DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Expect these NFL teams to miss the playoffs again- A negative cle article?

To expand a bit more on my initial response.. I'm not so sure that the writer is smart to use SOS as a barometer of how the Browns will do.. and yes, you CAN be right about the difference between .508 and .547 being statistically significant, but I also agree with you that the odds are it isn't as significant as the sports writers seem to think. A few key injuries such as bikelessburger breaking a thumb or / and Jessica Simpson whacking Romo for dumping her and all of a sudden the SOS isn't what we thought it was.. a lot can happen here..

I just don't think basing your thesis on SOS is a logical train of thought, especially when it mirrors last years so closely.

Actually, I don't base my thoughts of 10 wins this year on last years SOS at all... I look at those teams, what they've done (or have failed to do) and combine that with how I perceive them as a team... and I think our side stacks up VERY well against the vast majority of the teams on our schedule.

The 'thesis' in my previous post was more at trying to quantify where the difference between .508 & .547 comes from... and from a cursory review I can see that it came from not having 4 teams that were so horrid that they combined to go 13-51 with San Fran being the powerhouse of the bunch at 5-11.... that's a .254 SOS for one full quarter of the schedule. If we played 4 8-8 teams, that would be .500 and a difference of .246, which, if retroactively applied, would have raised our SOS a full 0.062 to .570.

Of course you can't do any of that and it isn't true apple to apples by any means, but it helps to illustrate that we really aren't as far from doing well this year as so many seem to think.

Our defense was putrid, but our Offense was ridiculous and that should continue. If our Defense was 1 Touchdown better (allowed 7 fewer pts) per game, we would have won 4 more games last year.

If, instead of giving up those TD's we had just forced one in each game to be a FG instead of a TD, we would have won One more and forced one to Overtime (Pitt).


Either scenario would have guaranteed us a spot in the playoffs.
I don't know about anyone else, but I would bet money that, if we remain healthy, we are at least one drive better on defense than we were last year. We've gotten better on O as well (granted, this is still all on paper, but it is still June) and if Derek can start hitting on the things that were his weakness last year, it could easily be one drive better in its own right.

i'm actually happy to see an article like that...

especially since it's based on facts like "well because they were good last year, they'll be worse this year" or "they're the trendy pick"

i don't believe in all of that stuff...

i like what the browns have done this offseason, i love the rogers trade

i don't think the stallworth move was absolutely necassary, but i like it...

and hey, we're all browns fans... we know to expect the unexpected, anything can happen...

you're always a torn acl away from being 4-12...

we all know the schedule is tough... we play the 2 best divisions in football, we play our own division which is no walk in the park

i don't expect this team to go 16-0 and win the super bowl, but for the first time in forever, we're approaching a season that we can legitimately have a good feeling about...

plus, there is a flip side to this...

dallas walks in to cbs in week one, and while we say "man, dallas the first week, that's tough", dallas is thinking "wow, the browns in week 1? that's tough, it's definitely not what it used to be"

Quote:

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Savage sees that the window is just now opening for this team. He is taking advantage of that opening instead of waiting another few years to have one good season and then fall back into the cellar because all our our core players are getting past their prime.

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Man...............homerism at its finest. Not bad-mouthing you, but that was pretty funny. We traded away picks and future picks for older guys and you say that.

Sorry dude, if anything.............Savage's moves scream of winning now.

j/c

I think it's possible we get in. While we did have a ridiculously easy schedule last year and didn't make it, and we have a ridiculously hard schedule next season, the rest of our division has a similar tough schedule. All that matters is that we are better than the rest of our diviision.

I think we can do it. Unless our potential less than stellar performance against a tough schedule creates a QB controversy, well then we are screwed, because that's a recipe to self distruct.

Thanks...I guess he thinks the ravens will make it then.

Grandmama always said " Just consider the source. Who you listenin' to, child?" True up to here. Lemme see now. . . . Cleveland might not go to playoffs: Hardly an erthshaking revelation. Always WANT them in the playoffs, but articles like this can't be braincrushers for true fans who have been around. Their schedule may be tougher, well yeah. And oh, DA may struggle and is a question mark. Well, DA showed he has a horrible downside, that when he is bad he is beyond horrid. Not a trough or dip, but a flatline. And he is able to do that back to back weeks with all the chips on the table. No news there. We learned last year, I hope.

This guy is going out of his way to sell a cheap gimmicky article; hardly prophetic, barely insightful. Fishing around for enough negatives to manufacture artificial discussion based on barely existent contention and controversy, kinda reminiscent of some things I really didn't care for on ESPN and other news media where they go look for the hype. Lame. Bottom line: Somebody got to win the division. Our defense has given away close games by lack of aggression. Might as well be us, records aside. Lame piece of journalism.

desperation may be the wrong word, but i agree with pretty much everything this guy said about us...

1) harder schedule on paper...
2) it will be an entirely different challenge for DA this year...
3) Rogers has a more-than-fair chance of reverting to his lazy ways after a few games...
4) all the talk about last year and our FA moves to win now, we'll definately have opponents in the AFCN 'up' for our games (and we didn't even win the majority last year )...