Next Up: Cleveland Browns

[CorvusCorax]

[quote name='BrownsFan' date='21 September 2009 - 09:28 AM' timestamp='1253539729' post='239288']
I will be making my annual pilgrimage to Baltimore to see my favorite team play you all yet again.

I'm usually a very optimistic person when it comes to Browns games but honestly I really don't see a way we can win this one. I don't think a lot of Browns fans wanted to admit what I saw before the preseason even began; we're just not a good team right now. With the exception of a handful of great position players (Thomas, Cribbs, Jackson, sometimes "stonehands" Edwards) we just lack depth and talent. Mangini I do believe will end up being a solid overall coach but the truth of the matter is he inherited a very bad team.

I'm hopeful for a victory but also realistic as well; it would be an enormous upset if Cleveland somehow left Baltimore with a win.
[/quote]

This is one major reason I'm not a fan of the uncapped salaries for next season. Now there will be an imbalance with teams.

[BrownsFan]

[quote name='CorvusCorax' date='21 September 2009 - 10:40 AM' timestamp='1253544034' post='239320']
This is one major reason I'm not a fan of the uncapped salaries for next season. Now there will be an imbalance with teams.
[/quote]

I agree with you on that one. It will be really interesting to see what happens next year with teams and their "Yankees" mentality.

[Alexir]

[quote name='BrownsFan' date='21 September 2009 - 10:44 AM' timestamp='1253544277' post='239322']
I agree with you on that one. It will be really interesting to see what happens next year with teams and their "Yankees" mentality.
[/quote]


Hope it gets resolved or Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder will be the new Yankees and Red Sox. I see a lot of franchises going under if this happens but I think the Ravens will fair ok. Not sure who owns the Browns or if they are a penny pincher or not so I cant comment on that.

[BrownsFan]

Randy Lerner is our owner; very low-key guy that you rarely see. But if you're curious:


Randolph D. Lerner (born February 21, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American entrepreneur and sports team owner.

Lerner has been the owner of the American football team, the Cleveland Browns, of the National Football League (NFL) since October 2002, and the Chairman of Aston Villa Football Club of the Barclays Premier League since 2006. His personal fortune is estimated at USD over 1.5 billion in 2008.

Lerner graduated from Columbia University in 1984, spending 1983 at Clare College in Cambridge, England. He graduated from Columbia Law School and is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bar Associations. Prior to entering the business world, he worked as a lawyer in New York City.

[Runnin Raven]

I'd like to see us come out crisp on O and more physical on D. Don't want to come out flat vs a divisional opponent. No one better be thinking about New England yet. Predicting a hard fought victory, since that appears to be the trend this year.

Edit - Actually, thinking about it a little bit, I say our defense comes to play, perhaps with a chip on its shoulder or a renewed Ray Lewis-inspired playmaking energy.

[Raven_Fan]

So how do u think that the next game Ravens vs. Browns will do? Give me some stats people

[macbrak]

Hopefully more of the same out of both teams.

[img]http://homepage.mac.com/jeffade/img/ravens_browns.gif[/img]

Definitely hope we don't see the Brown's team that clicked a couple times last year against a good opponent.

[JoeFlax]

we cant take this week for granted since its a division game, but still the browns are looking pretty dismal so far

[BrownsFan]

As Corax said it's one of those games you don't "take for granted," but at the same time it'd be a near miracle for Cleveland to have a chance the way they look right now unless they played SIGNIFICANTLY better than they have so far.

I think the tailgating might be the best part of the game the way things look.

[Jhyson]

This game is pretty key.

I wouldn't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Cincy has a shot of beating Pittsburgh. With that said, a 3-0 start against a possible Pittsburgh 1-2 start would be HUGE.

I love how the Ravens approach every week as it's anyone's game so no opponent is ever overlooked. There is no reason why Cleveland should win this game, let alone even be CLOSE in this game. Look at their defense and how points they gave up so far in just 2 games. The Raven's offense must be salivating at this opportunity. Minus Cribbs I agree there isn't much to this offense. Besides, Cribbs is much more a threat returning kickoffs than recieving catches. With the special teams tightening up I think he will be contained.

Hopefully this game can be a confidence booster for our secondary as they will definitely need it going into New England two Sundays from now.

We will see if Harbaugh and Mattison has these defensive problems figured out. If so, I think all will be well from this point on.

[PuRock]

This game is very simple for us. Protect the ball. No turnovers and we will win this game.

Stick to what we do best. Run, control the clock, and (attempt at) getting pressure. Their running game will be non-existent. I look to see our running game open up some crazy deep play-action passes.

NOTE TO TEAM: Watch out for Shaun Rodgers, he might think one of our players heads' is a Turducken again.

[Runnin Raven]

[quote name='PuRock' date='22 September 2009 - 11:01 AM' timestamp='1253631678' post='239796'] I look to see our running game open up some crazy deep play-action passes.
[/quote]
Speaking of which can we get at least one deep shot off with D-Will?

[BrownsFan]

Mmmmm... turducken.

[BuckWilds]

[quote name='CorvusCorax' date='20 September 2009 - 09:28 PM' timestamp='1253496523' post='238913']
Never underestimate a divisional rival opponent, and the power of the dark side!
[/quote]

Edit - ok, fine. The happy, shiny 'overside'.

[PuRock]

[quote name='Runnin Raven' date='22 September 2009 - 11:07 AM' timestamp='1253632031' post='239799']
Speaking of which can we get at least one deep shot off with D-Will?
[/quote]
He has yet to record a catch this year. I remember Ozzie saying "we already have a deep threat - Demetrius Williams". That's a funny quote Oz, because where is he?

[quote name='BrownsFan' date='22 September 2009 - 11:07 AM' timestamp='1253632066' post='239800']
Mmmmm... turducken.
[/quote]
No, No, No Shaun. That's not stuffing coming out of the Turducken's butt, that's McGahee's eyeball.

[BrownsFan]

[quote name='Zhamtao' date='22 September 2009 - 11:11 AM' timestamp='1253632284' post='239801']
The dark brown underside?
[/quote]

You nasty.

[BrownsFan]

[quote name='PuRock' date='22 September 2009 - 11:12 AM' timestamp='1253632331' post='239803']
No, No, No Shaun. That's not stuffing coming out of the Turducken's butt, that's McGahee's eyeball.
[/quote]

Shaun just wants to eat like everybody else. He just... eats a lot more than the average person.

.
..
... a lot.

[BuckWilds]

I think the Ravens still want to put together a complete game, and are hungry to do so. Why not do it against a division opponent, at home, for win #3? The Browns might be hungry for a win, but we're hungry for a [u]complete [/u]win.

The team is 2-0, but there hasn't been a complete win, i.e., Offense, Defense and Special Teams. I think there is a desire to show what we have... very important for overall confidence.

[macbrak]

Last I heard D-Will is in the dog house for his work ethic.

[WinnipegRaven]

I don't think it will happen, but this one has upset written all over it.

[BrownsFan]

I like your thought process! Upset! Can you feel it?!

(I have to try right?)

[BuckWilds]

[quote name='WinnipegRaven' date='22 September 2009 - 11:37 AM' timestamp='1253633820' post='239815']
I don't think it will happen, but this one has upset written all over it.
[/quote]

I think it has 'desire to play a complete game' written all over it.

[BloodRaven]

On the flip side, we have to lose at some point... we don't need any of the "favorites" or the "paper champs" stigma attached to us. Just not this game, I hate the Browns and a loss to their pathetic team would be humiliating.

[PuRock]

[quote name='BloodRaven' date='22 September 2009 - 12:05 PM' timestamp='1253635542' post='239830']
On the flip side, we have to lose at some point... we don't need any of the "favorites" or the "paper champs" stigma attached to us. Just not this game, I hate the Browns and a loss to their pathetic team would be humiliating.
[/quote]

We don't have to lose, we can continue winning - I'm fine with that. When we do lose let's hope it's a tough fought battle against the Pats or Colts. Not a meltdown against the Browns or Lions.

[edreedfromtheu]

Until the special teams proves that they can:

1. Adequately cover a kickoff

They need to STOP kicking returnable balls! Just kick it into the endzone and take the touch-back!

You keep messing around on special teams, and people like Sproles will kill you. Oh, Josh Cribbs... he'll make you pay as well. The Steelers got themselves a pretty good return guy apparently. And we also play the Bears this year, who have Hester.

2. Adequately return a kickoff

They need to just take a knee, and let our best offense ever just start on the 20.


The punt coverages are much better, mainly because Sam Koch is a beast. So I'm not necessarily worried about that.

[BloodRaven]

This just in...

[b]Browns Defense Baffled By Make-Pretend Hand-Off[/b]

[i]CLEVELAND—The Cleveland Browns defense fell victim to some “trickeration” in Sunday’s game against the Broncos, when Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton pretended to hand the ball off to tailback Knowshon Moreno only to pull the ball away and throw it to a receiver instead. Afterward, Browns defenders said they were “baffled.”

“What the hell was that?” asked Kamerion Wimbley. “I swear I saw him hand the ball off to Moreno, but then when I went to make the tackle he didn’t have the ball. Next thing I know a receiver is running for a first down! Talk about a gadget play. They really caught us sleeping on that one. They nailed us later in the game, too, when they snapped the ball early while we had 27 men on the field.”[/i]

[wbirkhead]

[quote name='edreedfromtheu' date='22 September 2009 - 12:16 PM' timestamp='1253636160' post='239848']
Until the special teams proves that they can:

1. Adequately cover a kickoff

[b]They need to STOP kicking returnable balls! Just kick it into the endzone and take the touch-back![/b]

You keep messing around on special teams, and people like Sproles will kill you. Oh, Josh Cribbs... he'll make you pay as well. The Steelers got themselves a pretty good return guy apparently. And we also play the Bears this year, who have Hester.

2. Adequately return a kickoff

They need to just take a knee, and let our best offense ever just start on the 20.


The punt coverages are much better, mainly because Sam Koch is a beast. So I'm not necessarily worried about that.
[/quote]

If it were that easy to kick a touchback, every team would do it every time and there would never be a kickoff returned for a TD. Hauschka has a strong leg, but not even Janikowski gets touchbacks every time.

[flynismo]

[quote name='BloodRaven' date='22 September 2009 - 12:18 PM' timestamp='1253636328' post='239852']
This just in...

[b]Browns Defense Baffled By Make-Pretend Hand-Off[/b]

[i]CLEVELAND—The Cleveland Browns defense fell victim to some “trickeration” in Sunday’s game against the Broncos, when Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton pretended to hand the ball off to tailback Knowshon Moreno only to pull the ball away and throw it to a receiver instead. Afterward, Browns defenders said they were “baffled.”

“What the hell was that?” asked Kamerion Wimbley. “I swear I saw him hand the ball off to Moreno, but then when I went to make the tackle he didn’t have the ball. Next thing I know a receiver is running for a first down! Talk about a gadget play. They really caught us sleeping on that one. They nailed us later in the game, too, when they snapped the ball early while we had 27 men on the field.”[/i]
[/quote]


LMAO

[BrownsFan]

I don't think any trickeration was needed to beat us this past Sunday. We just simply showed up and it was a done deal at that point.

[Runnin Raven]

[quote name='BloodRaven' date='22 September 2009 - 12:18 PM' timestamp='1253636328' post='239852']
This just in...

[b]Browns Defense Baffled By Make-Pretend Hand-Off[/b]

[i]CLEVELAND—The Cleveland Browns defense fell victim to some “trickeration” in Sunday’s game against the Broncos, when Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton pretended to hand the ball off to tailback Knowshon Moreno only to pull the ball away and throw it to a receiver instead. Afterward, Browns defenders said they were “baffled.”

“What the hell was that?” asked Kamerion Wimbley. “I swear I saw him hand the ball off to Moreno, but then when I went to make the tackle he didn’t have the ball. Next thing I know a receiver is running for a first down! Talk about a gadget play. They really caught us sleeping on that one. They nailed us later in the game, too, when they snapped the ball early while we had 27 men on the field.”[/i]
[/quote]
Sounds like The Onion to me