My humble second game thoughts

[Sully]

During the offseason, Dane made the comment (I'm not sure of the exact wording) that we'd be lucky to be 1-3 after the first four.
I'm here to tell you, sitting at 2-0...he was right.
Our first two wins have been born of pure luck, in many ways. San Diego was a few dropped passes from opening up on us, and today Cleveland got absolutely screwed on a few calls by the refs (non-fumble and Jones' first down).

That said, the teams that win are the ones who take advantage of those things, and so far we have taken advantage...and that's a good thing.

Here are some more of my thoughts.

Offense...

Cassel is awful. But I tire of the discussion, so I won't say more. I'm sad, because the college QB I like is playng himself out of our draft range.
As far as the "Why isn't JC getting more carries" discussion; I have stated I fully agree with him not getting more than 55-70% of the carries, and have listed my reasoning. However, he's far too much of a threat to not get him in earlier. Jones is pretty good to have, but he obviously isn't the homerun threat that JC is. However, two games:two (at least) bonehead moves by JC (this week's wasn't as bad as lasts, as he just made a dumbass cutback instead of hitting the hole). I fully see what Haley is saying when he says he's "starting to get it," because in too many instances, it still seems he doesn't.
It's nice to have a legit TE again. I don't ever want a Tony Gonzalez situation, because we became too reliant on a glorified posession guy. But it's not to have someone reliable at that position.
If O'Callaghan comes back and starts over Richardson, I have no idea what the Chiefs are seeing, because it looks like Richardson is twice the blocker. Late round picks matter.

Defense...
doing great. Smith impressed me today in the oddest of places. He played the nose on those two goalline runs by Cleveland, the second one they scored on. On both plays, he was two yards in the backfieldat the snap. Sadly, he got no support. That's a pretty good center, too.
I haven't seen this team play this much man defense since the days of Hasty and Carter. Add to that how many times they are doing so with no deep help, and it's amazing. I think Crennell may be forced into that a bit, by having to blitz to get pressure, but aside from a few mental errors leading to big plays (mainly by a rookie), it has worked out pretty well.
Flowers is, by far, the best player on the team.
DJ has arrived. I'm ready to call it. He's finally what we "thought he was," so let's crown his ass (and by crown his ass, I mean give him a contract extension).

And my favorite, Coaching...

Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments...
You cannot look at today's game and not see the value of having Crennell and Weis on our sidelines. Two games now have seen the type of football minds they have, the preparation they have put in, and most importantly, the ability to change on the fly and adjust to what they are seeing.
And for all the shit Haley has gotten, his handling of DJ alone deserves tons of kudos. How many people bitched because our best player wasn't on the field last year? The fact is, the patience he showed, and the standard he set must be looked toward in evaluating the growth of DJ as a player. I'm still not sold on Haley, but he's slowly getting some "benefit of the doubt" in the bank with me.

[DaneMcCloud]

9. The defender lead with his head, so the penalty was called.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

5. I was generally impressed with our pass blocking today, particularly the blitz pickups. Cassel's early problems were usually either him or (more likely) the receivers not being open at all.

That's something that concerned me watching here at the office, but it's hard to tell based on the TV coverage on a 13-inch screen. But both this week and last week, it seemed to me that there's extra pressure on Cassel in that he's having to try for throw into tight windows (obviously an issue for a guy who isn't particularly accurate or at all strong-armed...). It makes me wonder even more when I'm watching guys in the other jerseys catching passes with no defender even on the screen (as good as the defense has been, guys get WIDE open on us...). I start to wonder "why aren't our guys ever that open?"

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

9. The defender lead with his head, so the penalty was called.

Our defender, or their defender? Which play are you talking about?

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

That's something that concerned me watching here at the office, but it's hard to tell based on the TV coverage on a 13-inch screen. But both this week and last week, it seemed to me that there's extra pressure on Cassel in that he's having to try for throw into tight windows (obviously an issue for a guy who isn't particularly accurate or at all strong-armed...). It makes me wonder even more when I'm watching guys in the other jerseys catching passes with no defender even on the screen (as good as the defense has been, guys get WIDE open on us...). I start to wonder "why aren't our guys ever that open?"

Pretty easy. QB pressure. We don't get any on the opposing team, making it almost impossible to cover.

The inverse, of course, is true for our opposition.

[Bane]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

9. The defender lead with his head, so the penalty was called.

Off topic,but was this one of those winning in spite of Cassel games?

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Bane

Off topic,but was this one of those winning in spite of Cassel games?

Nope. Dude came up huge with a 46.1 QB rating. Clutch.

[RedThat]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

A few of my comments from the 50-yard line in Cleveland.

1. The crowd in Cleveland surprised me. When their defense was on the field, they wouldn't make noise unless it was third down. On 1st and 2nd down they just sat around and talked about Cleveland stuff or something. Even on third down it wasn't very loud, but that's probably because the stadium wasn't full.

2. Cassel looked horrible early on, but improved over the course of the game to almost adequate. On some of the earlier plays where he held the ball forever, there truly was nobody even remotely open, so he didn't have a choice. Right before that tipped interception, though, I realized that I get scared every time I see him drop back. Not even neutral. Scared.

3. The more I see Jones, the more I like him. I knew he was a good back, but he's really productive and reliable. I still wonder why Charles isn't on the field more, but it's not like Jones is a slug. But why did have Castille carrying the ball on that one key third down play in the second (?) quarter when we have Charles and Jones?

4. Our receivers were not open at all today. Not at all. Moeaki was always wide open, though. I think it was their scheme, because he generally ran free and didn't seem to have man coverage very much. Kudoes to Cassel or Weis or someone for recognizing it.

5. I was generally impressed with our pass blocking today, particularly the blitz pickups. Cassel's early problems were usually either him or (more likely) the receivers not being open at all.

6. Colquitt had an off day on distance, though his placement was fantastic. I never got to see a replay of the punt where they said our coverage guy stepped into the end zone, but it looked like a great one-yard downing live. Colquitt and Succop were both out on the field practicing at halftime while the Browns were opening their Ring of Fame and honoring their hall of famers. Honestly, I thought it was a little disrespectful.

7. It seemed like DJ made all of our tackles during a big stretch of the second half.

8. There was one incompletion to Bowe that I thought was funny. It was in the second half and he had good position on a relatively deep in pattern, but Cassel threw it behind him and over his head. The thing that I thought was funny was that Chambers was out on the field talking and explaining stuff to him away from the huddle before running back to the sideline, and it went on long enough that I thought, "Geez, they're obviously throwing it to Bowe". Guess the Browns didn't notice it.

9. Was the roughing the passer penalty in the fourth on that second guy that fell on Cassel? That sure as heck didn't seem like a roughing penalty. I'll take it, but that seemed like a really bad call. Of course, we had the bad call on (Lewis?) where they called an unprotected hit even though it was just good defense.

10. I noticed Studebaker playing in Vrabel's place in part of the second half. Was there an explanation for that?

11. What happened to our return game today? Is Cleveland's coverage that good or is San Diego's that bad? We were getting drilled constantly.

12. In passing situations, it was interesting that we usually had either Magee and Gilberry as our only two linemen or sometimes only Gilberry. So we had several plays where we had nobody on the field who weighed more than 270. I was a little worried in Cleveland's second-to-last drive that they'd just run the ball, but they didn't and we stopped them fast.

13. I'm liking this defense. They had a lot of pressure on them due to our lack of offense, and they not only played well, but put points on the board themselves. (Man, that was a great play by Flowers.)

14. We kept kicking off high and short, and on the last kickoff they lined Cribbs up in the second tier and only had ten men on the field until the last second, and then they ran Haden out there deep. I was a little worried, but figured for sure that the Chiefs saw it, but they didn't and kicked it right to Cribbs. Glad it didn't burn us.

Few things I want to comment on in your post,

the Lewis hit was great defense. This league needs to change and get rid of these stupid b.s. rules. The game is looking more and more soft as the years go by. I thought football was supposed to be violent, gruelling, and nasty game. Those are a few characteristics that describe the character of the game, but slowly we are starting to see those characteristics of the game die before our very own eyes.

I thought the Browns did a great job shutting down our return game today. Arenas needs to be smarter. I know he is an excellent returner and wants to take it to the house every time he touches the ball, however, a few times today, he had guys in his face and didn't call for the fair catch. That is DANGEROUS. Just call for the fair catch. Save yourself the energy, don't get too excited. Be patient, and smart. And don't risk things for yourself or the team. He could of got hurt out there or possibly turn the ball over. But thankfully that didn't happen. He's a rookie though, and will make those type of mistakes. I forgive him.

[the Talking Can]

Originally Posted by Bane

Off topic,but was this one of those winning in spite of Cassel games?

nah, his 2ints and 0 tds were crucial to victory

[keg in kc]

This was a weird sort of winning despite and because of. His 3rd down completions in the 2nd half made a big difference. But if he completes shit before halftime, maybe they have a lead.

[Bane]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Nope. Dude came up huge with a 46.1 QB rating. Clutch.

Just trying to keep count as we go ya know.

By my count that's 2 wins in spite of Cassel so far.

[ZootedGranny]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

3. The more I see Jones, the more I like him. I knew he was a good back, but he's really productive and reliable. I still wonder why Charles isn't on the field more, but it's not like Jones is a slug. But why did have Castille carrying the ball on that one key third down play in the second (?) quarter when we have Charles and Jones?

My question is why have Castille at all? For every one play he makes to move the chains, he makes five or six more that result in minimal or zero gains.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Pretty easy. QB pressure. We don't get any on the opposing team, making it almost impossible to cover.

The inverse, of course, is true for our opposition.

I gotta say, Hali is getting no pressure at all. That's worrisome. He drew a couple of holding calls, but I don't think he would've reached the QB even if he hadn't been held. One thing I've noticed is that he does the same move on every play, which is an outside speed rush. If he would add a spin move or even an inside bull rush, he'd be a lot more effective. As it is, the o-lineman just races him to the corner and then pushes him on.

[Rasputin]

Gilberry played good. Not sure if we missed T Jackson or not with him playing?

[Bane]

Originally Posted by Cool han Luke

Gilberry played good. Not sure if we missed T Jackson or not with him playing?

Who? Seriously he was looking good till he got hurt last week.....Wait that sounds lie Brodie.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ZootedGranny

My question is why have Castille at all? For every one play he makes to move the chains, he makes five or six more that result in minimal or zero gains.

I've got nothing against him and kind of like him in his fullback role. He's not a bruiser, but he can catch out in the flat. He's more of a Kimble Anders type than a Tony Richardson or Lorenzo Neal. But geez, when you've got Castille and Thomas Jones back there on third and short, it's okay to be predictable until the other team proves they can stop Jones.

I noticed as well that they often bring Charles in on third down even if it's third and short, which I found kind of odd. Charles got stuffed on one third down play. Again, I want to see way more of Charles, but it seemed like they had a third-down package and not a third-and-short package. Whatever. We won, so they're geniuses.