DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2023 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 20 Bears 17 Postgame Thoughts

It was also the first real time that I've seen Christian being a liability

I agree.

If you watch the game then you woukd know that they couldn't get their down and distance correctly ... and they failed to show replays at times when it was warranted. Players got hurt and they never told us of the extent of their injury ect....

With all the injuries.. mad credit goes to David NJoku for stepping up in a huge way this season. Dude's turning into an offensive weapon. Even with the drops... he's coming through huge.

I haven't gone back and watched the replay that was after the end of the game, but I swear I saw their WR push our DB out of the way with both hands.

I hate it when penalties aren't called because of the game circumstances".

Penalties, turnovers. They kill you. Throw in some 8-9-10 starters being out? I'm old enough to remember the Kardiac Kids.

It was tough on me back then, and tough now, but it's a W! The end.

Somehow, Someway we are winning games (closely) with practice squad guys and preseason scrubs. hard to imagine how deadly we would be if he had our full strength of players

Best Quote of the Day!!.. And no one in the national media will bring up that point!!

just watching the highlights ... how about Cam Mitchell's shoestring tackle of Fields on 4th and 1? Game saver

AND, my mother in law stopped by, late in the game. I was in the garage, of course. When that last pass finally fell incomplete, out I went - air horn, then a few shotgun blasts.

Wife told me later her mom said "What did he shoot for? They (browns) didn't score." Wife said "Mom, he's shooting because they won."

He’s been good since he came back. I remember him playing well in preseason too. Just another note on Flacco . 4th quarter 10-13 212 yards with 4 completions over 30 yards. If we are within striking distance in the 4th Flacco’s performance first 3 quarters goes out the window he never stops believing he can make the next play. Not sure we win this game with any other qb we have on the roster. We have to find a way to run though . As bad as ford has been, I really thought we’d see strong with some touches. Ford doesn’t trust where the holes are, chubb could see the cutback better than anyone but he would also barrel into the line knowing by the time he got there it would have a hole for him. That’s what we are missing. With Chubb all season we probably are sitting at atleast 2 more wins. Can’t wait for him to get back but we need to make sure we got a viable backup. Probably draft this year

Strong has his issues in blocking, but he has much more burst than Ford

The Bears WR did drop a sure , easily catchable, TD pass as well.

Weird game. Thought that they would lose but the D played very well especially at crunch time.

Now…

Enough of the B.S. that the refs or the NFL is rigging games or deliberately making calls against the Browns. While the league may want so-called glamor teams in the Super Bowl they get what the get. KC was crap until they weren’t. The Rams, who suck now, won. A winning organization takes time to build. I am not yet convinced the Haslams are the owners to do it especially more than one time. The FO, scouting, talent evaluation and development and coaching in all phases needs to be capable. Bitching about refs (yes, they suck in the aggregate) or the league is a whiny excuse for failure by players or coaches on game day.

That play was perhaps the most important of the entire game.
It went down, and I said: "that's the game-changer."

After witnessing Flacco beat up on us for years (even as Jets QB), I am so happy to be on the right side of him. The absolute dime to Goodwin followed by the percision pass to Cooper for the TD and the Amazing 3rd and 15 pass to Njoku all when the game was on the line, were passes none of our current active or inactive QBs could make at this point. Flacco, at 38 yrs old, is the best QB we have had in a long, long time. Along with Hopkins and Cooper, he has been the best Browns acquisition.

O-Line is what it is at this point but there HAS to be someone, anyone, out there better than James Hudson. He is just BAD. Rarely engages the defender, is SLOW and is always backpedding, sometimes even running into the QB.

Pass defense has been pretty amazing with all the injuries. I absolutely hated the prevent defense the last Bears drive. Almost cost us the game.

A win is a win. 9-5 with this ragtag bunch is amazing. Onto Houston.

Wasnt there a play on the last drive where we only rushed 2 guys? wtf lol

Happy Birthday bbrowns32!

This team does not give up. It’s impressive, and I give a lot of credit to Stefanski and Schwartz.

I still don’t love Stefanski calling the offensive plays, but he did a good job given how hindered we were with injuries, he did well.

This could have easily been the Browns year given how weak the AFC teams have been. I’m sad about that, but proud of the Browns for fighting through a ridiculous amount of injuries.

Nice catch. That play was huge, as things turned out.

I did watch the game and had no problem with the coverage. The coverage team has no clue as to injury extent unless one of the teams communicates that information.

Stefanski has every player that walks on to the field believing they can make plays to help win games, even if every other metric says they should just give up. EVERYONE is playing hard for KS. Looking forward to extending that man.

Did anyone catch Sanchez calling Denzel "TJ Ward"?

I think we are getting a little picky here.

j/c...

That makes sense .. and getting ahead of the Bears makes sense too. You could see that Fields relies on the defense being on their heels

That was a huge play.

Cameron Mitchell gets Justin Fields by a foot on 4th down, starting Browns rally by Bears
Chris Easterling
Akron Beacon Journal
Published 9:01 p.m. EST Dec. 17th, 2023

CLEVELAND — Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields had the corner. The first down was mere feet away,

That is, until Browns cornerback Cameron Mitchell got his hands on one of Fields' feet. That foot left the Bears about a foot shy of picking up a first down on the first play of the fourth quarter.

When Dustin Hopkins' foot connected on a go-ahead 34-yard field goal with 32 seconds remaining, the importance of that foot could not have resonated louder. Instead of adding to what was a 10-point lead, that foot grab and stumble helped turned the momentum that led to a 20-17 comeback win for the Browns.

“I’m not going to say I felt the momentum switch,” Mitchell said. “But when I got to the sideline everyone was like that’s game changing. After the game, everyone was like that was one of those plays that changed the game for us. That’s my job, just doing my job so we can win.”

That's even if Mitchell acknowledged that he may not have even been in the right place, at least when the play first developed. When it ended, though, he was right where he needed to be to get to Fields.

The Bears came out with a tight bunch to the right side of the formation out of the break between the third and fourth quarter to try and pick up the fourth-and-1 from the Browns 33 while holding a 17-7 lead. Mitchell was lined up head up on Darnell Mooney at the middle of the bunch, and stayed there as the outside receiver went in motion left.

On the snap, Mitchell gets sucked into the action of the play, which was going to the left. Fields, though, reversed to the right on the bootleg and rand toward the first-down marker.

Mitchell was pushed backwards by Mooney, who was thinking he was getting the Browns rookie out of the play. Instead, it put Mitchell in position to at least recover enough to get near Fields, which was what he was able to do.

“Honestly I was doing the wrong thing it was just feeling that moment and being a football player,” Mitchell said. “My guy blocked down, I got a block from the outside, Greg’s guy. Then it was just we had nobody in the area and Justin Fields is an elite runner, so I just wanted to go make a play. It was improvising. In that moment you have to be a football player.”

That played turned into a major momentum shift in the span of about 15 seconds. That how long it took the Browns to flip the field when Joe Flacco hit Marquise Goodwin on a 57-yard pass to the Bears 15, setting up a Hopkins 33-yard field goal to pull the Browns within 17-10 with 12:27 remaining.



The Browns would score on three of their final four possessions, all after Mitchell's stop. The Bears, meanwhile, would net 48 yards on their final 17 plays, 30 of those on Tyler Scott's catch that put them at the Browns 45 with 15 seconds remaining.

"I mean, Cam is a hell of a young talent and those guys in the secondary, I want to say unsung heroes today," All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett said. "They didn't make as many plays as last week, but they still balled out. And Cam has been taking step by step each week, getting better and listening to the vets in the room and just doing what he needs to make plays for the football team and we can't be any prouder."

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story.../71945665007/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot

thanks for that article ... it was a play that, even at the time, you thought could be monumental. The Bears coaching staff had little confidence in their kicker for all of the afternoon, and it probably cost them the game

Happy birthday!

thanks buddy

I like it. I think many times teams just defer, but in a place like Cleveland I like the wind to be in my favor in the 4th rather than fighting the wind. It can help you flip a field in the punting game or help you make that longer FG attempt.

What a game. Always felt we were in it because of the D - but there was a drive or two in the second half when I felt that pit in my stomach and thought it was over!

Just hard to stress how impressive it is to keep winning with the amount of key injuries and what we are having to play with on the OL. Mad props to the team and to KS. Chicago's D is very good - I think we'll have an easier road with most other teams on the schedule. Got to hope Z and Bitonio get healthy quick.

As usual it seems like MG was getting held frequently and then the Refs blow for ticky tacky holds by our OL - not a lot of consistency. MG's stats were'nt amazing if you look at the box score - but he was disruptive and was forcing Fields to react on a lot of plays.

Baltimore have the 49ers and Miami left on their schedule. Too bad the 49ers may have wrapped up their division and #1 seed by the time they play. Miami should want to win if the Bills keep winning.

If we're really really lucky we might be playing week 18 hoping Pit beats Baltimore for a chance to win the division.... Who would have thunk it.