Also, I remember when Baker would throw balls to his receivers as soon as he saw the Defensive player turn his back. Whatever happened to that Baker? Do we have end zone fades in our playbook?
I think Stefanski has to bear some responsibility for Baker's failures. Baker doesn't do anything well anymore.
The Browns season is over. You can't win with this kind of incompetence at the head coach and QB positions. Here's what I would do for next season ...
1. Trade or release OBJ. It's not working and I think it's making things worse for Baker.
2. Turn over playcalling duties to AVP. We need a CEO coach, not someone who only pays attention to one side of the ball.
3. Let Baker and AVP tweak the offense. I would prefer we ran something closer to Cincy and Buffalo where the QB is the focal point.
4. Hire an experienced DC.
This all seems like a tremendous overreaction to one game (except for the OBJ part). Stefanski was hired to run his offense. We were in the position to win against a good defense if it were not individual failures.
I don’t know what you mean by an experienced coordinator but Joe Woods was a successful coordinator for two years with Denver.
Joe Woods - if he was a successful D coordinator for Denver, how or why did he end up as being a D-Backs coach in his next gig? I can't speak for anyone else but I am still highly concerned - and the Pit offense is anemic, Ben is a shell of himself, and while allowing 15 points against good teams might be considered a success - it really felt like whatever we did on offense yesterday, Pit would have found a way to score more points on our D. And that's without a Kicker who could have certainly kicked at least a couple FG's if he had been healthy.
Stefanski's offense is sometimes excellent. We seemingly always have a first drive that looks like we are going to stomp the other team and then it goes sideways . . . . it appears to me to be one dimensional plan that once the other team makes adjustments - we simply struggle. Now ... we are certainly hamstrung with injuries and have real WR woes right now. But I don't think it's just the injuries. I see other teams doing more with less and finding ways to adjust to adversity ... we seem to shrink and go into a predictable pattern when facing adversity. And when either tackle or starting OG goes down, it seems like we completely abandon what the gameplan might be ... I still think KS is the right man for the job, I just think he gets into much too predictable a pattern and everything is too same-ish. . . . If part of that is an injured Baker - If an injured Baker is still better than a healthy Case - we still need to let Baker heal for the long term good.
I do think that mixing things up for a half - with play calls by AVP would help mix things up and prevent the practicability. If he did it for a game and KS could see areas for him to change or improve, i'd be all for that too.
As for the OP comment that Baker doesn't do anything good? Well I agree with the many posters who have highlighted the loss to Pit has little to do with Baker, he had a couple slightly off throws, we had receivers (hurt) drop balls they shouldn't have. And while I wasn't at the game this week - the comments about OBJ getting open [1] when I was at the game, he was getting open by free lancing after the route was covered. Not within the structure of the play design [2] When he has been thrown the ball and it's hit his hands, he has dropped the ball A LOT ... wonder what his PFF grade is for the season?
Bottom line - any QB in the NFL from Brady to Rodgers to Allen and Lamar ... playing with a broken bone and torn labrum is going to be struggling in all aspects of their game. Labeling Baker 'average' while playing with this injury seems more like contrived commentary than serious take.
