GDT Week 7 - 10/23/22 - Cleveland Browns (2-4) vs Baltimore Ravens (3-3) - 1pm EST

[AngusMcFife]

Just now, wackywabbit said:

I had to record this game for watching later this week. Haven't seen a snap, yet. But let me know guys... were we clutch?

Somewhat

[wackywabbit]

8 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

Somewhat

Haha, I'll take it. I only really care about the win+injuries, but the box score is really... not what I expected... aside from us losing the 4th quarter of course.

[AngusMcFife]

1 minute ago, wackywabbit said:

Haha, I'll take it. I only really care about the win+injuries, but the box score is really... not what I expected... aside from us losing the 4th quarter of course.

We got lucky. Browns had a 56-yard FG to tie. Ravens jumped offsides, then a Browns O-lineman jumped, refs called false start in a technically correct call but we were lucky. Then blocked a 61-yard FG. 

[wackywabbit]

5 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

We got lucky. Browns had a 56-yard FG to tie. Ravens jumped offsides, then a Browns O-lineman jumped, refs called false start in a technically correct call but we were lucky. Then blocked a 61-yard FG. 

'Bout time

Glad it was against that team.

[diamondbull424]

5 hours ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Couldn't DISAGREE more. Lamar did nothing but take sacks until Roman started calling nothing but screens or run plays. They forced Lamar to not throw because he was just doing boneheaded stuff back there. No way I could call this a step in the right direction.

Tbf the Browns were dropping like 7-8 in coverage pretty consistently and we were doing a lot of IIRC 1-2 WR routes where Andrews along with Bateman and/or Duvernay would be the three.

So Lamar was just sitting. Though the biggest issue was they were also boxing him in and not allowing him to scramble, so he needed to make the adjustment to go to his check down.

That said he wasn’t forcing balls. I’m all for him being reeled back in if it means we can get him back to mistake free ball. He was throwing balls into the dirt or tossing them intentionally out of bounds and living to pass another down. I’ll take it as long as he can build himself back into the MVP version, which I think he will, I still believe in him.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

22 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said:

Tbf the Browns were dropping like 7-8 in coverage pretty consistently and we were doing a lot of IIRC 1-2 WR routes where Andrews along with Bateman and/or Duvernay would be the three.

So Lamar was just sitting. Though the biggest issue was they were also boxing him in and not allowing him to scramble, so he needed to make the adjustment to go to his check down.

That said he wasn’t forcing balls. I’m all for him being reeled back in if it means we can get him back to mistake free ball. He was throwing balls into the dirt or tossing them intentionally out of bounds and living to pass another down. I’ll take it as long as he can build himself back into the MVP version, which I think he will, I still believe in him.

I'd have to go back and watch the game again to see how many times they only rushed 3. It wasn't those plays I thought were the issue, nor did I think they were contain rushing him. He just looked lost all game from what I could see because they were taking away Andrews and he wasn't going anywhere else with his reads before running into our OL or being sacked.

[drd23]

 

[Ray Reed]

I think it's hard to say the Bengals aren't the team to beat in the division moving forward. Helps we have that soft schedule coming up. Doesn't help we're @ Cincinnati week 18 to end the year. Not expecting us to win that game so we need to be at worst a game up on them heading into week 18...preferably two

[Ray Reed]

14 hours ago, wackywabbit said:

I had to record this game for watching later this week. Haven't seen a snap, yet. But let me know guys... were we clutch?

No. Quite the opposite - again. Just got bailed out by a very soft OPI call on Amari Cooper that called back (yet another) game winning TD in the final minutes given up by the defense. This was after the offense (yet again) turned the ball over with about 3 mins left in the game clinging to a 3 point lead. This isn't remotely the game to point to to support your idea that the Ravens somehow don't have issues in the biggest moments (read: clutch) at the end of games.

 

[RavensfanRD]

31 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

No. Quite the opposite - again. Just got bailed out by a very soft OPI call on Amari Cooper that called back (yet another) game winning TD in the final minutes given up by the defense. This was after the offense (yet again) turned the ball over with about 3 mins left in the game clinging to a 3 point lead. This isn't remotely the game to point to to support your idea that the Ravens somehow don't have issues in the biggest moments (read: clutch) at the end of games.

 

That Justice Hill fumble was insane. This Bucs game is gonna be crazy.

[diamondbull424]

1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

No. Quite the opposite - again. Just got bailed out by a very soft OPI call on Amari Cooper that called back (yet another) game winning TD in the final minutes given up by the defense. This was after the offense (yet again) turned the ball over with about 3 mins left in the game clinging to a 3 point lead. This isn't remotely the game to point to to support your idea that the Ravens somehow don't have issues in the biggest moments (read: clutch) at the end of games.

 

I don’t think this is fair. That was a clear cut OPI. It’s the same call that Andrews had against him a few weeks ago (was it against the Bills) that removed a TD for our offense that would’ve changed the complexion of that game.

On the last drive of the game our defense forced a turnover to close out the game.

So while the offense still seems to be lacking, this game showed definite improvements in the clutch area for the defense. They even blocked a FG kick to prevent the possibility of a tie.

 

So if you want to say we had calls handed to us, our opposition has similar calls handed to them in the games we lost. Does that make their teams more or less clutch?

We won the game and closed it out with nice stalls, blocked kicks, and turnovers… how else is clutch defined?

Come for the offense, sure. They fumbled away a prime opportunity. But the defense and special teams stepped up their game and did what needed to be done. The results are up on the scoreboard.

Edited October 24, 2022 by diamondbull424

[diamondbull424]

1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

I think it's hard to say the Bengals aren't the team to beat in the division moving forward. Helps we have that soft schedule coming up. Doesn't help we're @ Cincinnati week 18 to end the year. Not expecting us to win that game so we need to be at worst a game up on them heading into week 18...preferably two

Not sure what makes them the team to beat. They haven’t proven they’re any better than our squad. We have the same record and have beaten them once already.

The teams we’ve lost to are the Giants (6-1), Bills (5-1), and Dolphins w/Tua (4-3). While the Bengals have lost to the Steelers (2-5), Cowboys (5-2), and Ravens (4-3).

They’re 0-2 in the division while we’re 2-0 in the division. Teams we’ve lost to are a combined 15-5 and the teams they’ve lost to are a combined 11-10.

They blew out a below average Falcons team, they beat the Andy Dalton led Saints team, the Tua-less Miami squad, and the same Joe Flacco led Jets team that we also trounced by 15 points.

I think the team to beat in the division has definitely not been decided yet. For all we know they lose to the Browns next week and are sitting at 0-3 in the division with losses to every single divisional opponent. This feels like putting the cart very much before the horse. Our team might not be where we want them to be, but they’ve still proven to be an above average squad… same as the Bengals.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

48 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said:

I don’t think this is fair. That was a clear cut OPI. It’s the same call that Andrews had against him a few weeks ago (was it against the Bills) that removed a TD for our offense that would’ve changed the complexion of that game.

Agreed. I hate people calling that OPI 'soft' or 'ticky-tack'. It was a clear full-arm extension and that is called almost every time.

48 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said:

On the last drive of the game our defense forced a turnover to close out the game.

I don't think this is fair, because a possession with like 7 seconds left in the game isn't really a possession. The last actual drive they faced was the missed FG, which really was just Cleveland shooting themselves in the foot because they were marching right down the field into FG range before 2 back-breaking penalties forced them into the 55+ yard FG range.

48 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said:

So while the offense still seems to be lacking, this game showed definite improvements in the clutch area for the defense. They even blocked a FG kick to prevent the possibility of a tie.

Also semantics, but the defense didn't block the FG, ST's did

I don't think this game was an improvement in our defense, really. 2nd half possessions:

• Fumble
• FG
• Touchdown
• Missed FG
• Fumble (I don't really count this drive cuz it was basically a 15 second drive)

That's 2/2 and like I explained above, the missed FG was just Cleveland self-destructing after easily driving into FG range. And keep in mind this was against a pretty pitiful offense with an awful QB.

48 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said:

Come for the offense, sure. They fumbled away a prime opportunity. But the defense and special teams stepped up their game and did what needed to be done. The results are up on the scoreboard.

Again, I wouldn't say the defense stepped up. They were about to send us to OT after the fumble but Cleveland choked and ST's saved the day. That's really the difference between Cleveland and other teams - we made those same mistakes against BUF and NYG and they put us away. CLE was about to do the same but choked.

[wackywabbit]

2 hours ago, Ray Reed said:

No. Quite the opposite - again. Just got bailed out by a very soft OPI call on Amari Cooper that called back (yet another) game winning TD in the final minutes given up by the defense. This was after the offense (yet again) turned the ball over with about 3 mins left in the game clinging to a 3 point lead. This isn't remotely the game to point to to support your idea that the Ravens somehow don't have issues in the biggest moments (read: clutch) at the end of games.

 

Getting lucky calls in our favor checks the box for "clutch" for me.

[Ray Reed]

2 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

I don’t think this is fair. That was a clear cut OPI. It’s the same call that Andrews had against him a few weeks ago (was it against the Bills) that removed a TD for our offense that would’ve changed the complexion of that game.

On the last drive of the game our defense forced a turnover to close out the game.

So while the offense still seems to be lacking, this game showed definite improvements in the clutch area for the defense. They even blocked a FG kick to prevent the possibility of a tie.

 

So if you want to say we had calls handed to us, our opposition has similar calls handed to them in the games we lost. Does that make their teams more or less clutch?

We won the game and closed it out with nice stalls, blocked kicks, and turnovers… how else is clutch defined?

Come for the offense, sure. They fumbled away a prime opportunity. But the defense and special teams stepped up their game and did what needed to be done. The results are up on the scoreboard.

And a lot of us in here were up in arms about that Andrews OPI call, as we should have been. I’ve seen the Cooper OPI called on our receivers every now and then and it’s infuriating as a fan. I’m not going to complain because of how many times we’ve gotten gyped by the refs but the point remains - if a 50/50 call that most fans don’t agree with (when against their team) isn’t called in the last moments of the game, the defense gave up yet another late game TD to lose. 

If we’re going to blame the refs when they make soft calls that contribute to our losses i’m not going to pretend they didn’t have a hand in “turning around” our pattern of failing to close out games on defense this past game