Cleveland Browns Stuff

Stuff others missed:

1: The Ravens were annihilated by injuries.  Even before that, Joe Flacco's contract had the predictable effect, and they had lost some top talent to the cap.

Flacco, a good offensive line, and Forsett keep them afloat, but those pundits who said the Ravens had better talent than the Browns have Stockholm syndrome.

The Browns should have beaten the Ravens by double digits.

2: What Josh McCown has done is incredible when the circumstances under which he did it are examined in detail.

The offensive line continues to massively underperform, and he has hardly ever had more than 2.5 seconds to throw. He's made several plays with people taking him down.

He's had to rally and literally carry the team on his shoulders. That's not game management.  I'm as surprised as anyone about this.

He's done it with microscopic receivers.  He has to be extremely accurate to deliver inside these much smaller catch radii, and without separation, sideline and post passes are nearly impossible.

He has no favorite target.  Everybody gets the ball.  Defenses can't key anyone.

3: Flip is great.  Throwing to the running backs offsets run blitzes.  It's a high-percentage play that short-circuits stacked fronts.  Without Flip and his scheme, the Browns and McCown would be fried.

He's now using the 2-back as I described before the season began.  It forces a base defense, then when the backs split out it spreads the defense horizontally, and renders a blitze almost suicidal.

It takes a very smart, quick-witted quarterback to make the most of this.  Flip has one.

4: Manziel is learning a LOT.  His real-game experience lets him project himself into McCown's shoes as he watches, and even to see what he sees.

On one big completion to one of the microbes, McCown stared down the barrel of a blitze and waited for the right time.  He took a shot to deliver on-time.

Johnny is much smaller, and might not be able to handle it the same way.  But he looks at these plays and figures that part out.

What he's getting the most out of is how to read things and change plays.  McCown is a true Christian, and when Johnny asks him "what did you see there that you did that?" Josh shows him on film.

By now, others see that McCown indeed gives the team it's best chance to win.  Manziel, given the extreme (and frankly ridiculous) pressure that Josh has faced could not yet have performed as well.

Privately, he is probably grateful for the chance to learn without being beaten to pulp.

5: Joe Thomas enlightened me a bit about what defenses are doing to stop the Browns.  After the Ravens game I'm upgrading the offensive line from F to D-minus.

One of the reasons McCown is looking like a Hall of Famer is because every defense is throwing the kitchen sink at the backfield and leaving guys single-covered, or sometimes not really covered at all.

The book on McCown prior to this season was that he didn't handle pressure well.  Statistically, that's irrefutable.

But now all of a sudden that's over.  I don't know what has changed, but something sure has.  Today's Josh McCown thrives on the blitze.

The kitchen sink floods the backfield and still stifles the run.

It's still a D-minus for the offensive line because Bitonio has been shoved back too often.  Defenses are targeting him, just as they target Schwartze.  Bitonio can do better.

6: The defense still gets an F, but at least they got two critical stops late...ok d-minus.  I think I felt a faint pulse.

7: Barnidge is not a fluke.  Gabriel joins Hawk and Benjamin to complete an all-microbe receiving corps.  Even Duke Johnson is sawed off.  This is unique in today's NFL.

And by the way: These are playmakers do you u n d e r s t a n d?

I have updated my database with new information.  My updated win/loss prediction is 13-3.