Sunday GDT: Around the League, but really Browns/Jags

[titans0021]

With no Titans football on Sunday, we might as well have another Around the League GDT. Obviously the primary rooting interest will be the Browns. Which is almost guaranteed to go well.

Beyond that, here are other games of interest:

Ravens at Packers

Buccaneers at Dolphins

Chiefs at Giants (I guess this could come into play for the third seed)

Bills at Chargers

Patriots at Raiders (I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to root for New England to beat Oakland)

Rams at Vikings (No playoff implications, but we play the Rams and it's far and away the best of the noon games)

[TitanLegend]

If the Browns weren't so inept offensively I'd say they could upset the Jags. They stop the run as well as anybody.

[KingTitan]

I think the Browns win. I have no reason to think that. Just think they do. 

[ragevsuall17]

1 hour ago, TitanLegend said:

If the Browns weren't so inept offensively I'd say they could upset the Jags. They stop the run as well as anybody.

It'll probably end up being 60-0... but I think the Browns have a chance... on defense at least... they match up well with what the Jags like to do on offense (kinda like us?).  The Browns can take the run away and force the game onto Bortles' hands... which, even if he hasn't been as horrible this year... is always an adventure (he tried to give the Chargers game away... Chargers missed a couple of easy pick 6's)

I won't claim to be an expert, and it may be a huge coincidence but taking a look at box scores... the Jags 3 losses also happen to be the 3 games they've given the most rushing yards (256, 179, 142).  Baltimore is the only other game they've allowed over 100 yards (134) and they absolutely slaughtered the Ravens... so who knows.  Cleveland, eventhough it hasn't won any games yet, seems to have turned the run game on... rushing for over 100 yards 4 of the past 5 games (140, 134, 115, 201... only failing to reach 100 against us in that span... and only reaching 100 yards once prior to this stretch).

If the Browns can contain the Jags' run game... and if they can get their own run game going... I think they'll have a shot... at least keep themselves in it to win it at the end.  Only 1 team has ever lost every game... and eventhough there's no question the Jags are the better team of the two... they seem to match up well... and they will probably end up winning at least one game this season... so why not this one... right?!?!?  

 

[KingTitan]

Browns will have a hard time protecting whichever QB they trot out there. And the QB they do throw out there will have a hard time passing. 

It will have to be the Browns defense (which is decent) that makes Bortles be Bortles. 

[titans0021]

I feel like some of us really just don't want to face the fact that Jacksonville might actually be good lol.

[RuskieTitan]

I want to see the Jags beat the Browns 12-9 in overtime just so i can see how much mud some folks will fling at them while they had praised us to high heaven for getting the win when we did.

Lotta trash talk which makes sense between division rivals but we've had the Texans and Steelers losses since our Jags win. If we faced off next week that would probably be ugly for us.

[-Hope-]

18 minutes ago, titans0021 said:

I feel like some of us really just don't want to face the fact that Jacksonville might actually be good lol.

i mean there's enough of us who don't want to face the fact that we might not be, so

[titans0021]

Just now, -Hope- said:

i mean there's enough of us who don't want to face the fact that we might not be, so

There's a difference between saying we're not good and the all out panic and talk of us being terrible. We're an average to slightly above average team in a league that's made up of primarily average to below average teams. This is where I think all of the anger both ways is coming from lately. There's posters that read criticism as "we're the worst team in football" and then there's the other side where any sign of trying to spin things in a positive way means that a poster thinks we're great. I think the majority of us are on roughly the same page in terms of the talent and ability of the team.

Some just feel the need to focus on the faults which forces others to try to focus on the positives. When really, 10 games in and sitting at 6-4, there's plenty of positives and negatives and it would nice if it wasn't a near even split between those that think the sky is falling and those that are a little too satisfied with where things stand right now.

[titans0021]

14 minutes ago, RuskieTitan said:

I want to see the Jags beat the Browns 12-9 in overtime just so i can see how much mud some folks will fling at them while they had praised us to high heaven for getting the win when we did.

I would love to see you go back and find the praise after that game. Titania was absolutely miserable for four or five days after the Cleveland debacle. 

[RuskieTitan]

20 minutes ago, titans0021 said:

I would love to see you go back and find the praise after that game. Titania was absolutely miserable for four or five days after the Cleveland debacle. 

Didn't use quotations because I wasn't quoting anyone specific. More so any sort of criticism that was raised was counter by "But we're 4-0, we're winning, why are you complaining".

[titans0021]

2 minutes ago, RuskieTitan said:

Didn't use quotations because I wasn't quoting anyone specific. More so any sort of criticism that was raised was counter by "But we're 4-0, we're winning, why are you complaining".

I just don't see this. And this is from someone that has been plenty negative and has called out the more optimistic group for doing the same thing. Everybody understood why we were complaining (God knows I was complaining) after the Browns game. It just seemed like some of us didn't take any time to appreciate a four-game winning streak and a 6-3 record. Those two things don't necessarily need to be mutually exclusive. You can be unhappy with a performance but still alright with a 6-3 record, even if it's certainly not a pretty 6-3.

[TitanLegend]

1 hour ago, titans0021 said:

I feel like some of us really just don't want to face the fact that Jacksonville might actually be good lol.

Jacksonville is fine, but Cleveland's defense is a hard counter to their offense. Will force Bortles to win the game, Williams still loves to blitz and their o-line isn't the best.

Issue is Kizer or whoever the hell is playing QB for the Browns now a'days will get destroyed by Ramsey and Co.

[KingTitan]

3 hours ago, titans0021 said:

There's a difference between saying we're not good and the all out panic and talk of us being terrible. We're an average to slightly above average team in a league that's made up of primarily average to below average teams. This is where I think all of the anger both ways is coming from lately. There's posters that read criticism as "we're the worst team in football" and then there's the other side where any sign of trying to spin things in a positive way means that a poster thinks we're great. I think the majority of us are on roughly the same page in terms of the talent and ability of the team.

Some just feel the need to focus on the faults which forces others to try to focus on the positives. When really, 10 games in and sitting at 6-4, there's plenty of positives and negatives and it would nice if it wasn't a near even split between those that think the sky is falling and those that are a little too satisfied with where things stand right now.

My "content" comes from the fact that we are where half the league is.....I've enjoyed seeing the team win, regardless of how they got there. Do I think we are unbeatable? Nope. Not by a long shot. There is a big difference between not being satisfied/comfortable with how we play and thinking we don't deserve to be in the NFL, because we didn't blowout another NFL team.

Maybe it's just my personality and view on life, but I just don't understand why I would look at a sunny day and get mad that it might rain tomorrow. That is what it sounds like to me. We won, but we win the next game playing like that. I just don't look at things that way.

We aren't terrible but we aren't a dominating team. We are a team with a 3rd year QB. A run first team that isn't running the ball well. A revamped secondary. Under-performing offensive line. Inconsistent play calling. We are an average NFL team. A team that could win or lose a game, any given Sunday. And for a team that had higher chances of losing games, no matter the opponent, on any given Sunday, I welcome the idea of having a chance to win. 

It's not like we have been hanging around 8-8 with the current staff. The current staff has ushered us in from bottom feeders to middle of the road/above average in 2 seasons. I don't see why I wouldn't let the season play out before I all out call for heads to roll. Just because we haven't won pretty?
I remember distinctly the ones doing a lot of complaining simply wishing to be able to win like we did in the "old days" compared to feeling completely hopeless every Sunday.

We go 6-10, then lets clean house.  But if we go 10-6, win the division and host a home playoff game in year 2 of this staff and someone still hate things going on, I would have a hard time finding reasoning in that thinking.

[titans0021]

8 minutes ago, KingTitan said:

Maybe it's just my personality and view on life, but I just don't understand why I would look at a sunny day and get mad that it might rain tomorrow.

When it comes to the Browns game, I'd say it's more looking at an overcast day and being afraid that a storm is going to blow in in about two hours lol.

For me personally, the amount we win by doesn't mean as much as just how we look. I don't need us to be an elite team, I never expected us to be an elite team. I just want us to look better, particularly when we play terrible teams. We haven't had a very difficult schedule and are sitting on a point differential of -31. The Jags are at +92. Now something can obviously be said for winning close games, but at some point I'd like to see an ability to put a team away when we have a lead. We let Cincy hang around when that game should've been out of reach, we let Baltimore hang around when that game should've been done already, and God knows we let Cleveland stick in the game.

I just don't look at this team and think that it's better than last year's squad. Which is discouraging after an offseason where we had $60 million in cap space and two picks in the top 16. That's the thing that bothers me more than anything. The real lack of improvement. We were 16th in scoring defense last year, this year we're 25th. We were 14th in scoring offense last year, this year we're 15th.

That's what I come back to when I look at the job the staff is doing. Wins are great. And I'm not going to pretend I'm upset about being 6-4. But I expect to see improvement from one year to the next, especially when there's so much young talent on the roster. It'd be one thing if we lost some quality players in FA, or if we were facing a significantly harder schedule this season, but we didn't and we're not. I don't know. Maybe I'm asking for too much. It's just been two months since I've watched a Titans game and thought that this actually looked like a quality football team. There were flashes in that Ravens game, but that's about it ever since the Seahawks win.