A beatable conference team. You have to take advantage of that. We already have a conference loss.

So where are we on this at the quarter pole? (short answer, we're where we need to be) We're in the midst of a 5 game stretch of games that we need to win. We can't let wins against the Titans and/or Jets slip away. And as we did against the Steelers, we want to win our home game against the Ravens.
I understand that that's a lot of wins in a row. I'm sorry, but that's the way the schedule was written. Go Browns!

@nickers said:
To be fair... The jury is still out on Sanders...

Right. None of our QB's could really be properly evaluated last year. The QB's had nothing to work with. No OLine. No Denzel Boston, no KC Concepcion, It was a shit show.

@nickers said: (was actually bbedward that said that)
I have no idea why people are so hopeful for Sanders.

Because he's on the team and his college QB stats were right up there with the best in the draft.

@nickers said: (was actually bbedward that said that)
I'd feel a lot better if our backup QB was someone like Keenum.

Absolutely. But that assumes that you've got your franchise QB in place. We didn't even know who our starter was until just before the season started.

@nickers said: (was actually bbedward that said that)
Also with the trajectory and how weak our schedule is feels like top prospects in 27' are going to be out of the Browns reach.

We have two 1st round picks. That alone brings a lot of the draft board within reach.

Sanders had better be prepared to win games when he gets his shot. Watson and his somewhat fragile body is overdue for his season ending injury. But by winning 3 straight to vault us into 1st place he has raised the bar for Shedeur. Sanders has to prove that he's the better option than Watson...AND that he's the better option than using draft assets to get one of the top QB's in the '27 draft.
Also on the horizon is Gabriel and his coming off of IR. I'm assuming that that decision about carrying 4 QB's is not far off.

@Korsou-Dawg said:
@Dutch-Oven re-signing Watson is no longer a troll though. It's a legit option

I've given only a little thought as to Watson's future with us since being named the starter because there's still 3/4 of the season to play. I've always felt that he'd be a June 1st cut. I still feel that way...but not as strongly as before. I still feel that with two 1st round picks, we try to move into position to take our future QB in next April's draft. But the season has to play out, both for Watson, and the potential QB's of the draft.

@Flugel said:
I "Remember the Titans" game last year when TN took advantage of Myles only chasing the QB - it looked like TN's RB ran a 5k with the football through our defense. Myles got 1 sack but the game plan on defense was tough to watch. They never adjusted all game.

For Myles, the season soon evolved into 'Sacks Are The Only Thing That Matters' mentality. The team had no chance for playoffs or anything because of the Offense, but he had a good Defense around him, and a chance at immortality. (for as long as a record lasts) I noticed the way he was playing. But I didn't care. That's really all we had to root for anyway.

@calfoxwc said:
It certainly seems that the new defense WORKS

Yeah, after Root figured out from the Jags game that he has man-to-man guys and his zone game plan failed miserably.

@bbedward said:
The miss to Fannin felt like a miscommunication more than just a plain miss. Like Watson expected him to turn up field instead of continuing towards the sideline.

I disagree. If you watch the replay from the end zone behind Watson you can see that the play had broken down. Watson then escaped the pocket running left. Fannin just kept running his in route from the right side of the field. His defender then passed him on to the next zone...except there was nobody in that zone so Fannin was WIDE open. There was no reason for Fannin to change a thing he was doing. He had 1st down distance. Watson just made a bad throw. He's supposed to be better than that.

bb - you're doing a great job with this board!!

@Captain-Trips said:
and rage baits Todd Monken on national TV.

Since Monken said that, the team has backed it up with 2 more wins. Gotta love that symmetry.

When Mrs. Wife goes to bed I'm going to rewatch this game so that I can enjoy it properly. Maan, #'s 80 & 30 are hard to bring down. Again, hats off to the D. It seemed like every guy that wound up having to play DL got a sack. And how about Mike Hall, on a leg & a half, getting a sack! I now love that guy. The whole key to success against Rogers is pressure. He does NOT want to get hurt. He's looking towards retirement and raising his yet to be born new baby. We did a nice job of pressuring with the blitz and with just 4. There were times when Rogers had a lot of time but on many of those the coverage guys were doing a great job and Rogers just threw it away. An admirable job was done against the run. - I hope Mason & Hall can heal up quickly.

Szmyt has been a really good kicker for us. Many people wanted him gone after he missed kicks that cost us a game at the start of his career. But I liked his kicks. When he missed, it wasn't by much. Whereas Hopkins had been missing by a mile! I remember saying, after he lost us the game and people wanted him cut, No - we don't cut him. This kid now knows exactly how it feels to let your team and fans down. It sucks! He kicks the ball solidly. If he can 'mentally' come back next week and make the kicks that he's sent out there to make, then we may have our future kicker. - I watched the replay of the kick that lost us the Dolphins game, and this was after already missing an extra point. They replayed a camera that was focused right on his face. You knew exactly when the ball was sailing wide of the post because he said, Oh Come On!. - I remember thinking to myself, This kid does not expect to miss. ** A 56 yarder to beat the Steelers at Home for 1st Place ** That's a playoff win to Browns fans!
NOW, AFTER SAYING ALL THAT! After he makes that kick, he kicks it into the end zone. NO time off the clock. The ball placed at the 35. I was like, NOW why on earth did ya do that! And then they show Monken on the sidelines and he's stooped over like he's vomiting. too much adrenalin from making the 56 yarder I'm sure

Watson is doing a solid job. He's not being a turnover machine but with him, I'm just as afraid of the fumble as the INT. MAAN that win could've been so much easier if he hits wide open Fannin for the 1st down instead of throwing it way behind him. I know that he was running to his left but it was the same thing last week and he put it right on him for the TD.

Boston run good routes. He runs them fast and hard with quick jukes to help him get a little space on his cuts.

All of our RB's did an admirable job! There's just not much room to run.

The key is QB play. Both QB's did admirably and finished with about the same QB rating (take away Rogers' Hail Mary INT). And thus, at the end of the game, either team coulda' won. - First Place feels good! I'd forgotten...

@syd said:
yuck you vette .lol

Hey, I don't like the chocolate uni's either. But I'll love 'em if we win!

C Elgton Jenkins (concussion), G Teven Jenkins (back) and WR Tylan Wallace (knee) are all listed as out.

Wallace is out with a knee injury. He sustained the injury late in the fourth quarter during their Week 3 matchup against the Panthers and did not participate in practice throughout the week.

Elgton Jenkins is out with a concussion. He did not participate in practice during the week. Luke Wypler is expected to start at center in place of Elgton Jenkins.

Way to go bbedward!!

Well, here we are. We've finally crawled out of the basement and into 3rd place in the division (using tiebreakers). And we're playing a game that would put us in 1st. (tiebreakers again, as the Ravens will no doubt beat the Titans...but the Bengals play the Hot & Cold Jaguars, although theoretically, this would be the Cold week for the Jags, especially after dismantling the Patriots). Bottom Line: We're looking to take the lead in the division at the quarter pole! On National TV (for whoever pays for that). I mean, after week 1, who saw this coming?

ANYWAY.....although the Steelers have better numbers than us in every category, nothing shows that we're overmatched. Of course, I've got no category for the effin' penalties! I can hear it now, on Thursday night: Holding! Number 71! and False Start! Number 71! - we survived some crappy officiating last week.

Rogers does NOT want to get hit. We don't have Myles to make Rogers use only the half of the field that Myles isn't on anymore. (Rogers was scared shitless of Myles) But Mason Graham has probably earned some fear from Rogers now. And Root seems to dial up timely Safety blitzes, etc. to try and create sacks.

Unfortunately it's a very short week and there's no time for players to get healthy so I'm not expecting to see Campbell back in at CB. Blackman is a deep bench player who's starting. It's scary. But he didn't do all that bad last week against a really good passing team, PLUS having a player like Denzel Ward on the other side, the opponent is going to focus to Blackman's side...so, he did admirably. He was 2nd on the team with 9 tackles and he had 1 pass defended. Of course Ward only had 3 tackles because he didn't have to tackle his receiver too often.

Steeler Week! We have a pretty good track record on Thursday Night Football. Let's create some more memories! Let's beat the Steelers and TAKE 1st PLACE!

@texasag1969 said:

Myles may be coming back around game 9

Wow! I haven't been paying close attention. I was thinking he'd be back after the 4 week IR period. That's more bettah.

@dutch-oven said:

How did the running game look yesterday? On paper it looked like Judkins was productive.

Basically, we couldn't run the ball. I know the paperwork looks like we could...but we couldn't. At the end of the game we needed one yard to take knees. On 3rd & 4th down we couldn't get the yard. And I mean it looked BAD. I mean it looked like there was NO WAY the ball carrier was gonna get the yard.

Against the worst run D in the league we couldn't count on our run game for crap. Judkins wound up with 70 yards, but it looked more like 30.

@texasag1969 said:

With their best offensive and defensive players missing for now,

Let's have the losses stack up while they're out. They play the Eagles & Bills over the next 2 weeks.

I swear he was all over the place in the playoffs last year. I don't know what it is here, but they're certainly not shy about running to his side. Three total tackles yesterday.

Thank You Broncos! Anywhere from 6th to 16th.