Month: September 2019

I hope every Browns fan woke up this morning with a smile on their face and a little pep in their step, I know I did. The offense was vastly improved and the defense was good as usual. The Browns showed more movement on offense and even threw in some trick plays, one which should of resulted in a pass interference call against the Ravens. I had a great afternoon with over 200 Browns fans at the home of the Middle Tennessee Browns Backers, the Dawg House Saloon. Nothing like high fiveing strangers in a crowded, noisy bar. There were more positives than negatives, so lets get the negatives out of the way.

Penalties. The Browns had six penalties, which compared to previous weeks wasn’t that many. The bad news two were on Kush and three were on Ratley. Ratley had a bad game all the way around. I give Kush a little break, because on Chubb’s big run, he took out two Raven defenders. The officiating was as bad again, but Beckham has to control himself. You can’t take a couple swings at an opposing player. The only other bad news is Landry going into the NFL concussion protocol. It’s like being sent the corner for a time out. The team has no control over the process. Only the league can release a player and we know how much a well oiled machine the NFL can be, just watch the officiating.

Positives. The offense was outstanding. Lots of motion, lots of play action and lots of creativity.The Browns ran a few trick plays and even though some didn’t work, it still makes future opponents have to game plan for them. I think Mayfield came out understanding what he needs to do as the starting QB. He trusted his offensive line, stepped up in the pocket and read the defense. The second drive that resulted in the Brown’s first touchdown was a thing of beauty. 13 plays, 84 yards taking eight and a half minutes. The Browns scored first and kept the ball away from the Ravens offense. They converted on 3rd down (6-13), racked up 530 yards of total offense and averaged 8.7 yards per play ( 10.5 yards per pass and 6.7 per rush). Most importantly they controlled the game and never trailed.

Nick Chubb is a beast. Once he got going, the Ravens couldn’t stop him. Landry was fantastic as usual and the Browns really do have players at the tight end position. I loved the Ricky Seals-Jones pick up and said last week he can be a good target. Beckham was doubled and held all game long, which helped the other offensive weapons. Who knew Beckham was such a good blocker? As long as he stays involved and doesn’t turn into Mike Tyson every game, he’ll get his chances. The offensive line did their job, Mayfield was only sacked once for five yards.

On defense, and this sounds like a broken record, but Steve Wilkes is a genius. Taking out the last Raven drive for a touchdown with 30 seconds left in the game, the secondary didn’t really let the Raven’s wide receivers get loose. Ingram was held to 71 yards rushing and Jackson to 66. The Browns sacked Jackson four times and got two interceptions and a fumble. Schobert, Carrie, Mitchell, Whitehead, Vernon, Wilson, Richardson, Ogunjobi, Murray, Lawrence and Randell all played their butts off. Hell, the whole team did. There was even a Chad Thomas sighting. Finally, the Browns handed Lamar Jackson, the MVP of the first three weeks of the NFL season, his first home loss.

On special teams, Austin Seibert hit all six of his kicks and the Scottish Hammer had another shanked punt, but still averaged 42.3 years per punt. The special teams are finally special again in Cleveland. My only concerns are when Gillan hurries he does shank a punt, that’s one in each of the last two games and the kick returner game needs an upgrade. Freddie said today that Callaway should be ready to go, coming off his suspension, so that will help the return game.

There were reports prior to the game that GM John Dorsey was calling teams about offensive line help. Before you ask, no Washington’s Trent Williams is still not available and is not even healthy. The Higgins injury is troubling. We were first told it was an ankle, then on Friday, it was listed as a knee. If the Browns can get Higgins, Callaway and Landry back by Monday night that would be awesome, but so would winning the lottery. I’ve got my fingers crossed for both. So now the Browns head to San Francisco for the Monday night game. I’m looking forward to this game, I think the Browns have the right attitude right now. All the reports out of the locker room suggests this team has come together and they believe in each other. Another Prime Time game awaits, GO Browns.

This season I promised myself I would wait 48 hours after a Browns loss to write on my blog. Times up. Lets start with the bad. Freddie’s play calling on the last goal line series. I would of liked to see a run play on first of second down. Three time outs, less than a minute to play, run Nick Chubb once. Or how about the inside hand off to Jarvis Landry who’s in motion. It worked twice against the Panthers last year. The draw play on fourth and goal will go down in Browns history along with Metcalf up the middle, the fullback pass and the flea flicker pass from the end zone thrown into triple coverage. During the game, the mixture of questionable play calling and Mayfield’s holding too long on to the ball or not trusting his offensive line and feeling phantom pressure led to problems.

We all want the offense we ran last year late in the season, but there’s still a meshing of new coaches. Yes the offense shows, at times it can function at a dangerous level. There was a drive Monday night that was RPO and Chubb heavy and the Browns went right down the field and scored. It’s the lack of consistency from one drive to the next that’s maddening. Freddie keeps saying he needs to do a better job at calling plays. How about calling the plays that best suit the personal on the field. That’s all I ask.

Everyone wants to blame the offensive line for all the troubles. Not me. Sure Kush had trouble with Aaron Donald, but so did Bitonio and he’s the Browns best lineman. The tight end position is still underwhelming, but I did see signs of life. Seals-Jones looks like a very good target and Mitchell is doing well in his blocking and route running. Lastly, Mayfield is still leaving plays on the field. Everyone thinks Monkin has changed the passing game to more deep passes. I don’t agree, Freddie likes the deep ball as well. Mayfield is missing the underneath passing routes. I still think the offense is at 85% and with the next four games, it needs to be at 100% this week. There are still too many penalties, 35 in the first three weeks and that on the coaches.

The positives. Nick Chubb had 27 touches, 25 carries for 96 yards. My only problem, don’t run him to the right. He gets big chunks of yardage on the left side and small yardage on the right side. Mayfield might be missing some plays on the field, but when they’re there, man this kid is good. Remember, Sunday’s night game was his 16th start. LaCharles Bentley tweeted yesterday, “Baker Mayfield isn’t regressing, he’s still learning.” I’ll take whatever Bentley has to say, he knows more football than me.

The defense. Wow. First they held Gurley to 46 yards rushing. Larry Ogunjobi and Sheldon Richardson were beasts against the run. Myles Garrett was Myles Garrett again without the penalties. Goff doesn’t like to throw to his wide receivers along the sidelines and for most of the game, they forced him to do that. At linebacker, Kirksey may be the captain, but Schobert is the heart and soul of the defense. he was involved in another turnover, I just wished he could have scored. The defense had three turnovers, however they couldn’t do anything with them. You have to go for the throat after a turnover. Mack Wilson is a stud and will only get better. The secondary, or should I say the second team secondary, was outstanding. Justin Burris was re-signed late in the week and had to remember everything from training camp and still played well. The Rams may have the best three starting receivers in the league, until the Browns get Higgins back. The Browns led 6-3 at halftime and held the Rams to 20 points, not bad. As for special teams, the Scottish Hammer had a shanked punt, but still punted well. Seibert was great. His mechanics are so sound.

Now the Browns head to Baltimore with a share of first place in the AFC North on the line. The Ravens are a very physical and aggressive team. Kansas City took advantage of that in the first half of Sunday’s game and went into prevent because of their big lead which allowed the Ravens back in the game. Lamar Jackson is a good quarterback, but the Chiefs made him work. They took away most of his passes and he only played well because of his legs and some luck. I want to see a lot of motion on offense for the Browns and the defense to place a spy on Jackson and keep the pressure on him. The sky isn’t falling Browns fans, the season isn’t over and there’s no time for panic, yet. Everyone take a few deep breaths. On to Baltimore and Go Browns.

Don’t get me wrong, a much needed win for the Browns. As I watched, I never felt the Browns were going to lose this game, just frustrated they didn’t score more points. If that’s the Browns biggest problem, winning but not scoring more, I’ll take it. The Browns did what they had to do. The positives out weighted the negatives. Sure, Mayfield was off most of the night, but still hit when he was needed. I don’t know how much of it was Gregg William’s defensive play calling, how much was lack of flow or if Mayfield’s hand is still bothering him. Baker still hasn’t started 16 games yet, so I’ll give him a break. Plus, he didn’t have his security blanket, Higgins. After Njoku got hurt, the lack of depth at the tight end position was alarming. Pharaoh Browns still looks lost and uninspired and Demetrius Harris is just not that good. I didn’t see Ricky Seals-Jones play any, so I can’t really judge him. Maybe he’s still learning the offense. On Defense, Denzel Ward has had two of his worst games so far. You got to wonder if all the concussions he’s had are affecting his tackling technique.

Now the positives. The Browns won by 20. Odell Beckham, Jr. A spectacular one handed catch and an 89 yard catch and run for a touchdown, the longest of his career. Tony Grossi,@TonyGrossi, said on the radio today, that the Browns haven’t had a wide receiver like this since Paul Warfield. I couldn’t agree more. I don’t care if Beckham wears a watch on each wrist and on each ankle. Nick Chubb was classic Nick Chubb on his 19 yard touchdown run. Why he didn’t have the ball in his hands late in the fourth quarter is something I don’t understand. The offensive line was better, very solid, but still too much pressure coming from the tackle positions. I think the plays coming into the game from the sideline took too long and this causes the offensive line too long to wait in their stances. Freddie needs to get plays in quicker or go up tempo, no huddle. It looks like Mayfield is being allowed to call more plays at the line of scrimmage. If that’s the case, get the plays in quicker to allow Mayfield to read the defense. This isn’t a positive, but since I’m discussing the play calling, Mayfield needs to get rid of the ball quicker. Holding the ball over 2.5 seconds will get him killed.

Less penalties. Yes there were still too many, but less than the fiasco of the week one game. I know Myles Garrett was called for 5 penalties, but I don’t care, because he had 3 sacks. I really don’t think the first offside penalty was correct. He looked like he timed it perfectly, but because he’s so fast I knew he would get called for it. I don’t think the second roughing the passer should have been called, but again understand why. LB’s Joe Schobert and Christian Kirksey were all over the field making plays and I’m very impressed with Greedy Williams. Morgan Burnett played a great game, as did Eric Murray.

Lastly the special teams. Seibert looked confident in his kicks and his mechanics were a lot cleaner. The Scottish Hammer was outstanding. He finally had a punt returned and his last punt was the most impressive. I know there is a different spin on the ball from a left footed kicker than a right footed kicker, but his last punt had a backwards spin on it that kept it out of the end zone. The coverage teams were very good. I love it when Seibert puts the kick off just barely in the end zone or just barely out of the end zone. Forces the other teams into a return and the coverage was there.

I still think the offense is at about 65% complete. But there is still plenty of time to right the ship. The next four games are going to be a true test. Freddie needs to clean up the play calling. That will help Mayfield get rid of the ball quicker. The Browns have to get better at converting on third downs. Also, getting Nick Chubb more involved and getting Higgins back will help. The Browns are a 2.5 point underdog at home to the Rams and that plays right into the hands of the Browns. They seem to play better as an underdog and with the lights of Sunday night football at home, this should be a good one.

Lastly, I never celebrate another teams misfortune, that includes the steelers. Big Ben is out for the season. As a Browns fan you know what’s going to happen, The steelers will stink, get a top five pick and pick their next quarterback of the future. No wait, they traded that pick. Oh well looks like Big Ben is planning to come back. By the way, the worst teams in the league are Miami, the Jets , the Giants and the Bengals. I’d put the Cardinals on that list, but I think they’ll be fun to watch and they really put a scare into the Ravens this past Sunday. One last thought how does ESPN still keep Booger MacFarland on the payroll? He’s God awful. Home game against the Rams up next. Go Browns.

Forget whoopty hell, how about what the hell? Where to start. Let’s start at 1-19-1. One of these days the Browns will be ready to play football week one. Discipline can’t be learned overnight and during the second scrimmage with the Colts, the rest of league learned you can get under this teams skin. So Freddie and his coaching staff have to empathize discipline and playing under control. The only good news out this effort is future teams might (and it’s a small might) now take the Browns lightly. I guarantee Greg Williams and his Jets defense won’t. So now that I’ve had time to digest Sunday, lets get to the game.

First the play calling. Freddie can’t be the coach and the offensive coordinator. It doesn’t work in professional football and barely works in college football. Todd Monken, when offensive coordinator of Tampa, made Fitzpatrick and Winston look good in the deep passing game. Someone needs to remind Freddie he has Nick Chubb on the team. The running game disappeared way to early. Mayfield played well for three quarters and because of game circumstances ended poorly trying to rally his team. The kid has no quit in him.

Offensive line. We were all worried about the right guard position and we should have been worried about right tackle. Chris Hubbard got abused. Greg Robinson was slightly better until he turned into the karate kid. Eric Kush was decent, but as I just stated the tackles are the problem. This pressure made Mayfield very uncomfortable whether there was pressure or not. He step into pressure and held on to the ball too long. Add to the problem, back up tackle Kendall Lamm got hurt and like I said last week, Justin McCray is a better guard then tackle. I don’t know what John Dorsey can do about this, good players don’t fall from the sky. As for Washington’s OL Trent Williams, if he’s not available for trade, you can’t trade for him. Play calling can ease this situation not solve it. Let’s hope Freddie can come up with something.

Penalties. 18 freaking penalties. The vast majority of them were the correct calls. But a few were just plain bad. Yes the most popular professional sport in the United States has the worst officials. Three come to mind. The defense push off on Beckham, the wrestling take down and hold on Garrett on Henry’s 75 yard touchdown catch and Devaroe Lawrence penalty. First, the Beckham call, sure he pushed off, the titan CB was holding him. The Garrett call, hit him from behind and laid on top of him. And the Lawrence call, cursed at an official, well maybe the official shouldn’t have told him to “get the f— out of his way.” The penalties are on the coaching staff and this has to be cleaned up before Monday night.

The defense. The vaunted defense line was a non factor. Olivier Vernon was in on 91% of the defensive snaps and had no defensive stats. How is that possible. Even on the above mentioned penalty on Garrett, Henry went untouched for 75 yards. Denzel Ward had the worst game, not only in his short Browns career, but also in his Ohio State career. And lastly, why was Genard Avery inactive. Even if the line is getting no push, Avery could have added something extra on the edge. Something is going on with Avery and the Browns. I don’t know what it is, but there has to be some reason he wasn’t playing.

Now the good news. The Browns, despite the poor play, were still in this game late in the third quarter. Jarvis Landry had a good day. Chubb, when he played, averaged 4.4 yards a carry. Hilliard was very good on returns. The Scottish Hammer did a good job on his punts and the coverage team was also good. Also on the injury front, Mayfield’s hand seems to be okay. Rashard Higgins is practicing today and says he’ll be ready for Monday’s game and Beckham’s watch is made of plastic so he’s going to keep wearing it. I don’t know why that’s good news, but hey, you got to hold onto something.

Now for sad the news reported today. Cav’s announcer Fred McLeod passed away today of a heart attack at the age of 67. When my wife and I would leave our coffee shop here in Nashville late, I would also tune to the Cav’s game to see what was going on. I really enjoyed listening to the broadcast on my way home. His love of Cleveland sports always came through the radio. Rest in Peace. On to New York. Go Browns.

Here in Nashville, the local sports talk radio shows are still talking about Tennessee’s loss to Georgia St. Which I don’t mind being a Vandy fan. I guess the titans aren’t playing this week, or they’re worried about something. Lets start with their offensive line. Like I said in my last blog starting left tackle Dennis Kelly wasn’t at practice Tuesday. Practiced on Wednesday and told reporters he was still working on his plan to face Myles Garrett. I wonder if it’s a dental plan or a medical plan? Or dinner plans after the game to make him feel better after Garrett’s attack plan overwhelms him.

Also on Wednesday starting RT Jake Conklin didn’t practice because his knee was bothering him. He did practice Thursday though. However starting RG Kevin Pamphile didn’t and still didn’t on Friday. His replacement is Jamil Douglas. who’s also the back up center. Like I’ve said in the past, this offensive line is a mess. The titans are going to have to run the ball to keep the Browns defensive line off of Mariota. Heard a guy on the radio Thursday say the titans haven’t seen film of Beckham with the Browns, then added Derrick Henry hasn’t played all preseason so the Browns don’t have tape on Henry. What? The last time the Browns played the titans was here in Nashville in 2017 and the titans won 12-9. The soon to be 0-16 Browns held Henry to 13 yards on 13 carries. Nope never seen him.

The other big news here in Nashville was the titans putting their kicker on IR. They signed journeyman kicker Cairo Santos. Might be a problem in a close games, but I don’t think this game will be close. Sure the titans defense is good and their secondary is very good. They mostly play a 3-4 defense with their linebackers generating most of the pass rush. Yes defensive lineman Jurrell Casey is a stud and the interior of the browns offensive line will have their hands full. If I were the Browns I’d go Cameron Wake’s direction a lot. He’s good, but because of his age, not as good as he used to be. I’d send Njoku his way all game long. And if it’s successful, then the titans will be forced to send a safty to help, which opens up both the passing game and the running game.

Like I said their starting secondary is really good. Lets see what happens when the Browns go four wide and spread things out. If the Browns win the coin toss, you know they’ll take the ball first and hopefully go up tempo. I have a feeling if the titans win the coin toss, they’ll defer. Their defense is their strength so that makes sense. Besides a new kicker, their punter Brett Kern is a Pro Bowler, lets hope he punts all day long.

On the Browns side, the local media are still talking about whatever Baker Mayfield says and of course blowing whatever out of proportion. He said his wide receivers should be “licking their chops” with the one on one match ups on Sunday. Well yeah, they should, what’s your point? Still no talk of Nick Chubb. This amazes me. He only played down the road at Georgia, remember? Played both Vandy and Tennessee once a year, REMEMBER? As for the Browns defense, they still only talk about the defensive line. No linebackers, no secondary. I guess they’re chopped liver.

So that’s it from Nashville. I’m pumped for Sunday. My wife and I will get to the bar, Dawghouse Saloon, early. The Middle Tennessee Browns Backers always start the season with a tailgate party at 10:00 am central, then pack the bar we call “Dawgpound South.” I love watching the Browns with 250 like minded individuals. Go Browns and DAWGCHECK.

I love game week, but I really love game week number one. It’s especially interesting this year because as you know I live in Nashville, TN and the first opponent are the titans. When I’m in my office, I stream a Cleveland sports talk radio station to catch any breaking news and also get commentary on the Browns and other Cleveland teams. Of course as I drive to my office, I listen to Nashville sports talk radio and get a feel for the titans and how others view the Browns.

Lets start with the preseason. Despite guest interviews from national reporters, the radio guys here in Nashville still don’t understand how great the Browns defense can be and how well the defense played in the preseason. Fourteen sacks in the last two games is impressive even in practice games. Mostly they focus on Baker Mayfield, OBJ and Freddie being a rookie coach who won’t be able to handle all the egos on the team. Blah, blah blah. As for the titans, their offensive line hasn’t been great, but will be okay for the season opener. Marcus Mariota is an average quarterback but will be fine against the Browns. Derrick Henry will start and big things will happen.

What’s going to make this week even more interesting is the trade for WR Taywan Taylor. Fans and sports talk personalities here in Nashville have been bitching about Taylor since he first stepped into the field. Okay he does drop some easy passes, but so did Beshard Perriman. After being released by the ratbirds and signed by the Browns he did pretty well as a receiver. Maybe the offensive play calling and the quarterback throwing the ball had something to do with it. Last night on one local television station, the sports guy said Taylor was traded to the Browns to “go die.” My wife heard that and immediately started laughing. Die all the way to the playoffs. Today, a radio guy called Taylor a bum and doesn’t care if he faces the titans in week one. Well, there are already reports that Taylor is giving inside information on his former team to the Browns defensive coaches.

Now, there are reports that LT Dennis Kelly missed the open session of practice today for no reason. The titans OL has been rated pretty high based on their tackles, Jake Conklin and the suspended Taylor Lewan. The interior of the line has been a disaster, especially RG. Newly signed LG Roger Saffold has been pushed back to the quarterback a couple of times in games. In game three of the preseason, head coach Mike Vrabel pulled Mariota because the OL was playing terrible. The one player on the titans that bothers me is TE Delanie Walker. He’s Mariota’s security blanket and historically the Browns have trouble stopping opposing TE’s.

Now on to the Browns. GM John Dorsey was busy over the weekend adding talent. Besides the trade for Taylor, he also traded for OL Wyatt Teller and OL Justin McCray. Taylor is not super fast, but he’s quick and can get separation from the defense. As I said last week, Teller is good and probably is the second best guard on the team. As for McCray, he can play all five line positions, but is a better guard than tackle. The Browns now have an abundance of guards. That’s one way to solve a problem. Dorsey also picked up three players off waivers. LB Malik Jefferson from the bungals, TE Ricky Seals-Jones from the Cards and WR Khadarel Hodge from the Rams. Jefferson is an up and coming young linebacker, Hodge is a good special teamer who the Rams tried to sneak onto their practice squad and Jones was also claimed by the squeelers, but chose to sign with the Browns. Love this guy already.

This weeks “Building The Browns” on YouTube was great as always. Loved the scenes with the scouting department as they prepare to trim the roster. My only question is where does Freddie get all this cool Browns apparel? To the t shirt with the older “brownie” on it to in this weeks episode, the great hat with the block C on it. I’m the first to admit, I’m a hat fanatic and have a large collection, but that hat was cool. I didn’t hear a word he said, because I was staring at that hat. I guess it’s time to go online and see what the team shop has or maybe fanatics.com.

In college football, The Ohio State won and Justin Fields looked great as did the defense. Just wish coach Day would keep the hammer down on offense. This weeks game against Cincinnati is going to be a good test for the Buckeye’s. My Alma Mater, Vanderbilt got beat by number three Georgia, but had enough fight to tell me they can compete with teams. The shocker of Saturday, much to my delight, was Tennessee losing to Georgia State at home. So you pay a school $950,000.00 to come play you, a team that won two games last year and was picked to finish last in the Sun Belt and that’s the effort you put out. $950,000.00, there’s some sound financial planing. BYU comes to Knoxville this week, I wonder how much their getting paid.

That’s it for this blog. I’ll be posting another prior to game one next Sunday. By the way, did you know it’s Browns Game Week Number One? Can’t wait till Sunday and enjoying this one with my fellow Middle Tennessee Browns Backers at the Dawghouse Saloon (or as we call it, Dog Pound South). Go Browns.