The Browns Offense and the exploitation of simplicity

[MistaBohmbastic]

Many people, myself included, were unhappy with the conservative offense in the second half of Sunday's game. 

It later occurred to me what the Browns had been doing in order for their offenses to be successful: new looks and basic common sense. We saw it against Atlanta as well as yesterday. Additionally, with it being a "new" offense, the Browns know that the lesser the tape teams have on them, the greater advantage they have.

I believe that the decision to be conservative in the second half against CIN will be to our benefit come next Sunday. The Browns unveiled an all new look yesterday to attack the Bengals, and we can expect the same, in that the formations will be different, come 12/2.

Duke was used minimally as well on Sunday, it's reasonable to believe he'll be called on a lot in Houston. It feels to me like they are planning for a need to put up a ton of points and be prepared for a lot of quick passes against a tough Texans D and electric HOU offense.

Myles Garrett and Nate Burleson followed me on Twitter this morning, I'm feeling dangerous.

[ReggieCamp]

I hope you're right.  If you are, then I get the turtle strategy.

If you're not right, then Gregg (and/or Freddie) need to get better at putting teams away.

[candyman93]

You’d also like to think the defense could protect a 28 point lead and not let a backup rookie QB pick them apart.

[mistakey]

1st drive 2nd half -> touchdown in 2 plays
2nd drive 2nd half -> run, run, pass 3 and out. NOT successful going into 3rd down, 3rd and 11
3rd drive 2nd half -> took 4:56 off the clock, bad reverse took us out of getting points.  at least this one wasnt a kitchens pass to the qb.  i'll call his boneheaded play call an improvement over ATL.   regardless of what you wanna call it, this was a successful drive.  5 min off the clock is good.
4th drive 2nd half -> chubb for 3, chubb for 4.  successful runs on 1st and 2nd down.  3rd and 3!!! baker doesnt check down, but lets not forget bates could have been called for a PI here.  handful of jersey on the back end of the nice PD.  can you blame kitchens for getting us to 3rd and 3? blame the 3rd down call, but dont blame the two successful runs that kept us on schedule.
5th drive 2nd half -> 1st down, causes the rest of the timeouts and the 2 minute warning, ultimatey puts the game out of reach.

a FG on the 3rd drive makes it easier to stomach.  a conversion on the 4th drive - even a penalty, puts us at ease.  one more 1st down on the 5th drive puts us at ease.  i'll give it a c-.  we won by 15.  plus weve never been in the position to put a team a way-  gotta practice it, and they did.  they should get better next time.

[sdrawkcab321]

Over thinking and wishful thinking here. It was just super conservative and bad play calling. Especially the end around that took us out of field goal range. 

[Kiwibrown]

I dont think it was good play calling. 

Baker was so hot we would probably have some success running the playsqe have already done. 

Also we could zone some zone from the shot gun, the ultra heavy running sets are a mess imo.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

I’m sure there was some desire for keeping some of the plays hidden, but they could have called some simple pass plays to keep the defense guessing without showing too much.

Bottom line, don’t take your foot off the gas, especially in the 3rd quarter.

[buno67]

What was the new look they had? A competent first half team? Didn’t look like they were doing anything special or crazy or extremely different besides playing well and executing

[ReggieCamp]

1 hour ago, mistakey said:

plus we've never been in the position to put a team a way

Sad but true.

I have a feeling we're gonna be experiencing a lot of "firsts" over the next year or so.  Most of them good.

[dawgdish]

I thought they went run/conservative to try to milk the clock and take advantage of Cincy's weak run D. Once it was obvious that didn't work, I wish they would have sprinkled in a little more play action, but we got the win, and triple G is never going to be confused with the next Sean McVay.

[Kiwibrown]

The points total that we are aiming for now is higher, we should be aiming for 40+ points per game not 35.

The NFL is changing, 28-35 isnt winning all that many games now days 

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

7 minutes ago, buno67 said:

What was the new look they had? A competent first half team? Didn’t look like they were doing anything special or crazy or extremely different besides playing well and executing

They were running a lot more spread packages than they had the previous few weeks, which is almost a complete 180 from the pistol bone looks from last week.

[NudeTayne]

It's gonna get better and better every week. We got this.

[MistaBohmbastic]

3 hours ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

They were running a lot more spread packages than they had the previous few weeks, which is almost a complete 180 from the pistol bone looks from last week.

I think we've only seen the beginning of what this offense can do. They're going to continue to introduce new looks and take what the defense gives them, and it will be fun to watch.

That being said, I'm also trying to temper my expectations, as I know the more recent opponents have depleted/subpar defenses. Houston, in that environment will be tough. Although, it is Baker's home state, I think it could end up being a bit of a shootout.

[MistaBohmbastic]

5 hours ago, ReggieCamp said:

I hope you're right.  If you are, then I get the turtle strategy.

If you're not right, then Gregg (and/or Freddie) need to get better at putting teams away.

IMO,  it's the only explanation for Gregg Williams telling Nathan Zegura coming out of halftime that they need to continue to be aggressive and keep their foot on the gas...and then allowing Kitchens to run that kind of offense to finish the second half.