Chuck Wagon

The Browns fans celebrated winning one meaningless Thursday night game against a bad team the same way we celebrated breaking the playoff drought. I think that says everything about which is worse.

That Jets team screams 4-12. They were afforded a ton of credibility by playing their best game of the season when everyone was watching, week 1 on MNF. But that's a bad team, the Browns were getting gashed in the run game, they sold out to stop it and Darnold wasn't capable of doing anything down the field. People are ready to crown Baker and elevate the Browns to the playoffs, but the Browns made the same mistakes last night that allowed the Saints to win and the Steelers to tie (despite the Steelers looking like they were actively trying to lose). The Jets just got too conservative, made some of their own mistakes and lost.

Pump the brakes. I think Hue is in way over his head. If Bowles and the Jets didn't turtle up on offense last night as soon as they got up 14 (or if the Browns were playing a team with a real offense), they win that game going away even with Baker's spark. The Browns will likely be favored in Oakland next weekend, though the Raiders will likely be desperate and have that game circled as their chance to break into the win column. Once you get past that game I'm not sure the Browns will be favored in a game the rest of the year.

Everyone named has an offensive minded HC. I don’t wonder why it can’t be us. I know who is running the team.

Baker is so much better than Allen.

Vikings 42 Bills 0 Woodshed time

Tim Couch, for one. It's a pretty tough argument to support either way. Guys who were never given a chance could just as easily be labeled as "not talented enough". But Goff is a pretty good recent example. His rookie year he was labeled a bust and pretty much written off. Gurley was also labeled a one year wonder. The Rams hired an innovative coach, completely overhauled their WR core and brought in a vet LT and Center, suddenly they are the best offense in football. Simply put, very few if any current "franchise QBs" around the league were put into a worse situation than Allen currently faces. However, many "never was / draft busts" faced similar circumstances. To pretend a guy should be so talented you can just roll the ball out there with anyone from day 1 and he'll make it work is one of the dumber things I've seen said on this forum.

Unless you do what Mahomes has done or what Watson did last year, I firmly believe a lot of rookie / young QB analysis is confirmation bias. If you liked Allen through the process, you'll look at the throw he made to Zay, his TD in a tight window in the back of the endzone, shrugging off some pass rushers and getting rid of the ball and say "see, I knew things were there", if you didn't, you'll look at his picks when he was forcing throws with the team behind, or a couple of misses and say "see, I knew he was brutal". It's the same thing with Darnold, more people are convinced he'll be better, but he's had some awful INTs (which was a major concern coming in) and missed some relatively easy TD throws.

Every QB in the league is a "system" QB. You aren't going to run RPOs with Rivers or Brees. Mahomes is lighting up the league but you wouldn't want him in a quick read timing based system. Ryan or Brady aren't exactly suited for a system that requires the QB to make a lot of vertical throws down the field.

The Patriots don't have one single offensive approach, their game plan changes weekly to take advantage of what the defense does worst.

This

If our talent wasn't a killer, this schedule would do it. Granted the game was well in hand for the Chargers, but the team looked MUCH better once Davis wasn't getting beat like a drum and McD was making calls. If we had someone like the Jets or Titans this week I could see this being a galvanizing thing that fires the team up and they go out and get a win on Sunday. Instead we go to one of the 5 most talented teams in the league coming off a frustrating tie, then follow that up with a visit to Aaron Rodgers. Awesome. By the team we do get a winnable game we'll likely be 0-4 and potential down even more players.

Steelers either need to pay Le'veon enough to come in (they can pay above the tag number) or trade/release him so the guys know they need to move on.

Against the Chargers, I was thinking there was a chance we could win. West coast team coming east for a 1 PM kickoff, team fired up with Allen as the starter, everyone pulls together, we get a defensive/special teams TD or two. After watching that debacle last week, that glimmer of hope is gone. Outside of maybe the Titans (who seem to have our number anyway), there's not a winnable game on our schedule before December.

I think Edmunds is still going to be a good player, but taking him right before Derwin James is not going to look real bad in retrospect IMO.

Just like Boldin, who is an extremely well respected guy around the league. Saw this regime up close and got the heck out of town. Richie is Richie, but in the last 13 months there have been 3 long time NFL vets who quit on this team.

I don't buy being the worst team in football is part of the plan at all. None of their moves speak to planning on going 0-16. It seems pretty clear they thought this team's core is a legitimate playoff team, attempted to shore up some weak points by bringing in Star to help vs the run, Edmunds to take over and upgrade the LB corps, Davis to replace Gaines. Bodine and Newhouse on the line. They thought the defense was legitimate last year and just needed some patching in different areas, meanwhile the offense had enough to make Peterman/a rookie QB passable enough to win conservative games. They badly miss-evaluated the talent they had in the building and their FA signings. You don't make an aggressive trade up for a linebacker if you think the team is rebuilding and in need of an infusion of young talent, that's a "we think we are close and he'll be a key piece" move.

We desperately need him, but he’s not “process”.

Back 7 could ruin the season. But yes.

Offensive line quality is certainly a problem, but the other factor is the emergence of pass rushing DTs. Guys like Donald, Geno Atkins, Sheldon Richardson, Suh, etc. Edge rushers were at a premium and disrupting games, so teams transitioned to more of a quick hit passing game, and defenses have countered with inside guys who can get quicker pressure than a guy going around the edge. Sure, in the greatest show on turf days you still had guys like Sapp or John Randle, but a lot of emphasis was on big 335 lbs run stuffing DTs over the smaller pass rushing DTs we are seeing now. In response to this the new thing is the RPO wave, designed to freeze the pass rush a split second to get the ball out or to take a quick hitting run if that's what is open. Besides, the Rams weren't bombing it down the field anyway. I'm too lazy to look up average depth of target data, but I remember a lot of the Rams offense being quick hitting slants to Faulk, Az-Zahir Hakim, Holt & Bruce. Once defenses would come up, that's when they hit you over the top. The Pats beat them because they basically said "we are going to commit pass interference on every single play and dare the officials to call it, hit these guys constantly on short pass routes and not give up anything over the top".

The Bengals are notoriously cheap... It kind of has a Marvin Jones / Sanu feeling. He shows some real promise opposite AJ Green in his walk year, the Bengals cheap out and they reset looking for the complimentary target. I don't think he can be "The Guy" but I think he's a starting WR in the league.

I would settle for Tyler Boyd.

My worry is the organization failing Allen, not Allen failing the organization. He’s got every physical tool. He’s shown improvement in areas he needed to address. But he’s not being put in a position to succeed.

The Rams run no huddle, get to the line and McVey helps Goff diagnose the D while the helmet radio is on. But we don't have McVey as a coach...

20/35 for 217 yards, 1 TD, 2 picks. 56% completion, which will include a handful of drops, one on a long ball that would have been a TD and one that bounces off a receiver's hands and gets picked. The national experts who don't actually watch the game will say "see, 56% completion and 2 picks, he can't play"