1. hey Chase! You said whoever was covering you was gonna get it. We’re still waiting to get whatever ‘it’ is.

2. What a smothering performance by our D, we got plenty of rush and covered their guys like a blanket.

3. We have a kicker who can kick straight.

4. Watson wasn’t great but he did enough.
5. Nick Chubb is back.

Don't disrespect the Elf!

Don't disrespect the Elf!

Our D is legit!

Ok, a few comments.

Wow, the defense was amazing. All levels, everyone.. Schwartz makes the difference.

Finally a defense that cannot be run over.

Conklin injury seems significant, so it’s going to be Jones.

Lots of things to clean up on offense, but the field conditions appeared to be terrible.

Chubb is Chubb.

Post game thoughts: Not impressed with Watson's passing. By the same token, Burrow had trouble, so we'll say it was the weather.

Chubb is gold. Feed the guy.

D was strong - crashing all over. Loved it. D-backs very good in coverage.

We have a kicker. So far.

I always say I don't care how we win, just win. Well, we just beat what the 'experts' said was a top 3-5 team.

Ok, and the game day thread is not for the weak of heart. You would have expected the score to be the other way around until the Myles sack.

And the kicker was accurate without drama, under difficult field conditions…

🤮

Hate fake ass PR bullcrap like this.

Great win, all too few opening week 1 wins.
Defense was everything I was hoping for.
Chubb as good as ever.
Ford quite a pleasant surprise.
Moore as advertised. Smith too.
**yes, need to mention the kicker also!

Something very solid to build on. Looking forward to Week 2

great win for you guys. Just be merciful with my pathetic team next Monday night. Ugh.

1. hey Chase! You said whoever was covering you was gonna get it. We’re still waiting to get whatever ‘it’ is.

2. What a smothering performance by our D, we got plenty of rush and covered their guys like a blanket.

3. We have a kicker who can kick straight.

4. Watson wasn’t great but he did enough.
5. Nick Chubb is back.

If today's defense is a glimpse of their potential for the remainder of the season... sky is the limit.

I in no way want to offend you: But no. There are no pathetic teams in the nfl, and we need to win.

- Huge divisional win to start the season. Set a tone.

- The defense was exceptional. The secondary completely shutdown the Bengals passing game.

- Grant Delpit had a great game.

- Nick Chubb is so damn good. He carried the offense for a large part of the game.

- Watson looked atrocious early but came on later in the game. I believe the offense will continue to come together.

- Okoronkwo made some plays.

- Dawand Jones came in for Conklin and didn't miss a beat.

- Bojorquez had a nice day punting.

- Dustin Hopkins for mayor!

Can’t really put too much on the passing game with the ball soaked. It makes it like throwing a medicine ball. Many times they showed the ball under center completely dark. So they weren’t swapping them much. That said Watson did what he had to, made some big plays when we needed them. Contrast was Burrow. Chubb is def workhorse on offense, we need a legit backup for him. Ford didn’t look like much, let’s hope he’s just shaking off rust. Bell and Goodwin shouldn’t have made the 53 over Watkins . The D showed what happens when you bring in a coach that will put them in the best scheme instead of trying to make them play his.
Smith brings some vocal leadership and is a walking hype man, that’s much like Ray Lewis, the young guys feed off that. That’s what everyone wants Myles to be but will never because he’s pretty laid back most of the time. But he leads with his work ethic and abilities. It’s good to have a vocal guy. One thing to note. We did this without thornhill. He’s a huge loss but McLeod held his own. I said in GD chat this team just has a different feel this year. Hard to explain but it’s like you look at them and their body language and you can tell they all believe and are bought in. That goes a long way when things start to get tough.

both teams need to win, hopefully will be a good game. I'm not optimistic to be honest.

was that the best Defense we've had since 99? I think so. Just a flying around bunch. Fun to watch.

Props to Hopkins for beings the steady force we need too

Defense, Schwartz and Hopkins got game balls and deservedly so. Outstanding game amd game plan. So much more energy and enthusiasm and no finger pointing like last year. Schwartz has made his presence known very well so far.

Chubb need 20+ carries a game. Can't blame rust on Watson being so inaccurate, he HAS to get better if want to win games. He needs.to get rid of the ball quicker and make quicker decisions. Hopefully will improve next week if weather isn't a factor.

Great win!

Our defense was surprisingly good, there were sequences when they looked unbeatable. That was a great feeling when knowing it was against one of the best QB/WR combos in the league.

This season will probably hang on Watson’s ability to improvise under pressure because I don’t trust for one second Stefanski’s tactical skills.

It was a GREAT win!!! I'll take it. D looked really good!!! JS making a difference no doubt. O was very good running, passing a bit off but I'm sure the weather had much to do with it. I'm confident our passing game will get better. DW being able to scramble like he does makes a huge difference!

I have to say, that looked more like on of the Philly defenses that were great.

lolz.

poor Jack

Ecstatic we won!!! Steelers are ripe for the pickings this year, we should sweep them IMO

Watson needs to stop throwing passes at receivers feet, I noticed he did that alot last year. Hope it was weather related but we'll see

Z smith is an energizer bunny .. he's all over the field

and we didn't even have thorn hill

Seems like we are built for Man to Man coverage. Woods was definitely holding the Defense back. Z is so much better than Clowney.

no doubt. Man was so much more effective for us

This set of DBs are going to be special... something like the Legion of Boom...

Seemingly all over the field and in WRs faces at all times.

Of course.. coverage is much easier when you have both Garrett and Smith breathing down your neck all game long.

This Defense is going to be difficult to play against.


I'm going to give the WRs and Deshaun a pass this time around because it rained all game... I will say that when the rain let up Desaun looked better throwing the ball.

Nick CHubb is my favorite player... possibly ever.

Great job by the D, Chubb, and our new Kicker. Watson I sure hope the reason you struggled today was because of the weather because you played poorly. Bell, you gotta catch that ball, when your a backup your only going to get limited chances and you have to make the most of them.

seeing Emerson, Newsome, and Ward just locking down Cincy's WRs is special

Yeah, I didn't understand why we played so much zone before when the all CBs we drafted were considered as very good man to man players coming out of college.

Man works a lot better when you're getting quick pressure. So would zone, though. When you're struggling to get pressure outside of Myles (and teams are allowed to hold him,) any coverage will struggle. Fortunately, pressure doesn't look like it will be a problem this season.

As long as we stay healthy, our QB pressure will be a major factor.

The push from the Dline was nice to see. Coverage looked good the whole game. Chubb is just doing what he always does. As for Watson, I was pretty hard on him at first, until I noticed Burrow struggling also. I really thin the rain was a factor. Jones just became our RT for the next ten years. After he came in, I never heard Hendrickson's name again.

The defense was the star today. They just held one of the best offenses, at full strength, to less than 200 yards total offense. That my friends, wins championships

On to Pittsburgh, and the mighty Kenny Pickett.

Heres to everybody staying healthy, stacking some wins.

Jim Schwartz is my hero, best defensive performance we've seen in ages.

Back and settled in the room after the game.

A great day at the stadium.

The D looked like the type of D I have been hoping for. I am sure Burrough was a bit rusty, but we smothered the guy. The man by the corners was great.

The 4th down stop we made in the 4th qtr...that was the loudest i may have ever heard at the stadium. Maybe the Run William Run play
was close.

The negatives....I just read Conkin may be out for the season. To be honest i didn't even see him get hurt. You miss some things when you don't see the game on TV

The other, Ford wasn't very impressive, but it was the first game with him as the #2, so I will give that more time.

Things weren't mid season form. You could tell both the players on O and Stefanski were trying to figure out various roles and tried to force things a bit. None the less, they got it going a bit in the 2nd half, and how much can you complain about a nice opening win?

I sit here happy and can go home happy.

agreed. Schwartz brought some fire

Good grief!

What a dumba**

Don't mess with the elves!

Good win but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Bengals started 0-2 last year and Burrow isn't up to speed yet. The weather affected the game for sure. Defense looks solid. Watson is still a work in progress as the passing game was pretty shaky at best. Chubb MUST get the ball 20-25 times a game. Ford looked good. On to Pittsburgh who will be ready after getting blown out at home today. Let's go!

What a dumba** quote]

Yes, he apparently is. Been reading too many of his prep clippings.

Great win! We haven't started too many seasons at 1-0... Watson had a few good plays, but obviously needs to be better... I'm hoping it was more a factor of the weather...

defense was amazing

Chubb was great

Great win! Congrats Browns

Some observations…

Smith is was an extremely valuable and disruptive force on defense. His presence changes that front 4. Garret is going to love having him week in and week out.

What a change in scheme can do for a secondary! Let’s see how teams game for us moving forward but that was the single biggest change from last year to this to my eye.

Ford was getting tested (by us) at the end there when the game was in hand. When everyone knows he’s gonna get the egg, it didn’t seem like he could make the omelet. Still an important role to play but you can see he’s probably not a future starter or Chubb replacement. It’s just one game tho

If we didn’t make those early kicks I think the tenor of the whole game would have been different. Maybe the game shifts? Anyway, having a solid kicker matters boy, it really matters.

Watson did seem to improve as the game went on. He looked very marginal early but seemed improve as a passer when he started running more. I think he’s going to be a guy that will be at his best when you allow him the latitude to mix it up a lot. That run TD changed him.

I thought coaching had a solid plan and good play calling. Didn’t over think it or get cute.

We need Watson to be much crisper, especially when we have dudes WIDE open. You can't miss the layups

Hopefully it was the weather. See Joe Burrow's stats.

I appreciate his candor

Personally, I think that's just dumb. Drink water/gatorade. Not just game day. Eat bananas - during the week. No reason a pro football player should be cramping up on a day like today. JMO

Please, this games...Grant Delpit played a game that we have been waiting for. I mean that dude balled!!.. and then Emerson and Ward locked the bengals up!!.. The D played their butss off and even thought I was critical of the LBs.. JOK and Taki played a good solid game. I just hope that it keeps up!!

We have a defense

We have a kicker

We have Chubb

Just need a QB to stop throwing the ball at receivers feet and we might have a fun year.

Fun game to watch. Nice to finally win a home opener. Nice to see a defense hold the lead. I was sitting at the bar with another Browns fan and we're both getting nervous in the 4th quarter expecting them to blow the lead.

It was great to see a defensive effort like this vs a legit Super Bowl contender. Let's face it the Bengals were in the SB two years ago and AFC Championship game last year in a game that went down to the wire. They are a really good team and our team's defense shut them down. Highest paid QB in the NFL held to his career low in passing yards. Less than 150 yards of total offense, and 3 total points. The weather was a factor but both teams played in the same weather, and this was an AFC North game that many times is played in the snow, ice, wind. I don't think the Bengals would use that as an excuse so I'm not going to take that away from our defense.

Nick Chubb is Nick Chubb. He is a great back no matter the offensive scheme. Great players fit all schemes.

Was really great to see Deshaun Watson find other ways to win. He was much more successful passing in the rain than Burrow that is for sure. He also had some great runs. The 13-yard TD run was fun. And it was great to see that huge smile of his when he scored that TD and played the air guitar in celebration.

Nice to have a kicker that just business like went 3 for 3 on field goals and 1 for 1 on extra points. Watson muscled the 2-point conversion across the goal line.

Next game is going to be tough. The Steelers will not want to fall to 0-2 with 2 home losses. They will play angry. Tomlin will make some adjustments. Browns can win there on a Monday night then this could be the start of a special season. I'm just saying I expect a really tough game.

Only 5 penalties total in all 3 phases. I don’t believe we had any presnap penalties.

If the weather is to be blamed, does that mean the Browns defense (particularly the secondary) really wasn't as good as we witnessed?

The conditions were not ideal but Watson has to be better because he's going to be playing in much worse weather than today. I think he'd even say he needs to be much better.

I think we had an illegal formation

Ward's DPI was the right call. There was also a Bitonio hold at some point. But it was pretty clean for the first game

0:35:
"When it rains and it's windy, I still have to keep my same technique..."

Welcome to Cleveland football.
Mr. Watson, you are right about maintaining your fundamentals/technique in inclement weather.
I'll also suggest this: you'll also have to learn/develop some new techniques to cope with the crap Lake Erie spits out from Nov. through Jan.

If you find/make a way to consistently play in CLE as you did pre-holdout, you'll not only win yourself some NFL jewelry, you will have also developed the skill set necessary to enshrine you in Canton.

This place will either make you or break you.
I can't wait to see how you play out your own story.

____________________

Postgame thoughts, 3-and-out:

1. We ain't stupid. CLE will heavily feature #24 for the first quarter of this season. 3 divisional games in the most hardass division in the NFL? If you have a weapon like #24, and your #4 is still trying to pull it all together, you ride the hoss that can make grownass men want to quit playing the game of football... while they are still in uniform, with 2 minutes left in the 3rd qtr (please see my sig). We may be able to open it up later in the season, but expect glitches in the passing game.

2. CIN had the same number of days to prepare for this season opener as CLE did. They had to play under the same weather conditions as CLE, but they had nothing that could answer what our Jim Schwartz-run D had for them. Stoned. Shut down. Limited to three points of offensive production.

3. I think that this game showed fans what they can expect for the near future: a smothering D that will allow CLE's O to find its stride in the 2nd-3rd qtr. of this season.

Clem/postgame/out

to me, the best feeling is when we are up by a score or two in the 4th quarter and we are just hammering the with Chubb and the pulling guards for like 8 yards a clip

The D was great, DB’s played a great game. Didn’t hear about the LB’s all game. D-line played great, plenty of rotating in an out, never saw Garrett gasping for air, maybe his covid issues are gone or maybe he just didnt feel like he had to do it all himself.

Chubb is GREAT, really hope we keep him til he retires.

After Conklin went down, D Jones came in and we didnt miss a beat. They never talked about him til they said how well he was playing, like someone else said, he is our RT for the next 10 years.

And we have a K, so nice not having to worry about kicks.

Teller just dominated that LB

love when our guards get going like that

And Burrow is now 1-5 vs the Browns. Maybe we are his kryptonite

When your D punishes the other team so badly that at the 9min mark in the 4th, they just started running plays to burn the clock. Then pull QB1 (which I really don't blame them in week 1) which was a true surrender no mas moment in the NFL. Loved that it happened to Cincy after J'marr Chase's comments. Hoping the same performance against Pittsburgh on prime time. Thanks Jim Schwartz for bringing some hard nosed D back to Cleveland.

The O did the best it could in bad weather; typically the offense which requires more timing in execution gets to where it should be by week 4. I'll take what we got and love opening week going in the W column.

Thank you Dustin Hopkins. For the first time in many years, I wasn't chanting voodoo stuff just to get a kick through the uprights. Job well done all day in yuck weather.

On to next week!

We had an illegal formation. Still, a pretty good outing from the penalty perspective

When it's pouring down rain the entire game......victory comes in the trenches. We absolutely dominated on both sides

I'm glad we've had their number of late... hoping we can get into the playoffs and farther than them... because that's all that matters...

so we've got the steelers next week... they looked horrible today... could we actually start the season 2-0 against two division opponents? Hate to jinx it... but man that'd be sweet... hopefully our defense can keep Pickett skittish...

oh boy.
they don't need to hear the vitriol after losses, they don't need a LACK of criticism after a win...

The offense was a clown show in the first half, and it wasn't the opponents good play,
Moore, ... I was tuning in to see something cool, ... not much to look at,
The @uarterback bad decision making, or the throws in the dirt to wide open players...

Conklin, out, hurt bad, and well, it hit me that the backup Rb they didn't keep x 3, Hunt, Felton, D'Ernest, ... and the whatever type decision to try for I week with a guy from indy, who fumbled and waived, but,
... Ford comes in and a fumble play one, a penalty play two, and he's still getting carries in the first half.
now, ?? is York still trying kicks?
or does accountablility only work for the kicker but not the backup Rb?
and
if they had kept ANY of the 3+ rb's, they wouldn't have had to trade their next up back up to the injured Conklin, in the trade that brought in Pierre Strong.

..... Hey, we don't have to be critical, we can wiave a banner and be happy with a five hundred 8 and 8 or worse season,
but
look at the year they had the Chicago game with nine sacks
the D can't win every game, while the O ruins drives in the first half, and
CONTINUALLY freezes up if they get a first and ten inside the opponents 24 yard line,
game after game after game,
time after time after time, over the last, 20, 30 games, 3, 4, or more years
Hey, Waive the flag,
THEY WON, they got a win today, if you want to, you can pat everyone on the back,

Nobody has to care enough to say,
WAKE UP, something is going wrong here, and, it could be so much better.

David Bell, had one target, one drop, and one time me explaining who Austin Watkins was and ...
D Watson, one int, and the O had 2 turnovers, one Td pass, one TD run, and
a couple of drives of...
One time I was thinking they should put DTR in the game.

Coach Kevin, middle name being 'negative 3 points in the first half' Stefanski, had me so worried in the middle of the game,
at 3 to 0 I was saying with five on the clock until halftime,

they'd be lucky to be down ten to 3, not fourteen to 3 at the halftime.

How many years / times do I have to be proven right, when, when they changed the D coordinator, anyone else chiming in that they fixed the wrong side of the ball,
the Offense is still a major problem, ... if not named Nick Chubb, ... still a major problem that played well enough to lose today
five min before midnight
and well they ran the ball and defended the pass and it ended up being enough to get a win for one week
but,
if they are going to be real,
the offense... ? what's new? Where is the new and improved offense?

Why don't we have a coach, who raises a bigger issue, that Cincy,
got a do over,
on an incomplete pass on a 3rd down,
after they threw a flag and picked it up,

Cincy literally got a 2nd chance to try and get a 3rd down conversion, and where was the Browns coach when this happened.

^that may have happened twice in the game where an unexplained do over down gave Cincy another chance on offense.

At Least the O, attempted some over the top deep pass attempts, .. and they won the game...
^ which is notbable, b/c it's been about the only time since they were throwing them to T. Benjamin,
so Kudos to the O,
for attempting a couple of over the top passes in a way they have barely done in a long time.

Someone peed in your Wheaties.

It is a victory, and that is more important than anything else.

You are the guy that complains about the free beer at a party, aren't you?

LOLZ right back at you. Either you buy into him 4ever loving the dog pound (which would be so sweeet) or you are just trolling other posters. LOLZ indeed.

when the line started moving big time in our direction as game time approached, I started to feel much better. The rain gave us a huge advantage because we are better in the trenches and have Chubb.

Let's hope for rain again Monday lol

I don't think it was the weather.

I was at the game. It was pretty much windless. None of the flags around the field were moving very much, and what rain seemed mostly a foggy drizzle. Conditions were damp all day. Humidity was very high. I suppose that could have kept all the footballs damp.

The O seemed "clunky" for a while...like players and coaches feeling their way around the playbook and figuring out how to use various guys.
It should start to smooth out and fall in to place as the season moves along.

The D looked like a legit good D. I don't see it making much of a downturn. It's easier for a D to fire on all cylinders from the start.The O is what usually takes a little longer.

As the game went along the O started to churn a little better, so hopefully that will continue.

Watson said post game that he was gripping a heavy football way too hard and it was just dying on him. Let's hope that was the case ... he had a stretch of some UGLY throws.

Burrow looked like he shouldn't (nor did he want to be) be on the field yesterday.

The TV announcers made it sound like it was a sideways downpour. Probably making excuses for Burrow.

It was just a constant mist, zero, and I mean zero, wind. I can’t recall a game ever with that little wind at the stadium. What a fun game though. Good to see you as well Russ!

someone on the radio described the weather as "Midwest, Big 10 mist" and that seems pretty accurate. It was just like hanging in the air

Weather, same for both teams- BOTH QBs had trouble with wet heavy ball- bottomline- Schwartz's Defense did their job- limit points and get ball back to offense- ONE GAME SAMPLE- but a hell of a game on D......Jones seemed up to the task yesterday- TJ Watt awaits him.......Great game- GO Browns!!!

The stretch was about 60 minutes lol. Bounce passes all day long. His explanation makes a bit of sense. Yeah, Burrow looked like he would rather be at an IRS audit.

Defense wins championships! Nice to see a shutdown D back in Cleveland. Reminds me of the good ole days. Nice coaching.

the weird thing was that Watson did still have a handful of good throws. The one to DPJ was beautiful, same with the reverse field one to Moore

And, to me, the biggest pass of the day: 3rd and 11 from mid field with 1:00 to go in the half ... a bullet to Cooper on an out pattern. Without that pass, we are only up 3-0 at half

"Burrow looked like he shouldn't (nor did he want to be) be on the field yesterday."

Here is to hoping every qb that plays us feels the same this year.

I agree, was mostly being facetious. The good throws made it all the more confusing.

I hope we make Pickett's life terrible

Myles Garrett practicing cross-over dribbling before pressuring the QB that resulted in a sack.

that's an awesome clip

Interesting to hear first hand accounts of the weather. Yeah, I think it was Ian Eagle who was saying that the rain was coming in "sideways." Apparently that was not the case.

One thing I noticed about Watson on the throws that were in the dirt was that his footwork was putrid. Sure, there were some times when he was throwing on the run, but when he actually set his feet on those throws, it looked awful. Van Pelt is a big footwork guy so hopefully he will keep him dialed in on that.

Ha, I hadn't seen that during the game. He was having a lot of fun out there.

There might be a little overlap as I haven't read the 2nd or 3rd pages of comments (yet).

1. Watson was hot garbage. For how much we gave up for him and how much we're paying him, that performance wasn't even close to acceptable. I'm kinda done with the excuses as well. Dude has GOT to play better than that. Baker on his rookie deal gave us similar performances, and that was deemed not good enough to have him stick around.

2. On the flip side, defense is the real deal. Turnovers would've been nice, but the fact they still held down that offense with no turnovers is probably even more impressive. Just a total smothering.

3. Special teams was boring. What a pleasant surprise! I know everyone wants to find the next Justin Tucker, but I gained a better appreciation of consistent kicking. Maybe I was projecting, but I felt like Stefanski settled into his 4th down playcalling when he knew exactly would he could and couldn't expect out of his kicker.


I'm not reading too much into this game. I know we just hammered the Bengals, and the Steelers just got curbstomped, but I'm kinda expecting a letdown on MNF. San Fran is TOUGH, and we consistently match up extremely well vs the Bengals. You know the Steelers are going to want to right the ship vs us, and we have a history of losing focus after a big win. I know they're not as flashy as the Bengals, but I think the Steelers will be a tougher test of our new D. Bengals have a talented D, but they're not as relentless as Pittsburgh. Watson looked BAD under pressure yesterday.

Browns start the week -1.5 on the road against Pittsburgh on MNF.

Zadarius whacked Burrow on his first drop back and he was under duress throughout. Hopefully we can set the tone early against Pickett, too.

tough game to wager ... the steelers are going to be much better and up against the wall

Yep, and I hope Myles puts them right through it.

As someone in NYC metro area who actually watched the Giants Cowboys game until close to the end but who’s too lazy to find the stat line I’m going to assume the Giants were worse. I think the cowboys had 8 sacks. My wife who knows nothing about football just started laughing at one point and said “this is pathetic, they’re going to kill that guy”

Yea, I was thinking after the game that we better be ready for a dog fight. Pitt will play angry after that humiliation at home with all those 49ers fans taking over their stadium. The offense will need to be much sharper earlier in the game.

Smith was a major difference maker for us. His presence alone changes the front 4 and the makeup of the whole defense. Gone are the days of just piling up on Miles assuming no one else can do it consistently.

Z Smith is a game changer. He's much better for us than Clowney. Add in Harris and Ogbo and it's such a better front

MoreForYouCleveland
@MoreForYou_CLE
Kinda went under the radar but I wanna shoutout
@Rodney_McLeod4
.

Came in to replace Juan and did his job on every level. He played in 98% of the defensive snaps which was T1st for most snaps played and had a great game. Exactly why you bring a guy like that in. #DawgPound

... continuing my thoughts.

Conklin situation really sucks. Dude is racking up catastrophic injuries faster than he's finishing games. It's a bummer, and something that might pop up as an issue if Jones' performance doesn't hold up over multiple starts.

Moore was exciting to watch. Not so much because of the results... but you can definitely see they have big plans for this guy. I'm still disappointed in Watson... we have too many mouths to feed on O for him to bounce passes to his receivers.

The balls into the dirt was really odd. He did that a few times in Houston last year too. Like he's overthrowing it or something

I agree that the Bengals raised the white flag half-way through the 4th quarter was very telling. And extremely satisfying.
A comment about Hopkins, not only did he make every kick, every kick was right down the center with distance to spare.

Tomlinson also looking like a good signing.

that was expected, but still stinks for him. Thanks for your hard work Jack

In 1989 Bud Carson's first game as head coach the Browns beat the Steelers 51-0.

Yesterday was the best defensive performance I have seen since then.

Delpit, Emerson, Ward, Newsome were outstanding. The defense as a unit did not have a bad play. Burrow with his contract threw for 82 yards.

The Bengals were 2 for 15 on third down.

The defensive front rotation and scheme smothered the Bengals. They knew it. They went for a hail mary fourth down and then gave up. Took a knee.

Schwartz got the game ball and deserved it. The team responded to him and his coaching.

The conditions were wet and hard to judge DW. Gripping the ball was a problem for both qb's. The offense was good enough using the run and finding a way. DW's running ability came into play when throwing was rough.

I don't like Moore in the backfield unless it is a decoy. He is not a running back. Ford did not play well. In fact IMO he got to play more than he should have. He missed most of camp and the timing was off even on handoffs. He was slow and indecisive.

The dirt throws by DW were obviously from a poor grip.

Curious to see how the offense plays under better conditions.

Conditions are part of outdoor football. One team found a way.

Great win to start the season. Proud of the Browns.

Outside of the fumble, I thought Ford looked alright given it was his first NFL game.

Can't say enough about that D! The defense was Dominate! That's with a capital D! Za'Darius Smith seemed to be everywhere! Having the combination of Smith and Garrett on the field at the same time will be an issue for OL's across the league. The secondary played much better when playing man coverage more. But I think many of us were confused as to why Woods ran so much zone coverage when these guys were drafted due to the man coverage skills. I certainly felt this D would be much improved but I actually never expected it to be this much, this soon. Hats off to Schwartz!

The O seemed to do well in the run game and well Chubb was Chubb. And I don't mean that in a dismissive way. IMO he helped carry this O yesterday. We are blessed to have him on this team.

Watson certainly did well with his feet. I don't think he ran too much but when he did he made it count which we needed. I thought he did pretty well on the short, underneath stuff. But anything intermediate to long he was well off the mark for the most part. I felt like his pass to DPJ as the fist half wound down was an excellent pass. Just over the head of the closer defender and right on target to DPJ to make him the only one who could catch the ball in regards to the defender over the top. Great touch on that pass.

In regards to the weather I hadn't really made a lot of conclusions about that until I read this thread. Hearing from people who were at the game it seems the only actual impact the weather had was keeping the football damp. Hopefully that isn't something people are relying on as an excuse. And saying Burrow sucked even worse doesn't really make sense to me either. Our D was in his face all day and his WR's were well covered.

What I saw was the same footwork issues we saw last season when he planted his feet to deliver the ball. That led to ground balls last season and we saw the same results yesterday. The good news is that's a very fixable issue. How long it will take to get that bad habit out of the way and back to good, fundamental footwork is anyone's guess. But it is quite doable.

It was also nice to see a kicker perform his job successfully. There will be games where that will be the deciding factor between a W and an L and I feel much better that the odds of that swinging in the direction if an L are greatly diminished now.

I know you and I were both very high on Delphit coming out and thought we got a steal where we drafted him - it's truly amazing to see him have such a great game after Woods put him positions to consistenly look bad. I'm sure there is more to it than that - but man, what a difference.

For next week, not only did pittsburgh get humiliated, but the had quite a few players dinged up. They had 5 that exited and were not able to come back and a couple others that were dinged up and came back in.

Diontae Johnson and Cam Heyward left early ... not sure if it was just precautionary though

The Browns have spent a lot of draft capital on teh secondary teh past 4-5 years but UI am OK with that. It is so nice to be able to cover like that, not to mention against that quality of WR group.

All that needed to be seen was when Stefanski gave a game ball to Schwartz.

The locker room exploded.

When players like we have on defense are put into position to use their skills in press man; and the front is told to get upfield with pressure.

They responded.

The coverage was suffocating. It was like they were running the routes. Delpit was all over the field. JOK's game was understated because he fit into all that was going on. Burrow knew the plays were DOA and threw the ball away. Burrow was 14 for 31.

I felt good about the defense coming in. Now we can see the potential of this defense.

The next game hopefully will validate what we saw yesterday.

Can't find the video, please post a link if you have one.

Our defense was so scary that we made them bench their QB1 and kneel in submission. I have never seen that before. It was awesome.

How many times have we blown out a divisional team and made them bench their starters with more than half a quarter left?

DL Cam Heyward Heyward left the game early with a groin injury before trying to give it a go and being ruled out shortly thereafter. The Steelers' front seven was exposed without him and they will obviously need him going forward.

WR Diontae Johnson Following one of the few explosive plays of the game for Pittsburgh, Diontae Johnson came up clutching his hamstring, headed to the locker room, and was ruled out almost immediately.

TE Pat Freiermuth "Muth" was hurt in the first half and returned to action after being labeled questionable with a chest injury before missing the final drive.

RT Chuks Oforafor Chuks missed the end of the game and is officially in the concussion protocol, per the team.

DL DeMarvin Leal The most minor (if there is such a thing) of the injuries, Leal also didn't finish the game but he returned after originally being listed as questionable with a tricep/arm, as clarified by Coach Tomlin.

You are not the only one. Far from it. My guess is that this was because of a coach who tried to fit players into a system instead of developing a system that played to the strength of his players.

My post-game thoughts:

- The D was so much fun to watch. The DBs were blankets this entire game. Which allowed the rush to be what it was. Energy the entire game.
- The only time Burrow had anything approaching success was the dump passes, much like his rookie year. Tight coverage kept those to minimal YAC for the most part.
- I am no expert, but those times where it looked like Burrow and the receiver were not on the same page it looked to me Burrow unloaded the pass before the receiver got to the point where he needed to decide which way to break. Might be my imagination. But the pressure from the start got into his head.
- At any rate, it was nice to see the newly anointed highest paid QB in the league sitting on the bench with 5+ minutes left in the game because it was over then.
- Chubb is still Chubb.
- So far so good on the kicker. There was some speculation that the issue was the holder, as when he was in Green Bay it was a problem. But, so far so good. Down the middle.
- Boroquez had a nice game punting.
- D Jones came in for Conklin and you didn't hear his name called. Except when the announcers were talking about how big he is. Hope it's not too bad for Conklin.
- Seems like the penalties were down.
- We got a feel for what Elijah Moore can do.
- Z Smith > Clowney

Hayward is the big injury concern for them. He, Watt, and Fitzpatrick are key

How many times have we had the opposing coach rip out the white towel with 10:32 left? Zac Taylor handed Myles Garrett the exclamation mark! Going for it on 4th down at his 30 was telling his team "if you can't do it now, we're done". And truth be told, I can't even say that was a bad move -- that's just how badly they were beaten -- he knew it and they knew it.

That's a signature win. Hopefully it transcends some of the petty, excuse-driven, "finding ourselves" bs that can prevent a talented team from a fast start. Isn't that the trash we've heard annually from a Woods defense?

If anyone is interested hearing the Bengals' fan side of things, check out this show starting momentarily. Mo Egger is easily the best radio personality they have in that town and pretty level-headed. Should be interesting.

Thing I like... is that I've never really heard many stories about a Vaunted Browns Defense in the past 20 years.

Totally have that this year.

j/c...

Greggggg Williams tailgating in the muni lot is one I didn't see coming...

Heyward is going to be out multiple games; prob going on IR. May need surgery.
His backup also had a tricep injury.
They probably will go with a rookie

Really impressed with the entire team yesterday with the exception of Watson.

From Berry (player acquisition) to Stefanski (having the team ready to play, one of my biggest criticisms of him) to the assistant coaches to the players, it was one of the most dominating performances I can remember witnessing. This was different than the playoff win over the Steelers where the Browns got out to an early lead because of mistakes by the other team then spent the rest of the game holding on for dear life waiting for the clock to expire. This was a dominant performance from the opening whistle until the end (sans Watson).

How about Garrett making the biggest play when it mattered the most pretty much sealing the game? Not some meaningless sack in the first quarter. Listening to him as well, I think he's starting to get comfortable being a vocal leader, which we desperately need him to be.

I really hope this D is top 5 caliber and stays that way the whole season. We have been waiting on a dominant defense since the return. Then Watson can short hop more throws and the defense can get him the ball back. Guy needs to find his mojo in the worst way. He missed wide open receivers all day. Hope he gets it figured out.

I see the ravens also had some injuries too

No, it wasn't that.

However it was humid as all get out. The fog would drop and rise all day. so while it may not have been raining, it was very damp. Maybe call it a mist. Upon reflection i could see how the balls would remain wet. The ground would have had a ever present dew.

+1 across the board.

However, yesterday did nothing to make me worry any more or less about Watson. He outplayed Burrow on a day when he resorted to chucking the ball like a shotput or tossing it to the ground like a dirty gym sock after quickly quitting on plays. Obviously enough to do with game conditions to not hit the panic button (not saying you're doing that, just saying). But yes, Watson's body of work in Cleveland proves that he definitely needs to find his mojo, can't even think of a better term for it.

I like that the D set the bar this high for themselves. It shows they are capable straight out the gate of a change in coaching and philosophy. I hope that spells the end of the 'finding our way' defense, non-accountability and finger-pointing. Best way to end that chapter is to slam the book shut. It looks like Schwartz and his pupils may have done that on day one. It's pretty exciting.

I'm more forgiving with Watson due to the weather than I would be if he had that performance on a typical September afternoon. I'm really hoping he's more accurate and reliable Monday night. We need him to be

Watson will have to learn how to adjust for weather conditions in Cleveland. I call it being a mudder.

Rain, fog, wind, sleet, snow, cold, you get them all. You have to adapt your game for less than perfect conditions...

Players adjust, stats go down, but the game goes on.

I hope he will catch on, that Cleveland is not South Carolina or Houston...

I realize this every time I get off the plane in Cleveland. I can't really talk about it, but it is not San Diego County.

He definitely needs to adjust, especially because the rest of our team is kinda designed for it. Our OL and Chubb thrive in the conditions. It's why the spread came down so quickly yesterday morning when the weather was apparent

j/c

As much as some point to Watson needing to adjust to the weather, sometimes there is only so much you can do and the playcalling is what needs to change, and it did. They adjusted as the game went along and got the W.

Thank you for reminding about the Garrett sack. That was definitely the exclamation point on the game. Garrett's game was awesome, but his usage was great as well. It was so awesome to see our defensive front deployed in such a way where everyone was just feeding off each other and everyone doing their part in keeping the Bengals off balance. As much as I want to criticize Watson (well-earned), Burrow and his offense really did play worse. I think the only one on that offense that looked like they came ready to play was Mixon.

A key thing that Quincy Carrier pointed out was that Burrow threw in the towel, because he doesn't have the innate athletic skills that Watson has.

Watson was able to adjust to the weather by running the ball himself and just getting enough done in the passing department. Which was way more than Burrow could do. This with a pretty salty defensive front from both teams.

Burrow could not run (due to injury?) Did not want to run and was not athletic enough to do the things that Watson can do in bad weather.

I think we will see a much improved Watson with fair weather and he will have to improve his passing in these bad weather games pronto, because this is not Houston with a dome.

I’m seeing feedback of our Defense did great while Watson just did ok. Weather was bad… that hurts a QB and helps a defense… really need a few games before I can judge so still cautiously optimistic all around. Great to win a home opener. 👍

Exactly. We did adjust at the half and Watson looked better. We adjusted at the end of the first half and Watson kept the ball and scored. It was a thing of beauty.

Think the weather had a lot to do with the 1st half especially. People saying Watson needs to be better are the same people who will tell you how Elite Joe Burrow is. Joe Burrow is elite and was soundly outplayed by Watson, Joe missed a bunch of throws too.

Think the defense got an edge due to the weather and field conditions, lots of slipping.

Lining Myles up all over is a welcome sight, always wondered why they didn't deploy the Justin Tuck package.

More so than Chase, the ability to shut down everyone was very surprising especially deep into the game when the weather started to soften. Almost like the game plan was trash, No adjustment to go to the short passing game that Joe is so elite at was surprising. They kept 5 stepping and the defense was all over Joe.

The rushing TD is why I came in here to chat today. For everyone who likes to complain about Watsons stats in cold weather games, very few QB's in the league can make it to the edge on that play and score. I can name a few, all viewed as elite or are literal former MVPs, Allen, Lamar, Mahommes. It looks pretty simple, it was not, getting to the edge and scoring that TD was the game, what a backbreaker at the end of the first half.

A division win, in the opener, the first opener I haven't attended since 2006 (all losses) almost 20 years of traveling to Cleveland to watch a sh*t show and we win the year I am having a baby. Surreal and to do it in such fashion. Nit pick all you want, that was as dominant, "Browns football" as people have been clamoring for for 2 decades around here. We ran it, we played elite level defense in the rain at home.

Everyone healthy, Conklin (who is a walking injury at this point in his career) only injury of note. What a game, what a Sunday!

The team played great in an unexpected storm! Glad Watson got comfortable in the 2nd half, and man I was wrong - we definitely needed a new DC because our new coordinator has our guys FLYING

Myles is a freak. This is Orlando Brown Jr (all "345" pounds) getting tossed fully airborne.

67 getting cross-eyed as his brain rewires from the false reality that he can save the day.

I hope he doesn’t have to politely hand Pickett his helmet Monday night.

Power rankings are so tough, but I think it's about right for just one week. I hope we don't think too highly of ourselves going into Monday night

I'm in the minority that I think Burrow is overrated. Average arm who both elevates and is elevated by the players around him. Put him on a team with average receivers and I don't think he could carry that team to the playoffs.

Watson played poorly. No two ways around it. He's been short hopping passes since he's been here so it's hard to say the weather was the cause. He does have the ability to turn into a running back which is what we essentially did when it was clear he couldn't pass the ball. The rushing td was nice. The td to Bryant was a scheme td. Any of us could have thrown that. But he essentially missed wide open receivers all day and not just the ones that the TV showed. He needs to play better. The defense saved the day.

But just win games. If he's going to be average but we are winning games because of the defense so be it.

Just. Win. Games.

Being in the right place at the right time contributes to a lot of the success and/or failure seen in the NFL.

Hopefully Schwartz with our defensive players is one of those fortuitous circumstances.

I'm not quite sure how saying "But he sucked less" is a strong defense of that performance. 16 of 29 passes for 154 yards, one touchdown and one interception speaks for itself. I know if the former QB of the browns had that same performance people would be calling for his head. In fact they did.

Congrats on the baby!

One just won. The other didn't win enough. Victory covers a multitude of sins.

It's another example of right time, right place.

Yet the sin is the same whether you cover it up or not.

But there is the possibility of contrition from sin and doing better vs. continuing to commit the "sin" over and over again.

While that's certainly true I don't think that changes breaking down a game and the performance in that game. I don't think saying "He sucked less than their QB" changes that poor performance. Do you? Which was the original point of it all.

I don't necessarily think Watson sucked less than anyone; I'd say he sucked pretty much exactly the same as Burrow. I think the difference for the QBs was more that our WRs caught the balls, and their DBs allowed our WRs to catch them. The more I think back on the game, the more I realize that I don't recall Watson actually really making many plays on his own, but I do recall the WRs making plays and making things happen. He had a run or two, but so did Burrow... so, really, those WRs ARE the difference.

And, Pit, you are 100% correct in that if this had been another QB here with those numbers, he'd be getting ROASTED, and that's just simply a fact-of-the-matter statement. Take it for what it is.
That said, is Watson improves, he quiets any chance of that talk getting started. If he remains mundane, however, then that talks absolutely SHOULD begin.... but, it is too early in the season for that, especially with a sample size of only one.

It doesn't change it, but it expands upon it. Some people prefer more conversation and different perspectives. Others prefer to repeat banal generalities over and over again.

I've been saying that ^ since he came into the league. He's playing with (2) #1 WRs and a darn good 3rd guy who is a borderline #2 type. His bread and butter are the dinks to the sideline that oftentimes don't even get to the line of scrimmage...the dunks over the LOS to an open RB/TE...or the chucks down the sideline where his stellar WRs make a play. His HC doesn't often put him into situations that he cannot handle (smart). When he has to put some stank on a throw, the result is usually not good. There is a reason he could not get ahead of Haskins at OSU - his passing ability wasn't THAT much better than Haskins' PLUS Haskins was a much better athlete.

I think Cincy has gone to the well too many times of replacing really good TEs like they are insignificant to Cool Joe's game.

If you have a D that can be sticky on those (2) WRs, it'll not be fun for Joe.

Great win! Thanks D! And it’s amazing what a real DC brings to the team.

Chubb, always good. OL played well even after Conklin went down early. We have a good group of WR. DW has many weapons, more than I can remember any Browns QB having in my 50+ years of fandom.

Jury is still out, but I’m glad I’m not the only one less than impressed by DW’s play in game one. Hoping we didn’t get sold a 230 mil bill of goods that turns out to be mediocre garbage. He should play the full season before final judgement. This game goes in the meh column for me.

The kicker trade was another good solid move by Berry.

Just clicking.

I don't think Watson played poorly.

My opinion is there is a segment of the fanbase who are never going to be satisfied because they just don't like the guy. Some because of the allegations, some because he replaced Baker, and some because they don't like the price we paid to get him.

It's pretty predictable who is going to make those comments, so I just mostly ignore what they have to say about the QB.

...not sure your recollection is entirely accurate. Burrow was credited with 1 run for -1 yard on pro-football-reference. Watson had 5 for 45 (9 yards per attempt) including a TD and a 2 point conversion.

Just saying. He had some decent moments. It is easy to allow them to be overshadowed by the misses.

That's one way to look at it if one believes that it's somehow a bad thing to break things down on a game to game basis. How many different perspectives are there to look at 16-29 for 154 yards total passing with 1 td and 1 int.?

The ball was moist?

It's alo pretty predictable who is going to make excuses for a bad performance as well. So you don't consider this a bad performance in the passing game? 16-29 for 154 yards total passing with 1 td and 1 int.

They're valid complaints, though, regardless of how you feel about them or any of the reasons you think are behind them.
A *gigantic* stink was made about needing to replace the last QB and performance was the top item on that list... and then we dropped a Quarter Billion Dollars to get a guy to replace him and we're not getting any better performance.

That is literally an exemplar of what a legitimate gripe looks like.

Your preference (for only your perspective) is showing. *shrug*

It is what it is. Excuses rule the day depending on the name on the uniform. The footwork was sloppy just like it was last season with pretty much the same results. As I said earlier that is something that is fixable. So hopefully it will get better moving forward. But when you break this game down realistically people would rather try to make it about personalities rather than the performance on the field. Same as it ever was.

That is surprising, actually, because I was absolutely certain I recalled Burrow having more than that. Maybe what I'm thinking of was called back?

The fact that you blame watsons performance in the passing game on me rather than him is showing.

I wonder why people seem to have trouble grasping such a basic concept? Maybe they think "Your preference (for only your perspective) is showing. *shrug*"?

...in a bad weather game where the highest paid player in the league, who happens to play the same position, had an objectively worse outing in every measurable category.

I can get how one would feel the complaint. There are different perspectives on the level of its validity and the context that is being considered. Deshaun will need to perform better in the future to justify his contract. I'm not sure the same standard should be expected in bad weather games as in good conditions, though.

...What are you going on about?

Like...What!? Seriously?

Blame Watson's performance on you? You certainly seem to have some you stuck in your brain.

You obviously haven't been following the thread. No wait, you have.

16-29 for 154 yards total passing with 1 td and 1 int.

According to you those numbers are "Your preference (for only your perspective) is showing. *shrug*"

And let me tell you something else that's factual. If you consider drizzle And no wind a bad weather game in Cleveland, that's your preference showing that isn't grounded in reality.

j/c...

I think it's easy to see that the weather impacted both QBs play. Not just the rain, but the humidity. It's one thing to throw a wet ball, it's another to do it in a Vietnam jungle. The humidity was so high that it would probably be hard to grip if it wasn't raining. You know how when you're trying to do something and have to constantly wipe your hands on your clothing because they're 'clammy'? Try wiping them on a wet jersey and then rifling a pro football. Yeah, yeah, that's want these dudes get paid to do, but it doesn't make it any easier.

Joe changed his glove thirty-nine times, Deshaun clearly talked about gripping the ball too hard post game.

Almost all posters are saying DW needs to play better. Refusing to condemn him for a terrible performance is not the same as making excuses. It is what it is -- he needs to play better -- and he'll have to play better in bad weather all the time now, he's in Cleveland.


Jmo, but nobody would be condemning Baker for that performance after a signature win, twenty years in the waiting, against a rival and Super Bowl contender. We'd all be saying the same thing -- he needs to play better.

Were you at the game? Why do you insist on contradicting the words of the people that were actually on the field?

It wasn't a good weather game. The opposite of good is bad. This isn't complicated.

The numbers are the numbers. As ever, some people consider the context. You don't appear to be one of them.

j/c again...

Did anyone else feel like we were 'stealing signs' Sunday? lol

It looked like our DBs were running the pass patterns and their WRs were trying to defend then. Hanford and Frankie had to be proud.

I'm basing it on what posters on this board who were actually AT THE GAME stated about the weather during the game. Not people who have some vested interest in putting the best possible spin on it they can.

Did any of these posters handle a game ball? Actually try to throw it?

What did these posters at the game actually say? They may have said it drizzled, but I don't think any of them said the weather had no effect on the game. They may have said there was no wind, but wind isn't really the issue when talking about grip and footing.

Stealing signs, no. I do think the combination of the weather and our pressure greatly limited the routes that our DBs needed to truly worry about.

Seriously "the balls was wet" is not a very high bar but you keep making it sound as though it's 10' tall. But when one needs to find excuses you'll have that.

Lol pretty easy to see the posters that will never give Watson any credit. Going by people who “were at the game” lol. Were they up in stands trying to throw a football into a 1 foot window too. They showed the ball many times under center close up and you can see it wasn’t just “moist” it was drenched. Anyone who has ever tried to throw such a ball knows it affects flight and grip. And it’s heavy. That being said, Watson had a rough game throwing, but he made some big time throws when we needed and without him we don’t win this game. Period . His ability to move, extend plays and pick up first downs was the difference. That in turn kept the defense fresh and the pressure on cincy. To say otherwise is just having an agenda. I’d give him a few weeks before we start calling for his head.

Sure, we should all give him credit for this... 16-29 for 154 yards total passing with 1 td and 1 int.

But you are right, some people simply refuse to do it because "the ball was damp".

I think we need to define shades of bad weather games. Baker got vilified for playing badly in two bad weather games that made Sundays game VS the Bengals look like ideal conditions... Rain going sideways and gusts up to 40 mph. For some that wasn't a good excuse for sub QB play.

As for the comparison to Burrows and trying to pass things off as all conditions between him and Watson being equal, the pressure Burrows faced All game was way off the charts compared to Watson. That was as big or bigger (imo) factor than the rain. Add that Burrows is returning from injury.... Did he even play in the preseason??.... There is no real comparison to be made.

This game doesn't define Watson. He's got a whole season to show how good he still is. As Browns fans we all want him to be elite.

But if anyone wants to be fair and balanced, while Watson has lots of reasons for pedestrian performances as a Brown: missing a full season with Hou, being suspended 11 games the next year with the Browns, off field issues... Now a 'bad weather' game... The fact is he's completely underwhelmed to date as a Cleveland player. Denying that would be very hard to justify. If fans aren't even a little concerned then I think they're sucking hard on the kool-aid. JMO

That's a pretty fair analysis.

As far Baker getting vilified for playing badly in bad weather games, I tend to avoid the postgame threads after losses knowing that they're going to be vitriol filled. Heck I avoid gameday threads for similar reasons.

That's kind of a piece of what feels kind of weird here. We won by 3 scores.

I think the halo effect is a factor in how both QBs are viewed. Baker, fairly or not, was associated with all the losing. Watson's off field actions taint how some view him.

I'd prefer that Watson work out here, and don't think that unrealistic expectations and faulty narratives will help that happen.

Watson does need to play better than he has.

I hope he succeeds here too. However I do not think that expecting him to be a passer that is above NFL average is some unrealistic expectation given he is being paid accordingly. I also don't think a realistic breakdown of his performance from game to game is a faulty narrative. There's a difference in watson on the field and off the field. Some of us can separate the two and some of us claim that can't be done in order to present the type of faulty narrative you mentioned.

He's generally done pretty well vs pressure. I think he's a little overhyped, but he does do stuff that other more gifted QBs are never able to do.

Cinci has also never really given him any sort of offensive line to brag about.

Expecting him to be above NFL average over the season isn't an unrealistic expectation. What is NFL average with a waterlogged ball? Burrow didn't break 100 yards and played from behind the entire 2nd half. You can credit the defense for some of that, but I don't care if it was the 85 Bears you're not holding Burrow that low if the weather is fine. You're not holding any close to average NFL QB below 100 yards in good weather in a game in the modern NFL. Burrow's yards per attempt were 1/3 of his career average.

I'm not sure you'd know whether something was realistic or not if it literally rammed you and sent you flying. I don't doubt that you could convince yourself what you experienced firsthand wasn't possible.

Look, I could go on, but it's just not worth it. I'm gonna go back to not opening up your posts. Maybe I'll re-evaluate after the bye.

I think Watson mentioned what I saw, he was not setting his feet before the throw.

It was not a great game, but a W is way more important.

And mostly with one arm.

It's early days for Burrows and Watson. The weather had an impact on both. But I just posted a tweet in the Schwartz Defence thread in Pure Football, apparently Burrows had an average time before pressure of something like 0.195 seconds which is 6th lowest in the NFL over a several season spell.... Don't underestimate the impact of the D on Burrows play.

that's an impressive stat for the D ... we need it again Monday

You keep comparing him to Burrow in that game when our D totally dominated Cinci's OL and had his WR's covered like a glove. That's not the same thing. Also NFL footballs don't get "water logged". they change them out all the time. But it was a creative way to stretch the narrative via an adjective. Reality is if a misty day with no wind beside Lake Eerie is an excuse for that performance, we're all in for a bad ride as time goes on.

Woofer posted about his footwork. So did I. You ignore it.

mgh posted how quickly pressure was being applied to Burrow. So did I. You ignore it.

I'm not saying the weather had zero impact. I'm saying it's a sad excuse to blame his entire performance on. I'm not the only one who sees that.


That's the average even considering wind. A 12% bump would still be bad.

I didn’t get to see the game since I am overseas. I did sit and listen to the radio broadcast with Jim Donovan and Nathan S (and Jerrod Cherry) while the game was being played. Afterwards I watched the full game highlights on YouTube.

During the game, Jimmy said a couple times that Burrows kept switching from using a glove on/off to find a better way of getting a grip on the ball. Cherry brought it up once or twice about the ball and field being slippery. So it did play a part in the issues for both QBs. I am also aware there were other factors involved as stated by a few on here (I.e bad throws, pressure, etc)

Maybe I missed it in the posts.

I haven’t seen much posts and credit given Stefanski. By what I heard and saw in the game highlights, it looked and sounded like he had his team ready to play. They also seemed disciplined as I didn’t hear many penalties called on the Browns compared to previous years. There seemed like there were quite a bit called against Cincy.

Also, (this next part is a correct me if I’m wrong) the play calling sounded like it was excellent for the field conditions. Lots of running plays, a bunch of dump offs, short/medium routes to the back and other receivers. They threw a few deep balls to keep the defense from creeping up. The receivers sounded like they were getting open and levels were spaced out.

They also did pretty well in the red zone, besides the Ford fumble.

And I do give it credit for it being "a portion of the problem". But as you can see by the stats, it was 12% of the problem. And that 12% statistic was accumulated even without factoring when there was wind occurring during rain games which they were not last weekend.

I think it's nave to think the weather was either all of the problem or none of the problem. So I believe we are pretty much on the same page here. At least for the most part.

I still didn't like how much work Ford got-and he was in a couple times when we were going in to score, he fumbled inside Cincy's 20.
Chubb had 18 carries for 5.89 yards per carry
Ford had 15 carries for 2.4 yards per carry
We need to get our horse out there-

I think Conklin's injury played a factor in Chubb's lack of reps. I'm guessing their thinking was "Why risk a stud who frankly doesn't need more reps on a slippery field, when Cinci's O did nothing the entire game?" Plus, Ford could clearly use the reps without even considering his missed time. He's not had many live NFL snaps. They need to figure out if they need a better backup come crunch time.

That's a total of 33 carries. Nobody should ride a horse that hard. I think the problem is that they need to find a better alternative as the backup RB.

I think we should give Ford more time, a lot of his carries came Sunday when we were just running out the clock and Cincy knew that and stacked the box.

Pit, I am not saying to give Nick 33 carries.
What I am saying is Chubb should be in there when we are in the red zone and when it is later in the game and the game isn't out of reach.
Ford should definitely should have been getting work in the late fourth when we were up by three scores.

we've really done a good job of limiting Chubb's usage over his career ... he rarely eclipses into that 25+ carries and it's going to serve him well to extend his career

Watson outperformed Burrow, Allen, Rodgers and Mahommes.

Did you consider him as having a good performance in the passing game? I didn't think so.

That's exactly what happened. His last 8 carries netted 0 yards. Everyone in the building knew we were running... and every handoff to Ford was just a formality to running the clock and letting those little kitties get back on their bus.

Before those last two series he was 7/36/5.1

Yep, I was just pointing out what was being said on the broadcast.

I didn't get to see the game live. The full game highlights showed a good portion of the game, but that still didn’t give me a good feel on the conditions to give my opinion.

Yes, I agree. We don’t need to go full throttle with Chubb this early in the year when we are winning and the D was killing it. Those extra carries, pass catches, pass blocking, and hits will add up and take a toll on his body towards the end of the season. I’ve liked how Stef has handled Chubb the past few seasons by keeping him fresh. While he plays like a machine, we have to remember he’s still human….well, at least I think he is.

Ok, I am going to point out that a lot of Ford's carries were after Cincy had conceded the victory and the Browns were running out the clock and Cincy knew it. 8 or 9 in the box.

The other thread points out that Burrow had less than 2 seconds to get the ball out. That is why his stats are what they are and it is a good thing. We can recall when were were on the other side of that coin, and it changes the game.

https://twitter.com/Nate_Tice/status/1701289516848521223

Nope, just a better performance than the rest of that group, and the only one of them to lead his team on a game clinching drive. I'll take that every week. Now run along and ask and answer another question to yourself.

I was asking you. No seemed to be the answer despite the following editorial comments of zero substance. Now maybe you can run along.

Since you are out of country I doubt you saw that Watson was having full body cramp as well in the first half. He got IV’s at halftime and seemed to play somewhat better in the second half. I think that and the soaked ball were big contributors to his bad play. I can’t say it wasn’t any of his fault. Some of it definitely was. Hopefully he has better conditions In Pittsburgh so we can see where he really stands.

Ah, I forgot about that! I only knew about it, bc after the game I saw a twitter video of DW talking about the IV.

Thank you for bringing that up.

j/c...

I was looking back through the draft thread a couple days ago. I remembered we were all a little down on this pick... didn't have a 1st round pick, traded down, then drafted a "slow" CB?? Many of us thought he would be moved to safety. Some said this was a wasted pick, etc, etc...

Right now it looks like he is quietly becoming pro bowl caliber. He's a huge piece in this scheme when you have three dudes that can lock down on the back end.


This, however, is pure gold, particularly considering the video above:

Bull knows stuff. That’s why I love when he comes in Browns discord chats

j/c,
[YouTube:video][/video]

Jones’ PFF pass blocking grade on Sunday was very high.
His run blocking score was awful. In the 30’s if I remember correctly. He’s got to get that cleaned up.

j/c

On the subject of #4: I saw a lot of lackluster play by our QB, but there was a moment that showed me what we might expect, going forward.

At 5:13 in Q1, CLE tried some trickeration.

2nd and 4. CLE on CIN 43.

CLE lines up. Backfield shift, Watson steps to his right; Chubb sets up behind C.
Chubb takes the snap, Watson curls in front of him. Chubb hands off the ball to 4, and sets up to defend, looking to his right. 4 curls back 5 yards into a clean pocket, and launches a pinpoint pass from Brownie The Elf's back foot to the CIN 3-yard line. Incomplete. Had Marquis Goodwin simply maintained his route, instead of pulling up, then readjusting, that pass would have landed on time, in place, and right in his hands. Where no defender had a chance.

Another play, off the top of my head: that Q1 timing/placement pass he delivered to DP-J was as fine a pass as you'll ever see.

These are the kind of flashes that keep me interested. He's not consistent.
He showed poor accuracy on many passes.
My Boy and I were watching a slo-mo replay of an incompletion, and we said, in unison: "His mechanics sucked-" then, busted out laughing. Even we football dummies could see how poor his form was on that play.

I wasn't a fan of the hire when it happened.
I wasn't a Baker Boy, either- so the trade/acquisition was just another interesting wrinkle in my 50-year attachment to this hobby.
I shonuff wasn't a fan of the baggage he dragged to our address.

Still think I've kept a cool head about this young man... and my jury's still out.
If he is to return to form, we'll see it in the 2nd quarter of this season. Until then, we'll prob see a heavy dose of Game One, with #24 making grown men cry, and Schwartz's AttackD getting the ball to the O as often as they can.


.02

If Jones can get that run grade up and maintain that ability to keep the pocket clean (good luck against Watt), we will have something

That was a really cool play design.

Yes, I didn’t know it happened till I saw the post. DW had him deep too.

I've seen a lot of people say he should have released it earlier, but I don't know. It seemed liked once he got the ball, he turned, set, and threw pretty quickly. I suppose he could have led him more to the right but a defender was creeping from the other side too. I don't know....

Yea, I mean being nitpicking. I would say aiming towards the back pylon and using Godwin’s speed to go get it. But i agree with your assessment. By how DW’s helmet turns it looks like his first look/glance was to someone to the far right then went deep.

I think the throw at Moore referenced was on purpose. Could he have gotten more yards if it was out front and he caught it? Yes, but no receiver was catching the ball away from his body all game.

Even the throw here... was it really that bad of a ball? Went right through the WR's hands. He could have put it where he did to give the WR a chance to use his body instead of trying to lead him.

And I'm not blaming Goodwin, either. It's physics. If the ball is heavier than normal, it's harder to catch. Force equals mass times acceleration. Increase the mass and that's a lot more force. There's a reason people don't try to catch cannonballs. Obviously, there is a different degree of mass involved there, but the principle remains.

I talked about muscle memory and the ball's weight earlier, but there could also have been a mental adjustment required if he's trying not to lead his receivers and rather trying to put it on them where they can use their bodies to catch it more.

This. I think limiting carries in a game like that (likelihood of injury up and the game going your way) it's VERY smart to limit Chubb's carries. That's a perfect time to get Ford game action.

It's easy to nitpick. They say the ball was heavier. I know if nothing else it was very foggy and misty, so that means heavy air. Anybody in here who is or has been good at playing golf knows that "heavy" air impacts your distances. You are going to lose distance. That 7 iron is going to get 8 iron carry. You need to hit the 6 iron.

Claiming the ball was heavier would mean that the ball would have to have absorbed water to increase its weight. We both know, as should most people, that's simply not true. The ball has a finish that prevents it from absorbing water and is often changed during the game. I think there is some merit to the air being heavy but as with any good golfer, as you mention, they know this and adjust accordingly.

I think we routinely say this every year about managing Chubb's carries but here are the last four years. I didn't put 2018 because he was a rookie and didn't start until Hyde was released.

2022-- 3rd in carries.
2021- 8th in carries
2020- 14th in carries
2019- 3rd in carries

Outside of 2020 (where he missed four games) he has been used quite a bit. Just combining 2019 and 2022....that's 600 carries. That's a ton.

That said, I'm not clamoring for a Chubb cut/trade or anything, although I doubt they want $16.2M to be on their 2024 cap. I think he might have two more elite seasons after this ( more like one IMO ) but there is some age to those legs.