DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum What If?

I think your concern could be realized quickly if it happens. Wouldn't be concern about Flacco at that point. The real concern is KS. Predictable already, and Dillon assume less playbook AND fewer reps. LS is hardly noted for effective play calling and keeping things vanilla to a fault. I really hate the Bizarro World plays that appear when he tries to fool opponents in the Red Zone. Not exactly the watchword for any adjustments on offense. "Let's do less with more." Little play variety called; little variance week to week; we need points, and they probably are not at the end of three yard passes or thirty-yard attempts when behind the sticks. The real football we see is on defense. They can't carry this O which can't keep itself on the field as called. A run game spark might help. Keeping Detroit off the field would as we'll.

IMO, what happened against Green Bay was an anomaly and to expect us to beat 2 really good teams in a row especially in Detroit is unrealistic. Our D would have to play great again, good ST play and our O would have to show some new life, move the ball and keep the Lions off the field. Tall order.

I'm certainly not willing to predict a win against Detroit. But to your point I don't think the same D that held the Bengals with Burrows to 17 points and then the Packers to 10 points is an anomaly.

And if you looked at the betting line last week beating the Packers looked unrealistic as well.

The only thing I would add to your assessment as to when KS may start DG is "When the time is right".

I believe he feels DG is ready to start but one of the keys I think is being strongly considered is starting him when the odds are better of him starting out on the right foot with the best odds of him succeeding early giving him a foundation to build upon. If you think there's any possibility that DG has a chance of being the Browns starter for the long run I don't think you want to start him out behind the 8 ball.

Not all NFL teams are equal.

Hopefully they're using the telescope approach of looking at the long run rather than using a microscope and only looking at this as a week to week situation.

Pit I’m not saying our D is an anomaly I think our D is legit and very good. What I’m saying is that the events at the end of the game were. The interception, blocked FG and the improbable 55 yard FG. Those 3 things usually don’t all happen in the last minutes of the game especially for us.

True. At least for teams past. I'm not sure I would call the 55 yard field goal improbable though. He had a terrible week one but hasn't done bad since. I'm not going to base what he is doing now strictly on week one. He did fine when called upon in week two as as well.

I'm not quite ready yet to try to diminish the accomplishments of our secondary and special teams both Szmyt and the blocked FG by saying it "usually doesn't happen for us".

Those were actual plays the team made. Players make things happen. They don't just happen.

While you can look back and say that's true, with the turnover of the roster every season this isn't quite the same team as last year. That's true every new season. As the roster churns so does the play of each unit.

While opinions may vary and I'm not trying to discount your opinion, I try to remain objective.

We have weaknesses like an aging OL and a desperate need for OT's. Our QB situation is in flux and we don't know where that will lead moving forward. We certainly need a more dynamic #1 WR. I won't try to diminish those issues. I won't try to sugar coat them. At the same time when the ST's plays well, the kicker performs well and the secondary makes an excellent play, I won't write that off as something other worldly either.

They earned that win with their play.

It's very early in the season and for me I'm willing to see where it plays out from here before saying it was some extraordinary set of circumstances or simply the ST's playing well and the secondary making a great play.

I believe they are working the kinks out in the offense! New OC. New OL coach.

When the rookie QBs take over the offense, everyone else has a good understanding of what is needed.

Fans always want the next guy.. whoever that is. That's if the Starter is struggeling!

Pretty obvious it has always been that way, with any team.

I am at the point that I am good with putting Gabriel in at the half of any game. If he plays well, it smooths the way to Flacco. If he doesn't it will be easy enough to start Joe the next week. All Stefanski has to do is go in to the press conference and say that Joe is still the starting QB and explain away why he made the change at the half.

There are probably 50 ways he can do that, some real, some not so much. Once you make a clear change, you don't have any real options to make another change.

I don't like to say it, but the best case is Joe takes some sort of minor injury that "might" take a few weeks to heal giving the team a clear reason for making the change and then making it easy to go back to Joe after a few weeks if Gabe struggles.

Sort of like when Kosar took over for Danielson. It gives the team a clear path to go back and not make their future (hopeful) starter look or feel like a loser.

I think Joe did well coming off the couch because Stefanski didn't have time to teach him to be scared of throwing the ball. I think Stef preaches so much on avoiding turnovers that our QBs become to scared to throw the ball downfield and get too scared to actually make the throws.

What if we simply had more QBs and WRs to utilize...oh wait...we have (3) QBs and that number will be (4) when Watson is cleared to play...plus (1) on the PS.

We have (5) WRs on the (53) and (4) on the practice squad. (13) players - soon to be (14) - and we would miss exactly (0) if they were no longer on the team.

What do every one of those ^ guys have in common? None of them would be on the roster of our ACFN opponents. How'd we get to that?

Oh I know I know.

Our offensive tackles might get them killed.

Yeah, it would be better if QB's were told and taught not to avoid turnovers.