Sluggish performance today, but a win is a win. Prayers go out to Mauldin, hopefully he's OK but at this point football shouldn't matter. Cromartie might be done for the year with a knee injury but we'll see later tonight or tomorrow what's really up with him. Injuries always suck but I'm looking forward to finally have Marcus Williams out there starting for us, possibly the entire season. I've been hyping him up throughout camp and the preseason and when it was time for him to step up he made the most of it. Arguably the best player on defense today for us. While the run defense looked great we really struggled to go after the QB until late in the game, when Manziel was running around there showing zero pocket awareness. But early on, nothing. Pace is one of the slowest linebackers I've ever seen. Mauldin didn't get on the field until the 2nd half, Coples had some nice rushes but he's not the most explosive guy in the world. Reilly had a sack but that was more effort than really him beating the tackle. Outside of that, nothing. Very disappointing. We desperately need an edge rusher here and dare I say we might have to bring back Babin. He's old, but he's still explosive at least. He'd probably be our best pass rusher if we do pick him up. The run defense was outstanding. Crowell I think averaged a little over 1 yard per carry, that's about as good as it gets. Against a decent O-Line. The offense was so so when it really counted, early on. Actually, we struggled. A lot of penalties, mistakes, a couple of bad throws, some drops. Just inconsistent overall. Had this been a somewhat decent team we played today they would have put a whooping on us I believe. We had some lucky breaks, really really lucky ones. The fumble on the 1 yard line by Josh McCopter, courtesy of Pryor. The forced fumble by Brandon Marshall on an interception. A lot of weird plays that usually don't happen. So there are a lot of things that need to be fixed. Once we got on a roll however the Browns weren't able to stop us or even slow us down, especially with McCopter out of the game. The O-Line did a tremendous job today, not only protecting Fitz but also run blocking for Powell and Ivory, two backs that really stood out. I'm glad we finally have a coordinator that doesn't have braindamage. Handing the ball to Ivory 20 times, Powell with almost 15 touches, that's what we all were hoping for and I hope Chan keeps it up. There's no reason to not give the ball to these two guys, only good things happen when they have the ball in their hands. Marshall started out slow, had a couple of penalties I think, a drop, but he finished strong and made some key plays for us today. The forced fumble, a couple of key catches, the touchdown. Decker looked flawless out there. We still have to get Enunwa, Owusu and one of the TE's involved in the passing game a little more. Throwing it to Decker and Marshall all day isn't going to work each week. Anyway, here are some players that stood out to me without really having rewatched the game of course: - RB Chris Ivory & Bilal Powell (32 carries, 153 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 rec for 16 yards) It's a joy to watch these two run. Ivory looks so much faster this year, he likes bouncing to the outside if there are no holes in the middle, something he rarely did in the past. And when he did he'd get tackled somewhere in the backfield. Now he's outrunning linebackers and safeties. Over the middle he's just as vicious, always breaking at least 1-2 tackles before going down. Bilal continues to be that blue collar, hard working guy on our team who probably will be forever underappreciated. His long run at the end on 3rd down where he could have just stepped out of bounds showed how much toughness he has. He stayed inbounds, lowered his shoulder, punished the safety and got the 1st down to basically win/end the game for us. He also had a couple of really good blitz pickups. If we can manage to keep these two on the squad for the next 5+ years they'll be remembered here for a long time. The entire O-Line should be also mentioned here, great job run blocking today against a solid run defense. - CB Marcus Williams (3 Tackles, 1 INT, 2 Deflections) Throughout the offseason, camp, preseason, he was probably our most impressive DB. With Cro being here and making the money he's making, there was no way Marcus would push him off the starting lineup. I'd feel bad for Cro if he missed the entire season but I'd look forward to seeing Marcus out there and establish himself as a starting corner, somebody who would take over next to Revis. He has all the skills and tools to be a #1 corner. Size, speed, ball skills, awareness, tackling, he understands coverages, he recognizes routes. I'm excited for him, I think he'll have a huge year for us. I don't want to say Cro going down might be a good thing for us because I don't want to see anybody go down, but I really think the defense will be better off with Marcus out there. Revis on the other side, Skrine in the slot, I really like those 3. - SS Calvin Pryor (1o Tackles, 1 Forced Fumble) He sent McCown rotating out of the stadium, that hit at the goal line probably saved the game for us. McCown tried to pick on him a handful of times, but his coverage was spot on today which is nice to see, it'll get his confidence up and I think that's the key for him. A guy like Pryor can be a difference maker if he plays with confidence. Without confidence he will be a weak link and play the way he did last year, missing tackles and looking lost in coverage. In the running game he did what he was supposed to do. Had a couple of nice hits and stuffed some runs, just a rock solid game from him. He needs to build on that. - The D-Line (15 Tackles, 1 Sack, 1 Forced Fumble) D-Line being Snacks, Mo & Leo. They did a great job working against the run, Leo especially had some nice hustle plays against the pass but we need more pass rush from Mo. If he wants to be paid like a stud he needs to be more disruptive, plain and simple. It'll be hard to keep Leonard off the field once Sheldon returns. We are a decent edge rusher away from really creating an elite defense. Let's hope somebody steps up soon. Now on to the guys that went MIA today. - OLB Calvin Pace (0 Solo Tackles, 1 Assist) I don't know what it is with him, for some reason Bowles likes him, I don't. He's useless as an edge rusher, he's useless in coverage, he's overall useless in nickel situations. He's good against the run, he sets the edge but that's all at this point he should be doing. And now with Mauldin hurting his neck/head and having other stuff to worry about instead of football we're down to Pace and those other chumps at linebacker to provide pass rush, something they struggled with last year already. I would love for Bowles & Macc to go out there and trade for a decent linebacker who can provide some pass rush. Willie Young, anybody. There have got to be some guys who are on the tradeblock for a conditional late round pick next year. - CB Antonio Cromartie (0 Tackles) After getting burned by a Manziel & Benjamin combination for a 60 yard touchdown he hurt his knee and that was pretty much it for him. I don't think he's terrible, I don't think he's a stud. I've been saying since the day we signed him that he is what he is. An inconsistent corner. He has always been. He wasn't great with the Cardinals, he wasn't great with us, he wasn't great in San Diego. He made great plays, he got burned a lot, he gets flagged a lot. To expect more out of him at this point just isn't realistic. Personally I think Marcus is a better and more consistent corner, he should be starting no matter if Cro is injured or not. He's a good backup, maybe an OK starter. But he's just too inconsistent and we have better options that I hope Bowles moves on with now. Outside of those two I can't really come up with any more guys really off the top of my head that struggled. At least not without watching the game again. The TE's I'm not even considering anymore, they are just lousy. Craperland might be the worst TE in the history of the game. His run blocking irritates me. Enunwa is a guy I was hoping Chan would use out of the backfield a little more but maybe that was just the gameplan today. Hopefully next week he'll be involved a little more. Did I miss anything? Who are your studs & duds?
Good write up: I agree about the sluggish start, next week will be a very different and more difficult challenge for this defense. A slow start could lead to a blowout against that team in their dome. Studs: Marcus Williams, Marshall, Ivory Duds: Cro, no one else comes to mind. Not Revis's best game by any stretch though
This was Pryor's best game as a pro...was in better position, covered better, tackled better...very good game by him. And Marcus, he was very good. Let's see what happens when the Jets play bigger WR's (did well against Hartline but wanna see more)
Training camp notwithstanding, it is a new group. Good observations. I too wonder what would have happened if Pryor did not knock McCown out of the game
Dude I think we may have had like 4 penalties total so I dunno where you got that from, but other than that I mostly agree. Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Key plays for us that if not made could have changed the momentum of this game 1. Browns up 7-0, Fitzpatrick throws a pick but Brandon Marshall steaks the ball from the DB which led to tying it up 7-7 2. The botched snap which resulted in a punt instead of the browns recovering it on our 3 yard line. I believe it was 7-7 at that point
Most of them were on Cleveland, but a touchdown was called back because of a Marshall penalty. A couple of silly offside penalties, stuff like that bothered me. You're right. It wasn't so much the amount of penalties, more when those happened and why.
I wouldn't say we struggled on offense, but it Def was clunky early on, you are correct about that. I think it was play calling and getting a flow going. New qb, new recievers so yeah it'll probably take a while. You are 100% correct in that it could have gotten out of hand for us early. We could have easily been down much more. I for one take the unpopular opinion that Geno gives us a much better chance to win. Fitz is nice but I think today showed it.... Against a bad team his potential is still very limited. Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
It seemed like we forced more turnovers today than we did all last season. That is certainly a plus. Second half adjustments were huge, a concept foreign to this team for several years.
Good post Ballhawk, but I have to agree with Zace, I think we actually improved on our penalties since the pre-season. I was impressed by how few we had.
Cromartie gif. His left leg looks dead at the end. I think he's done for the year but we'll see. I hope not but I'd be shocked if he wasn't.
I forgot to mention Owusu. Very limited snaps but he made the most of it. Kerley is a ghost at this point, I'm wondering how long the staff is going to stick with him since they don't even get him involved in the offense. Might be a matter of time until they cut him loose or trade him. We'll have Dee, Sheldon and Aboushi returning in the next few weeks.
Cro was left hanging by Jarrett on the TD play. He also recovered a fumble for a TD. I really hope he comes back because I would much rather have Marcus Williams backing up Cro than no one backing up Marcus Williams.
Really good write up, thanks. Fitz recovering that botched snap was pretty impressive. Didn't seem possible at first. Fitz looked pedestrian but in a good way. Play average, take what they give you, protect the football, win the game. Losing Cro could hurt. I know he's lost a step, but Cro was integral to Bowles D last season and that's why he's here. Plus I wouldn't mind seeing Cro on The Gronk in a few weeks. Probably the only guy on our team that can cover him. Where was Kerley today? Other than losing yards on Punt returns, did he even play offense? Babin will be back by Monday. Really hope Mauldin will be OK. Scary stuff.
Reilly was very involved in the pass rush. Also liked the way Ivory was running today. Im liking him more and more.
Hard to say. The Browns had 3 receivers on the other side and JJ was heading that direction after the snap, when he realized Manziel was going to the other side where Cro was playing man against Benjamin. JJ couldn't make it over in time.
