"The" ? Official MNF Game Thread Browns vs Bengals Oct 31 ?

[hoorta]

@tiamat63 said:

In their last 5 games, where they got W's in 4 of 5, the Bengals averaged.

JB with 36.2 pass att per game

Mixon averaged 15 carries per game, at a clip of 3.8 YPC.

This is who and what they are.  A pass heavy team with a good young QB, but a weak OL that has an inefficient running game.   As a result, when they can't keep bodies off Joey Buckets, the offensive implodes.  Worse because this style of offense is now running into predominantly 2 high shell teams.  So if you either don't have the patience or ability to exploit that, you can run into matchups like they did with the Browns last night.  "Looking" like the superior team, but lacking in where it counts.  

Living in Bungle Land, its not for lack of trying that they worked mightily to shore up their known weakness on their o-line in the off season. Burrow was getting killed all last year. 

Also I'll opine Jamar Chase who's an instant home run threat-is as important to the Bengals offense as Chubb is to ours. 

[tiamat63]

@hoorta said:

Living in Bungle Land, its not for lack of trying that they worked mightily to shore up their known weakness on their o-line in the off season. Burrow was getting killed all last year. 

Also I'll opine Jamar Chase who's an instant home run threat-is as important to the Bengals offense as Chubb is to ours. 

 They did, and made a nice splash in free agency to do so.  But it isn't translating to better results on the field, and I don't even mean in terms of W's.   Their Oline looked VERY pedestrian last night.  

 I'm just not sure exactly why the inefficiency in the running game. Mixon is a solid RB and you spent money to make the offensive front Go-go.   Could be calls, could be design, could be emphasis, could be execution?   I don't watch any of their tape to give a definitive answer.   But I might when it's available later after I'm done with the Browns charting. 

 The connection Jamar and Burrow have is up there with something like Mahomes/Kelce.   So naturally losing your guy is going to hurt.  But you have no counter punch on the offense, you don't have the ability to lean on the ground game when the matchup should dictate just that.   Which is where the Bengals fell tragically short, not only last night, but going forward as well. 

 Stef and the Browns have made a living running into + box counts for 3 years now, and still carving out one of the most efficient and explosive running games in the NFL.   If Deshaun can come back, maybe not so much this season, but next year - and be 75% of what he was in 2020, I genuinely believe this team might have the most complete (and productive) offense in the entire NFL. 

[Unsympathetic]

Preseason, DeShaun looked like he'd been to Jack Frost Donuts too many times.. here's hoping he has been diligent with his fitness.

[nickers]

It was a great win ... But I'm not crowning this team yet.. There's still a lot of season left... I'll give them credit... They kept their foot on the gas for once... Good things happen when you can stick to your game plan...

[Korsou Dawg]

@tiamat63 said:

Fire Everybody.

AND start Dobbs!!!

[Dutch Oven]

@korsou-dawg said:

AND start Dobbs!!!

[calfoxwc]

@hoorta said:

Living in Bungle Land, its not for lack of trying that they worked mightily to shore up their known weakness on their o-line in the off season. Burrow was getting killed all last year. 

Also I'll opine Jamar Chase who's an instant home run threat-is as important to the Bengals offense as Chubb is to ours. 

When I saw Chase being out, I figured the Bengals' offense was toast. The secondary can play short/midrange, and the pass rushers can go to town. I don't think Cooper is a Chase, but his effect on the Browns' offense is a serious upgrade to what they can do. I thought it would be a good game in fantasy football to start the Bengals' kicker.

Nope. Bad Idea.

[nickers]

@ghoolie-always-ghoolie said:

Larry, put your emotions in check. Dude, WTF? Cooper and Garrett had great games. 

I can picture you at the TV yelling "take that, Ghoolie", every time Cooper or Garret made a play.

Dude, we root for the same team. I don't give a flying fuck about who is right and who is wrong. It's a fucking football.game bro.

Cooper is fast and elusive. However, in tough games, he constantly bobbled tough catches. He almost bobbled away the TD catch in the corner of the end zone.

When Garrett repeats his performance consistently against tough teams, then we can revisit him.

The Bengals OL is shit.

Great win for us, but it doesn't validate or invalidate any of this.

Like I said... Great win.. But I still don't trust this team...

[mjp28]

@hoorta said:

Did they bring back Hue Jackson, the guy who had to call a timeout before the first scrimmage play?   

I just happened to come across that little tidbit again.

"Never ask how dumb is dumb ...... it probably hasn't been done yet,  well maybe".           

[hoorta]

@ghoolie-always-ghoolie said:

Larry, put your emotions in check. Dude, WTF? Cooper and Garrett had great games. 

I can picture you at the TV yelling "take that, Ghoolie", every time Cooper or Garret made a play.

Dude, we root for the same team. I don't give a flying fuck about who is right and who is wrong. It's a fucking football.game bro.

Cooper is fast and elusive. However, in tough games, he constantly bobbled tough catches. He almost bobbled away the TD catch in the corner of the end zone.

When Garrett repeats his performance consistently against tough teams, then we can revisit him.

The Bengals OL is shit.

Great win for us, but it doesn't validate or invalidate any of this.

But it gives me great pleasure to tell you you blew that one. Yeah- great win, but the Browns still dug themselves in a pretty deep hole losing games they should have won. 

To have a realistic shot at making the playoffs,  they still need to win two out of the next three- at least. That road trip to Buffalo is a killer. I was considering making the trip, but it seems Bills home games are a hot ticket. Checked yesterday, and on the secondary market the nosebleeds start at $250 bucks. Decent seats are $400+. 

[mjp28]

@ghoolie-always-ghoolie said:

BINGO. They need to do this again....and then again.

Yes,  after a 1 comes a 2 and keep going  as in  1. CIN   2. MIA.    (don't look BUF is after that)

[Dutch Oven]

[DieHardBrownsFan1]

[nickers]

@diehardbrownsfan1 said:

I'll take Chubb over any of them... Barkley is like Denzel Ward... always hurt...

[The Cysko Kid]

@nickers said:

I'll take Chubb over any of them... Barkley is like Denzel Ward... always hurt...

Chubb has nearly 100 more yards with less carries. Who cares if barklet had more yards if hes got 25% more carries. Chubb is the man, period. Even if we could have had josh allen or lamar jackson in 2018 at least we got chubb. 

[nickers]

@the-cysko-kid said:

Chubb has nearly 100 more yards with less carries. Who cares if barklet had more yards if hes got 25% more carries. Chubb is the man, period. Even if we could have had josh allen or lamar jackson in 2018 at least we got chubb. 

Amen dude!

[Orion]

So, I've sat down and went for an enjoyable look at stats on the downloaded gamebook.  (this isn't something that we get to do 'enjoyably' very often)    We ran it 40 times (disregarding Jacoby's QB sneaks and scramble for a TD) and Chubb got his hundred yards while Hunt got plenty of use through the air and ground.  D'E got to join the fun during cleanup time.  But we still passed it 22 times (disregard Cooper's pass).  And Jacoby only missed on 5 passes.

That's what this iteration of the Browns has to do to win games.

Now, early on in this thread I said that In order for us to win, the Bengals would have to beat themselves.  And Dutch touched on it during the game, Why are they not running it.  We make the worst running teams look great.    -  And, to me, that's how the Bengals beat themselves.   We struggle with Joe Nixon...and we make backups look like pro-bowlers.  I don't want to take anything away from the D's performance, because they did what they had to do in terms of covering and pressuring the QB...but the Bengals were without their star receiver and were hell bent on showing that they can beat us through the air anyway....with one arm tied behind their back.   Dumb game plan.

Takitaki lead the team in tackles and got a sack, he made a nice play on a check-down pass to the flat, he closed immediately and made a nice sure tackle.  Gotta be the best game he's ever played.

Our new MLB got a sack.   Emmerson had 9 tackles.   The team actually tackled pretty well for a change.  (Peyton picked up on that)

On offense Jacoby made his pass attempts count...and the receivers delivered with catches, even when they were very important.  Because let's face it, if you wanna be a running team...and run it 40 times...you're going to be facing 3rd downs a lot.  SOMETIMES, you're gonna half to convert them with passes...and if you can't complete the passes, then you don't get to call another running play, you have to call a punt.  And then you give guys like Joe Burrow the ball instead of playing keep-away.

IT WAS A VERY ENJOYABLE NIGHT  !!

[SdBacker80]

Why didn’t the Bengals run it more?

1. The game dictated their actions.  They were behind three score for two quarters. 

2. Joe Burrow vs. blown coverage plagued Browns secondary.  Where do they sign up.

3. It is not really who they are. Some of us on here tout who we are and who we aren’t.  If the Bengals were stout against run but starting street free agents at the corner spots.  I’d hope we would still have some balance with what we do best. 

[D Bone]

@jrb12711 said:

As a 30 something parent of kids, a lot of folks in our group did stuff over the weekend. I still went out with my kiddo, but it was markedly less than last year. Top that with people having concerns about safety and I'm left with several hundred pieces of candy. The future of trick or treating may very well be fading away.

On a side note, boy it's nice to talk about mundane crap and enjoying a Browns easy win. I'm not sure what vodoo magic Cleveland has against Cincy, but they just have their dang number lately. Even getting the odd breaks of shooter McPherson kissing kicks, etc.

Here in my high desert SoCal town I used to get 100s of little goblins and we would buy 4-5 of the huge variety bags from Costco and they would be gone by night's end.

We bought 2 bags this year and had maybe 50 total kids come by. All the kids got a large handful from me and we had just a little bit left over.

I like Halloween and interacting with the kids probably as much as they like getting candy, so I still enjoyed the kids I got last night, but I guess the good ol' days are fading fast.

[Flugel]

@nickers said:

I'll take Chubb over any of them... Barkley is like Denzel Ward... always hurt...

Yeah me too!  Keep in mind, Barkley was a 2nd overall pick that didn't turn the Giants into a winning team at all.  However, Chubb wasn't drafted until until the Browns selected him as their 3rd pick (which was their 2nd of two 2nd round choices).  

The Browns have already made the playoffs thanks in large to Chubb.  Not only that; but they also went from 0-16 (the year before drafting him) to 7-8-1 with him as a rookie averaging over 5 yards a carry.  Even better, he's had the 1st or 2nd best yards after initial contact in at least 3 of the 4 years he's played (possibly all 4). 

Here's what the Giants have done since drafting Barkley:  2018  5-11, 2019  4-12, 2020  6-10, 2021  4-13. Granted, he's had bad luck with injuries but I like to point this out to anyone that wants to tell us we missed out on a football messiah with him as our #1 overall pick.  Again, we've had far better luck with Chubb than the Giants have had with Barkley this far into things.