@browns52 said:

.i scratch my head wondering if baker is not only igniting our offense but if our d is starting to feed off baker and the offense....the kid is going to be great....

Well yeah out t.o.p has skyrocketed with baker....we have drives now that last nearly an entire quarter. Def has to play home jeopardy on the bench to keep busy. 

The Browns have actually played 4 OT games, not 3, this year.   We thought they were going to tie or break the record of  5 OT games in a season, but they have not had one in the second half of the year.

@orion said:

.....but without an offense, it won't win you games.  Defenses just don't score enough points.  Ours, in most yardage metrics, is ranked near the bottom of the league...yet we are going to have our best record since 2007.  Why?  Baker Mayfield and the offense.   

You absolutely have to have a good QB and good players on the offense.  And it seems we do.  Njoku has blossomed.  Higgins has also improved.  The offense lost it's OC and the HC.  Doesn't matter.  The GOOD QB has some good players out there with him and they're doing the things that good offensive football players do.  (nothing against the job Kitchens & Williams are doing)

Over the years, we've been the crappiest football team to watch.  Sure, losing...but with absolutely NO Browns excitement.  AT LEAST if we were losing with an exciting offense we'd have been worth watching (for non die hard fans).

Now, our defense has done the job to help the team win.  They don't actually SEEM like the 2nd worse defense in the league.  And the team did play 3 OT games....probably an extra 20+ minutes of football to hit the stats sheets....but the D certainly isn't carrying this team.  It's BAKER!  And feeding off Baker is The Duke, Chubb, Landry, Njoku, Higgins, etc.

With a little more OL & WR help, our offense can win us enough games to make the playoffs....along with the OTHER good offensive teams....and if we tweak the defense with a little more talent THEN maybe our defense can win us the championship.

we are ranked near the bottom on d, however i think they have been playing better lately...seems like the tackling has improved somewhat....i scratch my head wondering if baker is not only igniting our offense but if our d is starting to feed off baker and the offense....the kid is going to be great....

We need to get better at OT, better at DL interior, and better at LB.  And if Ward has to retire to concussions, that's a need too.

@kvoethe said:

Steelers this year show why defense is important

Without Ben.. They have 0

The truth is simple for football.

The QB is the most important  ingredient on a football team. However without a supporting cast, he can do nothing.

No team has ever won anything with only an offense or only a defense. The statements "offense wins championships, and "defense wins championships", are both idiotic.

@nero said:

You guys forget about Points Allowed and only look at Yards allowed. In both Points Allowed/Scored we're in the middle of the bunch. We have -35 points differential but that could be because we don't win by many points, whereas we have some huge losses (at the top of my head, Steelers, Chargers and Chiefs, for example). 

I'd say that both offense and DEFENSE have improved after firing double H, and as mesmerizing is having a franchise QB that looks amazing and has the perfect mentality for us, every game there is a defensive player standing out: one day it was Ward, then Schobert, Collins, Mitchell, Carrie, Peppers, Avery... Pretty good stuff. 

The thing here is that these last few years offense was so horrible that now that it looks deadly, we get exctatic, but if you ask me, I'd prefer having 10th ranked offense and defense than a top 3 offense and 22th ranked defense, and in order to do that we must improve both sides. 

I guess that would be called..... balance?

I'd say that both offense and DEFENSE have improved after firing double H, and as mesmerizing is having a franchise QB that looks amazing and has the perfect mentality for us, every game there is a defensive player standing out: one day it was Ward, then Schobert, Collins, Mitchell, Carrie, Peppers, Avery... Pretty good stuff. 

The thing here is that these last few years offense was so horrible that now that it looks deadly, we get exctatic, but if you ask me, I'd prefer having 10th ranked offense and defense than a top 3 offense and 22th ranked defense, and in order to do that we must improve both sides. 

@brownpile said:

The core of any sport is to score points and keep the other team from scoring points.

You don't win championships without winning games and you don't win games without a defense.

And if you are content with losing games as long as they are entertaining... that is exactly what the NFL is counting on.

Last year's Super Bowl was the epitome of that.  Both teams chose to play NO defense and it was one of the most boring games I've watched.  All pass, all the time and all scoring.  And it took ONE - just ONE - defensive play at the end to win the game.

A lot of that is the result of rule changes. Now it seems that the best defense is turnovers. Offenses are gonna score. Your defense needs to give your offense more opportunities to score than the other guys have. You can’t play smash mouth anymore. You gotta steal the ball

You don't win championships without winning games and you don't win games without a defense.

And if you are content with losing games as long as they are entertaining... that is exactly what the NFL is counting on.

Last year's Super Bowl was the epitome of that.  Both teams chose to play NO defense and it was one of the most boring games I've watched.  All pass, all the time and all scoring.  And it took ONE - just ONE - defensive play at the end to win the game.

@nickers said:

Offense wins games.. QB's win championships.. Not the other way around...

Team sport. Gotta have balance. One rarely wins without the other, and it sure does take a QB