BoNcHiE
Every team's Elixir
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I had the misfortune of taking Pit -3.5 and watching them blow a two TD lead with 5 minutes left so I got a good look at the Browns. I streamed the game while having the Saints on TV.
Here's what I noticed.
1) Turnovers killed Pittsburgh. Not just a few but 6 (SIX) turnovers. Had Big Ben simply taken a few sacks instead of committing some pretty avoidable fumbles and bad INTs, they'd of won that game easily. He looked like a guy headed for retirement. Despite that, the Steelers STILL had a 2 TD lead late in the 4th before blowing it with yet another Roethlisberger fumble. He was running around outside the pocket when it happened.
2) Tyrod Taylor is not good. I know everyone is sure he's going to go for 400/4TDs on Sunday, but I wouldn't count on it. The rain hurt him, no doubt, but he's still the same guy he's always been. Extremely inaccurate down field. He was 15/40 overall. I simply do not expect him to do what Fitz did with the deep ball yesterday. They are totally different players.
3) Taylor can still run. He had 77 yards and that'll be his biggest threat.
4) Landry was Taylor's go to but the rest of the WRs were non-existent. Landry is an excellent intermediate WR but is not a big deep threat. It's at least possible that Lattimore can rebound and play well against a WR of his style.
5) The Brown's DL looked ok but Ben held onto the ball way too long most of the time.
6) The Browns were awful against the run. Especially on the outside. Kamara has every chance to have a field day.
7) The Browns CBs were beaten consistently but made plays on really badly thrown balls by Ben. Shuster got 113 in the rain and Brown got 93. And it's not like the Steelers couldn't run. As I pointed out, the Browns were awful against the run and Conner had 135 yards rushing.
8) The Browns, outside of Taylor scrambling, were really bad rushing the football. Honestly, their entire offense looked bad and it's the turnovers that saved them. It took six of those for them to pull out a tie.
9) The Browns were at home for this game.
10) It's worth nothing that the Browns nearly beat the Steelers last year in week 1.
11) The Browns acted like they'd just won the Superbowl after getting that tie. Guys were jumping up and down and celebrating on the field after the final stop on Pittsburgh. They expended a lot of emotional and physical energy in that game.
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What's all this mean? No one can really say with certainty. This is the NFL. Weeks 1 and 2 are notorious in the gambling world for being volatile for a reason. The Browns could come in and beat us on Sunday.
I can respect anyone who says that yesterday's game has you down and that you aren't sure who'll win. At the same time, some of the hot takes of the Browns destroying us are a bit much. They are a team full of issues that we can exploit. The old addage of avoiding turnovers will be key in this game. It'll be a totally different kind of game compared to the Bucs IMO.
Even a marginal improvement on defense against a better offensive matchup should produce good results. Or we may turn it over 5 times and lose. That's the NFL but the Saints are still more than capable of winning on Sunday. I think this team has earned the right to at least get through week 3 before pronouncing them dead. It's disappointing to see some of the reactions.
Here's what I noticed.
1) Turnovers killed Pittsburgh. Not just a few but 6 (SIX) turnovers. Had Big Ben simply taken a few sacks instead of committing some pretty avoidable fumbles and bad INTs, they'd of won that game easily. He looked like a guy headed for retirement. Despite that, the Steelers STILL had a 2 TD lead late in the 4th before blowing it with yet another Roethlisberger fumble. He was running around outside the pocket when it happened.
2) Tyrod Taylor is not good. I know everyone is sure he's going to go for 400/4TDs on Sunday, but I wouldn't count on it. The rain hurt him, no doubt, but he's still the same guy he's always been. Extremely inaccurate down field. He was 15/40 overall. I simply do not expect him to do what Fitz did with the deep ball yesterday. They are totally different players.
3) Taylor can still run. He had 77 yards and that'll be his biggest threat.
4) Landry was Taylor's go to but the rest of the WRs were non-existent. Landry is an excellent intermediate WR but is not a big deep threat. It's at least possible that Lattimore can rebound and play well against a WR of his style.
5) The Brown's DL looked ok but Ben held onto the ball way too long most of the time.
6) The Browns were awful against the run. Especially on the outside. Kamara has every chance to have a field day.
7) The Browns CBs were beaten consistently but made plays on really badly thrown balls by Ben. Shuster got 113 in the rain and Brown got 93. And it's not like the Steelers couldn't run. As I pointed out, the Browns were awful against the run and Conner had 135 yards rushing.
8) The Browns, outside of Taylor scrambling, were really bad rushing the football. Honestly, their entire offense looked bad and it's the turnovers that saved them. It took six of those for them to pull out a tie.
9) The Browns were at home for this game.
10) It's worth nothing that the Browns nearly beat the Steelers last year in week 1.
11) The Browns acted like they'd just won the Superbowl after getting that tie. Guys were jumping up and down and celebrating on the field after the final stop on Pittsburgh. They expended a lot of emotional and physical energy in that game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's all this mean? No one can really say with certainty. This is the NFL. Weeks 1 and 2 are notorious in the gambling world for being volatile for a reason. The Browns could come in and beat us on Sunday.
I can respect anyone who says that yesterday's game has you down and that you aren't sure who'll win. At the same time, some of the hot takes of the Browns destroying us are a bit much. They are a team full of issues that we can exploit. The old addage of avoiding turnovers will be key in this game. It'll be a totally different kind of game compared to the Bucs IMO.
Even a marginal improvement on defense against a better offensive matchup should produce good results. Or we may turn it over 5 times and lose. That's the NFL but the Saints are still more than capable of winning on Sunday. I think this team has earned the right to at least get through week 3 before pronouncing them dead. It's disappointing to see some of the reactions.
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