I really think McDonald was yelling because the Safeties were not lined up in the correct D, especially on the TD to Royal. I will watch the tape tonight. McDonald is a young player. He played a bad game and will rebound. He is not that bad. Also, CBs aren’t always taught to look at the WR they are covering. A lot of the time you can see them getting depth and looking at the QB. Eric Wright did this on at least one replay.

Winslow made a bunch of plays. Yes, he pointed to his tattoo, but I’ll take that celebration over a fake-mooning or a posing on the Dallas Star any day. Yes, he fumbled. Yes, he dropped the last pass. Those were horrible plays. But right now he is our only reliable receiving threat, and he’s damn good, too. 110 and 2TDs with one drop versus Braylon’s line looks pretty good. The pass interference call was complete BS.

Edwards needs an offseason on location wherever they shot Rockey IV. His trainers should be allowed to throw heavy, football sized objects at him whenever and wherever they like. He should be attempting to catch everything; pine cones, arrows, ninja stars, baseballs, Frisbees, pens, pencils and other various office supplies, babies, loaded handguns, televisions, car mufflers, DVD cases, digital cameras, and coffee machines. He will learn to catch or return to Cleveland with a substantially lower IQ and several concussions.

Firstly, I’ll say that your post is one of the few that focused first on defense, which is a plus. The offense has been putting enough points on the board to win games lately. So why continue on with concerns about the offense? And you made good points about our secondary. Finally, I got a chuckle about your observation that RC has clock mgmt issues particularly at the end of half and game. When else do you manage the clock but at the end of the half and game?

You re-watched the game twice? Impressive intestinal fortitude!

AND either the CBs do not understand the English language and are way worse than anyone thought, or they are taught to look at the QB when he snaps the ball.

Consistently, if they weren’t trying to play man-press coverage, they would look to the QB right off the snap. At times they would even fake the press, and then back off and look at the QB right after the snap.

They are also taught (my conclusion) to “open up” their hips to face the interior of the field. I personally do not like this, and it resulted in Eric Wright getting beat on a post-corner route to Eddie Royal down near the goal line (on TV Denver was going left to right) just prior to Denver’s first TD. Because Wright was shuffling with his hips facing the middle of the field, instead of backpedaling directly backward, he had a great jump on the post, but had to turn all the way around (180 degrees+) to get to the corner portion of the route.

The “opening up” would work well if when we sent LBs after the quarterback they actually made it every once in a while. Andra Davis got through the line with surprising consistency, but never got to Cutler because he had laughably bad closing speed. Cutler isn’t a chump, but as a ILB, you should finish that type of play. On the Royal catch, Wright did an ok job, and only had to cover for ~3 seconds thanks to pressure by Wimbley and Rogers. The ball barely got to Royal because Cutler was feeling heat, and if our front 7 is one step faster that ball never gets thrown or is incomplete. Royal is fast.

 Also, I have no idea what the safety on that side of the field was doing on the play. It looked like Cover-3 with both McDonald and Wright following their guys deep, and one Safety taking a receiver down the middle of the field in the endzone. McGinest was in good coverage on the FB, and both ILBs in coverage near the middle of the field. We sent 4 at the QB, so that leaves 1 safety and I have no idea where he went. It could have been a Cover-1, double X to double Marshall on the left of the formation, in which case, it was a well timed and well designed play by Denver.

Defenses are like leaky pipes. When you seal up one part of the pipe, water leaks out another part at a greater rate.
Illustration: Last year the secondary didn’t look awful because opposing teams were content to run the ball at our defensive front, knowing we didn’t have the talent to stop them. So, we all thought the backfield wasn’t that horrible. Now that we have the manpower to stop teams from beating us with a simple handoff, they throw over the def. line consistently, thereby exposing the next weakest link, the backfield. Opposing off coordinators know what they’re doing. They go to work against the weakest part of your defense. We, as fans, tend to judge our team’s strengths and weaknesses based purely on results and stats, but there is a whole other game going on within the game.

One good surprise about the offense – I only remember one procedural penalty. I really thought that would be a bigger problem. Granted they were at home – though that’s never seemed to be an advantage in the past for the Browns – but I really expected a few growing pains with Quinn calling the snaps.

One thing I have noticed is that the DBs played better with Adams starting as compared to the last two games.

Montana, Young were 10-20 yard passers. Quinn showed a ton out there. Fire Romeo…I mean don’t fire Romeo.

AND either the CBs do not understand the English language and are way worse than anyone thought, or they are taught to look at the QB when he snaps the ball.

Defensive backs are supposed to watch the QB when in zone coverage. While you are aware of the man infront of you, your focus should be in the backfield You are supposed to be able to make your drop into coverage (ie, ten yards from the line of scrimmage on the hash) while watching the QB. At least this is how I was taught……. This was probably THE hardest thing for me to learn as a defensive back during my unspectacular high school football career.

It’s the exact reverse when in man coverage. If they were in man and McDonald was peeking into the backfield then that’s a HUGE no no.

i said in another blog that the Ravens and Browns have the brightest North futures and the Quinn/Flacco match up (in my prediction) will last more than a few years. it’s all bad coaching..you just need to match us by replcaing you coach as well. it’s refreshing and your teams young enough to accept a new coach. OUTSIDE of the Chin, who else would you consider? Billick could get you to .500 and you would be average good but who could give you 10 win seasons?