Buckeyes move up to No. 2 in latest AP Poll after ugly, chaotic weekend
October 15, 2018Same Ole Browns?
October 15, 2018The Tennessee Titans beat the defending Super Bowl champions. The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Ravens. The Baltimore Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans on the road. Transitive property states the Browns, in turn, are Kings of All the Land.
Reality, however, showed that a team can take a cross-country flight, come in as one-point underdogs, and lay a hurting to a team that was riding high following a Week 5 victory.
There are a lot of folks who would have been happy to know that the Browns are 2-3-1 heading into Week 7 had you told them this during the start of the season. The devil, of course, is in the details. All of the talk about how this was a Cleveland Browns team that “should have been 5-0” before Sunday were silenced within 30 minutes of football where the deficit was 21-6 and the ball was to be in the hands of the visitors following the break.
Things aren’t all lost. This is a team that still has flaws, but they’re much better than many assumed they could be at this point in the season. Sometimes sobering events help put things into better perspective. Radio folks can stop talking playoffs. Fans can start looking for glimmers of hope. Las Vegas bookmakers can take a breath and reset themselves.
Here are your Winners and Losers from Week 6.
LOSER: Baker Mayfield
Yes, the receiving corps is in shambles. And yes, game flow dictated an afternoon where a rookie quarterback was forced to throw the ball 46 times. There will be days where Baker Mayfield looks much better. Hell, we’ve already had several of them. Sunday, however, was not his best showing. A completion rate below 50 percent and an average yard-per-attempt of just 5.2 yards, Mayfield simply couldn’t connect with any of his receiver downfield.
Via NFL
The Browns were able to turn 19 targets to Jarvis Landry and Antonio Callaway into just four completions for 20 combined yards. I’ll have to go back and watch the all-22 to decipher whose fault this was, but there were multiple times throughout the contest with Mayfield just missed his receivers. The rookie is lucky Joey Bosa is out until later this month. Better days are ahead; this was one to forget.
LOSER: Hue Jackson
Jackson’s team was outcoached in every aspect of the game on Sunday.
On the defense: “[We] Did not play very well. On the edges, they were able to exploit it. We had no force set. That team ran the ball for a lot of yards.”
On the offense: “I am not going to make any excuses. We just did not play well. We did not play well. Period.”
No statement was given on the special teams, but factor in that the Browns were flagged on the opening kickoff as the receiving team for a player not being lined up properly (again), and it speaks for itself.1
In the event you need more evidence Hue was outcoached:
Geno Smith is in at QB. #LACvsCLE
— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) October 14, 2018
LOSER: Gregg Williams
The second-ranked defense heading into Week 62 was exploited in every facet of the game. Edge rushes. Jet sweeps. Screens. Double posts. You name it, Phil Rivers and the rest of the Los Angeles Chargers were able to execute.
Worse: The Browns’ inability to stop the run in Week 6 will be rewarded with a schedule that has Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta waiting in the wings before the bye. These four team combined to score 131 points in Week 5. No big deal.
WINNERS: Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward
Despite what I just said about the Browns’ defense, their two young stars actually played well. Garrett got to Rivers a few times and Ward got his hand on a pass intended for Big Mike Williams. Both guys will have their work cut out for them in the coming four weeks.
WINNER: David Njoku
Some of this is graded through the prism of a player who has had multiple, key drops this season, but Njoku played what was arguably the best game of his career, hauling in seven passes for 55 yards and a touchdown. Kudos to the second-year tight end for bringing in that fade route with a Charger defender draped on his chest like a flak jacket.
Baker Mayfield finds David Njoku for six#LACvsCLE pic.twitter.com/cGC2slCvar
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 14, 2018
LOSER: Carlos Hyde
While Melvin Gordon totaled 150 yards and three touchdowns, the Browns countered with their lead back tallying 34 yards on 14 carries. Duke Johnson and Nick Chubb were able to add a little pop to things in their five carries, but this offense needs much more from Hyde if he’s going to be worthy of getting a 66 percent share of the carries.
WINNER: Duke Johnson Jr.
As mentioned, Johnson was able to break off for 36 yards in his two carries while turning five targets (four catches) into 73 more yards in the air. The kid’s a playmaker, and with all due respect to Damion Ratley, the offense needs to start to utilize him more if they want to be successful. There’s no way a coordinator in 2018 can’t scheme up 3rd and 4th down plays where a player of Johnson’s ilk can get a mismatch with a linebacker. Let’s get with the program.
LOSER: Jamie Collins Sr.
You got blocked by Phillip Rivers, man.
Phil's a savage.
→ https://t.co/Q5bmsLgI7v pic.twitter.com/6BtaMUIUMC
— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) October 15, 2018
LOSERS: The Officiating—again
Look: I’m not Blame Officials Guy, and I’m glad we seem to have at least decided what is and is not a catch. But take the subjective things out of the equation for a moment and realize how badly certain, blatantly obvious calls have been officiated against the Cleveland Browns this season. When you lose a game 38-14, one play doesn’t decide the outcome. But when a false start doesn’t get called, and your defense is left stunned and subsequently gives up a 40-yard touchdown pass to put your team up by two scores instead of one with just a handful of minutes remaining in the half, it certainly changes the flow of the game and how plays on the offensive end have to be called. Between the “our bad!” call on Myles Garrett Week 1, and the Jarvis Landry no-call (among others) in Week 5, it just makes calls like this—which they admitted to missing in-game—jump out that much more.
WINNERS: The Ohio State Marching Band
Only so we can end this on a good note.
The Ohio State marching band did The Floss. pic.twitter.com/ZU38ytN9H2
— Scott @ WFNY (@WFNYScott) October 13, 2018
And Finally, The Fans:
Winners: Houston Astros and Los Angeles Chargers.
Losers: Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Browns.
Wait, was I supposed to be more funny?
— Nick Camino (@NickCaminoWKYC) October 15, 2018
Winners: JR Smith. He got the love & adoration of thousands of Clevelanders at the mere mention of tailgating, but still got to sleep in. Losers: People who showed up at tailgates. They looked for JR, but all they found was Possum Guy.
— Joy (@joycalhio) October 15, 2018
Winners: Colquitt, Duke, Njoku.
Losers: Hue, Gregg, run defense, edge defenders, Landry and Hyde.
— chris wilson (@chrswlsn) October 14, 2018
Winners: Chargers run game
Losers: Everyone on the Browns side– Offense, defense, special teams, coaching…all horrendous today
— Nick Stano (@N_Stano22) October 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/kingtopher27/status/1051573184582078464?s=21
Winners. Our punter.
Losers-
fans calling in sport shows talking playoffs.
The whole d
Buddy boy for the WR situation— sincitysix (@sixxbri) October 14, 2018
