DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Gameday vs Carolina Post Game Discussion....

I get why Monken went for it. Kicking the field goal did not put the game away. A touchdown by the Panthers would still beat the Browns as kicking the field goal would have widened the lead to 6 from 21-18 to 24-18. Getting 1 yard would have won the game as the Browns would have just needed to take a knee 2 to 3 times depending on if the Panthers would have used a time out or not. This team needs to find a way to fire off the ball and get a yard when needed. They have failed 3 times now. Once in each game at 4th and 1. That is not a good trend and must improve.

I would totally agree with that if Szmyt hadn't have hit his last 20 FG's in a row. I can see both sides of the coin here but the fact Szmyt has hit his last 20 in a row is most certainly the deciding factor for me. It's just my opinion of course but I don't think it's even a close call.

But overall Monken has done a superb job to this point. Sure there's still some things that need cleaned up but it's still early and this team is coming together. Being 2-1 is much more than I expected at this point. Every HC is going to make calls fans disagree with but in the grand scheme of things nobody is perfect. That includes all of us.

I do think the Oline is still "new". My recollection is that we did not establish the starting 5 basically until the end of TC/preseason. Tevin Jenkins was (probably?) supposed to be the starter and he's been out. Fano is a rookie.


I do think they will clean up the penalties as they come together, but I also hope our execution in the run game similarly improves during that time. I can definitely see why Monken (at times) emphasized proper execution in selecting his starters.

I cringed at first watching it live but immediately shook my head in agreement.

You have punched these dudes in the mouth all day on defense. The upside of giving the offense a chance to do the same outweighs the downside. When they didn't get it done, the defense said hold my beer, we'll do it again.

I wonder if there are any advanced stats for this? It seems to me, from my decades watching football, a team driving for a tying FG is more than happy to settle for it and go to OT.

From that aspect it's "win the game" vs "almost surly won't lose the game".

Carolina helped the Browns get 10 points in the second quarter by going for it on 4th down and coming up short both times.

Credit to the defense, however Carolina being aggressive cost them the game.

Being up by 6 means a TD on a kick off return or a great play by Young after a long kick return loses you the game. Going for the win showed trust in your offense and a longer drive needed if we missed it so no real down side ... I think that's the factors that made the decision and I am sure if you don't like Monken fans will say it was the wrong decision regardless. Whether it was the right thing to do or not - I guess somewhat depends on the outcome of the game. End of the day - I like the call and glad the result went our way.

Verse is showing up in ways you can't see unless you are actually watching him on every play. I know "almost" doesn't count except horseshoes, but the pressures he is getting on the QB is making them make bad or early decisions. Young had a ton of throw away passes yesterday, and many of them were directly because of pressure that Verse was involved in. This Defensive Line is getting good push off the ball. Verse is a big part of that push. Young was 10 percentage points below his average completion percentage yesterday.

There have bee zero kick off returns that have gone for TD's this season. Only about 0.5% of all kickoffs are returned for TD's. The Browns were 0-2 in 4th down conversions at that time. By contrast Szmyt had hit his last 20 FG attempts.

The choice was to risk giving up the ball in good field position to give them the chance to tie with 1:00 minute left on the clock by an O that was 0-2 in 4th down conversions rather than go with the sure footed Szmyt and force them to drive the length of the field to score a TD. Luckily his choice did not effect the outcome of the game.

I don't believe placing "trust in your offense" and having them fail on a 4th and short conversion is quite the confidence booster some think it is.