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We are the better team with Watson at 50%.

But does that 50% Watson turn it over 2 times? That's the question to me

I don't want the guy who started today... 1 for 5 with one INT ( should have been 2).... he looked awful before he got hurt...

Watson either needs to be closer to 80% or else I'd sit him.... so far the Watson experiment has not worked in Cleveland...

The Watson Experiment is OVER!

If the Browns and dolphins ended with the same record and afc record and it came down to a tie break of common opponents minimum 4, winning percentage,.... to award a playoff wild card spot, ... big if.....

those common opponents would be the Jets, broncos, titans, and ravens,
ravens whom the Browns play twice Miami once,
and the Jets whom Miami plays twice , the Browns once.

0% true. We are stuck with him for years.

He is just here to cash out at this point. He never wanted to be here 100%!

j/c

we certainly cannot have the version of Watson that we saw yesterday because that was a train wreck from the start. You could tell that he didn't have it from the first pass, and it just got worse.

Maybe the answer is to give him all the reps all week and let him work himself back ... or maybe the answer is to IR him. I'm not sure what the approach should be, but I just know yesterday's version is worse than Walker

You should use all caps to really get your point across.

He may not have wanted to be in Cleveland, but I don't believe his is simply checking out.

Jake Trotter
@Jake_Trotter
·
8m
#Browns efficiency rankings:
Offense: 31
Defense: 1
Special teams: 2

Jake Trotter
@Jake_Trotter
·
6m
The #Browns are dead last in the NFL in QBR (33.9), passer rating (61.0) and completion percentage above expected (-6.9%)... and yet somehow are 4-2

Agreed.
This speaks 100% to the coordinators calling things.

Schwartz has his defense #1
Priefer has his ST #2
Stefanski has his offense #31 (it ain't AVP because he doesn't call anything)

How many times have you seen the ball hit the turf in front of open receivers

Thank you Defense for the 4-2 record !!

I don't know specific numbers, but I will say it has been at a rate I haven't witnessed since Derek Anderson.

Walker had a handful of throws yesterday that were just mind bogglingly bad ... the airmailed throw on a slant, the throw at the feet of Cooper on 3rd and 10, missing Moore in the end zone with 20 seconds left, the 70mph laser at Njoku on a shovel pass, etc

he made JUST enough to put us in position again, but it's not sustainable

The difference is:
1. He's actually available
2. we didn't pay a quarter billion dollars and trade away three years worth of draft capital to get him

So, Walker's actually on the field AND performing completely in line with realistic expectations.

eh, whomever the ST coach is... I don't even know and the guy is and he's doing wonders. Wait, it's Bubba Ventrone these days, isn't it?

Still, the point stands. The #31 is offence efficiency rating, not just passer rating, and Stefanski owns that. It's HIS offense, top to bottom.
As for play calling, I didn't mention it at all, so.. whatever.

PJ Walker, TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, completed a drive. In reality, the Referees completed that drive for him. The call in the end zone was a joke. It would be horrific if called against us (like usually happens when we play Pittsburgh) and is just as bad when it goes in our favor.

That be Ray Ventrone.

Yeah, that guy!

If the Colts don't want penalties called, they shouldn't put an arm around a receiver's waist impeding his movement or grab a receiver's arm with both hands and yank. Just saying.

exactly.. dude basically lost the game by being stripped sacked and was bailed out by a call .. Giving walker way too much credit.. the reality is a sub 50 rating and 3 interceptions and no Tds while completing less than 50 percent of his passes... anyone saying he's sustainable are fooling themselves. We need a QB...it would be awesome if it was the QB Berry mortgaged the future for, but regardless, we need a better backup and it will have to be by trade. It looks like watson probably should sit for 4 more weeks to be completely healed.. he threw like a guy who didn't trust he was healed

I don't think I'm responsible for what anyone else said about Woods/Stefanski last year, so unless you can definitively attribute some of that to me, it has no bearing whatsoever on what I'm saying. HOWEVER, Stefanski *IS* the Head Coach, so as much as it falls on Woods, it also falls on Stefanski since the Captain is responsible for everything that happens on his ship. That is the situation he has chosen.



Exactly. Accept it. Accept that, without those calls, PJ and his drive were Dead in the Water.
And, yes, Stefanski deserves credit for what he has done, BUT he also deserves all of the criticism for what he has done, as well. He has earned BOTH.

So, yes, we scored (thanks to the Refs) on that last drive and we snuck out of town with a 'W', but he has EARNED the criticism that falls his way, too. 100%. And part of that is an offence with a 2nd-to-Last Efficiency Rating. I don't care about dismissals that attempt to excuse it, the fact is he owns the 2nd worst offensive rating in the league. That is HIS doing.

Almost all the local shows are starting to question the system as a whole. They look at the offense and players, and players like watson and cooper who were successful before they came here and they see that this system is broken, they believe its basically broken form of whatever it is. Theres no flow and theres no identity. I've said before, nick chubb was the identity, its real easy to make the rest of the offense look good when you have Chubb, take that away and you're left trying to generate offense with your playcalling and the system.. its failed. I do think a big part of it is no QB, and watson not being that good this year and hurt, we saw a glimpse in TN of what it potentially could be. But yeah, good coaches can take their system and make it work. Look at shanahan, BB going 11-5 when brady went down, Its not going to look as good as when you're starting QB is out there but it shouldn't look as bad as it has. If you look at the stats from yesterday in a vacuum, the points don't make sense, we didn't have enough yards for 21 points let alone 39, that was the defense. I think if we get something serviceable at QB, the offense will find the groove again. Everyone knows I'm not a KS fan, but I will say he's been dealt a crappy hand this year by Berry and watson getting hurt

j/c

I think in many ways Stefanski is a good coach. I've always thought our clock management is some of the best in the league. He is pretty good at taking lesser talent at QB and making it serviceable which we've seen this year. I also think he has made a good hire in Schwartz, which saved his job probably.

I don't think we saw enough throws to determine much of anything about Watson. He was never able to get into the flow of the game. His pick came after he was clapping furiously for Pocic to snap the ball in an attempt to unsuccessfully avoid a delay of game penalty and as a result he was flustered and underthrew (intentionally? didn't want to overthrow?) a ball to a wide open receiver while running out of the pocket, and the receiver made no/very little effort to come back to the ball. Plus, the opposite side safety made a great play.

The near pick came when he was scrambling left and threw across his body as he was about to get hit. Those rarely end well for any QB.

I'm also not sure if the early miss to Ford was a bad throw, a miscommunication (expected Ford to sit down instead of continuing route), or some combination of the two.

Watson didn't play well. I'm not sure his health had a lot to do with it.

We won the game. Good enough for me.

Umm, you might want to look at Cooper's yearly stats again. Other than 2019, his yardage was trending HARD in a negative direction since 2016... until he got here last year. Last year was also his best year in terms of scoring.

Watson... yeah. Something is wrong... probably more than 1 thing. I'm beginning to wonder if he is going to be the best fit for KS's offense.


Berry rolled the dice on DTR being the backup. Clearly that didn't pan out and we found out the hard way. Berry needs to fix that ASAP, for this year and the next few.

not sure what you're trying to say? I agree Cooper is the #1, I like cooper, its the rest of the WR's that are meh.. But on your point for KS offense, thats another knock on KS, if you're good coach you adapt to what you have, not pound a square peg into a round hole. We have to adapt like Schwartz has done

This is just my recollection from yesterday, so it could be off, since I'm not exactly in unbiased observer mode when I watch Browns games, but I felt there was better flow to the offense and better cadence in the passing game when Walker was in. Of course, once the ball left Walker's hands, not much good resulted from it, but up to that point, it seemed like the line was blocking better for the most part, and things didn't seem as chaotic as they did when Watson was in there.

Our offensive identity in 2020, when things went well, was that we pounded the other teams with Chubb and then had Hunt come in later with fresh legs. I remember that approach devastating the Bengals in week 2. Baker was also able to capitalize off that in play action. That has gone out of the window a lot now with Chubb obviously being hurt, Hunt having lost a step and not getting many carries, and Watson taking less snaps from under center.

I really think they need to, first, I guess figure out who the QB is going to be, and from there, figure out a system that works. It was sad yesterday when I watched Ford go down a few times either behind the line, or two yards past it where I thought, Chubb would have busted that one open.

Lets have Myles and Tomlinson get hurt and see how well Schwartz adapts. ...Or not....

With Watson, you can certainly make this argument. It's not as black-and-white as you say here, though. With Cooper, this is just plain not true. Cooper was an excellent #1WR with the Raiders, got traded to the Cowboys and had 1 good year, but had been steadily turning in fewer and fewer yards each season. Last year in Cleveland was his statistically 2nd or 3rd best year based on yardage, and #1 in terms of TDs. He was measurably and significantly "less successful" prior to coming to Cleveland.

IMO, this is because he's a good fit with KS's offense. He's a precise route-runner and is usually very sure-handed.

Tend to agree with all of that.

The last part is a big reason I and others wondered how he could possibly have zero targets in the 3rd quarter of a tight game. Was he just well covered most of the game? Listened to most of the game on the radio while driving, so I really don't know.

Just a thought on our RB situation. I'd like to see more of Pierre Strong and also Deon Jackson depending on the status of Jerome Ford. We have to run the ball more right now in order to win or at least until DW gets straightened out.

HE IS JUST HERE TO CASH OUT AT THIS POINT. HE NEVER WANTED TO BE HERE 100%!

Better??