NFL Week 2 thread

[outofplace]

The staying power of your Browns hate is impressive, considering they have been no threat to your team since 1989, other than the blip four years ago when Rapistraper was still at the helm. And yes, the Browns knew who/what Watson was. How many new deals did Big Queenie get while the Steelers knew who/what he was? And Heinz was packed weekly with towel-waving zealots worshiping him. In Cleveland, pretty much nobody's rooting for Watson. Other than Jimmy Haslam. heck, there's a video from Week 1 of Wyatt Teller refusing Watson's help up after a play. Even his teammates hate him. Many of us, meanwhile, are quietly rooting for Mayfield from a distance. It's a nice sidebar to the story.

While I get what you say, the Browns deserve no pain. Just their owner, who was behind this idiocy. He's the one solely responsible. In his decade-plus as Browns owner, Haslam has meddled twice in the QB department. That genius has given Cleveland fans Watson and Johnny Manziel. At least there was an escape from Manziel. The rest of the Browns front office -- Andrew Berry et al -- maybe deserves a little of the agony for not having the balls to come out and say "This was all Jimmy." Everyone knows it anyway. I'm sure they'd get jobs elsewhere. Even without the scandal, the Watson move was a bad one and went against what they and all the other propellerheads believe is how you build a team. I have think he is paying them to stay and take the heat so he doesn't have to. With their track record, any other team would have fired them by now.

I feel bad for Browns fans. The organization makes it impossible, but I'd like to be one. Especially living here with a 10-year-old son who is crazy about sports and especially the NFL, a love that began four years ago when Mayfield looked on the verge of a long career here. Then the management team screwed it up by playing him almost an entire season when 2-3 weeks off might have gotten him healthy. At the time the kid had a Mayfield jersey. Now he still has Nick Chubb and Myles Garrett -- the anti-Watsons -- but he also has a closet full of the likes of Justin Jefferson, Jalen Hurtz, Patrick Mahomes and a few others, as he roots for individuals like it's the NBA. He's already learned rooting for the Browns yields nothing. There hasn't been much to cheer for here in what is by far the town's most popular sport. Not for anyone of any age. But at least very few in this area are going to cheer for the turd at quarterback. And my kid certainly isn't. Which is nice.

I had no hate for the Browns until they acquired Watson. I hated that Cleveland had its team stolen by Modell. I've written about that before. Since their return, they haven't been worth hating, which is disappointing.

When I said the Browns deserve all the pain they get regarding Watson, I was referring to Haslem and the organization, not the fans. That said, plenty of Browns fans supported Watson when he first arrived. Do an image search and you will see them with disgusting signs supporting him and denigrating his accusers. How much of the negativity from Browns fans is due to his poor play since he got there? (I don't mean your son. I'm sure you are making sure he knows better just as I educated my daughter about Roethlisberger as soon as she was old enough to understand.)

It sucks that the Browns robbed you of a team. It sucks that they robbed your son of years of rooting for Mayfield. I agree that they handled that situation horribly. It was incredibly irresponsible for them to let him play through that injury in 2021. It was obvious that he was nowhere near 100 percent. They screwed him over big time, nearly destroying his career. I always thought he was kind of an ass, but I root for him because he deserves better than what he got from the team that drafted him.

I won't get into a debate of who is worse, Roethlisberger or Watson. That is subjective. They are both disgusting, but IMHO, there is a big difference between keeping a player who did something awful and going so far out of their way to acquire one. All teams employ bad guys. Not all teams get metaphorically get down on their knees and beg such guys to be a part of their organization.

If you want to argue that the Steelers deserved any suffering they faced while they employed Roethlisberger, too, that's fair. I think what the Browns did was far worse, but I can see the opposing argument.

 

[outofplace]

What has Andrew Berry done? His best players -- Ward, Chubb, Garrett, Njoku (and Mayfield, if you want to throw him in there, since Berry and Stefanski threw him out) -- all were drafted by the prior GM. Bitonio by an even older regime. Teller was a Dorsey trade. Made up of Berry's guys, this team would go 0-17. Jimmy keeps him because Berry will take the heat for Watson.

Berry's first pick this year is on the commissioner's exempt list. He has drafted a receiving corps of third rounders – Tillman, Bell, Schwartz – who can't catch. Spent a fourth-rounder on a kicker who can't kick. Once in a while he finds a serviceable player but his record is inarguably awful. He keeps extending and redoing deals to the point guys are undealable. And if he was responsible for the Watson deal (and I believe he wasn't), well … Again, what has he done, other than jump on Haslam's grenade?

As for Stefanski, he ran the best quarterback they've had in 40 years out of town -- that's really paying off -- and follows every good year with a shirtty one. And last I checked, four seasons and zero playoff wins is not good but as a Browns fan, standards and expectations become so unbelievably low that what Stefanski has "accomplished" seems like something. It's not.

Stefanski also has this idiotic habit of throwing the ball way too much in games when the running game is dominating. He has handed the Steelers victories that way.

That said, much as I hate to bring it up, the Browns did win a playoff game in 2020.

 

[Junkie]

If you want to argue that the Steelers deserved any suffering they faced while they employed Roethlisberger, too, that's fair. I think what the Browns did was far worse, but I can see the opposing argument.

Not at all. the Steelers are a paragon of what an organization should be, and are enviable in nearly every way possible, but also proof that even the best ones will sell their souls to win. The Browns are no different; they just did it for a player who sucks, adding to a decades-long run of incompetence. At least Watson's contract did not prove to be a trendsetter. Sanity has followed in its wake.

 

[Junkie]

Stefanski also has this idiotic habit of throwing the ball way too much in games when the running game is dominating. He has handed the Steelers victories that way.

That said, much as I hate to bring it up, the Browns did win a playoff game in 2020.

They did. He didn't. He was at home with Covid-19, watching on TV with the rest of us.

 

[Webster]

Why wouldn't the Eagles tush push on 3rd and 3? It kills time off the clock, possibly gets them the first down and might set them up for a game clinching first down?

 

[poindexter]

Again, they gave Philly 34 seconds and two timeouts and all they needed was a field goal. It would have been different if they needed at TD

The Eagles were at their 43 with a timeout and 27 seconds left. That's an eternity to 17 yards.

Just because it worked out doesn't mean the process wasn't wrong. Atlanta was going to have three chances with second and five at the seven. Running there either forces the Eagles to use a timeout or they let the clock keep going. Either way it's better than an incomplete pass.

I'm also kinda surprised the Eagles just didn't go for it on fourth and three to win the game. At worst the Falcons go the length of the field and get a TD and you lose anyway. Kicking that field goal to go up six guaranteed Atlanta had to go for a touchdown, and if they get it, you lose.

In just about two games, up to that point, the Falcons had scored two touchdowns. Their red zone offense terrible. For you to say that they "forked up" by getting a td with 30 seconds left is pretty insane. In fact, it is very insane. They had no time outs. And you want them to pick and choose when to score their td.

That is beyond wild.

 

[da man]

Why decline the penalty to get a first down?

To run another play and make the Falcons use a timeout on third down.

If they take the first down the Falcons could stop the clock after the next three plays and (if they made a stop) make the Eagles kick a field goal with about 1:45 left. If they decline it and get the first down with the tush push, Atlanta runs out of timeouts after second down so the Eagles can run another 40 seconds off the clock before kicking.

Of course, they forgot all about that and threw the ball on third down, negating their own strategy and giving the Falcons 1:39 to play with.

 

[qtlaw]

Watched Manning telecast and while Eli rarely says anything, Belichick is delightfully plain speaking. "[Falcons] can't tackle, they're too light on front 7". His groans were so funny.

 

[DanOregon]

Which fan base should be the most disheartened at this point? My rankings.
1. Miami - they might be years away from having another QB as good at Tua (And Tua isn't even a top tier QB).
2. Jags - a couple of years ago, it looked like they would own the division for five or six years, now they seem ready to blow it up.
3. Bengals - not sure what their excuse is.

Teams like the Panthers, Browns, Giants and Titans won't have to look too hard to find a better QB, And they'll be bad enough to draft at the top.

 

[BTExpress]

Starting it seems with the cancer that was Vontaze Burfict, the Bengals always seem to be undone by an absolutely boneheaded play (usually a penalty) at the wrong time.

 

[Craig Sagers Tailor]

I don't know if it's fair to say it was mostly Stefanski's fault. Baker admitted on the PMT podcast he was probably stubborn in not getting surgery that season. He did himself no favors with the way he carried himself in 2021. There were factors outside Baker's control that determined his fate (like anyone else), but he just wasn't very professional.

His whole reckless style of play was the reason he was even in that situation. He tried to tackle a guy after an interception and went shoulder first. An interesting what if in Browns history is what happens if that injury doesn't occur. That play changed the whole trajectory of the franchise with the ripple effect it had (Baker plays mediocre the rest of the year and leads to pursuit of Watson).

There was a game against the Lions (in 2021 they were winless most of the season) where one of his throws sailed over a wide ass open Jarvis Landry and the safety picked it. He left the field early that game without acknowledging anyone (the Browns won the game), skipped his mandatory media session afterwards and was an ass to reporters the next day. That was probably the point where the Browns were done with him. Then came the Christmas Day 4 interception debacle against the Packers and the meltdown on Monday Night in Pittsburgh.

Credit to him for maturing if that's what's happened.

 

[dixiehack]

Starting it seems with the cancer that was Vontaze Burfict, the Bengals always seem to be undone by an absolutely boneheaded play (usually a penalty) at the wrong time.

Did he get there before Pac Man Jones?