2022 Draft Prospects and off-season addition breakdowns.
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Browns don't back down, they come back right out empty in the same 11 personnel grouping.
The nice part is the flexibility it offers this team, and in this situational in particular. Because the Browns don't have to run "tempo". PIT coaches have the option of either working to change their calls, or possibly running a sub onto the field and taking a risk at the Browns quick snapping to draw a penalty. By not subbing offensive personnel, you aren't required to give the defense that courtesy as well.
This next play illustrates a couple things.
1st - the bind the offensive coaches have put the PIT defense in. They can take their chances in nickel and face the running game, or they came come out in their base and see if the Browns offense can consistently make them pay for it. That word is probably the biggest part of my football vocabulary - consistently/consistency. Once or twice is something a lot of coaches will live with. But ability isn't acknowledged or rewarded until it's shown consistent. No home plate ump is going to give you a strike call if you can't reliably paint that outside corner. IF you can/do? Then that's a different story.
2nd - Jacoby's current limitations.
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Hey, look! Another CB over Kareem and a LB walked out over the slot. Guess who's going to need more help?
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Another added benefit of what the Browns did this drive was to either remove the 5th man pass rush by way of formation/personnel constraint, or make the pass rush easily identifiable because of the splits. It's commonly understood, wide splits and removed receivers help to make coverage a bit more clearly defined in a lot of cases. Much more difficult to bluff coverages and be complex when you're facing having inferior athletes covering skill positions.
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The PIT counter inside of sitting in that cover 3 and being picked apart underneath. They check to what amounts to a 2 high shell cover 6. I spoke of limitations and this is where Jacoby echo's Baker a bit... expecting too much pre-snap that he doesn't get post snap. He stays into this boundary read WAY too long. Worse, let's say he was expecting cover 3 and wanted that outside throw, the moment he read corner cloud, he should have understood how the #2 was going to bend against a middle field open.
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#2 bends and is going to clear into the window. Jacoby really had little business leaving this side of the field if he had read cover 2. At which point, you can come back to your strong #3, Njoku, and let him play basketball on grass. He's boxing out the MIKE backer, put it on him and let him be big.
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Ok, so Jacoby doesn't deliver on schedule. He's still got enough mobility to break contain. This is how close this was to being a big play. Amari reads it correctly and breaks upfield. That's what you do when you're playing to the short side of the field. And against a cloud corner? fuck, that's stealing when the high safety is run out.
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Amari see's this coming open, and to Jacoby's credit, he's scrambling to buy time to throw. Not scrambling just to pick up a couple yards.
Sadly we know the result of this play. Illegal touching from Amari, but it does go to show this early connection blossoming a bit when things go off-script. But what a day would it have been had Coop kept his eyes about him and saw his feet remain in bounds.
Either way, empty sets are showing a bit of promise in CLE. Something we've had terrible results with the last 3 years. JB's willingness to not panic fire into zone coverage is a big reason that I believe the turnover worthy throws from this formation will be significantly less this by the end of this season than compared to some previous years under Stef.
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Last play from me, same drive, very next throw.
Browns still in 11... we haven't had to switch personnel this entire time.
PIT subs out for their nickel package
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Browns in a common pass protection - 2 jet. Oline and 1 RB
One of the, if not the best part about this play happens up front IMHO. The protection slide and understanding how to bottle up this look is primo work.
- The boundary edge is the RT's responsibility the whole way. However he drops, so Hudson is going to look for work back to his inside shoulder.
- Once the nose crosses Pocic's face, he knows that IDL is picked up by Tretter. Because Tretter has no rusher to either his inside or outside shoulder and no off-ball LB walked down over him to threaten a gap.
- Pocic is now free to pickup whoever attacks his inside shoulder.
- Bito tags the 3 tech.
- Wills slow plays the 3 tech to help Bito, but is ready to recover on the nickel rushing from the edge.
This is top notch protection from the mental aspect.
Side note: I'm slowly beginning to appreciate Pocic's play within this offense and, as something that was a bit expected, his game has been raised being next to two pro-bowl guards. Things were looking a little rough for him in pre-season at times and the 1st half of game one. But since coming out of the locker room 2nd half against Carolina and up until this point, the dude has played at a level he hasn't previously shown before. And his work in the pin/pull scheme has been pretty fucking outstanding from what I've seen. Credit Andrew Berry for bringing him in and coach Callahan for getting him to where he needs to be.
To my knowledge, I haven't seen a single person sing Ethan's praises. Well you're probably hearing it here first then, and I'm glad it's from me. The guy is playing the best football of his career so far in CLE. He isn't perfect, but he is beyond what I expected. I can't stress this part enough, it is NOT fucking easy to snap then pull and execute from the center spot. And finding a player who can do that makes your running game that much better. If you ever find yourself not believing me, go ask anybody who has ever played that position. They'll tell you exactly what I just did.
Anywho..... back on topic.
There's a theme emerging here. The Browns like getting their weakside #2 involved in the short passing game for Jacoby. This was, depending on how you tag him in the formation, H or Y choice. And it's something you don't want to spend a ton of time overcoaching either. Help your receiver understand coverage triangles. Show him the spacing you want working underneath, then let him be an athlete. The #1 runs vertical through coverage, Njoku plays a game called "follow the man" and makes his break off what he reads.
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Njoku stays somewhat tight on the follow, but takes smart care in his footwork. Can't over lengthen your stride, then you find yourself too far upfield and not getting your head around.
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Njoku understands the corner expanding flat and wide in cloud, then breaks to his outside shoulder off the leverage of the weakside hook LB.
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TE on the same page.
QB on the same page.
Both in phase with timing.
Ball is out as David makes his turn.
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Good ball placement. Weakside hook won't be able to walk under the throw.
Njoku has broken off his route with a foot ahead of the chains, so if he's stopped on contact, the forward progress gives him the benefit of the spot and the 1st down.
Every week, I've seen something new from the offensive coaches to make sure that what happened last year doesn't repeat itself. They have shown an understanding of the tools they're working with and the limits of said tooling (Jacoby) The offense isn't perfect by any means, and we're lacking some serious explosion and route tree exploitation. But the Browns have managed to so far craft out an efficient unit that can give some run support to our defense, which is just about the exact opposite of what we experienced last year for the bulk of the season.
With that experience from last year, I can understand the late attention on some of the defensive lapses. They were the strength of the team, so the primary focus naturally became the offense in the off-season and beyond.
I see things that are subtle and not so subtle with wrinkles, calls and tweaks that lead me to believe Stef has done a pretty bang up job for what he has at hand (so far). I'm sorry if you feel the opposite, because there's really nothing to support, well, whatever dumbass argument you think you have that makes sense in your mind.
The Browns are playing competitive football and, despite having some severe handicap at the QB position, are still finding ways to be above .500. A lot through hardwork and coaching, but a gift of good fortune in the respective deficiencies our opponents have shown and future opponents appear to carry.
ATL looks like they might be an alright squad. They've given some okay teams a good run for their money and Mariota is playing solid football. It's a team effort - the offense needs to keep finding ways to be efficient and, god willing, find an explosive play or 3 in the passing game. The defense needs to get back to playing better in the secondary and hopefully finding some renewed ability along the dline itself. Would be a damn shame to see the coaches get all the mileage out of Jacoby that anyone has to date, only to be let down by the defense from piss-poor execution and a lack of talent.
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Nothing wrong with your ambition at all KD! I live in the Tampa area and the word is Suh doesn't want to play football any more unless he either gets really overpaid or he's guaranteed to play on a team that goes very deep into the post season.
Not sure whether to call it ambition, or fear. Without significant improvements to our D, I do not even see us getting out of the division at this stage. That will certainly have to come mostly from improved performance of existing players, but all Tia's preaching about shoring up the middle has me converted.
Not sure whether to call it ambition, or fear. Without significant improvements to our D, I do not even see us getting out of the division at this stage. That will certainly have to come mostly from improved performance of existing players, but all Tia's preaching about shoring up the middle has me converted.
I meant about Suh - I think he's either all done or wanting to do up a Rob Gronkowski type of contract to rejoin his old team during the 2nd half of the season if they're looking playoff bound. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with your thinking at all. Before the draft - there were quite a few of us wanting to draft a DT or 2 that could help us.
See that stuff in bold up top? You gotta keep that quiet or Tia's gonna start charging us for his opinion.
I welcome the only Defensive Coordinator to earn a Superbowl Ring in New Orleans while understanding Revenge of the Nerds is a sequel. "Come get some!" -
Receiving
Player REC YDS YDS/REC LNG TDAmari Cooper 19 219 11.5 32 2
David Njoku 13 128 9.8 19 1
Kareem Hunt 9 54 6 24 1
Donovan Peoples-Jones 7 70 10 15 0
Harrison Bryant 5 63 12.6 30 0
Nick Chubb 4 28 7 15 0
David Bell 2 12 6 6 0
Anthony Schwartz 1 19 19 19 0
Demetric Felton 1 3 3 3 0
Pertinent to this thread would be Cooper and Bell. Cooper is playing as well as we could've hoped for thus far. A top weapon on the team. Bell, stumbled out of the gate with his injury which stunted his learning process. I remember saying during the offseason that we kinda' needed him to be good right out of the box. And the numbers from our WR's seem to bear that out. There's a huge drop-off in production from Amari to #2 DPJ. There's plenty of room there for another WR to step up in there.
And for the 2021 guys, Felton is dropping off the map and Schwartz gets an end around every so often. Bryant, the backup TE has 2 1/2 times the catches that those two have combined. ( we need Bell to emerge as good )
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Receiving
Player REC YDS YDS/REC LNG TDAmari Cooper 19 219 11.5 32 2
David Njoku 13 128 9.8 19 1
Kareem Hunt 9 54 6 24 1
Donovan Peoples-Jones 7 70 10 15 0
Harrison Bryant 5 63 12.6 30 0
Nick Chubb 4 28 7 15 0
David Bell 2 12 6 6 0
Anthony Schwartz 1 19 19 19 0
Demetric Felton 1 3 3 3 0
Pertinent to this thread would be Cooper and Bell. Cooper is playing as well as we could've hoped for thus far. A top weapon on the team. Bell, stumbled out of the gate with his injury which stunted his learning process. I remember saying during the offseason that we kinda' needed him to be good right out of the box. And the numbers from our WR's seem to bear that out. There's a huge drop-off in production from Amari to #2 DPJ. There's plenty of room there for another WR to step up in there.
And for the 2021 guys, Felton is dropping off the map and Schwartz gets an end around every so often. Bryant, the backup TE has 2 1/2 times the catches that those two have combined. ( we need Bell to emerge as good )
Receiving
Player REC YDS YDS/REC LNG TDAmari Cooper 19 219 11.5 32 2
David Njoku 13 128 9.8 19 1
Kareem Hunt 9 54 6 24 1
Donovan Peoples-Jones 7 70 10 15 0
Harrison Bryant 5 63 12.6 30 0
Nick Chubb 4 28 7 15 0
David Bell 2 12 6 6 0
Anthony Schwartz 1 19 19 19 0
Demetric Felton 1 3 3 3 0
Pertinent to this thread would be Cooper and Bell. Cooper is playing as well as we could've hoped for thus far. A top weapon on the team. Bell, stumbled out of the gate with his injury which stunted his learning process. I remember saying during the offseason that we kinda' needed him to be good right out of the box. And the numbers from our WR's seem to bear that out. There's a huge drop-off in production from Amari to #2 DPJ. There's plenty of room there for another WR to step up in there.
And for the 2021 guys, Felton is dropping off the map and Schwartz gets an end around every so often. Bryant, the backup TE has 2 1/2 times the catches that those two have combined. ( we need Bell to emerge as good )
Good stuff!
I will say that despite the last 2 weeks, DPJ was the guy with all the clutch catches and the go to guy in the week 1 victory 6 rec for 60 yards. Since then, only 1 catch for 10 yards though. I'm okay with that when it translated to getting Amari Cooper more involved than he was in week 1. I think the targets went up quite a bit for Cooper in the last 2 weeks.
I welcome the only Defensive Coordinator to earn a Superbowl Ring in New Orleans while understanding Revenge of the Nerds is a sequel. "Come get some!" -
Not sure whether to call it ambition, or fear. Without significant improvements to our D, I do not even see us getting out of the division at this stage. That will certainly have to come mostly from improved performance of existing players, but all Tia's preaching about shoring up the middle has me converted.
I meant about Suh - I think he's either all done or wanting to do up a Rob Gronkowski type of contract to rejoin his old team during the 2nd half of the season if they're looking playoff bound. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with your thinking at all. Before the draft - there were quite a few of us wanting to draft a DT or 2 that could help us.
See that stuff in bold up top? You gotta keep that quiet or Tia's gonna start charging us for his opinion.
I meant about Suh - I think he's either all done or wanting to do up a Rob Gronkowski type of contract to rejoin his old team during the 2nd half of the season if they're looking playoff bound. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with your thinking at all. Before the draft - there were quite a few of us wanting to draft a DT or 2 that could help us.
See that stuff in bold up top? You gotta keep that quiet or Tia's gonna start charging us for his opinion.
Re: Suh, it's clear he wants to go to a contender.
What all "contender" entails is entirely within his mind. But part of me would like to believe, that if this Browns team is at or over .500 before the trade deadline, NS would be willing to join given the success and the eminent return of Deshaun at that point.
Re: DT - I've only been through the one game, but Travis Jones looked like he belonged. A few times he was beaten, other times he held his assignment and made a couple plays. Typical stuff for a rookie with talent that needs time. Would have I preferred him over Emerson? Yes. Even though I am a believing in BPA for the draft, the need was just too great at the position at the time.
And hey, the Patreon will be up at some point. Baby needs to get this Browns YT channel going so I can raise funds for a new computer and "battlestation", where I can actually be efficient going back and forth between screens, making life a hell of a lot easier on me than it is now.
Still shocked I haven't seen anything from CLE sports media about Pocic's play. Especially given how a lot of them clamored for the return of Tretter. So far, the transition has been smooth.
Cooper is playing as well as we could've hoped for thus far. A top weapon on the team. Bell, stumbled out of the gate with his injury which stunted his learning process. I remember saying during the offseason that we kinda' needed him to be good right out of the box.
Brownies didn't "need" Bell to be good right out the gate. But as the season wears on? Different story. I believe he's the type of WR piece that could really bridge the gap on the skillsets of this group with his ability to be effective at every level of the field. I'm just wondering if it will really take a QB like Watson to unlock that potential though.
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I meant about Suh - I think he's either all done or wanting to do up a Rob Gronkowski type of contract to rejoin his old team during the 2nd half of the season if they're looking playoff bound. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with your thinking at all. Before the draft - there were quite a few of us wanting to draft a DT or 2 that could help us.
See that stuff in bold up top? You gotta keep that quiet or Tia's gonna start charging us for his opinion.
Re: Suh, it's clear he wants to go to a contender.
What all "contender" entails is entirely within his mind. But part of me would like to believe, that if this Browns team is at or over .500 before the trade deadline, NS would be willing to join given the success and the eminent return of Deshaun at that point.
Re: DT - I've only been through the one game, but Travis Jones looked like he belonged. A few times he was beaten, other times he held his assignment and made a couple plays. Typical stuff for a rookie with talent that needs time. Would have I preferred him over Emerson? Yes. Even though I am a believing in BPA for the draft, the need was just too great at the position at the time.
And hey, the Patreon will be up at some point. Baby needs to get this Browns YT channel going so I can raise funds for a new computer and "battlestation", where I can actually be efficient going back and forth between screens, making life a hell of a lot easier on me than it is now.
Still shocked I haven't seen anything from CLE sports media about Pocic's play. Especially given how a lot of them clamored for the return of Tretter. So far, the transition has been smooth.
Cooper is playing as well as we could've hoped for thus far. A top weapon on the team. Bell, stumbled out of the gate with his injury which stunted his learning process. I remember saying during the offseason that we kinda' needed him to be good right out of the box.
Brownies didn't "need" Bell to be good right out the gate. But as the season wears on? Different story. I believe he's the type of WR piece that could really bridge the gap on the skillsets of this group with his ability to be effective at every level of the field. I'm just wondering if it will really take a QB like Watson to unlock that potential though.
Re: Suh, it's clear he wants to go to a contender.
What all "contender" entails is entirely within his mind. But part of me would like to believe, that if this Browns team is at or over .500 before the trade deadline, NS would be willing to join given the success and the eminent return of Deshaun at that point.
Re: DT - I've only been through the one game, but Travis Jones looked like he belonged. A few times he was beaten, other times he held his assignment and made a couple plays. Typical stuff for a rookie with talent that needs time. Would have I preferred him over Emerson? Yes. Even though I am a believing in BPA for the draft, the need was just too great at the position at the time.
And hey, the Patreon will be up at some point. Baby needs to get this Browns YT channel going so I can raise funds for a new computer and "battlestation", where I can actually be efficient going back and forth between screens, making life a hell of a lot easier on me than it is now.
Still shocked I haven't seen anything from CLE sports media about Pocic's play. Especially given how a lot of them clamored for the return of Tretter. So far, the transition has been smooth.
Brownies didn't "need" Bell to be good right out the gate. But as the season wears on? Different story. I believe he's the type of WR piece that could really bridge the gap on the skillsets of this group with his ability to be effective at every level of the field. I'm just wondering if it will really take a QB like Watson to unlock that potential though.
Man, I hate it when the Rats end up with guys I felt like we really needed (pre-draft). For example, mid-round guys like Mark Andrews and Travis Jones. The rookie learning curve you mentioned for both Travis Jones him and David Bell are both dependent on the volume of reps in terms of how fast they come of age. The shortened preseason has probably impacted that for both guys. Then again, now that Travis plays for the rats - I'm actually kind of hoping I pegged him wrong.
Are we still looking needing a Nurse Ratched intervention for Winfrey or will there be any football in the forecast with that guy?
I'm glad you said that about Pocic's play because he has played very well IMO. If he keeps playing like that - he's gonna remind of the very pleasant surprise Hank Fraley became here (2 years after Philly demoted him to 2nd string). That guy came here in September (after all other efforts to replace LeCharles Bentley were exhausted). He didn't just start, he learned the offense and started making all of the calls immediately. Not only that, if you looked at his age and his build at the time, it was unbelievable to see him pulling and leading the way outside/around end. He was great at it. Pocic is doing a very good job of beating guys to the position where he can WIN without needing to overpower. You don't always need to bulldoze with greater horse power especially if it's not wired if/when you can be resourceful. I'd still like to see a better pad height a little more consistently; but the guy is battling. I can admire that!
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Receiving
Player REC YDS YDS/REC LNG TDAmari Cooper 19 219 11.5 32 2
David Njoku 13 128 9.8 19 1
Kareem Hunt 9 54 6 24 1
Donovan Peoples-Jones 7 70 10 15 0
Harrison Bryant 5 63 12.6 30 0
Nick Chubb 4 28 7 15 0
David Bell 2 12 6 6 0
Anthony Schwartz 1 19 19 19 0
Demetric Felton 1 3 3 3 0
Pertinent to this thread would be Cooper and Bell. Cooper is playing as well as we could've hoped for thus far. A top weapon on the team. Bell, stumbled out of the gate with his injury which stunted his learning process. I remember saying during the offseason that we kinda' needed him to be good right out of the box. And the numbers from our WR's seem to bear that out. There's a huge drop-off in production from Amari to #2 DPJ. There's plenty of room there for another WR to step up in there.
And for the 2021 guys, Felton is dropping off the map and Schwartz gets an end around every so often. Bryant, the backup TE has 2 1/2 times the catches that those two have combined. ( we need Bell to emerge as good )
Good stuff!
I will say that despite the last 2 weeks, DPJ was the guy with all the clutch catches and the go to guy in the week 1 victory 6 rec for 60 yards. Since then, only 1 catch for 10 yards though. I'm okay with that when it translated to getting Amari Cooper more involved than he was in week 1. I think the targets went up quite a bit for Cooper in the last 2 weeks.
I will say that despite the last 2 weeks, DPJ was the guy with all the clutch catches and the go to guy in the week 1 victory 6 rec for 60 yards. Since then, only 1 catch for 10 yards though. I'm okay with that when it translated to getting Amari Cooper more involved than he was in week 1. I think the targets went up quite a bit for Cooper in the last 2 weeks.
It's VERY early in the season. DPJ 'can' emerge in a bigger way. But that's not something we've seen during his tenure here. Which is why I was hoping against hope that Bell would answer the bell in a big way. (heck, I can hope, right?) Don't get me wrong, I like DPJ. He seems quiet, keeps out of the news and out of trouble. And works hard. I respect that kind of player.
At least Njoku has emerged as a go-to receiver. It wasn't long ago that people wanted to run him out of town.
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Not sure whether to call it ambition, or fear. Without significant improvements to our D, I do not even see us getting out of the division at this stage. That will certainly have to come mostly from improved performance of existing players, but all Tia's preaching about shoring up the middle has me converted.
I meant about Suh - I think he's either all done or wanting to do up a Rob Gronkowski type of contract to rejoin his old team during the 2nd half of the season if they're looking playoff bound. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with your thinking at all. Before the draft - there were quite a few of us wanting to draft a DT or 2 that could help us.
See that stuff in bold up top? You gotta keep that quiet or Tia's gonna start charging us for his opinion.
I meant about Suh - I think he's either all done or wanting to do up a Rob Gronkowski type of contract to rejoin his old team during the 2nd half of the season if they're looking playoff bound. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with your thinking at all. Before the draft - there were quite a few of us wanting to draft a DT or 2 that could help us.
See that stuff in bold up top? You gotta keep that quiet or Tia's gonna start charging us for his opinion.
I heard you the first time. My previous comment was more a clarification where I see the Browns currently, which is markedly different compared to the end of the off-season. I was a 'true believer' at that stage, thinking the addition of DW made us an immediate SB contender. I even saw our D-line as a strength, with the most talented Edge in Myles, and probably the best running mate in Clowney. Winfrey seemed an athletic specimen, which I had high hopes for.
Through immaculate mental conception (wink, wink), I have come to the conclusion that both quality and depth at DT. Winfrey seems stuck in the naughty bin, and we are having big trouble stopping the run, and generating any kind of pass rush. This is especially as the game progresses, and our D-line gets gassed.
I am also mightily unimpressed with our secondary play, which I rated as top-notch before the season started. Maybe Ward is not as elite as his new contract values him, nor Delpit as his draft round. And the coaching went from giving up massive plays on busted coverages multiple times in consecutive games, to some sort of prevent package that allows anything and everything, but getting beat over the top. That sees like an over-reaction, rather than a real improvement.
Long story short: maybe the talent is not quite what I thought it was, especially on the defensive side. And the defensive en ST coaching does not seem anywhere near play-off worthy. Even if DW does come back firing on all cylinders immediately, which is doubtful, we would be lucky to get out of the division IMO. -
One other point maybe just maybe the AFCN is not as good as we collectively thought that they were coming into the season.
Maybe Cincinnati was a bit "lucky" making it into and far into the playoffs ?
Pittsburgh has QB issues among other things.
Baltimore may falter a bit at QB among other issues.
And our beloved BROWNS are strong but might have their own QB issues over a 17 game season, Myles G. might be impared at least in the short run with other IDL and DL questions. Not a standout DB group.......but they can run the ball !
"That's why they play the game !" Or so I've heard, who wins or loses this week, I like Cleveland....baby !
GO BUCKEYES, BROWNS, INDIANS, CAVS, YSU, NAVY and yes I like ND! -
Reports are that Perrion Winfrey will see reps against Atlanta, with Taven Bryan out. Let's see what this rook can do.
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Reports are that Perrion Winfrey will see reps against Atlanta, with Taven Bryan out. Let's see what this rook can do.
Reports are that Perrion Winfrey will see reps against Atlanta, with Taven Bryan out. Let's see what this rook can do.
Really have no choice. Isn't another viable 3tech on roster. If we're short Myles and possibly Clowney, I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to run some of those under fronts as our base. Similar to how the Seahawks first started under Coach Carroll. Would allow us to get a bigger body on the field and work to control the ATL running game on the interior. Because christ knows Mariota can pull that ball on a read and do enough damage on the edge.
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Reports are that Perrion Winfrey will see reps against Atlanta, with Taven Bryan out. Let's see what this rook can do.
Reports are that Perrion Winfrey will see reps against Atlanta, with Taven Bryan out. Let's see what this rook can do.
I hope this isn't just the summer school veteran in me getting pumped up about seeing him for the 1st time. I keep hearing how talented this defense is; and we're about 1 injury away from recruiting our next mystery meat market/IDL prospects at some McDonalds' drive-thrus. I will also recommend the Golden Corral Buffet because I've seen some impressive fast twitchies on bigger frames beating people to the desserts area.
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I always loved those homework assignments at school where they were harder than the test itself. Which is sort of how the Browns passing game played out against PIT. For a number of reasons, but the biggest was the coaching staff working to make life as easy on Jacoby as possible. To date, he's done a great job knocking out what they've given him, and the defensive looks the Steelers tragically ( for their sake) kept showing. But it's these simple things that are keeping the offense on schedule weren't so simple last year. Which is why we praise the efficiency of this group now a year removed.
That won't always be the case, especially with the Pats right around the corner. But for now it's nice to get the intended results from where the coaches draw it up.
Another thing Stef and Co used frequently were mirror concepts. Like it sounds - similar, if not exact same route combinations, but to the opposite sides of the field. Accomplishes a couple big things.
Helps a QB when he identifies man vs spot zone. Also makes things easier by putting his read first on the safety he's looking to leverage, and tends to make it that simple. Of course that read is based pre-snap and you hope the defense gives what they show, otherwise things become a bit more.... complicated. Anywho.
As a DB, anytime you see a big body like that, such as Njoku to the top, I immediately assume slant. Especially with a QB who is so-so and the weather the way it was. I'm going to use the boundary as my double team.
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I really have to say, aside from the play of Pocic the past few games, I also have to give it up to Minkah Fitzpatrick. Sucks to say, because he's a Steelers, but watching him in this game and how the Browns coaches dialed up concepts around throwing off his leverage... really reminds you that he's one of the top DB's in the NFL. IMHO, top 5, possibly top 3 safety.
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JB does a great job not looking this off too fast and letting Hunt release at the weakside LB. That is by design. He's not reading leverage of the hook defender and breaking between them. The coaches wanted this ball to go to Njoku first and foremost. Coop was a distant 2nd.
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JB does a good job holding Fitz at his initial leverage, which favored Coopers side, then snapping his head and throwing to throw.
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The ball placement was everything. High, but not high enough for David to have to be a complete acrobat. Inside of the CB who has to recover across his face. But keep enough and far enough inside to be upfield and wide of Fitz so there's no way he could get a finger on the ball or create enough contact to force it out.
Mirrored concepts, just another method the Browns coaches are using to help supplement the lack of offensive explosion/ability. Makes JB's life a lot easier, the personnel alignments favor the routes and vice versa. The offensive coaching staff had a good bead on what the Steelers defensive coaches were doing in their limited redzone coverages - primarily Cover 1 and cover 3
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This game should give us plenty of DL reps to review on our rookies including Winfrey who is active against the Falcons.
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One other point maybe just maybe the AFCN is not as good as we collectively thought that they were coming into the season.
Maybe Cincinnati was a bit "lucky" making it into and far into the playoffs ?
Pittsburgh has QB issues among other things.
Baltimore may falter a bit at QB among other issues.
And our beloved BROWNS are strong but might have their own QB issues over a 17 game season, Myles G. might be impared at least in the short run with other IDL and DL questions. Not a standout DB group.......but they can run the ball !
"That's why they play the game !" Or so I've heard, who wins or loses this week, I like Cleveland....baby !
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Let's go over some early results from today. On that first ATL drive, I saw something awfully familiar that I was worried about - Alex Wright.
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Z gets the seal on the edge vs Wright for a couple reasons.
- He's high out of his stance
- Unbalanced
- Working upfield from his first step too fast
- Lack of awareness on the reduced split and what might come his way. This one generally speaks to football IQ which, you need A LOT of snaps to start to develop. But there's also a problem with that, because this is a pretty fundamental toss and pull call.
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Coaches call it gap stealing, some also call it gap "splitting" since you give the RB an additional read point and cut option.
Either way, this type of play gives the RG and LG an easy release to the 2nd level. Your LB's don't stand a chance when they have 300lb bodies on them that fast. The ATL line here does a good job picking off the lead pursuit in Taki and Phillips. And because cut blocking is now illegal, getting the a big body to the edge is like stealing candy. No DB's can go low on the big guys now. I'll check back at the end of the year, but I'd be willing to bet running designs based on the pulling game to the perimeter shoot up quite a bit by the end of this season. Not that getting blockers on smaller CB's wasn't an idea to begin with, but now you've given almost no way for those CB's to take on lineman without a cut.
Either way, in this following frame, Wright came out so high and fast in his stance, Drake London really didn't take much to seal him inside and continue washing him down the line. He's so terribly out of balance, he never had a chance to recover. And this is where height works against you if you don't play with consistently low pad level.
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Final shot with the open lanes to the edge. Only real way to shut this down is get ahead of it and turn it back inside to pursuit. But then you need your 1tech, Togiai, to be able to crash onto the call carrier. The center crosses Tommy's face, which you can't allow when you're playing that 1tech, and turns his shoulders back inside to prevent him from flowing down the line and effecting the play.
This first play is, in a nutshell, the state of the Browns Defensive Line. Especially without Myles or Clowney. It's a bottom 5 group at best. You have a nose who isn't a starter, a 3tech in Jordan Elliot who is quality depth and little else. A rookie edge in Alex Wright who isn't ready for this sort of role, and might never be ready. Then you have Rochelle (spell check) who is a nice story and fights hard, but would be a camp casualty on a lot of teams.
This is why I'm passionate about creating work that holds up over time. Because I can go back to reference that work and those notes, and see how things string out beyond the vacuum of that play. So if you're wondering why I said "looked familiar"....
Please refer to the 28th-ish post in this thread linked below from my breakdown of Alex Wright. A similar design on the seal and pull to his side that he lost BAD on vs Georgia. For reference, that's a Georgia team who has bodies that will play in the NFL. Specifically why I went looking for that game.
ATL likely saw this, especially since Alex a rookie. I have no doubt they have assistants who go back this far to dig on tape on how to attack rookie players beyond the few games of NFL work he's had.
Offenses will continue to attack Alex Wrights side until he punishes them for doing so. And this defense has yet another crack in the fortress wall to account for.
(28th post, 3rd page)
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Reports are that Perrion Winfrey will see reps against Atlanta, with Taven Bryan out. Let's see what this rook can do.
Really have no choice. Isn't another viable 3tech on roster. If we're short Myles and possibly Clowney, I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to run some of those under fronts as our base. Similar to how the Seahawks first started under Coach Carroll. Would allow us to get a bigger body on the field and work to control the ATL running game on the interior. Because christ knows Mariota can pull that ball on a read and do enough damage on the edge.
Really have no choice. Isn't another viable 3tech on roster. If we're short Myles and possibly Clowney, I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to run some of those under fronts as our base. Similar to how the Seahawks first started under Coach Carroll. Would allow us to get a bigger body on the field and work to control the ATL running game on the interior. Because christ knows Mariota can pull that ball on a read and do enough damage on the edge.
Welp, you can scratch that one. When Woods' switched up and called some under looks to combat the weakside zone ATL kept beating us with, we got smoked with misdirection and runs to strength.
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@tiamat63 re: your comment about Perrion Winfrey in the game thread. Did notice a nice TFL against the run where their line had all sorts of trouble containing him. Somewhat surprised he played only 16 snaps (29%), as he seems to bring to the table exactly what we need in the interior.
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@tiamat63 re: your comment about Perrion Winfrey in the game thread. Did notice a nice TFL against the run where their line had all sorts of trouble containing him. Somewhat surprised he played only 16 snaps (29%), as he seems to bring to the table exactly what we need in the interior.
@tiamat63 re: your comment about Perrion Winfrey in the game thread. Did notice a nice TFL against the run where their line had all sorts of trouble containing him. Somewhat surprised he played only 16 snaps (29%), as he seems to bring to the table exactly what we need in the interior.
Given him being in the doghouse, and especially about some of the comments questioning his dedication to being a professional - I'm not surprised. If he wants to play that bad, he'll have to get a taste of the success in limited volume then earn the snap increase. Good news is, that idea seemed to pay off with him. I would suspect he'll get more snaps against the Chargers.
He was about the only consistent force in creating Havoc plays against the ATL zone based runs. I planned on charting his snaps and play first thing when the all-22 drops.
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