Different day same thing on O.

I got a good defensive scouting report from a Vikes fan who knows football. His thoughts;

“Well, our corners are soft and outside of Kendricks, LBs are suspect. Middle of the DL is exploitable to run it. Our interior tackles are non-existent.”

So if he’s right, we will put up points on Minnesota. The usual: Run the ball, take advantage of a devastating play-action game.


ST: keep making kicks, Mr. McLaughlin. You doin’ good!

Mr. Felton: Don’t fumble kicks and keep scooting around out there on PR.

D: we’re not facing a bad offence this week, so if we can stop the run we stand a good chance. I think it’ll be a close one.

Thoughts, boys and girls?

Our run game will exploit them.

On defense this will be real challenge.

They have talent and are playing well.

It will be interesting to see what carryover there is on defense from the Bears game.

I think if you call our two offenses a wash, it comes down to which defense can get more stops.

We are, right now, a Top 5 defense. They are not.
They can bring pressure with Danielle Hunter, but I don't know who else they have. Both defenses practice against this O scheme daily, so there will be a lot of familiarity. I don't think we have to worry about Cousins running it much, so we can kinda pin our ears back a bit.

I think the first half will be a little bit of a slugging match, but we should be able to separate ourselves from them and then build the lead in the 2nd half when they start to go away from the run.

That description of Vikings defense almost sounds too good to be true for our O....especially after what our run game was able to accomplish against a stout Bears line/LBs.

Now let's see how our pressure on the QB fares against an experienced Cousins.

The problem with the Browns passing attack is they don't have cohesiveness or continuity of what WR's are featured week to week.

Landry is on IR. I believe Higgins is hurt, reported or not, from the groin injury reported, and rolled ankle reported, before the season started.

As I lie awake at night thinking of the Browns passing attack, it's hit me on more than one occasion, that if they really wanted speed, a 3 Wr set featuring
OBJ, Schwartz, and JoJo Natson, would give them, (If Schwartz can actually catch,) an ability to use speed in ways we don't usually see.

Felton, should almost never be used as a WR in 2021, he should CONSTANTLY be used as a pass catching Rb in space, and yes there is a difference starting in the backfield vs. starting on the line of scrimmage.

Felton, and Schwartz, don't have much experience fighting to come down with a catch vs tuff coverage.
Higgins is the best at fighting for a tuff catch and coming up with it, on the team, even better than OBJ and Landry prolly. Hunt also seems pretty good against a tuff pass defense.
Eventually, again we can come away,
were left with, different parts of the dough rising at different times.
Of the continuity bread that will never come out of the oven, not in my lifetime probably.

I didn't mention DPJ, or the top 3 TE's.
If only one tight end.
They need to feature Njoku more, both passing and blocking.

Should win... if defense plays well again and our running game gets going...

Their offense is legit... easily a top 10 offense.

They have an elite WR crew that will test our secondary.
Dalvin cook is week to week... something to keep an eye on.

THis might feel like a mirror match. Given that Stefanski was the coach for 14 years there and he knows the scheme... They also know ours.


That said I do believe that Cleveland is superior in the ball control realm. Given the Hunt/Chubb combo. If they can keep their offense off the field... Browns win this one...

The above statement boils down to this, you are saying that it's a problem that the Browns spread the ball around to all of their receiving weapons...

I stopped reading after that.

That is a separate issue than the team featuring Schwartz on his rookie opening day, resulting in 2 negative plays that forced punts, no points from those drives.
Beckham getting back from injury beginning in week 3
Landry going out with injury, in week 3.

And the Healthiest and supposed camp stand out, DPJ, is, well who knows, not getting repeated prod. maybe drawing the most attention.

What? is Baker Mayfield! Supposed to bring 25 people to camp Mayfield in Austin in the offseason, in order to build some chemistry, it's not that he didn't put in the effort, and including Schwartz and Felton who weren't even Browns' yet!

So what, they are spreading the ball around, often have.
Guess who's not getting passing targets!
Nick Chubb had 80 rusing, and 60 catching in the playoff win over the Steelers last January.

So... you're saying they should spread it around even more, or spread it around just as much, but differently?

I think pretty much everything has been covered...my 2 cents isn't much different.

We should be successful on O, but of course they know the scheme as well as we do for the most part. I can see a big game for TEs, as well as RB receiving. On paper, this D is better than your buddy's scouting report. The Vikes looked really good in the 2nd half against Seattle. Held them scoreless and under 100 yards. Have they too started to hit their stride?

On D, it'll be a challenge, especially if Cook is playing. Cousins not being much of a runner plays to our advantage, but Ward and Newsome have their hands full with Jefferson and Theilen.

If the D that showed up last week shows up against Minnesota and we don't have turnovers, I don't see us losing.

Hey! We made it to Tuesday afternoon before a sky is falling post.

We beat the Vikings the same way we beat everyone from here on out, smash mouth football.

This one all comes down to our defense. Jefferson, Thielen, and Cook are their version of the triplets. Cousins has played well too. If we can keep them under 30 we’ll win IMO

All of this to deflect from the fact that you began your post with another really silly statement.

I'm expecting a close game.

Fewest mistakes, penalties and turnovers wins. If Cook plays it will be tougher. Hoping to pull away and win it in the 4th Q with Chubb running for 10 yards a carry !

Baldy does a great job of featuring Clowney in this tweet. If we get production from him like we did against Chicago we will disrupt the Viking's offense.

There O Line is said to be weak in the middle I would kick Clooney inside next to McDowell from jump and pressure Cousins from the inside.

I feel certain that will dominate them any way it goes along both lines.

Wear them down with the run like we always do so in the forth Chubb will chew them up and spit them out....

On defense mix it up move Garret and Clowney around...

The backend is going to be a challenged and it will be very interesting to see how well they do as a group.

I think the direction on Defense is up. We need to get pressure with our front 4 and we need the backend to keep in close contact for 3 seconds.

Make Cousin hold that ball for 1/2 a beat longer then he would like and put him on his back...

The pressure from the middle is key to getting him off his mark and to forcing the ball out before he wants to let it go.

I believe this week will get a couple of Int's off Cousins if the pressure is there. I know he has zero Int's to this point in the season so he is due.

The Vikings are bound to run some run blitzes so some timely screen plays should have killer results. I am sure Ski is watching for tendencies on early downs and will make up a game plan that gets their defense on their heals.

One of the things we seldom talk about is how good we are at screen plays watch out for Njoku TE screens. This should be a game he shows how truly good he is and what a weapon he is.

We all watch the Browns week in and week out and we truly can't figure out what Ski will put together but one thing for sure we can attack them at every level of their defense, which one is likely going to boil down to all of them.

The Vikings are a good team I am not sure what the line is but we should beat them, were are simply a much more talented and balanced team.

The line had us favored by 1 to start that is now 2... FYI

I think we are going to go on a real tear from this point going forward the Bears beat down has this team fired up.

One thing for sure we will show up and make life hard for the Vikings. I say blow out but will see.

I'm really curious/excited as to what we're going to see out of the D. Cousins will be the first guy so far where we don't really need to worry about hurting us with his feet. That should make things a little simpler for the big boys. Do they get more aggressive in terms of turning loose the ends and scheming Garrett or Clowney to the QB?

I wouldn't be surprised (but I will be disappointed) if we see our secondary play a little less tight. I'm sure we respect their pass-catchers a little more than we did the Bears'. Also, I'm expecting us to be missing Newsome out there, so while I'm glad Greedy is going to get starters snaps (for his sake) I'm going to be anxiously holding my breath to see how he can hold up.

I haven't watched any of their games besides bits of their Cinci game, but it sounds like they just had to pull their heads out of their butt. Even still, I think Cousins is overhyped. If our front can bring pressure, I expect him to fold.

Our best defense is clock killing offense. I expect we’ll run between the tackles all day. Dink dunk pass all day. Own the clock. I expect Chubb & Hunt & the TE’s to have their best numbers of the season. The Vikings know this. It’s going to simply come down to the ability to stop what everyone knows is coming. Not much trickery, who has the ability to impose their will?

This well be a chess match game for KS.

They know him. He knows them.

Cousins has been real good. They have a damn good offense with talent there.

We just beat two bad offensive teams. Tyrod went down. Fields and Nagy were a mess.

The Chiefs scored when they had to.

We will need the defense to play well. Continue to bring pressure. Get to him early. Put it in his mind he has to rush. Speed up his clock.

They have talented receivers. We will need good coverage.

I see a follow up game for JOK.

We should score on them. They are not good against the run. Odell should start to get game legs. We need him.

KS will go for balance on offense. We will do what we have done on offense.

Go for mismatches and get the lead. Protect the ball.

Wear them down with Chubb/Hunt.

I see that Kirk hasn't thrown an INT yet this season. Here's hoping that he has one or two against us.

The Browns offense doesn't feature WRs, it hasn't all year.

Our WRs AS A GROUP, have 22 rec on 31 targets for 341 yards and 1 TD.

Cooper Kupp ALONE has 25 rec on 33 targets for 367 yards and 5 TDs

OBJ had BY FAR the biggest day of any of our WRs for the season this Sunday with 5 catches for 77 yards.. So if anybody is hoping to see a WR get "featured" I think they will be disappointed.

I'm also curious and excited to see what the defense does. In no way do I expect to see as dominant a performance as we saw against the Bears, but I'm really hoping to see validation of that performance.... glimpses of that level of play and that level of attacking and aggressiveness.

In the end, our ability to cover and defend the pass is the key to this game.
Our O is going to score on them. They're going to run it, but we're going to defend that run pretty well, too. Our DLine is going to get pressure.... the only question is whether or not our secondary covers well enough long enough for that pressure to either cause a bad decision from Cousins or allow them to get to him, or cause an incompletion/throw away. Getting good run stops on the early downs will be huge, as always.

Our OLine is another big question mark: Wills' health, and how long it stays that way, is BIG. Hubbard is probably still down with his triceps. Hudson isn't ready, leaving - still - only that guy named Blake, and you KNOW they're gonna put Danielle Hunter over there. So, we're gonna have to be chipping him a bit, which means one less guy out in a route.
The matchups are going to be interesting, for sure.

On the side of them covering us, currently Bashaud Breeland is the worst starting CB in the league. Literally.

He ranks 108 of 108 graded cornerbacks through three weeks of the season with a 30.4 position grade. Breeland allowed 18 receptions on 21 targets (85.7%) for 257 yards and four touchdowns this season and a nearly perfect quarterback rating of 157.2 when targeted in coverage. He’s the only graded NFL cornerback with a sub-30 coverage grade, currently at 29.6. link

So, he's like our Sendejo. When you need 14 yards on 4th and 13, he's likely to give you 16. Now that I've said that, he'll probably have a career day Sunday, lol

His backup, Dantzler, has outplayed him, but appears to be in Zimmer's doghouse after getting vocal about not getting more playing time.

Their other CB is Patrick Peterson, but he doesn't appear to be playing that well this year, if you go by his grades on PFF (59.4), giving up 10 receptions on 13 targets. They have pretty decent Safeties behind them, though, so getting deep may be difficult. Attacking that 8-20 yard range may be the ticket.

I'm going on a tangent here - but I'd have to think that WR is where we will likely "save our cap" when Mayfield gets into his extended deal (presuming that happens). That actually makes sense because Mayfield has shown he can spread the ball around to journeymen.

Hopefully we keep our OL a point of emphasis.

I would agree with that. As long as we are a run first team with a good OL, I expect our WR group will be a journeyman or two and a couple others on their rookie contract. I don't see us going the route of the $17/million per year WR again.

I hope we don't stick to that to our detriment, lest we end up in a situation that is like what Aaron Rodgers has dealt with where he wants better receivers but the team won't get them for him. You have to find and develop them, but you have to know when to accept that the guys you've found aren't developing and then you have to sign one of those $17 million players.

I agree. I'm sure we all hope that the WR's we draft will be the answer to the position as the high priced FA contracts expire. But the odds are it won't address all of our WR needs. If we refuse to sign quality FA's at WR just for the sake of being stubborn with the cap, it may negatively impact our O's ability to be a dual threat. At this moment we have the ability to beat our opponents through the air or on the ground.

That makes it much harder for the opposition to prepare for you and defend you. Becoming a one dimensional threat would be very detrimental to our team.

It's the trap of not recognizing the extra impact a high-level receiver has and thinking that pedestrian WRs can get the job done adequately if everything else is good.

We're as good as we are on O because we have Elite talent in every position group. It needs to stay that way, regardless of whether we sign someone as a free agent or we grow our own; if we don't have it, we have to go get it.

Baker needs to take some deep shots per play action down the field AND connect.

The Vikings will load the box all day.

I'm not saying we should never have a good, proven, WR.. I'm just saying that we are paying Jarvis $12M/year and OBJ about $16M/year.. and if it comes down to keeping one of our better OL or keeping one of them, I'm letting the WR go. We have seen this offense operate better than it ever has, without OBJ. I'm not a hater, but he is not necessary for our offense to go.

I’m looking at their offensive line, and not seeing anyone of note. The Browns DTs should be able to make Cousins a bit jumpy.

The Vikings have two different QBs, Kirk Cousins in a clean pocket and Kirk Cousins when pressured. When in a clean pocket he is one of the best in the league, when pressured he is terrible. Our offense is going to be efficient against basically anyone. We can win in a shootout or we can blow them out if Cousins gets pressured.

While I agree 100% with your sentiments - the only thing I'd add is that we have not yet seen this offense with a healthy OBJ and a combination of OBJ and Baker in sync and a deep understanding of the Offense together. I think that it might make a significant difference. Now cap wise - when it comes time to pay all the pipers, I don't see how we can keep JL and OBJ and Baker and a host of other key players on OL and D.

This is a good match-up. Two like-minded teams with roughly equal talent. This will not be a walk-in-the-park game. Browns better bring their A+ game. The fewest pentiles and turnovers win pure and simple.

Here is where we need the secondary to step up over last week. Talent-wise it's not KC, but they have the numbers at the receiver position. They can't play off as they did in KC. Corners must play tight otherwise Cousins will pick them apart.

I am not so sure that I agree on the talent side of this I think what truly stands out is how much more talented the Browns are then the Vikings. But hey we can't always agree.

The big one that truly separates them is O Line and D Line we are light years better oh and the backend of our defense is better then the Vikings as well. Skill positions I agree very close....

Cousins is playing his best ball right now and so they present a challenge it's going to be very interesting to see what we do on Defense after the blood bath we saw on Sunday.... The key for the Browns is owning the line and pressure up the middle on Cousins make him move in the pocket and knock him on his ass again and again.

Hi guys, Vikings fan here and that was a terrible scouting report. Here's what's up.

Our Defensive line is not to be scoffed at. You got Hunter and Griffen/ DJ Wonnum on the ends. Griffin has played limited snaps and was out against Arizona but when he's in he's consistently been in the backfield. They'll use him on passing downs. The Tackles are 340lb Michael Pierce who's shown a shocking ability to rush the passer as well as play the run and 320lb Dalvin Tomlinson who started slow bit came on last week. Both tackles are getting used to playing a 4-3 instead of nose in a 3-4. Sheldon Richardson is the primary backup. When working together they can be dominant, but they're still gelling.

Erik Kendricks and Nick Vigil are the linebackers. Both excel in pass protection but struggle (especially Vigil) against the run. The Safeties (Harrison Smith and Xavier Woods) have been quite good.

The real problem is a giant mess at Cornerback. We got three vets and 3 kids. Only two of those vets, Pat Peterson and Mack Alexander should see time, beshaud Breeland has been aweful and honest Alexander hasn't been very good either, but for some reason Zimmer has relegated his very talented trio of young guys (Kris Boyd, Cam Danztler, and Harrison Hand) to the bench, and they're starting to get irritated. It's a mess.

In general the defense is talented but hasn't put it together except for the second half last week.

On offense our biggest worry is at left tackle. Rashad Hill is not good... He's actually very bad and our rookie just came of IR. The rest of the line has looked better than it has in half a decade, which doesn't mean much.

The WR's are excellent, we even have KJ Osborne who looks like a beast this year at #3 and the TE's are solid, but depth is bad. We are not worried about Cook as Alex Mattison has always filled in spectacularly when called upon. Last week the kid went for 170 total yards.

Kirk Cousins has been very good this year. But it is Kirk Cousins.

Just to clarify:

The CB situation is especially bad because all 3 of those youngsters were starters last year and all 3 of the vets were signed in the off season and last year's starters were benched.... Then 2 of the vets suck.... It's a problem.

Our D-line is gelling but far, far from a cohesive unit.

The depth at both TE and RB (if Cook's out) is absolutely terrible. If any of our starters go out we're in trouble.

That's all. Good luck guys.

Thanks for the report, and welcome to the site!

I forgot about Griffin, and Sheldon Richardson is looking for revenge, so he will be an exceptionally motivated threat.

Our OL is banged up at Center and both Tackles, so that could be the equalizer. If you have liabilities against the run, though, it could be a very long afternoon for you; it's something we do rather well.

We both practice daily against this offense, so there isn't going to be a whole lot of trickeration & shenanigans. It's just gonna be line up and beat each other up.

It should be a fun one!

Hey, thanks for chiming in and welcome to DT. No one here hates the Vikings. You called it a terrible scouting report, but you kind of reinforced it with your own analysis

In 2020 they got a little bit of chemistry between Baker and, Landry, Higgins ,and DPJ.

Opening day! They feature: Schwartz, 69 yards, plus a reverse.

Game 2! they feature: All the Tight Ends, Hooper gets the most catches, none of Hoopers catches looked like a good catch.

Game 3! They feture Odell Beckham, but still only 5, (the guy scarcely never will have more than 6 on a day in
a long time, most games , well 8 still the most he's ever had in a Browns day.

Jarvis Landry! Was healthy game 1!
Jarvis Landry was healthy at the start of game 2.

DPJ has been healthy, the entire summer and the first 3 games.

Higgins!, who knows if he's healty, but, his history is documented.

The Browns, as a choice, didn't have to feature A. Schwartz in game 1. (but, if he is some sort of fireball, then, continue to go after him.)

No! They'll go after him in week 1. then forget him in week 2 and 3.
OBJ! Hey, OBJ played, and guess what happened to Baker Mayfields freaking pass efficiency.
Mayfields' passing efficience took a nose dive.

12 incompletions.
Now!, Schwartz and the negative plays?

Listen. Landry-Higgins-DPJ-Njoku-Hooper, the chemistry wasn't broken!
but they need more speed.

What it means? Bringing...--- the rookies, Schwartz, and .. Felton out of THE BACCKKFIELDDD, along slowly, a little usage at a time---- to compliment--- the **stuf** that's already knownn-n to work.
Would be something, many teams might do.

Even, when re-inserting OBJ, back into the mix, bringing, along, things that feature these players, gradually, without scrapping/trashing everything that already exists of the chemistry already built whole-cloth, would be ideal.
I'm sure the smart people have it figured out.
(Let D'Ernest Return punts.)

" The Browns are a top 5 D, theirs is not."
To chew on that comment for a second.

The Browns are not a good defensive team, Not yet! I think the Bears game was an outlier!
JJ3 and Troy Hill? Made any/very many/ plays to impact games force the team to victory yet.

Browns get any turnovers on Sunday? Against the Bears? Browns gave up ONE YARD passing, but couldn't come away with a turnover?

The defense has me, ... "apprehensive" (better than terrified, terrified didn't fit), that they won't get any turnovers all freaking year, and they are going to miss the freaking playoffs!

They won 12 games, last season with Andrew Freaking Sendejo, and Terrence Mitchell!

Ya the front 4 showed up, the front 4 showed up, the front 4 showed up against, the Bears...
The VIKINGS!! are a really really good team that's probably going to the playoffs,

This is not rookie-welome to the NFL, He doesn't know what to do with the, holds on to the ball too long, playing quarterback for them. The Vikings are a real NFL contender, with Kirk Freak- Cousins,
they can beat you a million ways, Thielen, best Wr since 2019, all over expn yesterday. Justin Jefferson,

You can't take this team lightly, this reminds me of the Browns vs. Philadelphia game last year.

No NFL team! Can be judged by what it's done, (very much) in 2021 yet, because, it's too early.
The Vikings started on the road both of the first two weeks.
It takes defense to win on the road.
The Browns, have only played one road game so far.

Browns have to run the ball, like last week, even if it's not working.
I think the Browns...
ought to look at the fisrt quarter of last weeks Bears game, and wish they had some of those decisions back.

"Were the Browns, who came out slingling the rock around like Dan Marino down 10, just trying to use the pass attack to later set up the ability to run agasint a Bears D that was clearly not going to be beat by the Run, as their focus?"

Maybe! But! I think in their heart of hearts, even the Browns offensive coaches... could um, look back at the first quarter of the Bears last week, and .. hope they do a couple things differently,
and be glad it didn't come back to bite them in the backside in terms of the final score. Facepalm

J/c

During my run this morning this kind of dawned on me: I would look for us to come out and be very aggressive pushing the ball down the field and trying to jump on them early. Stefanski has shown a tendency to do this in hostile/away environments against good offenses (at Dallas, at Tennessee come to mind).

Try to take the crowd out of it. Force them to be more pass oriented and let our defense play from ahead.

If you TRY to figure out what Throw is saying you'll find yourself confused. Hell the man argues with himself half the time..

Honestly, I see one of his posts I wave at the sky and keep going why inject yourself into the perfectly good argument he is having with himself?

Then the other half of the stuff he says is to TRY to draw attention to himself.... I wished he would either argue with himself or the rest of us....

The sad part is that he seems to have a handle on certain things but then he goes sideways in the middle of it all. BTW that is when he starts arguing with himself.

If he would stop trying to draw attention to himself, and stop arguing with himself I feel certain he would present something of real value. He seems to be a real nice man, honestly!

As is the best way to describe him is confused or confusing.............

You'll find that most of TL's posts are way off base.

Welcome to Dawgtalkers!

None of that rambling, which makes little to no sense at all, changes the *fact* that the Browns Defense is Top 5 - and theirs is not.

I am expecting the Vikings will have several False Start penalties with their linemen trying to get in position earlier.

First, thank you for the rundown. It's appreciated.


On the off-chance you're still here, I'd love to hear a Vikings fan's overall opinion on Cousins. IMO, he's going to be just good enough to keep you guys from trying to go out and land "The Guy". So long as our defense plays to its strengths and doesn't go to sleep, Cousins is not a guy I worry about (Long story short, I don't have a very high opinion of Cousins).

I'd like to see us attack their corners and LB with quick passes to our WRs and TEs and I'd LOVE to see us get the ball in Hunt's hands out in space and let him go to work on their secondary from there.

They'll respect our run (because we'll keep reminding them it's there), but we need have them defending the pass while doing so.

It’s weird to admit this, but I’m not much worried about our offense. I’m worried about slowing theirs down

Thanks for this. Our offense needs to to improve some more. I respect what I have seen of the Vikings. Welcome to our board.

With Cook back, I see them playing the same game we will. Eat the clock with the running game, and taking big shots. This should be a fun game to watch

I said it last season, and I believe it even more now. This team is built perfectly to run devastating screen passes. Seeing some which seemed to have worked wonderfully. The Chubb/Hunt pairing, this OL Callahan is honing, it is a natural weapon. Thinking back to Landry who was a genius with screens. Even faked them to a side, screen away from that. Center screens are really lethal. Hope to see more of this.

Unleash the Elves!

If the best and worst Quarterbacks in this league, who largely effect the offenses, were more similar in their abilities, then I could put more stock in that argument.
I need to ask for more than a 3 game set.

Photo shows brown pants, text of tweet below photo indicates orange pants ... which is it?

Newsome out , Greedy starting in his place. This'll be a nice challenge for Greedy.

Minnesota DT Pierce is questionable. If he can't go, our run game improves.

I’ve read Brown multiple places

Early in games.
The Browns have run in the first 3 weeks,
153, 156, and 215. But none of those games we've seen this year have felt like the Browns are giving enough carries to the running backs.

The Browns are averaging over 5, 5.5 yards per carry from their top 2 running backs.

The Browns have 3 Running threats.
Kareem Hunt,
Nick Chubb,
and Baker Mayfield as a runner.
before they even have to go to their bench.

I don't know, for sure that the Browns won't have to go to the passing attack to keep up in the middle to late parts of the game, but:
In the first quarter,
to begin the game, the Browns should be running the ball more than they have shown, by play choice in the first quarter and first half of games,
even if it's barely working.

The goal should be to get Chubb and Hunt both over 60 yards in the first quarter opening two drives.
and well on the way to rushing for greater than 245 yards on the day.

If things go wrong and the scoreboard goes from bad to worse, the game can force a team to have to pass.
and Teams always lose when they give up on the Run.
A bad or worse scoreboard never forces a team to go Back to the Run, so it's important to Start with the Run, by play choice, early, middle, after the half, and at the end of the game.

Musts: Establish the run. Bring the Defense.

Is this an idea on how to beat the Vikings ?

merge
this
post

into the appropriate, pre-existing thread, please.


Have a heart, Refs- for the love of all things orange and brown-

Hate our white over brown look. But, just win

I have mixed emotions about this game.

Can not seem to come to any conclusions as to how it will play out.

I know we can score on them. No confusion there.

It really is about the defense. The defense in the last two games beat up on really poor offensive teams. That is fine that is what they should do to teams like the Bears and Texans.

The Vikings are not those teams. So, I have no feel for how we will play defensively?

The Vikings run a similar offense to us. They have good receivers and can run it. Cousins is a smart accurate quarterback who gets the ball out quickly. Unlike Fields holding the ball for 4 seconds.

The pass rush could be nullified. Pressure must still happen but we will not be getting 9 sacks on Cousins.

Dalvin Cook is a guy who can get to the endzone anytime he touches the ball.

They are home with a 1-2 record. They know what 1-3 means.

Any way you look at this game. It looks like trouble.

If the defense can hold them to 24 points. It will be up to the offense to win the game.

I am confident in the offense. Holding them to 24 or under will be hard.

Turnovers as always can decide this outcome.

Just the opposite for me. I love that uniform combo.

I dont know why but I have always been an all white uni fan. As far as the game we are the better team. Limit penalties and turn overs and we should be fine.

I wonder if the Saxons started a similar thread to this 1,200 years ago…

I'm guessing they most likely did. It just took it longer to spread the news. I mean they only had dial up internet service back then.

No! No. This is beyond beating the Vikings, not confined to one game.
But! even in this one game. If the Browns throw too often, and give up on the run, it's a recipe to lose this game too.

I like white over brown, also.

I like white's as well. As far as the game, if we win, it will be close. Minnesota is the type of team that can give us problems.

I am certain the color of our uniforms will be the deciding factor in this game..............

And it's not even silly season YET!

Can't wait for kick off. I feel like this is the first true barometer of how good the team might be this year - injuries and other misfortunes aside.

KC in the first game was a brutal start to the season - for both teams to be be fair. No matter who won, it was the first game and there were teething issues and growth would be expected for both teams. Since then the Browns have beaten two teams we should have beaten.

The Vikings are a serious play off contender. This is game 4. We might still need more time for the D to gel with all the new parts. We might be missing Landry, and Wills might be dinged up a little but we are pretty healthy on O. Let's see what we have. I think we learn a lot today. Offense, Defense and coaching - play calling, scheme and adjustments.

I hope Ski isn't too cute with plays. Remember to run and out quick 'em on offense. I do not expect a sackfest like last week.

Elf Day!

Didn't Landry go to IR? I don't think he's eligible to return yet.

This is what I like to see.

Additionally, they're not a very stout run defense, either.
In Yards per Game, they're about equal with the Bears (which is still below middle of the pack), but in Yards per Carry, they are bottom four in the league at 4.8 YPC. The other three in that bottom four? Chiefs, Cardinals, Chargers.

So, we *should* be able to loosen them up, and we can expect to see them selling out a bit to stop Chubb/Hunt. I think we'll see Schwartz more this week, and he and OBJ will feast in play action where we get their safeties to bite up.

By the way... Top 4 in the league in Rush YPC? Panthers (2.6), Saints (2.8), Bucs & Browns (3.1).