DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2023 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 19 Rams 36 Postgame Thoughts

- Flacco was a nice upgrade IMO ... 90% was good and professional
- We are hurting in the defensive secondary ... that's GLARING. It's affecting every level of the D
- We haven't touched a QB in 2 weeks
- Hopkins has been so good, but has had 2 really bad XP misses (this one hurt us)

Playoff chances are very slim now ... no margin for error

Flacco did good - great pickup for your team. However both of our teams are going nowhere, especially the Steelers. So many injures today - Minkah, Pickett, TJ, and OG and a LB. No way they will be ready to playa NE Thursday.

it saddens me to know that now looking at the standings, we're going to soon move into the "In the Hunt" category, playing for our lives and knowing our playoff destiny will rely on some weird complex win/loss scenario with other teams

yeah the injuries are really piling up to a point of us being non-competitive

The Browns only chance to make the playoffs are a dominant defense. The defense has turned into a pumpkin. I never thought we would look back on the beginning of the year and have this kind of regression. This team has 2022 Jets written all over it. Start 7-3, miss the playoffs.

There's a really weird dynamic with Garrett where his play just tapers off toward the end of every season. He's been ineffective two weeks in a row. Got doubled a lot today but couldn't win his 1 on 1s. He also takes himself out of position on every single run play. He has to be dominant for this team to have any chance. It sucks but that's the reality of it.

Team played uninspired today. Team needs a crapload of emotional leaders.

Really impressed with Flacco except for the int. Why make that throw there? It ended the game for us.
Defense had a lot of issues. Coach needs to get on their butts.

I think there’s no point in worrying about playoffs. We are going to lose by 3+ scores minimum next week. Lawrence will set about 5 team records. Flacco was the absolute least of our issues this week and for being a guy who was sitting at home for 11 weeks just shows how bad this team is. He’s probably realized why he was 18-1 against us. Bottom line is this FO and staff have to be upgraded. We can’t draft, we can’t develop anyone , players come here and actually regress under stefanski. We let a rookie HC who has zero pedigree have complete control of the offensive playcalling. We have been setup for failure since the beginning. Since the firing of Dorsey our talent level has plummeted .

When I saw Pittsburgh lost, I knew we would too. The Browns just can't seem to get ahead of Pittsburgh.

Flacco looked good, but was too willing to go long often. And just like every other Browns QB, threw the INT when it hurt the most. Ford is not that good, I would love to see Strong get more carries.

They can move the ball with Flacco, now the defense needs to step it up. Myles did nothing all day. If he is hurt, take him off the field. Newsome is just horrible. He takes terrible angles, and can't cover anyone.

If the defense continues like this, Jags will pummel them.

I think we have to win out now or there will be no playoffs for us. I think today was a circumstantial loss. The D is not healthy, and was nowhere near elite today. Flacco put up a good game. I think his arm got tired late, a conditioning issue. Take away the pick on the under throw and the final two minutes of desperation and he was fairly solid. Probably the best QB work we’ve seen this season other than flashes and maybe two games by DW. I’d say DW had one much better game, tbh.

So this is doable if Flacco can play a little better and we can get healthy fast. The D needs to get back to crazy down this stretch, or it was all for naught. Houston will be a problem. Otherwise, this is doable.

I honestly thought we’d win today and was surprised to see them beat up our D. I think if the D had shown up hard, Flacco could have easily done enough to win. I don’t see him winning many shootouts though. Stroud is starting to look like Mahomes for the Texans, so that will be our biggest test remaining. And next week, Lawrence, could be dangerous too. We can’t let that be a shootout either.


EDIT: Baltimore still has to face the Rams, Jags, Niners, Phins, and Steelers… with a lot of help, we still have a shot at the division. But we would damn sure need to win out, IMO. I honestly think we’re playing for a wildcard, and it looks like maybe 3, probably 4, and definitly 5 wins would get us there… and then I woke up and remembered we’re the Browns, led by Ski. It was fun to think about anyway.

Also, we need more playmakers on O. Cooper and Njoku are great but we need another dominant WR at least. We have no one who can bust a long one.

Jerome Ford... ain't even D'ernest Johnson,

Playoffs have left the building.

Jax is a substantially better team than the Browns. Browns will not win next week.

I also say that because I saw a lot of head hanging today. That all familiar look of defeat. No will, no mental fortitude.

It is what is is.

And the Haslams were so clueless they never

I'm so OUTRAGED, B/C I LIVE IN COLUMBUs FREAKING OHIO

AND JIMMY HAsLAM CAN'T PUT THE BROWNs RADIO BROADCAsT ON ANY sTATION THAT WOULDN'T RATHER PREEMPT IT FOR

"womens' basketball buckeyes, he knew this would come he's a freaking BILLIONAIRE, Jimmy ain't that dumb he didn't know they would do this

The ‘Clowns’ s—k and will continue to suck for eternity

Cooper and Njoku, neither were great today. One was injured, hey maybe they were both injured,

Jordan Akins had a catch,... like Al Bundy had 4 tds in one game, not the whole season but one game,

well Jordan Akins had his seventh catch,
but in all the season so far, not one game, but the whole season so far.

The offense, is ... bleh I don't know what it is but it ain't fun for our team.

Not enough points, not enough points

If you have to lose, lose scoring 23 or more .

Flacco had 20 missed throws,
PJ walker, may, have won you that game, imo. but Flacco didn't

We should have saved time and money and just mailed in the points from the last two games. Flacco was OK but the rest - a pedestrian performance, no passion, little will to win......

This is the most disappointing. I saw a lot of head hanging. Where are the emotional leaders? The team is really devoid of leaders. You've got Walker, Njoku, Hunt. Is there really anyone else?

Refs please merge this

Pierre strong has much more burst than our other backs

At no point of the game did it feell like I was watching an NFL caliber game from either team,

Even the super bowl, feels like you are not getting to see nfl level of gameplay,
It may be better to not watch any more NFL games

it all seems fixed anyway.

- The Browns defense on the road has been suspect. Missing Denzel Ward and an injured Garrett amplifies the issues.

- The defense did not make a single play today. No forced turnovers, zero sacks and two QB hits.

- Flacco did a nice job given the situation.

- Way too many self-inflicted wounds. This is disappointing.

- Njouku has really been struggling lately.

- David Bell doubled his reception total on the season.

- The dam is leaking on this patchwork offense and injury riddled team.

The Browns just need to beat the Bears, Jets and Bengals to make the playoffs, which is very doable. They are just going to get boat raced in the first round.

Overall:
Browns lack fire, no "killer" instinct. That's a coaching problem.
Only saw about 2 games this year where they seemed to impose their will.
D seems gassed - they've stopped believing.
Special teams, aren't.

Offense:
Flacco should be the guy that finishes the season unless the line gets him killed.
Injuries are to the point where "next man up" will be the guy in Sec 141 Row 12.
Stinkfanski continues with predictable schemes; in some defense, hard to be better with the QB-Go-Round

Defense:
They don't seem to believe anymore.
When Injuries limited the ability to Man-Up, we had to switch to Zone, and it's a sieve.
D gets gashed when a stop is needed the most - where's the attitude and focus?

Organization:
Face it, Haslam, Berry & Stinky have crippled this team with the DW trade. When Joe Flacco with a year off and only 8 days under his belt to learn the offense looks more in control than the $260 Million Dollar Man (when he was healthy), it's great cause for concern - we have no draft stock to rebuild other areas in the upcoming 2-3 seasons.
Stinkfanski's mediocre game day performance as combination HC/OC will leave this team just short of success. Berry and Haslam's acceptance of his performance is baffling.

How is it the Browns are in our DNA and we just can't give up on them? I guess Charlie Brown may be the only one who understands.

The ‘Clowns’ s—k and will continue to suck for eternity

Factory of Sadness continues.

Does he?
you mean on those 2 carries? What about the twenty times Watson, or, I mean whomever, I mean the @uarterback off the street again, didn't complete a pass he threw.
23 for 43, < 20 times he didn't get a yard
inefficient predictable offense, the gadget runs were so predictable, even I could see some of them developing, and the defender was right there.

The Browns are now ONe and TWO in their final eight, with five games to go in their final eight.

They now have Nobody on offense who can make a healthy play,
and they got rid of DPJ, and Dobbs earlier in the year, like they were throwing away old newspapers.

What a mess

I was very pleased with Flacco. The guy can still fling it and he gets the ball out. The other players look they have confidence in the guy..

I think our D is somewhat exposed. The best D in the league hasn't looked like that for 2 weeks now.

A few players who stood out...Moore was finally used and he made some nice plays.

Harrison Bryant is the TE we want to throw the ball to if we want it caught. I hope we keep using the guy.

I am a bit bummed but not totally. I figured these back to back losses months ago when the schedule came out. We never beat the Broncos or Rams, especially when playing out west. We just don't.

The Jags will be tough next week and the Texans will be tough. We should win the others.

Jaguars
Bears
At Texans
Jets
At Bengals

Un Flippin Believable,

DPJ? Really? His not being here is irrelevant.

You don't believe our schedule? My wife taught school and had a student once whose mother did not believe in airplanes.

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that Flacco should be the starter for the rest of the year. He looked great for only 2 weeks with the team and is much better than DTR. Stefanski asking him to throw almost 50 times and once again abandoning the run 2 weeks in a row is criminal, and yet people still defend his play calling.

Outside of JOK our linebackers have to be rated near the bottom of the league. Z Smith, Tomlinson, Elliot and the DTs in general have not been good. Defense has regressed substantially

Start Strong over Ford.

I felt like Walker had a REALLY rough day today .. he's not good in man coverage

I also am SO over our DE's being exposed by the jet sweep stuff

Walker has never been good. Our backers are easily the worst group in league. One thing too. How bad was bitonio and Pocic today. They both were horrid. I’d trade Garret for Donald in a heartbeat. Dude don’t care how many people you put on him, he’s going to impact a game.

yeah, our interior OL has had some major problems for a lot of the year

I don't agree about Strong over Ford, but I agree with the rest. I might say Strong over Hunt. Hunt is reduced to being a line plunge guy. He is pretty solid to get the 2-3 yards, but that's about it. I'd give Strong about half the carries Hunty gets and a few of Fords.

I agree w/Hunt .. he's basically Jerome Bettis in his final days right now, which is a battering ram for 3 yards if you need it

The team is tired and injured

A week and a half out west now having to travel back east

Eight games they have played since their bye week

They don't need to be playing no 17 games, they need to have two bye weeks instead

The team really needs a week off to heal and rest

They will probably go with 2 bye weeks when they eventually go to 18 games.

Either way, bye weeks are totally screwed up by spreading them up over 10 weeks or whatever it is. They should get all of them done at mid season.



As an example, shut down the NFC except for four teams. Four AFC teams will also take their bye. The following week you do the opposite. You would need to have 4 teams in each conference taking their bye opposed to their own conference to allow for TV rights the Networks hold. All teams would get their bye during week 8 and either week 7 or 9.

The NFL is making a fairly easy and equitable process in to a complicated formula. Just get everybody's bye week done near mid season. If it went to two byes, you could do the same thing except the byes would fall in maybe week 6 and 12.

j/c:

I thought Flacco had a top 3 QB performance for us this year. He came out very calm and smooth for a guy throwing to his kids in the backyard a couple of weeks ago. That said, a horrible, horrible decision late in the game to throw deep into double coverage to Moore. Stefanski wouldn't name Flacco the starter for next week but there is no reason to go back to Walker or DTR. Flacco seems like the clear and obvious choice to roll with for the remainder of the season.

- The defense was "meh" yesterday. The secondary play could have been much better and needs to be down the stretch. Hopefully, we get Ward back soon.
- The DL applied next to no pressure on Stafford. He had all day to throw often times.
- That LT Christian seems to be playing really well. I thought the offensive line did well overall.
- Injuries continue to mount both with people out for the year and still playing.
- The running game has been uninspiring and we don't scare anyone. Would like to see Pierre Strong get more touches over Hunt.

Tough home game against the Jags but our defense tends to be wildly better at home.

Jacksonville -3
Over/Under 38

So did Flacco Oline showed up.

This team isn't the same without Ward and a healthy Garrett. Just not the same.