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

Biggest Fears:

Tyrod Taylor (feet)
Hyde against our linebackers
Josh Gordon or Landry going up against Crawley
 
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.

Hey Browns fan here and thought I would give me two cents on this game as I think the OP got some things right and some things wrong. So I will go through each point and give my take on it.

1. This is more or a less true statement. Although on his last turnover in regulation he was hit rather quickly from Garrett. The Browns forced some of those turnovers some of them were unforced.

2. Tyrod was not good Sunday no doubt about that, but he was under too much pressure and the Browns Oline needs to fix that right away if they have any hopes against the Saints.

3. Yes he can still run, I would rather he pass better

4. I would agree with this assesment in general

5. The Browns got pressure a lot of the time with just 4 guys. There were times Ben held onto the ball too long which can be attributed to one of his sacks, but he also made a couple of plays by doing that. And when the Browns add Avery into the pass rush they are more than OK.

6. Browns sucked against the run for basically the first 3.5 quarters. Then for the rest of the game and over time they held the Pittsburgh run game in check. Browns were solid in the run last year and preseason so not sure if this was anomaly or bad omen. If the Browns play the run like the did last week, Kamara will have a field day.

7. This is incorrect. Schuster got over half his yards on a slant against like our 4th/5th corner. The starting corners played well all game and Ward played most of the game against Antonio Browns in his first ever start and got two picks. Browns TD pass he caught was just a better play against very tight coverage by Ward. The other thing about Ward that I have seen through preseason and week 1 is he is also an excellent tackler for a DB.

8. The offense was putrid, some of that is on Taylor, some of that is on the bad Oline play not giving him any time, some of that is on the backs not picking up the blitzer properly and some of it is on all the new pieces and parts.

9. Correct.

10. Division games always tend to be closer than one would think anyways. So yes it was close last year.

11. There were 3 more possessions after Pitt missed the kick in OT, so yeah they were glad that they missed the FG no more than any other team.


Now I think the Saints will win this game, in fact when the schedule came out I didn't see much reason for the Saints not to win this game, even if the Browns beat Pittsburgh which I thought was possible. But after the debacle against Tampa I believe their chances are better but still a long shot at best. The only shot the Browns have is if Garrett and company can get pressure on Brees, if not then Brees will pick them apart as he would with any team given enough time. I will remind Saints fans though the Browns have won the last 2 meetings and 3 of the last 4 against the Saints.
 
Hey, I think it's cool that we don't disagree on most of my points. I won't quibble on the couple we do. It beats the Falcons fans who will come here and try to convince you that water isn't wet.

GL Sunday.
 
we will be getting heavy doses of Connor until we prove we can shut him down
 

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