Orion

I believe that night games started with Monday Night Football.

The NFL does not give a rats ass about the players on the field or the fans in the stands. All they care about is TV ratings. They schedule games at night...in January. Take a step back and let the back of your mind repeat that. Because the back of your mind thinks that sounds crazy. Football was not created as a winter sport. Football was scheduled to be over before Christmas. ( check the early years of the NFL )

This is from the article: They like Stefanski as a play-caller. He probably will return to that role next season, but that could be under discussion based upon who is hired as the new offensive coordinator. The Browns are looking to the outside for some new ideas to fire up the offense. Now that they made the playoffs, they want to find ways to become an elite team. For that to happen, Watson has to at least approach his former Pro Bowl production. The goal is for the new coaches on offense to make that happen.

My Favorite:

No dishonor in that Duece. I didn't like him as our ST coach. I don't see how these were 'optics' firings. I should think that 'optically' we were an overachieving team. We lost our superstar RB just after the season started. We lost our starting QB. We would up with our #5 & #6 offensive tackles manning the tackle positions. And yet we made the playoffs. I like Stef. And I understand that it's difficult when the HC calls the plays and somebody else is OC. But that OC is the one who coached our only winning playoff game. Granted, the Steelers turned the ball over 5 times...making it harder for a HC to lose that game.....come to think of it, Hue Jackson probably could've done it. There are reasons these guys weren't retained. We probably won't know them until somebody writes a book.

The DLine is soo important to a football team. I mean, who hurries the QB? No matter how good your coverage people are, if the QB isn't rushed passes will be complete. Who clogs up the run? The DL sets up the rest of the defense as to how good they can be. Let's face it. Our DL, especially the interior, was better this year than last year. And it helped to vault our pass defense to the top of the league for most of the season. And it was our D that kept us in games that we should've lost...so that our kicker could win us some of those should've lost games. Obviously Flacco putting up big numbers and getting us 4 straight wins got us to the playoffs, but more than once he credited the defense for the wins. And the DLine is the engine of the defense.

Have a Snickers bar.

So...extracting info from the tale. Rushing. We started out, with Nick Chubb, and were the #1 rushing team in the league. We slowly but steadily marched down to 12th. By season's end we weren't getting anywhere near 100 yards in a game. Coincidently ?? by season's end we were playing our 5th & 6th offensive tackles on the depth chart. Passing. In 5 games, Flacco took us from the very bottom of the rankings to 19th. That was pretty herculean. But for most of the season we battled with poor QB play. Teams sold out to stop our run and dared us to go ahead and try to pass. If it wasn't for our defense, this situation would've sunk us to a deep losing record. There is work to be done in the offseason. And somebody's gotta teach Watson to slide early when running with the ball. Defending the Run. All and all we did a much better job this year than last. We started out the season great against the run, slumped a little in the middle, but got fairly solid by season's end. We've got to address LB'er this year. (we gave up too many long runs though) Defending the Pass. This is a combination of rushing the passer and covering the receivers. We were #1 against the pass for most of the season because we were able to harass the passer....and our corner backs were pretty good. I don't know what will happen with Denzel Ward this offseason, but we were a better defense when he was in the game. Lastly, we were minus nine in turnovers. We dragged that stat around with us all season long. How did we make the playoffs and yet lead the league in turnovers? ---------- An odd season it was. We lost our QB and had to play some guy named PJ, and a 5th round pick rookie. It looked for all the world like we were doomed. But somehow we kept strategizing wins (props to Stef). Then we signed Flacco. And all of a sudden there was hope. It was a heck-of-a-lot better a season than a great many since the turn of the century. Now, to the draft....where we don't pick until the bottom end of round 2.

Za'Darius Smith, Maurice Hurst, Anthony Walker. There are other guys that played ok for us, like Harrison Bryant, Takitaki, Jacob Philips, etc....but, that's up to the team to either improve upon or keep as the depth you're going to need to get through a 17+ game schedule. We need LB'er, and more speed in the secondary. We've got to figure out how to block for running & passing.

I love when we switch to the Wild Cat with Hunt taking the shotgun snap. You KNOW you're about to see one of his Hair On Fire runs that are so exciting. If the play is being run inside the opponent's 10 yard line, Look Out, 'cuz it's probably going to be a TD.

Deep. No? We got beat because our QB threw 2 TD's for them. We gave up too many big plays on D. And because we couldn't run the ball.

It's hard to beat a team twice. The team that got beat first...determines WHY they got beat...and makes changes for the next time. The original winner is pretty much going to do what worked last time.

I'll Tell Ya When The Game Turned To $#!+. When they didn't call pass interference on a pass for a 1st down to Njoku. The defender clearly got there before the ball. And from that point on the game went into the shitter.

We lost the RT during the game. That brought into the game the 6th tackle. We were playing 2 OT backups to the backups. And Bitonio went out for a while. Flacco reminds me of Tom Brady. In that he's a pocket passer and throws nice passes. But Brady always had the time to throw. The time to look at multiple receivers. That wasn't available to Flacco today. Backups to the backups blocking the edges.

Just sitting down with a piece of hot apple pie made by Mrs. Wife. Yum! Congrats everyone on a good season! An improbable playoff season. In all of the time that Watson was out...having to watch the play of the two QB's that we had to trot out there...and losing 3 offensive tackles...well...there was no hope. It was only a matter of time before the ineptness of the QB position would overwhelm our defenses' stellar play. ...and then along came Joe Flacco, who after losing to the Rams to the team on a 4 game winning streak to make the playoffs! Storybook! Now, we turn to team improvement for next year. Hopefully we'll have Schwartz around to take the next step with the D. I think sometimes our secondary lacks foot speed. And we'll be looking at the WR position again this offseason. - A key is to have really good / serviceable backups. The season is so long, the pads are so little, that backups spend a lot of time on the field over the course of the 17+ games. Personally, I think they should go back to 14. Anyway, Congrats on a good season everyone!

It's from what's called NFL dot com.

I figured that John Kelly being up meant Strong wasn't playing.

Dream scenario: We win. (please, that's all we really want) And the Bills & Chiefs both lose. Then we host Miami next week. - It's the Night Before....so we can dream.

When he plays in preseason he usually does ok. Felton took his carries this preseason though. But he's been around the team for quite some time over the last few years. Everybody knows him. If he gets in the game, he's gotta hold onto the ball and pickup the blitzer.

Browns Player Position Injuries Practice Status Game Status David Bell WR Full Participation in Practice Joel Bitonio G Full Participation in Practice Corey Bojorquez P Full Participation in Practice Amari Cooper WR Full Participation in Practice Grant Delpit S Groin Limited Participation in Practice Out Joe Flacco QB Full Participation in Practice Mike Ford CB Calf Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Myles Garrett DE Full Participation in Practice Questionable Marquise Goodwin WR Full Participation in Practice Questionable Duron Harmon S Full Participation in Practice Questionable Shelby Harris DT Full Participation in Practice Questionable Dustin Hopkins K left Hamstring Did Not Participate In Practice Out Kareem Hunt RB Full Participation in Practice Questionable Jordan Kunaszyk LB Full Participation in Practice Questionable Greg Newsome II CB Full Participation in Practice Questionable David Njoku TE Full Participation in Practice Questionable Ogbo Okoronkwo DE Full Participation in Practice Questionable Ethan Pocic C Full Participation in Practice Questionable Pierre Strong RB Back Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Juan Thornhill S Calf Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Cedric Tillman WR Concussion Did Not Participate In Practice Out Denzel Ward CB Shoulder, Knee Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Texans Player Position Injuries Practice Status Game Status Will Anderson Jr. DE Ankle Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Andrew Beck FB Calf Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Noah Brown WR Back Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Maliek Collins DT Hip Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Michael Deiter C Full Participation in Practice Jonathan Greenard DE Ankle Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Jerry Hughes DE Ankle Did Not Participate In Practice Out Shaq Mason G Did Not Participate In Practice Sheldon Rankins DT Shoulder Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Laremy Tunsil T Did Not Participate In Practice Robert Woods WR Hip Limited Participation in Practice Questionable Tillman is out. It's someone's chance to step in and show that he should keep the job throughout the playoffs.

So John Kelly was elevated from the practice squad. Pierre Strong definitely got dinged on his last play last week.

Most impressive about Watson’s game against the Bengals, however, was his desire to play from whistle to whistle and look for work. Keeping his head on a swivel, Watson, if not engaged right off the snap in his zone, will find the closest man to him and look to put him on the turf. He did this three times on Sunday. ---- Whereas Wills, his contract says that he only needs to work for 3.5 seconds per play. Reality, the article says that Watson is athletic but not very good either. We really have to take the expectation of pass away from the defense with the running game, but we can't run. We're too deep into the bench at tackle. - Our defense is going to have to play its absolute best.

Flacco, longer developing deep shots and play-action takes, the cracks emerged in Christian’s game. Of all qualifying offensive tackles, there are only five worse pass blockers in the NFL (according to PFF).

...and does he come as a package deal with the two other Belichick Patriots coaches also? (Steve & Brian)

Does anyone think that Bill Belichik is now a different coach than he ever was? For spite he held a player out of the super bowl and subsequently lost the game. He cut Bernie Kosar to put in Todd Philcox. He's a pig-headed a-hole. But he's got a good mind for the defensive side of the ball. The trouble is, he's too huge in stature to be anything but a HC.