jiggins7919

This was the absolute most fun I've had in a while watching Browns football. I didn't give them much of a chance, as our passing game wasn't clicking and Baltimore was playing incredible football. In one of my long, bumbling, drawn-out posts I said I had a niggling thought that we might blow them out. That the stars would align and we'd be able to exploit their subpar secondary. Baker looked COMPLETELY different today and that's the best news of all. So calm, so poised, and so accurate. You kind of felt like Landry was going to bust out shortly, and boy did he. Hopefully some people started Seals-Jones on my advice! 🤣 What a terrific game for so many reasons. I got to watch it with my father and we had a fantastic time hooting and hollering. Special day, enjoy it. WOOF WOOF! Oh, and suck a bag of weiners, REX.

If you don't wear brown and orange....you don't matter! Let's freakin go!

Oh God, I would LOVE to click on those links! 🤣 It's funny, this is the biggest game we've had in quite a while. The last game of the quarter, a chance to claim 1st place in division, and most importantly, a chance to get back on track. Seriously, can you think of two more different narratives of we win vs lose? It would literally be "going to the playoffs" vs "let's start discussing the draft". And the scary thing is...both might be RIGHT. That's how important this game is, and also why so many Browns fans were so distraught last week. You really can't say a loss doesn't destroy our chances (for the most part) cuz beating the Seahawks, Patriots, 49's, and the 85 Bears won't be easy. Does it literally crush us? Nah, not really, but IF we lose we MUST SCORE POINTS. The one thing that just can't happen is us crapping the bed on offense because that's going to continue the awful narratives of our coach and QB sucking and we desperately need to move beyond that. COME ON BROWNIES!

LOL, I know he's pretty rough. But I will try to sprinkle in a bit of good news. Ricky Seal-Jones was a gigantic WR recruit, 5 star prospect, and has converted to TE. He can definitely make plays down the field, and while he wont block anyone, he's definitely a threat to catch passes, long passes too. Wouldn't surprise me if he had himself a decent day. I thought he was on his way to producing last week, as he caught a gorgeous ball early from Baker for around 15 yards, but I don't think we heard from him again.

Here's the thing, Freddie was largely credited with substantially turning around our offense, but more importantly our QUARTERBACK. Baker was doing OK, especially as a rookie, but he downright took OFF after Freddie took over. And when I say took over, the kid started setting records. In addition to production, Baker literally didn't get sacked or hardly TOUCHED for like 8 games. I've never seen anything like it. Our offense was innovative, creative, and unpredictable. So what's wrong NOW? As always, I'm glad you asked! Let me set the ground rules. This is NOT a doom and gloom post, I don't want to be known as that guy. Have I been critical? Yes, but it's not without merit. The differences this year have to do with personnel grouping. Last season Baker was at his best in "12 personnel", which is a 2 TE set. This was mostly done to protect, but also used the extra TE as a blocker for running plays. So what are running mostly this year? Surely we'd run 12 personnel again this year, right? The same grouping that enabled our QB to set rookie records? Wrong. We're mostly running "11 personnel", which as you know is a single TE and, 1 RB, and 1 3 WRs. We're also running many longer routes running deeper down the field, and this is a mystery as we're struggling to protect. Why aren't we running two TE sets this year? A lot of it has to do with our personnel. Obviously losing Njoku hurt, but TE was probably one of our weakest position groupings on the roster. For some reason, we cut or traded Devalve, Orson Charles, and Darren Fells. None of these 3 were ever going to be considered "good" but at least they knew the offense, and at least they sort of knew how to block. We need to sign a blocking TE, and we need to do it NOW. Pharaoh Brown is borderline worthless, and blocking TEs are easier to find than receiving ones. We have to make a move and get back to what Baker knows.

I honestly thought we were going to run a draw once we spread them out and I was so excited. Obviously we'll never know if it would have worked, but man...I was envisioning Baker busting through to score and jumping into the stands. It's difficult to stop if you're not expecting it, and I still maintain its better than most plays. But whatever, different strokes and all that. And OBJ wasn't doubled near as much as you say, in fact, Todd Monken was quoted this week saying the same thing. For whatever reason Baker didn't look his way or Jarvis' way, and that's something he'll have to live with. Baker even said after the game that not hitting Jarvis will haunt his dreams for a while because he inexplicably threw it to a double covered Harris. Why? Because it worked once and he was hoping it'd work again, instead of trusting himself to make the correct read. All this talk goes away with a win, but I'll tell you that our defense is due for a bad game. It's only normal. You can't shut down EVERYONE every week. Hopefully we save our bad game for another time, but this offense we're playing isn't normal, and the Ravens will put up big yards in a quick hurry. Hopefully Baker does the same thing, but if he's throwing high still, it's not going to be fun. And it's not ME killing your Browns buzz, that's the team. Time to nut up and take it to the champs...at their house.

LOL, he's gotta be a better blocker than our guys!

It's funny, if old Baker (and old offensive scheme) was playing this week against Baltimore, I'd predict us to win by a comfortable margin. I also want to throw some shade at a John Dorsey. Why do we have the most atrocious TEs on earth? Did I just see Fells catch another one for Texans? Why don't we have a blocking TE worth a shit? Why not a fullback? Are you really telling me our TEs are as good as available? I liked Devalve! He could be H-back or a receiver! I have a sneaky suspicion that Baker is going to be looking for Landry a ton this game. Landry has been open so many times and Baker has either missed him or just didn't see him. And the coaches HAVE to stop with the Landry deep routes. That's NOT how he caught 100 balls every year. Jesus, this shit isn't complicated.

And I'm really not trying to be some malcontent ass clown, I promise. But like you said, he had 3 throws he'd like to have back. 3 out of 4 with the freaking game on the line? And the absolute worst part is that he didn't even try to throw to his best weapon, who was open. Those 3 throws are a microcosm of Baker's season so far. Not seeing the open man, not anticipating routes, and simply panicking so often. I'm not entirely sure people understand how many open receivers Baker has missed this season, especially on 3rd down. Let's also be fair to the kid, every single QB misses receivers, everyone gets flustered, and all QBs have a run of bad games. Like others have said, we've also played good defenses, Baker has been without 2 favorite targets, and even though our defense has been borderline SPECTACULAR, they could have done MORE to help a struggling young QB. How you say? Simple. We could have scored a defensive touchdown instead of tripping over our own guy. For whatever reason, our defense is genetically predisposed to crap on themselves during a turnover. We literally CANNOT score once we have the turnover. Anyway, back to Baker. I don't have the stat on hand, but I know Baker has been deplorable against pressure. Guess what Baltimore is going to bring tomorrow? They might not have the defense of old, but their line is amazing and they're going to be all over Mayfield. And I swear to God if we run that tired ass screen play to Chubb 20 more times tomorrow, I'll lose my mind. Where's the creativity? I was absolutely SCREAMING QB draw last week, but NOPE. That play has worked against us for 20 years, but lord knows we won't run it. I sure hope we win tomorrow, but I just finished watching Baltimore highlights from their games and I'm not feeling very good. They are downright terrifying, and their only weakness is against the big play, but unfortunately we seem immune to making those. Sure would be nice to back on track tomorrow, because if we do, it's going to be fun times in Cleveland, if we stink it up and especially if Baker still looks lost, the season will begin to turn toxic and we'll have a miserable, long, frustrating year. Cmon Brownies, put a complete game together. I'm a little concerned our defense isn't quite as good as shown, but if it really is, we might have a chance. Sure doesn't feel like it, though. Lol

It's so much more than those two things. For one, Baker is absolutely missing receivers and not recognizing single coverage or favorable match ups. Watch our last 4 snaps against Rams, and watch how Jarvis and OBJ don't get the ball when they're open. Baker was king of this last year, and now he's pre-determining where to throw the ball, he's not stepping up to throw in the pocket, and he's not even trying to throw deep. He has no trust in himself, and I guess he won't trust himself until he stops throwing high. I am NOT hating on the kid, I'm not bashing anyone. I'm just saying Baker is somehow a shell of his rookie self, and I can't begin to understand why. Edit: God I hate sounding like this, but I am so sick and tired of our podcast hosts making excuses for Baker and perpetually saying that he's very close and he's making progress. "The offense is about to click!" JUST ENOUGH ALREADY. Dang man, listening to these guys makes me think we're about to win the freaking Super Bowl. They keep saying how our receivers are new, Baker doesn't have Duke Johnson, Kevin Zeitler is missed, and whatever other excuses they can concoct. Let me tell you something, there's not a single excuse in the world for a QB to continuously miss receivers open in the end zone. None. There's no excuse for Baker to have such a low percentage of completion or have the lowest 3rd down success rate. None. Do you know WHY Baker only wants to throw the jump ball to Demetrius Harris or why he runs right and just tosses it up in the air in red zone? Because he doesn't trust his ability to fire the ball into windows, ESPECIALLY in the middle of the field. Baker used to RULE the middle, now he's terrified. I have no clue how to fix it, or what's scarier, IF it CAN be fixed. God I certainly hope so, man. Because I'm not totally sure people are recognizing just how poorly Baker is playing. We're not talking about a missed throw here and there, we're talking about a complete regression of ability, and what's worse, confidence.

I got the Baker Mayfield color rush knock off jersey, and it's the first jersey I bought since Peyton Hillis (stop laughing). Obviously Baker Mayfield sucking is completely my fault and I should have known better than to buy the jersey. It's funny, when I bought it my friend jokingly said, "Hey man, do you really want to curse Baker? Hahaha." I'm not laughing anymore.

So, in one my lengthy semi-pointless diatribes I mentioned penalties as being paramount to our success. One of the things Baltimore does is keep 3rd down extremely manageable. They do this by of course running the ball, but what many people might not realize is they have two of the top five rushers in the LEAGUE if you go by yards per carry. Both Jackson AND Ingram are averaging a robust 6 yards a carry, and that’s borderline stupid. So when the inevitable 3rd and 2 arrives, you can bet your ass Baltimore has about 50 plays at their disposal to run AND they’re a threat to pass and run on 3rd down. They are truly a difficult offense to stop, especially as Jackson progresses (ahem, Baker. Let’s progress too, alright?) I mention penalties as being important, but not just us committing them, we need the refs to call them FOR US. What I mean is, Myles Garrett was hog-tied by the LT AND the RT for much of the previous game, and I can’t think of maybe one time the Rams were called for holding. Anyone who watches Myles regularly knows that he routinely gets mugged, but last week was a bit more egregious because some of the holds were just so obvious. If the refs call the appropriate holding calls, this will put Baltimore behind the sticks, so instead of their usual 3rd and short, they’ll have a much higher chance of 3rd and long which drastically affects their offensive scheme. (don’t get it twisted, Jackson can still very much pass for first downs, but you’d rather have THAT than try to stop them from getting a couple yards) Speaking of behind the sticks, we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot with holding penalties, pre-snap issues, and especially silly, selfish penalties. Playing Jackson is especially frustrating because he’ll gash you for a 20 yard run and then scamper out of bounds without being touched. You can do everything right in the secondary, and then POOF. 20 yards by a freaking QB, and if you’re not careful, he’ll take it to the house. He’s almost always going to be the fastest guy on the field, and that’s terrifying (well, maybe not THE fastest, but you know what I mean). Who needs to play better this week for us to win BESIDES Baker Mayfield? You might not expect this, but the answer is…NICK CHUBB. “But Jiggins, we ran the ball pretty well last week, and Chubb was the only consistent offensive player!” Well yes, but also not really. Why? Because Chubb didn’t break off a long run when we desperately needed a big play. Now of course this is an unfair criticism, as running the ball takes far more than one guy, but last week Nick Chubb only broke ONE TACKLE. That’s right, one. That’s not enough, and if we’re going to win, we’re going to need our “old school” RB who is physical yet fast, and we need a homerun to take some pressure off. Our offense is severely lacking in big plays, and if we didn’t play the lowly Jets, we literally wouldn’t have ANY BIG PLAYS. Chubb is also trying to improve as a receiver, but several times he either ran the wrong route or didn’t run it correctly, so when Baker looked for him, he wasn’t there or he was too shallow/deep or whatever. These are the learning curves of trying to make Chubb a 3 down back, and this is also a painful ramification of not having Duke Johnson. We’re one of the absolute worst teams in the league at converting 3rd downs. I’ve seen us screw up more 3rd and shorts than ever, and I almost ASSUME we’re punting on 3rd and 1 because it seems like we never get it. Losing Njoku, Duke Johnson, and Higgins has severely hampered our ability to pick up short yardage first downs, and I can only hope we’ve done something about it this week…because if you continue to go 3 and out against the Ravens, they WILL wear your defense out, and then you have officially been beaten.

Yep, and then they got desperate and tried to run the "rub route", which I freaking HATE.

https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2019/9/26/20882674/baker-mayfield-marcus-mariota-sacks-titans-browns-offensive-lines This is not good btw. Can't blame Special Fred for this nonsense.

I don't think so, but who knows? We had such incredible injury luck last year that we all knew this year would be different.

I've had a chance to review the Ravens and what they do on defense and offense, and holy shit. So regardless of who they played, they're playing top 5 worthy in all 3 phases of the game. Offense, defense,special teams. Offensively, they don't have a single turnover all year. Lamar is top 5 in virtually every passing category, and leads the league with consecutive passes without a pick. Their defensive line is stupid amazing and they lead the league in QB hits and I believe they're top 3 in yards per carry. Their players are just ALWAYS around the QB, and that scares me more than anything. Baker isn't doing well with pressure, and that's causing to panic WITHOUT pressure. Once they get into the red zone, it's going to be a touchdown almost every time. They're rated 10th in red zone offense, and I believe we're ranked somewhere ahead of the 83 Buccaneers, but below the 2006 Lions. All kidding aside, our red zone offense is deplorable, and it's awful because of Baker Mayfield. The media will tell you, the film will tell you, and HE will tell you. You can't blame the OL, can't blame Kitchens (well, a little), and can't blame defense. "So Jiggins, are you saying the Ravens are the NFL juggernaut and don't have any weaknesses?" Well no, I'm not saying that, but unfortunately their weaknesses don't align well with what we do. They're weak at the back end of their defense, as they've given up some big pass plays. Baker will definitely have opportunities for a big strike throughout the game, and he'll have to hit on them. This will not be a game where we orchestrate 16 play drives, as we're not built for that. They're weak in the secondary, but our weakness is our QB. Not good. I think you're going to know how this game is going to end after the first quarter. If we're down 10-0 or something like that...just turn it off. Baker will press, the interceptions will follow, and all hell will break loose. But if we move the ball early, score a few points, and punch them in the mouth...we.might have a game. We're going to know very early, so here's to hoping. I will say that there's something in the back of my mind, some little idea niggling it's way to the forefront of my deteriorated mind. The idea that Baker Mayfield, the guy who is massively crapping the bed, comes out on fire and lights Baltimore up for 400 and 4 TDS. Baker takes all the negativity and all the times people said he wasn't good enough, and he puts together the game of his young life.

Remember that one year we lead the league in offensive pass interference but every other team scored using the rub play? Lol

Has to wait until after 8th game, correct?

OMG, ME TOO! Even if you don't run it, which I honestly wouldn't have had a problem with all FOUR plays being a run, you at least have to make them THINK it might be a run, right?! AHHHHHH! 😂 We all know hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but geez. We had a decent amount of success running the ball, right? So why not line up and run it at them 4 straight times. 4 plays, 5 yards, let's see who wins. That's slightly nuts I know, but I'd rather THAT than 4 straight empty set plays. How about a QB draw on first down? That effing PLAY ALWAYS works against us, Lmao.

Cardinals settled for FG's, and that's exactly what scares me because that's what we do. That being said, if we can figure out some red zone plays that work we can win. That's basically everything in the NFL. The teams that get 7 instead of 3 are the ones that generally win.

I hope you're right! 2-2 atop the division would be something else!

It was unfortunately the case several times, with OBJ juking his defender so badly he fell DOWN one play. I speak truth, go find the highlights and watch the last 4 plays. It's mind boggling. He missed OBJ twice, Jarvis another time. Just weird and sad. Here's the Jarvis play he missed. Not sure I can post a Twitter feed, but I will try.

This is exactly the team you DON'T want to play when you desperately need a victory. Don't let the Ravens pass defense stats fool you, much of that is bloated due to the fact they played the Chiefs. People like to say the Ravens aren't good simply because they don't like them, but I can pretty much promise everyone that they're not only good, they're downright scary. They're scary because of their offense and their defense is physical as always. Even without Suggs and Mosley, they're still going to pressure a rattled Mayfield and probably cause several turnovers. Even scarier is our propensity to kick FG's and not even come close to getting touchdowns. Here's something else...every Ravens game I've watched has them starting off FAST. That's probably because it takes the defense some time to adjust to them and they score touchdowns quickly. I don't like the thought of our team down early, as that means Baker will press and that's a formula for disaster. You want good news? Well, the good news is that of we somehow win, we'll be first in our lousy division. That's pretty incredible considering how poorly we've played on offense. But if we don't figure out how to actually put points on the board, we can forget it. 13 won't work this week, and Baker must find a way to get his moxy back or the young season will turn old with the swiftness.

No doubt, and no argument from me about last year. I just don't understand why he's missing open targets, not seeing open targets, and why he's leaving the pocket so soon THIS year. And what I really don't understand is why he didn't target OBJ on that last failed series. Makes no sense.

Are you kidding? I want to be the wrongest dude this side of the equator! I want to be so wrong that we all chuckle at the end of the year while holding the Lombardi trophy and laughing at the absurdity of my comments. I love this team, and I remember the fun we had at the end of the year and the optimism we had for this season. But dang man, something is flat wrong, and they don't traditionally get better against the Ravens. But you know I'll be watching and rooting for us to win!