Tale of the Tape - Browns 2023

[Orion]

 

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?  

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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.  

[Flugel]

36 minutes ago, Orion said:

 

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.  

Really nice summary!   Hopefully we won't have to shrink our running game because of a 3rd string RT and a 2nd string LT to hoping for daylight somewhere between our 2 OGs.  That didn't help at all and it's VERY rare to find a team with 11 wins given that sentence.  On the other hand, that also shows us how good our OGs are! I'd love it if we can find a difference making safety (even though I'm aware Delpit made the Pro Bowl).  Over the years we've had to watch Safeties like Ed Reed (24th overall), Carnell Lake (2nd rd 34th overall),  Pollyneedsahaircut, and most recently Kyle Hamilton always in position to make big plays against us. It looked like Ed Reed was Kelly Holcomb's favorite receiver.  That said, Eric Turner returned the favor.  I still remember the year Nick Saban put him on NE's top weapon/league leading TE Ben Coates.  He shut him out and that stymied NE's game plan to help the Browns win.