Week #1 - @ KC Rematch!!!

Randolphkeys said:

I could have scripted the vast majority of Browns fans reactions to a loss last Wednesday... the mob decided days ago it's Woods fault.

Then the game is played... it's a Harrison dumb penalty. It's an injury to Wills. It's the defense becoming EXHAUSTED after two long third quarter drives. It's Chubb fumbling, which barely ever happens. It's the damn punter making a game losing play. It's Baker getting hit on a first down sack and forgetting how to manage the pocket that third down. It's timely defense from the Chiefs..

It's death by a thousand papercuts.

So when that happens, and that's exactly what happens... Why raise your hand and volunteer to follow the pre-chosen Twitter gripe from a week ago?

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My point is - there's always going to be a penalty. There's always going to be an injury. A botched play on defense. Our defense consistently becomes tired in the 2nd half because they're not getting off the field, due to the style of defense. Maybe Chubb doesn't fumble again the rest of the year, but what about Kareem? What about Jarvis? What about a strip sack on Baker?

I'm not looking at the individual screwups - those type of things will happen in some form or fashion. We can't control that. What I AM looking at is the things we can control. The same coverages all game, the repetition the Chiefs showed on offense.

I know they're HELLA hard to beat - I predicted a loss, go check the regular season thread. I expected a loss, but I just wanted to see something a bit more from the defense on the coverage side of things. A little more creativity will make it less predictable and lower the floor of the opposing team.

This is the first opener in years where I don’t have that same old feeling . It sucks that the Browns lost , BUT they played well enough to win on the road against a top tier opponent. Even with last years success, after that Baltimore game opener it was that same old feeling. My Hope is that finally with all the hype the Browns got this off-season they backed it up. A few mistakes ,that are easy to clean up , happened today. Onto next week. Looking forward to the rest of the season! Go Browns!

If you would've told me this morning that OBJ wouldn't play, we'd lose Wills and Harrison very early, have 3 turnovers, and we'd lose by 4 with the ball and a chance to win at the end, I'd have been ecstatic. 16 more to go, and the optimism has to be there knowing the biggest mistakes today were fixable.

Weren't there some more exotic playcalls from Woods this week?

I swear at least once we dropped an entire side of the line back into coverage and brought four on the other side, exactly like that play I posted last week.

I feel like Romo even called it out and diagrammed it.

You never want to give Mahomes and Hill cover 1 or cover 0. But I thought our playcalling was fine, especially with Harrison getting ejected on the first drive and MJ Stewart playing safety.

My biggest complaint would be that I saw too much Malcolm Smith and Mack Wilson, and not enough JOK

Ridin' West said:

If you would've told me this morning that OBJ wouldn't play, we'd lose Wills and Harrison very early, have 3 turnovers, and we'd lose by 4 with the ball and a chance to win at the end, I'd have been ecstatic. 16 more to go, and the optimism has to be there knowing the biggest mistakes today were fixable.

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Exactly.

It could be worse though, we could have some crazy expectations and lose our home opener to a old ass QB that cannot throw a football 20 yards.

Bills fans have to be fuming.

Chiefs
Browns

Everyone else. Bucket up fellas. We have film to study, and shit to correct. But the talent is for real, the head coach is for real.

Ridin' West said:

If you would've told me this morning that OBJ wouldn't play, we'd lose Wills and Harrison very early, have 3 turnovers, and we'd lose by 4 with the ball and a chance to win at the end, I'd have been ecstatic. 16 more to go, and the optimism has to be there knowing the biggest mistakes today were fixable.

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I get the optimism, I truly do. I have the exact same optimism about what this team can achieve (assuming we can continue improving) - I'm just not ever happy with a loss.

I don't know how anyone can watch that game and have any gripes about coaching. If the Browns players don't make the (3 or so) mistakes they did, they win somewhat convincingly against a Chiefs team that essentially played perfect ball.

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

Weren't there some more exotic playcalls from Woods this week?

I swear at least once we dropped an entire side of the line back into coverage and brought four on the other side, exactly like that play I posted last week.

I feel like Romo even called it out and diagrammed it.

You never want to give Mahomes and Hill cover 1 or cover 0. But I thought our playcalling was fine, especially with Harrison getting ejected on the first drive and MJ Stewart playing safety.

My biggest complaint would be that I saw too much Malcolm Smith and Mack Wilson, and not enough JOK

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There were a couple I remember but that's it - and both involved dropping into deep coverage anyway. The rest of the game was the vanilla soft zone even in the redzone, which is REALLY where I'd like to see more exotic looks and disguises.

I'd do cover 1 or 0 several times against them, but I'd do my best to disguise it. FWIW - they're not some unstoppable tandem either. Several teams have made it difficult on them - today there wasn't really any difficulty with their connections. Maybe we'll be able to improve there if we play them again.

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

Weren't there some more exotic playcalls from Woods this week?

I swear at least once we dropped an entire side of the line back into coverage and brought four on the other side, exactly like that play I posted last week.

I feel like Romo even called it out and diagrammed it.

You never want to give Mahomes and Hill cover 1 or cover 0. But I thought our playcalling was fine, especially with Harrison getting ejected on the first drive and MJ Stewart playing safety.

My biggest complaint would be that I saw too much Malcolm Smith and Mack Wilson, and not enough JOK

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Two points:

I agree there were a few exotic drop zones. The two plays to end the last real Chiefs drive were creative. Unfortunately the play to Hill where JJ3 was in one on one coverage was also a creative scheme. That's the problem - it's great as long as Mahomes doesn't go Superman and outrun our pressure.

2. I predict bad PFF scores for JOK. Kelce burned him a few times in the first half.

Randolphkeys said:

Two points:

I agree there were a few exotic drop zones. The two plays to end the last real Chiefs drive were creative. Unfortunately the play to Hill where JJ3 was in one on one coverage was also a creative scheme. That's the problem - it's great as long as Mahomes doesn't go Superman and outrun our pressure.

2. I predict bad PFF scores for JOK. Kelce burned him a few times in the first half.

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I thought JJ3 was having an incredible game up until that fluke Hill bomb.

Things look good in Cleveland. Just need official good news on Wills

I'll drop out of this. I think people want to feel good about the game and zero in on the few bad plays we made to feel better about the loss, and I'm probably stunting that glow.

I want to see this defense play well against the Texans next week. Not expecting a shutdown or anything - hell, maybe they put up 20 something, our defense still needs to gel. But I want it to FEEL like we can actually get them off the field, something I haven't felt yet with Woods as coordinator (last year is excused though).

I’m curious how much Harrison would have played in trying to stop Kelce.

spydy13 said:

I’m curious how much Harrison would have played in trying to stop Kelce.

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It would have been indirectly. I firmly believe that the plan was t for JJ3 to play CF.

spydy13 said:

I’m curious how much Harrison would have played in trying to stop Kelce.

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I can promise you this... MJ Stewart went from barely making the team to playing every snap. That changes what a defense can scheme.

Randolphkeys said:

I can promise you this... MJ Stewart went from barely making the team to playing every snap. That changes what a defense can scheme.

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I don't know what I hate watching more--Mack Wilson miss tackles or MJ Stewart not wanting to tackle anyone.