveland. I call it being a mudder.

Rain, fog, wind, sleet, snow, cold, you get them all. You have to adapt your game for less than perfect conditions...

Players adjust, stats go down, but the game goes on.

I hope he will catch on, that Cleveland is not South Carolina or Houston...

I realize this every time I get off the plane in Cleveland. I can't really talk about it, but it is not San Diego County.

He definitely needs to adjust, especially because the rest of our team is kinda designed for it. Our OL and Chubb thrive in the conditions. It's why the spread came down so quickly yesterday morning when the weather was apparent

j/c

As much as some point to Watson needing to adjust to the weather, sometimes there is only so much you can do and the playcalling is what needs to change, and it did. They adjusted as the game went along and got the W.

Thank you for reminding about the Garrett sack. That was definitely the exclamation point on the game. Garrett's game was awesome, but his usage was great as well. It was so awesome to see our defensive front deployed in such a way where everyone was just feeding off each other and everyone doing their part in keeping the Bengals off balance. As much as I want to criticize Watson (well-earned), Burrow and his offense really did play worse. I think the only one on that offense that looked like they came ready to play was Mixon.

A key thing that Quincy Carrier pointed out was that Burrow threw in the towel, because he doesn't have the innate athletic skills that Watson has.

Watson was able to adjust to the weather by running the ball himself and just getting enough done in the passing department. Which was way more than Burrow could do. This with a pretty salty defensive front from both teams.

Burrow could not run (due to injury?) Did not want to run and was not athletic enough to do the things that Watson can do in bad weather.

I think we will see a much improved Watson with fair weather and he will have to improve his passing in these bad weather games pronto, because this is not Houston with a dome.

I’m seeing feedback of our Defense did great while Watson just did ok. Weather was bad… that hurts a QB and helps a defense… really need a few games before I can judge so still cautiously optimistic all around. Great to win a home opener. 👍

Exactly. We did adjust at the half and Watson looked better. We adjusted at the end of the first half and Watson kept the ball and scored. It was a thing of beauty.

Think the weather had a lot to do with the 1st half especially. People saying Watson needs to be better are the same people who will tell you how Elite Joe Burrow is. Joe Burrow is elite and was soundly outplayed by Watson, Joe missed a bunch of throws too.

Think the defense got an edge due to the weather and field conditions, lots of slipping.

Lining Myles up all over is a welcome sight, always wondered why they didn't deploy the Justin Tuck package.

More so than Chase, the ability to shut down everyone was very surprising especially deep into the game when the weather started to soften. Almost like the game plan was trash, No adjustment to go to the short passing game that Joe is so elite at was surprising. They kept 5 stepping and the defense was all over Joe.

The rushing TD is why I came in here to chat today. For everyone who likes to complain about Watsons stats in cold weather games, very few QB's in the league can make it to the edge on that play and score. I can name a few, all viewed as elite or are literal former MVPs, Allen, Lamar, Mahommes. It looks pretty simple, it was not, getting to the edge and scoring that TD was the game, what a backbreaker at the end of the first half.

A division win, in the opener, the first opener I haven't attended since 2006 (all losses) almost 20 years of traveling to Cleveland to watch a sh*t show and we win the year I am having a baby. Surreal and to do it in such fashion. Nit pick all you want, that was as dominant, "Browns football" as people have been clamoring for for 2 decades around here. We ran it, we played elite level defense in the rain at home.

Everyone healthy, Conklin (who is a walking injury at this point in his career) only injury of note. What a game, what a Sunday!

The team played great in an unexpected storm! Glad Watson got comfortable in the 2nd half, and man I was wrong - we definitely needed a new DC because our new coordinator has our guys FLYING

Myles is a freak. This is Orlando Brown Jr (all "345" pounds) getting tossed fully airborne.

67 getting cross-eyed as his brain rewires from the false reality that he can save the day.