Let's talk about the Browns...Watched them yesterday (1 Viewer)

[BooBirdSaint]

We were able to shut down Taylor last season and that was with McCoy as his,running back. However, that was last season. If Drew and the offense play as good next week as they did yesterday we have a good chance to bounce back. But the defense must improve dramatically.

 

[BoNcHiE]

And I came away thinking Garrett is a BEAST. The real deal. I didn't like those personal fouls they called on him. Thought it was ticky tack.

Unfortunately, that's the game now.

Garrett is great, but how often do the Saints let a single edge rusher beat them? How often do we let any edge rusher beat us without having strong middle pressure as well?

If there's one area I trust Payton/Brees, it's that area.

 

[Zack Lee]

Is it to early to call it a trap game?

.

any team that walks into a trap after the way they played yesterday deserves to live eternally in a trap. Trap aspect if it exists at all must have some element of complacency, taking the week off, and looking beyond.

I'm calling tap on yesterday. It wasn't a game with any important implications down the road, we are used to getting off to good season starts, etc.


Trap life.

 

[LoE]

Unfortunately, that's the game now.

Garrett is great, but how often do the Saints let a single edge rusher beat them? How often do we let any edge rusher beat us without having strong middle pressure as well?

If there's one area I trust Payton/Brees, it's that area.

Fair enough. He sure is fun to watch though. Any idea on when Peat's coming back?

 

[AARPSaint]

After yesterday's fiasco, anything is possible, including the Browns first win since forever. My optimism for the Saints this season is in serious danger of becoming disillusionment. That's how bad that game was. It's not as though there were a couple of bad breaks; it was a steamrolling despite the final score and a steamrolling by a mediocre at best team. AND, it's a divisional loss at home!

They managed to figure it out last year after the first two clunkers, but those games were against good teams. So, it's not hopeless. Nonetheless, other than the prowess of the offense despite the two turnovers, there is nothing good to take away from this loss. This was supposed to be the easy part of the schedule. Ugggggggggggggh!

They don't need to beat Cleveland next week. They need to shut them down, even if they win 13-0. The offense has a good track record. If they don't dominate, there's little to be concerned about. On the other hand, the defense is in shambles right now. If they lay another egg against Cleveland, then we are in serious trouble.

 

[Bloop]

I'm definitely restarting Duke Johnson in fantasy

 

[BoNcHiE]

They managed to figure it out last year after the first two clunkers, but those games were against good teams.

I'll just say that few thought the Vikings were a "good team" last year. Most were pointing out they were 8-8 the year before, had hit the skids the 2nd half of the 2016 season (3-6 over their last 9 I think), and thought we'd win that game.

No one knows what the Bucs are this season at this point. It's probable they are a fairly good team given their DL talent and skill position players on offense. They certainly aren't as good as our defense made them look, but they are improved.

 

[LoE]

That's another fair statement. They sure torched the hell out of us. On the road... with a backup QB.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

Unfortunately, that's the game now.

Garrett is great, but how often do the Saints let a single edge rusher beat them? How often do we let any edge rusher beat us without having strong middle pressure as well?

If there's one area I trust Payton/Brees, it's that area.

True that. If you watched Mack vs GB in the first half and then Rodgers vs. the Bears in the second half. GB completely adapted to Mack in the 2nd and allowed a one legged Rodgers to guide them to the win.

 

[ShahulX]

im worried about Tyrod running around and Myles Garrett...

I want to see Davenport on the other side of Cam Jordan all game

 

[SaintsFanInLA]

It seems to me, ever since our Super Bowl year whenever we play rookie or backup QBs they have CAREER games against us.

Yesterday Tampa scored on EVERY possession except, the one punt, the missed FG, and victory formation. They even scored on one of our possessions.

The thing is, being a Saints fan this wasn't surprising. I felt our runningback was gonna fumble before he did because that's how we are at times. I KNEW MT was gonna fumble because he was carrying the ball like a loaf of bread AWAY from his body fighting for more yards and that's how we are at times.

Until our defense shows up, I saw nothing to make believe we could stop a Tim Tebow lead offense. If it's 3rd down, they will either convert it by running it, completing a pass to a wide open receiver OR we will be penalized for defensive holding, PI, illegal use of hands to the face, or roughing the passer.

We were at home, all of the costly penalties were against us. It seems like every penalty gave them 1st downs and none gave us 1sts. It felt very lopsided. And YET we lost by only 1 score. But we've seen this movie fitty-elebm times. Our offense has to be PERFECT in order to win, with this porous defense.

Fitz could wear his same uniform next week as this week because it's cleaner than a pack of unopened fresh t-shirts. He had the cleanest pocket I have EVER seen. It was like they were running 7-on-7 drills and he was wearing a red shirt.

The defense was pathetic. And until I see otherwise I will have zero expectation that they will be any different.

I was watching other defenses yesterday like a man who has a flat chested no shape having girlfriend with a horrible attitude and doesn't cook or clean and prudish about sex would watch someone with a beautiful voluptuous girlfriend with a wonderful attitude who cooks and cleans and loves fulfilling her man's sexual fantasies.

Until things change, my expectations are zero for this defense.

 

[St. Aaron]

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.

On the one hand, thanks for this post. I need all the talking back from the ledge I can get in the aftermath of yesterday. On the other hand, I’m afraid I’m just scarred by how bad our defense has been in the recent past with a couple exceptions. I’ll believe we can turn it around when I see us turn it around. I still have hope because we did it last year, but my expectations took a massive hit yesterday.

 

[BoNcHiE]

On the one hand, thanks for this post. I need all the talking back from the ledge I can get in the aftermath of yesterday. On the other hand, I’m afraid I’m just scarred by how bad our defense has been in the recent fast with a couple exceptions. I’ll believe we can turn it around when I see us turn it around. I still have hope because we did it last year, but my expectations took a massive hit yesterday.

Think of it this way.

Even IF the defense makes no improvement from last week, we are still in decent position to simply outscore them. Plus the law of averages says we'll likely luck into a turnover or two. Take a load off and let it play out.

 

[St. Aaron]

Think of it this way.

Even IF the defense makes no improvement from last week, we are still in decent position to simply outscore them. Plus the law of averages says we'll likely luck into a turnover or two. Take a load off and let it play out.

Yeah, that’s about all I can do. I mean, Lattimore, Jordan, et al, can’t have forgotten how to play, right? I keep telling myself that maybe Dennis Allen was just totally unprepared for Tampa’s new OC (I forget his name) and got his lunch ate. We have to be better than we showed yesterday. We just have to be. But it’s tough to believe right now. Hopefully, your observations about Cleveland come to fruition next week and we (fans and the team) can begging to get some confidence and swagger back. I want some Boonk Gang photos, dammit!

 

[Whodat74]

I have to disagree with your posts. I have watched almost every browns game for the past 5 years and can tell you that the browns have been really bad for the past 4 years but laat year you could see a marked improvement in their overall performance. They just had a really bad qb that couldnt hit water if he fell out of a boat. His name is deshaun kizer and if you are not familiar with him but watched the green bay chicago game last night he was the hot garbage that came in as rodgers replacement qb. Tyrod is a much better qb than kizer is, and i think just because you watched a game that was played in a monsoon yesterday with winds gusting to 40 mph is an accurate definition of how good or bad the Browns truly are is an inaccurate assumption. We are going to get a completly different team this Sunday in the dome where the weather and field is not a factor. I also disagree with your statement that our ol is excellent. I saw drew having to consistently scramble in the pocket to buy time for the recievers to get open. I think the browns defensive line is going to cause us some serious headaches Sunday. In addition to that I am worried with how poorly our entire defense played yesterday if thats the same defense that shows up this Sunday. Then Tyrod is going to have similar success that fitzpatrick had. I hope we get our defense turned around because even though the browns tied the steelers yesterday that was a moral victory for them and gave the whole team a little bit of confidence and swagger and that can make a team very dangerous ala the Saints defense last year