Cavs hold in-depth film study following three-game skid
December 5, 2016Robert Griffin III could start Week 14
December 5, 2016Anyone else have a little extra pep in their step on this chilly Monday morning? Cleveland fans had to wait 13 long weeks, but the bye week finally arrived, brining the local market a host of options at both 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. when it comes to actual football teams playing the game.
In a strange turn of events, it was the first time since the start of the season where Clevelanders didn’t have either the Browns or the Buckeyes over the course of the weekend. Thanks to the arbitrary alignment that put Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan in the same division, only one of the three best teams in the Big Ten could suit up during conference championship week, earning themselves a nice bid to the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, much like the Browns, the Buckeyes were home, resting, not getting injured, pondering their next game. Unlike the Browns, however, the Buckeyes are favored in their next game, and get to wait roughly six weeks before having to suit up again.
The Browns will resume practice this week as they prepare to host the Cincinnati Bengals. Just because they took last week off, however, doesn’t mean we did.
WINNER: Jimmy Haslam
The bar is so low for the Cleveland Browns owner that all it took was some sort of report saying he doesn’t plan on firing his front office and coaching staff after just 12 games to have this be considered a win. Adding to this monumental moment of triumph is the report that Haslam actually apologized for the last few seasons, signaling some sort of sea change in his much-discussed hands-on approach to how the Browns are being run. Now, this could all be a modern-day football version of Shawn Michaels working on things with Marty Jannetty at the Barber Shop only to blast him through the window with some sweet chin music, but until Sashi, Paul and Hue end up in a pile of tangled limbs and graphing calculators on Lou Groza Boulevard, we’re going to give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt.
WINNER: The HBT
Not only do they all seemingly have jobs, but the Harvard Brain Trust just saw their second first-round pick enter the top 10 thanks to the Cincinnati Bengals laying wood to the Philadelphia Eagles. Also helping matters is watching Carson Wentz slowly crash into the rookie wall, throwing three more interceptions in the losing effort. This is all leading into columns about Wentz’s throwing style and how the league may suddenly be catching on to something in which teams who faced the Eagles early on did not have similar luxury.
LOSER: Head-to-head comparisons
While the Browns were on their bye, the rest of the AFC North took care of business, thumping each of their respective opponents. Making matters a bit worse for the Browns is that each of said opponents were teams that had the best of them earlier in the season as the Ravens beat the Dolphins by 32, the Bengals beat the Eagles by 18 and the Steelers topped the Giants by 10. Add transitive property to any of these situations, and the Browns lose to the rest of the AFC North by approximately 3,000 points—give or take.
WINNER: Browns fans who want to get a look at Deshaun Watson
The consensus, at this point, is that Deshaun Watson would not be worth the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. Mel Kiper Jr. doesn’t have him ranked among his top 25. Todd McShay leaves him off of his top 32. Sports Illustrated, however, recently had the Browns taking the best player available at No. 1 while nabbing Watson with Philly’s pick later on.
Now using a one-game sample to dissect a player is never the best idea, but the Ohio State Buckeyes will be the best defense Watson has faced all season long. Watson possesses an array of passing and running skills and, thanks to wide receiver Mike Williams, has been lethal in the intermediate game. If we could use a Clemson-Ohio State game to deem Sammy Watkins as the league’s next great receiver, why can’t we do it with Watson?
WINNER: Mitch Trubisky
Speaking of the ACC, Cleveland’s own Mitch Trubisky earned himself a bid against Stanford at the Sun Bowl thanks to leading the UNC Tar Heels to an 8-4 record. If you’re looking for a lead-in game to the Buckeyes and Tigers on New Year’s Eve, you could do a lot worse than watching this one on Friday afternoon with the 2 p.m. start.
LOSER: Bookmakers
Heading into the season, the Browns were 3.5-point underdogs to the Cincinnati Bengals during Week 13. Heading into the bye, the line had moved to almost a touchdown, settling in around 6.5 points. Since the bye, however, the line has moved back closer to 5 with some books giving bettors 4.5 points with added juice. In weeks past, the Browns have been bet against in drastic fashion with 84 percent of money being on the Steelers during Week 11, and 85 percent of money being on the Giants during Week 12. In Week 13, however, we’re starting to see almost 40 percent of money moving on the Browns as they were getting nearly a touchdown. Could this be the week that the Browns turn that 0 into a 1? If so, Vegas is set to lose a few dollars—nearly twice as much had it happened in any of the past two weeks.
Who else won or lost over the bye week? Sound off below.
21 Comments
WINNER: Brown’s first 1st-round pick. Still #1!
WINNER: Brown’s second 1st-round pick. Thanks Cincy!
Winner – Steelers. I know this won’t be a popular comment in these parts, but I was watching that game yesterday thinking to myself, this team always peaks at year end. Always. It’s not an accident. This was not a Ben game. Kessler could have led them to the win. They manhandled the Giants. Score was not even close to the actual game. They have gotten a lot stronger on defense since the beginning of the year and have the same multi-dimensional offense. As much as I hate them, it’s a well run franchise.
Yes! Getting to watch Trubisky followed by Watson is a nice NFL Draft QB-fest. I wonder if Kizer would accept an invitation to watch with me as I don’t think he’s busy those days with football.
I admit to being a crappy predictor of how college players’ skills translate to the NFL, but amidst Watson’s dash for a first down in Scott’s clip, anyone else notice that if he looked back to his left he had a receiver within his sight line who is wide, wide open 25 yards away in the middle of the field?
I’ve actually gone beyond looking just at Philly’s record, and have started looking at the teams ahead of them hoping they will win.
No. 1 overall and No. 7 would sure be nice
Philly has a real chance of going 5-11. They play Was, @Bal, NYG, and DAL
We are very bad with the seventh overall pick. Eighth might be nice.
Since when does HBT take players at the assigned slot? We’ll be doing lots of moving and shaking. Give me the better asset 😉
Yes, because Bosa and Elliott were over drafted. Mack and Carr too.
Isn’t that how Atlanta got Quintorris Jones?
One of my buddies from high school went to Clemson and has a podcast… The Clemson Pawcast (cute)… anyway he told me that Watson had his rushes capped this year. Swinney didn’t want him rushing over 10 times per game. I guess in an effort to save Watson from taking a ton of hits, but that also will help in viewing him as an NFL QB and not just your standard dual-threat fare.
I want to “want to select Watson” but he had a rough year accuracy-wise. At his best, he’s well worth a selection, but he hasn’t been at his best all that often this year. Wonder what his opinion on 2015 Watson to 2016 Watson would be.
Yeah you would definitely like to see Watson up over 70%, but I feel like they do take more shots downfield than a lot of other college teams. It’ll be good to see him in another full game to get more a feel.
He just doesn’t see orange well. Which means he’s almost certainly going to be in Cleveland next year.
WINNERS : the entire Browns organization … this was perfect timing for everyone to get mentally & physically healthy … i am expecting a victory over Cincy this week. the HBT (Eagles loss).
anyone wanna compare the Wentz (#2 overall) pick versus the Kessler (3rd round) pick now ??
Wentz has been horrific under pressure, which probably goes to show why he handled the Browns so easily in week 1. His QB rating is something absurd like “13” when he is under pressure.
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See who’s safe, ON THE VERGE…, and who lost here:
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See all of the entries here:
https://waitingfornextyear.com/2016/09/10-bold-predictions-for-the-2016-browns-season/
Winner- Browns fans for sure.
Loser- everyone’s favorites insider for writing everything is fine in Berea just a few weeks after his “dissension” story.
I noticed the same thing. The Steeler’s defense was weak at the beginning of the season. But yesterday the Steelers defense absolutely bullied the Giants.
I was hoping to see SOME improvement on the Brown’s defense over the course of the season. But compared to the Steelers, the Browns have regressed. The Brown’s defense doesn’t appear to have improved at all…
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