DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Overlooked from 2011.

It was obvious that the Browns offense in 2011 was abysmal. But in certain aspects it didn't get alot of help from the return game or alot big plays from the defense.
The kickoff returns averaged only 22 yds. The punt return game was a respectable 10 yds per return. But most alarming is the 1 total TD between the special teams and defense.
Imagine if the Browns had a couple TDS from any of those 3 facets in 2011 and those 3,5 point losses could have been wins.
I think with such a young offense,it can only benefit with some big plays from the special teams and defense.
You can't expect Weeden to come in and engineer 77 yard drives all the time.Too much to ask from a rookie QB.
Its a totally different game if you can start from the 31 yard line than the 20.
in 2 plays your at midfield or close.
Outside of Cribbs,I don't see anybody else that is a threat to take a kick back for significant yardage.

The reason that our defense had few big plays is that opposing offenses had no incentive to take chances. In most of our games, the opponent took a lead by the half, and then tacked on another score right after the half. Then they went into a shell. Once the opposing team got to 17 points, they were almost assured of a victory.

Our offense created very few big plays .... bottom 2 or 3 in the league We had only 7 runs of 20+ yards. We had only 32 pass plays of 20+ yards in a combined (McCoy and Wallace) 570 pass attempts. That was horrific compared to almost every other team in the NFL. Jacksonville, by comparison, had 10 runs of 20+ yards, and 25 plays of 20+ yards in 413 pass attempts.

Special teams suffered for 2 reasons last year. 1 was that we changed coaches and some schemes on coverages and kicks. Second is that we lost several of our core special teams guys, as the team decided that developmental players were more important than experienced special teams players who had little backup value at a position.

Special teams hurt the offense some ..... but the offense hurt the offense more than anything else.

despite that return he still averaged a blazin 4.5 yds on punt returns. thats pathetic.
minus that return he had 22 returns for 26 yds. 1 yd average.
he's not even a poor mans Ted Ginn.
He might surprise but I'm not holding my breath.

D played good but did we score off any turnover this year? Bowens did it twice in a game 2 years ago, last year I don't think we returned any turnovers to the house. Unreal.

we didn't, but several of our TDs were set up by big returns or other big plays by Cribbs, especially in the early part of the season.

Damn it, who watches it with the captions on? Honestly?

I disagree that a couple of tds would turn 3.5 losses into wins, because once you score that td, the other team knows what they have to score to get the win.
I think what's overlooked is the total team ability to get a win.

I don't care how they do it, whether its with off, def, special teams, or act of God, but if they all do everything just a little bit better, and start doing it as a team, their ability to get a win will go up.

Once they get all machined up into one big "team"
the offense will be the team
the kicker will be the team
the return game will be the team, the coaching will be the team, clock management will the the team, the turnover ratio will be the team.

Once the team, is all in as the "team" and less acting as separate units, then the whole's ability to overcome adversity will lead to achieving more wins.

Browns " Whole./team.' vs the opponents, " Whole./team." that's what I care about.
I'm sure they're working on it.

Amen to all of this, TL.