FanPost

Prudent Points of Import to Promote Prosperity: Falcons




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It's time for another away game, you guys! Hop on board; these never end badly!

This week, our Cleveland Browns head down to Hotlanta to hopefully leave a few more skid marks on the Dirty Birds. Am I excited about Josh Gordon being back? Hells yeah! Am I confident we will defeat the struggling 4-6 Falcons on the road? Oh hells no! I am infinitely more confident that my wife will once again look at me, literally watching the wrinkles dig their way into my face from the morose scowl I'll be wearing at some point during the contest, and ask "why do you follow this team again?"

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Sweetheart, you wouldn't understand. See them? They're all dead inside, just like me. It's a sacred bond.

We have it rough at the moment, I ain't gonna lie. Getting Flash Gordon back is awesome, but the team around him is depleted by injury. We're hurting. But we're about to hit the home-stretch, where we play some tougher games, and going into our last 5 games at 7-4 would give us a much better chance of making the playoffs, or let's face it, just ending the season feeling like we're really making significant strides, than heading in at 6-5 after playing mostly poor and hurting teams over the last month or two. I don't really have anything to talk about, but the last time I did one of these, we crushed the Bengals, so maybe the guys need some insight from yours truly again to know what they need to do to be successful. So what the heck, let's see what I come up with. Here's some things the Browns should focus on in order to leave Georgia in a better mood than they enter it.

1. Find a way to get to Matt Ryan

Look, I get it. We are taking a beating on the defensive side of the ball. Guys are going down left and right it feels like. Phil Taylor, Armonty Bryant, John Hughes, Jabaal Sheard, Karlos Dansby, all guys that will not be available to us (assuming Sheard will be out for at least a week). And it's not like we were the 2013 Buffalo Bills defense as far as rushing the passer before all the injuries started piling up. But the Falcons are currently 6th in the NFL in passing, so they know what they're doing when it comes to slinging the rock...and their offensive line stinks. And everybody knows they are going to pass. And their running back group currently resembles a horse-racing stable that has fallen on hard times. Just busted legs and glue factory shipping invoices lying around everywhere.

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Alright, Steven Jackson, right this way to the Alpo factory treatment room..."

They're going to throw the ball. And their protection can be taken advantage of by an attacking defense. But we've got to pick our spots and not leave Kirksey, Craig Robertson, and Whitner hanging out to dry too often in coverage. I don't think our guys are bad in coverage (well, except for Craig)

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Oh, don't look at me like that, Craig. You've seen the game tape.


But I think Dansby being out will hurt us more than one may think at first glance. So we need Kruger, Desmond Bryant, and...oh lawd, help him Jesus...Mingo to cause some pressure and get home a time or two, and we need some well-designed blitzes to work when they are dialed up. If we can get some good pressure with a blitz or two early, the implied threat of pressure should help us later in the game, so we don't have to keep blitzing and blitzing without our top ILB there to help cover RBs and TEs.

2. Contain Julio Jones

I've picked up on the fact that bringing up Julio Jones ruffles some feathers around here because of trading our spot with Atlanta in the 2011 draft. Now honestly, I didn't follow the Browns until the 2012 season, so I don't really remember that, but looking back at the draft and seeing that Aldon Smith, JJ Watt, and Robert Quinn, in addition to Jones, were taken in the next several spots after we traded is fairly disheartening, especially considering we took Phil Taylor that year in the first round, who, while a decent player that we are currently missing, is not in the same solar system as those other guys. Not to mention that the next year in the first round of 2012, we took TRich with one pick (that we traded up for) and Brandon Weeden with our other (you know, that one we got from the Falcons for the Julio Jones trade....)

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The movie casting equivalent of our 2012 first round.

Having Julio on my fantasy team, I know first-hand that he has had a decent, but not spectacular season, and I'm sure he will get plenty of looks this week at home. I think they will be trying to get their best weapon going against Cleveland as they head into a final five games that looks to be very tough with ARI, GB, PIT, and NO left after the Brownies. The Falcons can't afford to lose this game. Look for them to go after whoever is covering Jones, especially if Haden switches off and covers White occasionally. White isn't a bum, but Skrine should be able to hold his own against him for most of the day.

3. Look to the Tight Ends

Jordan Cameron being out really sucks. It sucks for our offense, it sucks for Jordan as he deals with yet another concussion, it sucks for my fantasy team, it sucks for our female viewers. It just sucks.

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Oh, ok, I forgive you. Just never stop smiling, you beautiful bastard.

The Dirty Birds are giving up the most yards per pass in the NFL in 2014, per NFL.com. They also are tied for next to last in sacks in the league, at 13.0. They are right in the middle in interceptions, more or less, tied with several teams for the 15th spot in the NFL. Not exactly terrifying stuff. We should also be able to run on them, but we go into every game expecting(/hoping?) to have success on the ground, so I'm going to focus on passing here.

Neither Barnidge or Dray bring the explosiveness to the table that Cameron does (or the glutes for that matter), but in my opinion both have proven to be solid pass-catchers for reserve tight-ends. Now, I'm not looking up any fancy stats for that, just basing my opinion off watching how they adjust to balls, fight for catches, use their bodies, etc., when its been thrown their way. They are both decent options in the passing game, and with the defense concerned with the running game and the return of Josh Gordon, we should be able to get some good match ups against Atlanta's no-name linebacking corps for our tight ends. Seriously, they may be decent, I don't follow the Falcons, but I looked up their roster, and I didn't recognize anybody with a "LB" next to their name.

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I was able to locate the Falcons LB position-group photos on the team website for reference.


Now, I'm not saying Hoyer should force the ball to the tight ends. But Hoyer has struggled some lately, not sure if you heard about that, and if the windows are open to our TEs, he needs to let it rip. He should also make a conscious effort to look for them if he gets into trouble in the pocket, or while rolling out if there is a tight end out running a route, as I feel like Hoyer has a tendency to try to wait a second and then force it a little to his primary target instead of moving on to his backs and tight ends. Maybe that's a scheme thing, but that's my impression. Atlanta doesn't generate a ton of pressure on opposing QBs; if Hoyer has that little bit of extra time in the pocket and the receiver isn't open, he needs to do his best Tiger Woods impression, and drill it into the nearest tight end. (Huzzah)

4. Watch "My Bionic Pet" as a group on Sunday morning

Seriously, check out this preview. It's 49 seconds of your life. Watch it.

Welcome back.

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That foreign warmth you're feeling come over your body is called "peacefulness", Browns fans. You're crying because it's been. so. damn. long.

You know what makes guys play well? Playing for each other. You know what makes guys play for each other? Feeling a bond; a sense of brotherhood. You know what creates that sense of brotherhood? Bonding experiences. And there is no bonding experience quite like watching a piglet walk for the first time in his wheel-cart harness.

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It's almost enough to make me give up bacon. Well, it put the thought in my head for a second. Seriously. That's something.

I know what you're thinking. "These guys are manly dudes, Manly. They don't want to watch a bunch of pitiful animals stumble around with fake parts. Have them watch Black Hawk Down or Pearl Harbor instead. Also, what the hell happened to Josh Hartnett?"

Um, I don't know, guy, maybe people finally realized his face is terrible to look at for 90 minutes?

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If that is Hollywood-quality good looks, I really took the wrong path in life.

Look, movies like Black Hawk Down, Full Metal Jacket, and Das Boot are awesome. Pearl Harbor, not so much. But that Kate Beckinsale sure is a looker. But they're not right for this situation. Trust me. You show a room of 53 football players a war movie, and it's all thematic music, hoots, hollers, and chest bumps. They do that stuff anyway.

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Whoever goes in nuts-first for the chest bump has to put in extra time on this thing.

Guys don't need to feel rough and tough before the game. They need to feel vulnerable. That's the key to bonding experiences: vulnerability.

You show a room full of football players an hour-long movie about people saving a dog with two legs from a life of dragging his dick across asphalt until he's hit by a bus, and brother, you've got 53 guys that have seen each others souls bared. There's nothing like a good cry to get you to play for the man next to you. Because you've gotten to a deeper level of compassion around each other. You've bonded. You're pumped. And you want to prove to everyone that you're not the guy they just watched wipe tears from his cheeks for the final ten minutes of the movie. Psych 101, baby.

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Forget Swagger, check out Rufus. His swagger doesn't come from a name. It comes from...well, I mean, he walks on stumps for Christ sake. He's a little unstable. But it's a beautiful, noble swagger.

So that's the scoop for this week. Follow these tips and the Browns can take care of business down in the ATL. It's Atlanta, so it's not like there's some big home-field advantage you have to worry about in this one. It's just pre-2013 Seattle, only with less recycling and more twerking. We got this.

Go Browns.

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