** The "Official" 🏈 ▪︎ AFC WILD CARD ▪︎ BROWNS (-2½) -at- Texans 🏈 Sat. Jan. 13 *(Rev. 1/13/2024) **

[Neo]

45 minutes ago, MDDawg said:

I know but just throwing a bone to the Flacco lovers.

I was one of those on the Flacco express but anyone expecting Flacco to come off the couch and put a Lombardi in Cleveland's trophy case is nuts. I said a week ago, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. And we fell on our sword tonight. I just was expecting a much better effort than that abomination.

[Orion]

1 hour ago, Axe said:

I didn't see the entire game. But what i saw made me think the O line cost the Browns this game.

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.  

[Orion]

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.  

[Dutch Oven]

With duct tape and bubble gum we somehow cobbled together a roster that kept winning all the way to 11-6.

Houston made us pay for every weakness we had. Masterful coaching job.

[alporcini]

3 minutes ago, Orion said:

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.  

Could not agree more!!! Went back and watched it a couple of more times. It was a mugging. 

[Orion]

1 minute ago, Dutch Oven said:

Houston made us pay for every weakness we had. Masterful coaching job.

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.

[Dutch Oven]

4 minutes ago, Orion said:

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.

We were at a disadvantage because we beat them the last time?

Well, congrats, that's one of the more interesting excuses I've ever heard or read! 😉

[Neo]

8 minutes ago, Dutch Oven said:

We were at a disadvantage because we beat them the last time?

Well, congrats, that's one of the more interesting excuses I've ever heard or read! 😉

And we almost lost that game when they put the second unit in which says alot how they approach things and how we approach things. 

[Orion]

5 minutes ago, Dutch Oven said:

We were at a disadvantage because we beat them the last time?

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.  

[Orion]

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.   

 

[alporcini]

59 minutes ago, Orion said:

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.   

 

Hope we bring him back next season.

[Ghoolie Always Ghoolie]

The only reason I don't really get overly bummed when the Browns suffer a so-called heartbreaking defeat, is because I am blessed to have been alive for yet another season, I have made new friends via the Browns, and I get to reminisce about family and old times, dear things that have passed.

All over the US fans are dissecting the game, the season, plays, players, refs, FO and every possible aspect of the Browns. I find no fault with it as I have, over the years engaged in it.

My takeaway today is this. I hate every other NFL team. I hate the refs, our opponents, the league, the advertisers and especially Mahommes, The Steelers, Aaron Rogers, and Bejoonsie. 

I seriously would fistfight any three current NFL players in 3-2 minute bouts even at 69 and having emergency bypass surgery this past February.

The only thing that bothers me is that it will not be until July that we really have new things to talk about.

Even if we won the SB, it wouldn't matter because the season would still be over and I would wish the off season was over.

So, fuck everyone else. I am a Browns fan, and for me, that's enough.

God, do I love this place!

[Jax]

It's the playoffs and we played like a team that had crippling injuries throughout our roster.

You can get by in the regular season but not the playoffs.

 

[Dutch Oven]

9 hours ago, alporcini said:

Hope we bring him back next season.

I don't think I do.

It was great to have him back, and they figured out a way to get the most out of what he has left in the tank.

But it's time to start looking towards the future at the position IMO... we are already going to have a RB in Nick Chubb coming back from another major knee surgery with a lot of wear on his tires.

I'd like the Browns to get a physical runner who can take Hunt's spot in the draft. Someone to complement Ford, because Ford is not that guy.

[Flugel]

1 hour ago, Dutch Oven said:

I don't think I do.

It was great to have him back, and they figured out a way to get the most out of what he has left in the tank.

But it's time to start looking towards the future at the position IMO... we are already going to have a RB in Nick Chubb coming back from another major knee surgery with a lot of wear on his tires.

I'd like the Browns to get a physical runner who can take Hunt's spot in the draft. Someone to complement Ford, because Ford is not that guy.

Great points!  Yeah, I just gave my Rockhead take over in Neo's thread.  If we're being honest with where we are at - was this team, as is, ready to win 4 straight games over healthier teams?   Not this year - but this gives a very promising roster a Vengeance/motivation to FOCUS/FINISH.  Getting even 80% of Nick Chubb back with a work ethic maybe matched only by Myles Garrett - would be huge.  

[SdBacker80]

I put too much faith in our tackles to hold up during this playoff run.  

Christian and Hudson aren’t a winning formula.  I had hope for Hudson but he isn’t strong enough or athletic enough 
 

And The big concern I have is Joe and this offense made its hay in the pocket…can Kevin do that with Deshaun?  

[Flugel]

13 hours ago, Orion said:

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.  

Man, that was blatant too!   How about the hit Flacco took when his feet first slide was already underway. It was the same exact pretending to see nothing flag nothing nonsense.  I would have been okay with it if they were consistent with how they were calling things but it seemed really one sided.  Maybe I was too many beers for tears into it. 

This year has been kind of weird with the officiating; because the same time they decided not to flag anyone that was blatantly holding Garrett for about a 5-6 week period (parking his sack volume) - they also decided they needed to start flagging Emerson frequently all of a sudden.  

 

[Flugel]

19 minutes ago, SdBacker80 said:

I put too much faith in our tackles to hold up during this playoff run.  

Christian and Hudson aren’t a winning formula.  I had hope for Hudson but he isn’t strong enough or athletic enough 
 

And The big concern I have is Joe and this offense made its hay in the pocket…can Kevin do that with Deshaun?  

Yeah, and they played their butts off for us while we still managed to win 11 games.  I doubt we were going to be able to win 4 post season games in a row only being able to run in between our guards while taking on some of the best edges remaining (given that situation).  The bigger losses were at RT because our 1st 2 guys were pretty freakin good. Conklin is one of the best run blocking tackles.  The problem there is he's had horrible luck getting/staying healthy any length of time to count on him.  

 

[gumby73]

19 hours ago, gumby73 said:

your not crazy 

I'm chilling a few extra beers, hoping our backup Tackles don't stress us out today.. it's where Flacco may get some new heat..

No turnovers & get this place quite with a good Browns start

Let's Go Browns !  (it's finally kickoff)

The lovely wife even tried to change our luck at Tackle play, after she told me "your 7th beer wasn't working. Here ! Try this pitcher of Tito's Vodka Screwdrivers" !  😋  That pitcher didn't make it either !

Good Christ, my head feels like a train ran over it ! She's headed to church, but promised Jersey Mikes subs for Lunch hangover recovery   🫠   Mrs Gumby Queen Luther, said her honey do list can wait till Monday ! There is a dream & a God !

Thanks Honey !   Lunch & Nap it will be !  Sunday 4:30 game ugh ?

[Flugel]

17 hours ago, Bob806 said:

I expected a toughie but this is unexpected.

I get why teams rest their regulars but in hindsight maybe not a good idea. We seem a step or 3 slow

This looks like a good place to re-post some of my random Rockhead. 

 It seemed like every time I watched a road game whether it was in Denver, Seattle, LA or most recently in Houston - the commentators that did their last minute cliff notes research on the Browns wore the following statement out: "The Cleveland Browns have the #1 Defense"  All the while they were doing it Seattle drove their first 2 drives down the field and into the end zone spotting them a 14-3 the Browns couldn't overcome.  Denver bullied the crap out of the #1 Defense and how much did our #1 Defense scare the LA Rams?  ALL that bullshit is like a Peter King designating his annual 1 hour of researching what's going on with the Browns and summarizing it as well as any stranger to them can do it in the 20 minutes or so it takes to write his summary of the Browns.  However, in this case the commentators are stuck doing it for 3 hours; so we get to hear how unbeatable the #1 Defense is from people that are completely unfamiliar with it.

My take?  Our defense came a LONG way from last year; and I was really proud of them for that.  However, you can't patch ALL of your depth and weaknesses in just 1 offseason - especially without a 1st round draft pick (which Houston is in sole possession of).  Schwartz was a much needed addition as we witnessed via his tapping the very best of Myles Garrett, JOK and Denzel Ward.  The DT position was the biggest improvement in talent, depth and performance.  Unfortunately, we missed the big plays at the best of times from Mo Hurst in our rotation after he went on IR.  Meanwhile, our secondary got exposed for all to see yesterday and in LA.  I would have added Denver but Denzel Ward was out that game so Newsome got completely overwhelmed trying to cover their #1 WR Sutton.  Probably the most embarrassing moment (shortly after the 5th time we had to hear the Browns have the #1 defense) was when a Denver Receiver got deep with nobody covering him or within 30 yards of him.  Luckily he was overthrown.  Having said that, earlier on they completed a deep pass to a receiver that easily got behind our secondary and Newsome made the TD saving tackle.  No doubt CJ had a great day; but it would have been nice if our corners at least competed to the extent that he had to throw them open.  That wasn't required at all of CJ.  We all loved what Schwartz did for our defense this season; but Houston was better prepared on both sides of the ball.  I was worried about securing the football and turnovers; but even without their 2 pick 6s - their offense still scored 31 points on drives/big play passes.

Reality is the Browns didn't win 11 games by accident.  They earned a lot of hard fought victories in spite of their injury volumes on both sides of the ball. I think we were all proud of them for that. We'll got our top 2 RTs back next year and hopefully a harder working/more inspired Wills at LT.  We can draft someone in the 2nd round this time around instead overrating the crap out of another Eli Moore.  In rounds 2-4, please draft a DB/Safety with smarts, find the next version Fred Warner at LB in round 3 and perhaps a RB that doesn't blow off daylight for tap dances. The dream is to get Nick Chubb back in the lineup.   I hope the FO & Stefanski is prepared for the possibility of losing Schwartz.  If that does happen, is their a Defensive Coach here that learned the system enough to be promoted for the sake of continuity and the popularity of the scheme from the players?

We're gonna see so don't change that station - especially for Peacock!

[Bob806]

1 hour ago, Flugel said:

This looks like a good place to re-post some of my random Rockhead. 

 It seemed like every time I watched a road game whether it was in Denver, Seattle, LA or most recently in Houston - the commentators that did their last minute cliff notes research on the Browns wore the following statement out: "The Cleveland Browns have the #1 Defense"  All the while they were doing it Seattle drove their first 2 drives down the field and into the end zone spotting them a 14-3 the Browns couldn't overcome.  Denver bullied the crap out of the #1 Defense and how much did our #1 Defense scare the LA Rams?  ALL that bullshit is like a Peter King designating his annual 1 hour of researching what's going on with the Browns and summarizing it as well as any stranger to them can do it in the 20 minutes or so it takes to write his summary of the Browns.  However, in this case the commentators are stuck doing it for 3 hours; so we get to hear how unbeatable the #1 Defense is from people that are completely unfamiliar with it.

My take?  Our defense came a LONG way from last year; and I was really proud of them for that.  However, you can't patch ALL of your depth and weaknesses in just 1 offseason - especially without a 1st round draft pick (which Houston is in sole possession of).  Schwartz was a much needed addition as we witnessed via his tapping the very best of Myles Garrett, JOK and Denzel Ward.  The DT position was the biggest improvement in talent, depth and performance.  Unfortunately, we missed the big plays at the best of times from Mo Hurst in our rotation after he went on IR.  Meanwhile, our secondary got exposed for all to see yesterday and in LA.  I would have added Denver but Denzel Ward was out that game so Newsome got completely overwhelmed trying to cover their #1 WR Sutton.  Probably the most embarrassing moment (shortly after the 5th time we had to hear the Browns have the #1 defense) was when a Denver Receiver got deep with nobody covering him or within 30 yards of him.  Luckily he was overthrown.  Having said that, earlier on they completed a deep pass to a receiver that easily got behind our secondary and Newsome made the TD saving tackle.  No doubt CJ had a great day; but it would have been nice if our corners at least competed to the extent that he had to throw them open.  That wasn't required at all of CJ.  We all loved what Schwartz did for our defense this season; but Houston was better prepared on both sides of the ball.  I was worried about securing the football and turnovers; but even without their 2 pick 6s - their offense still scored 31 points on drives/big play passes.

Reality is the Browns didn't win 11 games by accident.  They earned a lot of hard fought victories in spite of their injury volumes on both sides of the ball. I think we were all proud of them for that. We'll got our top 2 RTs back next year and hopefully a harder working/more inspired Wills at LT.  We can draft someone in the 2nd round this time around instead overrating the crap out of another Eli Moore.  In rounds 2-4, please draft a DB/Safety with smarts, find the next version Fred Warner at LB in round 3 and perhaps a RB that doesn't blow off daylight for tap dances. The dream is to get Nick Chubb back in the lineup.   I hope the FO & Stefanski is prepared for the possibility of losing Schwartz.  If that does happen, is their a Defensive Coach here that learned the system enough to be promoted for the sake of continuity and the popularity of the scheme from the players?

We're gonna see so don't change that station - especially for Peacock!

Well said. I'm not really upset, the Browns are headed in the right direction for sure.

It's going to be hard to watch the rest of the playoffs for me. Ratbirds, Steelers, Bills, 49ers, Eagles...I really can't stand those teams.

Go Browns!!!

[TexasAg1969]

Well my Broncos loving season ticket holding nephew has promised to take me to the Browns game whenever it's scheduled there in Denver this year. So I've recovered enough from yesterday to be hyped about that. I think we can take 'em there too.🪄😁

[gumby73]

On 1/13/2024 at 3:52 PM, bbedward said:

I thought the individual awards were all regular season awards, and postseason didn’t factor in voting

 

On 1/13/2024 at 3:59 PM, gumby73 said:

this is the same thoughts I have ^^ votes are already in.. TV pregame says anything to hold TV viewers

per paid site The Athletic writer..

On Jan 4, 2024 — Less than one week remains before the Jan. 10th voting deadline for MVP and the other annual Associated Press NFL awards

 

so 3 days before Browns playoff game was played, the votes were in..

[bbedward]

48 minutes ago, gumby73 said:

 

per paid site The Athletic writer..

On Jan 4, 2024 — Less than one week remains before the Jan. 10th voting deadline for MVP and the other annual Associated Press NFL awards

 

so 3 days before Browns playoff game was played, the votes were in..

I’d be pretty confident stefanski gets coty in that case, after the wild card game it clearly should be demeco though…out coached similar to how McVay exploited the defense with the quick hitting misdirections.

[MDDawg]

On 1/13/2024 at 10:40 PM, Orion said:

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.  

Giving up big plays has been an infuriating weakness of this defense the entire season. I expected at least one but boy did they find the day to give their worst performance. However looked like it was a running theme this weekend with Dallas' purportedly top 4 defense being boat raced too.