The Ravens have 17 players over 30, and the Browns 17 rookies. This is the Over-the-Hill Gang vs the Bad News Browns.
One guy on Kaperdick Radio called the Browns the "junior varsity", and upon mature reflection, I can't argue with him. He wasn't talking about talent. Just experience. It's beginning to dawn on some of those guys that there is talent here.
Dawgs By Nature did a fine pregame analysis. I think they sold the Browns deep and ascending defensive line a tad short, but that's a minor point.
Gary Barnidge shouldn't keep dropping passes, but you can't be as confident with the younger receivers. I guess the reason why experts and those who parrot them pan the Browns despite their talent expect blown routes, late turns, drops, blown coverage assignments, etc. with all the young players.
As the Dawgs by Nature piece points out (thank you guys I thought I was alone) the biggest plays Carson Wentz made were perfect passes against tight coverage.
Black Cloud, all coaches know this, and it's basic: It is not possible to prevent a perfect pass from being caught. The receiver is between him and the football. Wentz was just plain awesome. And by the way, so is Big Ben.
Dawgs mentioned this by way of pointing out that the Browns secondary (while not as good as the Ravens) doesn't stink.
Joe Flacco is really good, but not as good as that. Surprisingly, he can run around some, but the Browns won't have to worry about containment like they did with Wentz, and can sell out going after him from every angle.
As they did with the Eagles, the Browns defense can at least slow down the Ravens running game and force second and longs. Yes they did. Yes they can. Check your calender ok?
Steve Smith the Senior isn't the scary guy. Kamar Aiken is. They have a first round pick lurking in the shadows as well, but happily Harbaugh is a Martonian, and will keep Smith in front of him til he has a stroke or breaks his hip or something.
That's how the Browns can lose: deep passes. Flacco can also use his pretty good tight ends. That offense is all about Flacco, and if he has time, he can kill any secondary.
Obviously, the solution is to do what Ray Horton wants to do anyway and sack him.
On that topic, Black Cloud had pronounced the Browns pass rush LITERALLY dead on arrival. We can consider the new team's first regular season game an arrival, right?
Considering thd fact that Wentz was sacked three times, and both outside linebackers were rookie starters, as was Hassan, I think we might he jumping the gun on that.
Wentz is highly mobile, and had to be contained. Flacco isn't like that. Outside guys can come inside and Hassan can stunt and stuff.
By the way did anybody else notice that Hassan lines up wide a lot, as in like a Jim Schwartze wide nine defensive end? Ray Horton has fundamentally altered his scheme already.
Carl Nassib is now starting over John Hues, but it's more than that. There is no way Hues would be put way outside like that. Hues will be in only in an entirely different role. I believe that Ray Horton designed this defensive alignment specificly for Nassib and Schobert. This is a great sign that Ray is a defensive version of Hue.
Anyway, Nassib is both quicker and faster that I (or maybe even Ray) anticipated. He will become a dominant passrusher from the strong side, where he overmatches most right tackles.
Lesmerisis (love that guy) showed some clips in which Nassib was half a step quicker than the rest of the defense. Considering that Cooper is exceptionally quick off the snap, that's downright amazing. He's got that in his toolbox too? Oh. My. God!
And Ogbah on the other side? DOA, Black Cloud? Really?
I hadn't noticed during the game, but am happy to hear that Danny Shelton had a good solid game. He'll be very important in this one, since if Flacco doesn't have a pocket, he's much less effective.
Shelton isn't expected to get a lot of sacks, or even neccessarily tackles. He's supposed to force ballcarriers to run sideways, collapse pockets, and chase guys towards his team mates.
I saved this for last: McCown's win/loss record is irrelevant. The Browns never lost one game because of him. His statistics speak for themselves, and the rest is mystical crap.
And he did what he did last season with Barnidge, Benjamin, and Duke. Pryor, Coleman, and Hawkins weren't around. Now he's got weapons out the yinyang, and should have a consistent running game, too.
With regret, I must conclude that the Ravens have a good chance of setting the Browns back in the race for the first overall draft pick in 2017 here.
But like I said, these teams only meet twice, so 2-14 is still possible.
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