Tag: philadelphia eagles

2019 Head Coaching Shortlist

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The dust has settled after a wild 48 hours in Berea, Ohio.  We are Offensive Coordinator-less and Head Coach-less.  Sure Gregg Williams was named Interim Head Coach, but it doesn’t really matter. The interim could be Joe Blow for all I care.  The season is lost at this juncture anyway.  Especially with Mahomes coming our way this week.  With the Browns defense slipping with each passing week, we won’t be able to stop them.  The Chiefs defense is god awful, but the Browns aren’t good enough to score enough points required to beat Kansas City.  We’d have to score around 30 points (thats a conservative number), and that is not happening.  At this point, keep developing the talent on the Roster, get healthy, and find an offense in the Off-Season.

With all that being said, lets take a look at some of the candidates to be the next Head Coach of the Browns being thrown out there by the media.  In no particular order:

  1.  Lincoln Riley Image result for lincoln riley

Going to hear this name a lot in the coming months.  I’ve heard it nonstop since we drafted Baker in May.   Hell, a couple of hours after Hue and Haley were fired, Riley had to answer a question about the Browns job:

Pretty stupid if you ask me.  Reporters asking Lincoln this question, what the fuck do you expect him to stay?  You’re only putting him on the spot.  Either way, I am a hard pass on Lincoln Riley.  No college coach can turn around the Cleveland Browns.  No Nick Saban, no Bobby Bowden in his prime, nobody in college can turn around the Cleveland Browns.  Going after Riley would seem like slapping a band-aid on the issues.  “Oh boy! Let’s hire Lincoln!  He’s coached Baker in college, problem solved!!”. This guy seems to be a pretty good coach at Oklahoma, but I feel like once Baker left, the two should go their separate ways.  They may have worked great together in College, but just college.  All good things must come to an end.  Plus there are 52 other guys to deal with not named Baker Mayfield.  They aren’t college kids either, how would this dude handle it?

I do like the idea of an Offensive Minded coach,  a young one too, but to fix the Browns NFL experience is needed.

2. Matt Campbell

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Again, this name is going to be brought up quite a bit from now until January.

Dustin Fox, who hosts a Radio Show in Cleveland tweeted this after Albert Breer stated, “Keep a close eye on … Matt Campbell,” Breer reported on Monday. “Highly regarded in the circles that [Cleveland] GM John Dorsey runs in.”  Again.  No.  I feel like the last two names are Sean McVay knockoffs.  The young, progressive coach, who is regarded for being innovative, and getting the most out of his players.  Stop trying to copy the Rams, and mimic a McVay type hire.  Odds are a college coach would be a disaster.  Especially one that coached at the national powerhouse that is………………..Iowa Fucking State.  I am pretty sure Iowa State has been bad my entire  life.  So far, this short list BLOWS.  Be better at fishing out candidates media, come on.

3. Bruce Arians 

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Now this beautiful bastards name was not brought up specifically by anyone in the Breer, Rappaport, or Schefter mold, but Bruce has long been connected to Cleveland.

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Bruce was the Browns Offensive Coordinator from 2001-2003, and has stated numerous times that he wants to come back.  Not sure if he is willing to come out of the Broadcast Booth, as that is a pretty cushy gig.   Now is as good a time as ever to lure this man out of retirement.

As an NFL Head Coach, Arians is 49–30–1 in the regular season, and 1-3 in the Postseason.  He is most know for his years with the Arizona Cardinals, but he also had a 9-3 stint as Interim Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2012.  He is a two time Super Bowl Champion, as he was the Pittsburgh Steelers Wide Receivers Coach, and then Offensive coordinator.  He spent a whopping 7 years with the Steelers (2004-2011) winning two Super Bowls.  This man has done it all, and he has done it all in the National Football League.  Sign me up.

The Browns already have a connection to Arians on the staff, as new Offensive Coordinator, Freddie Kitchens was a member of Bruce’s staff in Arizona.

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First things first: Any coach who wears a QB wrist band, as Kitchens is above…they FUCK  plain and simple. Freddie was our Runningbacks coach, but was elevated when Haley was fired.  He was Quarterbacks Coach in Arizona, and is credited for being a big reason why Carson Palmer turned his career around.

This is neither here, nor there.  It is a nice connection to Arians, who is honestly my ideal candidate.  Who knows if he even wants to Coach anymore, I doubt he does.  Its a shame, because only a man with experience in MULTIPLE (coordinator, positional coach, head coach) NFL coaching roles, can save the Cleveland Browns.

4. John DeFilippo

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Flip!  Widely mentioned to fill numerous Head Coaching voids in the NFL, mainly due to his work as a Quarterbacks Coach in places like, Oakland, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and now Minnesota.  He has also spent time as the Browns Offensive Coordinator, and is currently in the same position in Minnesota.

I really, really like John DeFilippo.  He works wonders with Quarterbacks. The Browns offense was actually half decent under Flip.  No matter who played, they weren’t terrible.  We had Manziel, McCown, and Austin Davis playing at some point that season, and the offense always moved the ball.  Manziel’s only NFL success came with John DeFilippo calling plays.   Obviously, Flip played a major role in the development of Carson Wentz, as he spent the last two seasons in Philly as Quarterbacks Coach.

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The Browns haven’t been able to move the ball at all since Flip was the OC.  I swear that man works magic.   We just did not have the talent to score a lot of points, but we were always moving the ball.  All of the Quarterbacks looked good doing so, as well.  Now, Flip is doing his thing with Kirk Cousins, Adam Thielen, and Stefon Diggs in Minny.  He has that offense flying high (not hard to do, really).  Flip is high up on my wish-list.  He made me think weapons is all Johnny Football needed to be “The Guy”.  I salivate at the thought of Flip and Baker.

5. Gregg Williams

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I know it sounds stupid, but you gotta put Gregg on the short list, as of today.  I am not expecting this guy to be any good as a head coach.  I do think there is a very good reason why he has been nothing but a coordinator, since his one stint in Buffalo back in the early 2000’s. Curiously, Buffalo was his only head coaching gig.  Usually most guys who make the jump from Coordinator to Head Coach, get two kicks at the can with it.  Rex Ryan had two, Hue Jackson had two, Pete Carroll had two, Bill Belichick is still on his second stop as a HC (not counting the Jets), but Gregg only ever had one.

I went back and looked at the record, and he finished 17-31.  In his three seasons he went 3-13, 8-8, and 6-10.   Not great, but far from Hue Jackson, and probably deserved a second chance somewhere along the line.  He is getting that now, as the Interim Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns.

This is the sorta thing that Gregg Williams brings to the party.  A motivator type, who will probably get these guys to play hard, and competitive.  Now, why is he on the list?  Well if I am all horny over DeFilippo and Arians, due to their NFL coaching experience.  It is only fair to include Gregg in the same sense.  Gregg has been at it since the 80’s, in a multitude of Coaching Roles.  He has won a Super Bowl in New Orleans, as the teams Defensive Coordinator.  Yes he was a major part of the Bounty Scandal.  No comment on that.  Lets see what he can do, and by some miracle, the Browns win a bunch of games, he will be in consideration.

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Out of the 5 Candidates, who’s names have been thrown around as potential Head Coaches my order would be: Bruce Arians, John DeFilippo, Gregg Williams, Lincoln Riley, and that fucking stiff Matt Campbell.   This is all very early, it is likely we have a whole new list by December 1st, and different one again on January 1st.

This week the lowly Cleveland Browns welcome the Sack-less, Kansas City Chiefs into FirstEnergy Stadium.  You know my stance on the Chiefs as a true contender.  They are not one.  Mahomes is off to a wonderful start, and he is for sure the real deal.  Too bad they are still Coached by Andy Reid. This means that around this time they will start to struggle, or fade.  If they don’t fade in November, they’ll just wait for the playoffs.  With a Defense as bad as the Chiefs, they aren’t going anywhere that matters.  Jokes on me, neither are the Browns.  Just keep this one close.

Every Baker needs a Kitchen, bitches.

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Go Browns!

Where the Browns Stand Through 2 Weeks of Preseason.

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On August 9th, the Browns traveled down to East Rutherford, New Jersey to take on the New York Giants to open up their preseason.  It was a night where the two worst teams from 2017-2018 squared off to see who sucks less.  In the end it was the Browns who outlasted the Giants with a final score of 20-10.  It was nice to win a Football game, but it means next to nothing.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Browns throw the ball, catch it, run for yards after the catch, and score.  Sounds simple, but its true.   Everything looked much more crisp, which is all we can really ask for.

On the first play from scrimmage Saquon Barkley bounced outside the tackles to gash the Browns for 39 yards.  What a wonderful start!    Rough first play for Denzel Ward on the outside there.  Instead of setting the Edge to prevent Barkley from bouncing outside, he gets sucked in, and Barkley has free space out on the boundary.  Thankfully, Eli Manning looked absolutely woeful on this night.  There were a few  passes he threw to absolutely no one.  Now, Odell Beckham did not play, but he still looked like garbage.  After Barkley’s run the Browns held the Giants to a field goal.  3-0 Giants after their first offensive possession.

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The Browns first play from Scrimmage went almost as well as the Giants.  Showing 5 wide right off the hop, Tyrod Taylor hit Jarvis Landry for a 25 yard gain.  Problem is, jawing between Janoris Jenkins and Landry ended up with a 15 yard penalty on the Browns.  Landry must’ve said something to have warranted the flag, otherwise it was just two competitors jawing.  Keep the fucking flags in your pockets, Stripes.  The Browns were unable to move the ball any further on their opening possession, and were forced to punt.

The Giants weren’t any more successful in moving the ball, as they made the switch to Davis Webb at Quarterback.  Davis Webb is so fucking bad I was offended by the fact I was forced to watch him.  The G-Men did absolutely nothing in his time at the helm.  Webb finished 9-20 for 70 yards, no TD’s, and no INT’s.  Meanwhile, in Tyrod’s second series, the Browns started to go No-Huddle. Taylor found some chemistry with Rashard “Hollywood” Higgins hitting him on a quick 6 yard pass, and on the next very next play, he found Higgins again, this time for a solid 21 yard gain.

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That bitch Eli Apple got absolutely worked by Higgins on this one, and the Giants defense was on its heels.  Continuing with the no-huddle on the next play, Taylor hit David Njoku up the seam in stride, Chief made a few miss galloping his way to six.

This is how David Njoku needs to be used.  Straight up the seam exposing a weak match-up.  That Linebacker acting as a human turnstile stood no shot.  This created a small window between the trailing linebacker and Safety playing deep.  Taylor lofted it beautifully into Chief’s hands, who took over from there.

After that possession Tyrod Taylor’s night was done.  He finished 5 for 5, 99 yards, and a touchdown.  Taylor finished the evening with a perfect 158.3 passer rating.  Not a bad start for the bridge guy!

Enter Baker Mayfield. With the score 7-3 at the start of the second Mayfield went 3 and out on his first drive.  Two Nick Chubb runs netted a total of 0 yards, and Mayfield threw an incomplete pass.  It was Mayfield’s second drive where things got going.

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His first completed pass was a beautiful 26 yard, back shoulder completion to Hollywood Higgins.

After a crappy run, an incomplete pass, and a holding call on Spencer Drango, Mayfield hit CJ Board on 3rd and 18 to extend the drive.  Terrible video, but Baker does a fantastic job of climbing the pocket, surveying his reads, and firing it to a wide open target.  While its only preseason, that conversion was nice to see.  But, he still wasn’t done.  On 3rd and 6 from the Giants 27, Mayfield stood in the pocket, scrambled to his left to find an open target, and finally took off for the first down marker.  Mayfield got 7 yards and moved the chains again.

Three plays later, Mayfield and the Browns were looking at a 4th and 2 from the Giants 13, Mayfield got 5 yards on what looked like a designed QB keeper, and an easy first down.  Two plays later Baker fired a 10 yard strike to David Njoku for 6 points.

Exceptional pocket awareness from Baker, who had to move on from his first and second read to find Chief Njoku in the back of the endzone.  Baker put that ball where only the athletic monster that is David Njoku could get it.

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The Browns would go into halftime with a solid 13-3 lead.  Much of the second half was garbage time, but a few key players for both teams continued to see time.  Mayfield played early into the fourth quarter:

After the Giants scored to cut the Browns lead to 3, Mayfield and Antonio Callaway connected on a big 3rd and 7 completion for 24 yards.  Again, Mayfield uses his legs to buy some time outside the pocket.  He threw an absolute rocket on the run putting it low and toward the sideline, and  Antonio Callaway laid out beautifully to haul in the pass along the sideline.  While the Browns did not score on this drive, it was nice to see them pick up a few 3rd and long conversions on this night.

Finally, two drives later Baker hit Antonio Callaway on a short 5 yard slant, Callaway broke a tackle, and he was off to the races.

The game was over at this point with the Browns holding on to their 10 point lead for the rest of the fourth quarter.  Mayfield was done  for the evening with quite an impressive stat line:

It was nice to see the Browns win a game, even though its only Preseason.  Sadly this is no indicator of how the regular season will play out.  They went 4-0 last year in the preseason as we all are well aware.  BUT, these guys need to learn how to win somehow, so if they’re keeping score; win the fucking game.

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The following Friday saw the Buffalo Bills come into FirstEnergy Stadium for the Browns second Preseason tilt.  We saw the Browns sling it all over the joint against the Giants, both Tyrod and Baker.  This past week saw Todd Haley mix up the game-plan to incorporate a heavy dose of Carlos Hyde and Nick Chubb.  Week 1 the Browns Offensive Line was absolutely manhandled in the running game.  They amassed only 50 yards on 1.8 yards a rush attempt.  This week went much different.

The Browns flexed their muscle early going on a 9 play Touchdown on their first possession.  Carlos Hyde broke free for a 26 yard rush, and 9 yard rush on consecutive plays.  Haley mixed in some Duke Johnson, and intermediate Tyrod Taylor passing.  Finally the drive ended with a Carlos Hyde touchdown, his first in the Preseason.

The rest of the first half was a defensive stand still.  Neither team could move the ball a lick, and Buffalo even lost a Quarterback in the Process:

Myles Garrett was a force all night knocking out AJ McCarron on this pass rush, and using his speed off the ball to cause another sack:

With McCarron coming out of the game, Rookie Josh Allen came into the game.  He promptly lead a 15 play, 80 yard touchdown drive, culminating in a Rod Streater Touchdown catch.

Allen would lead another Field Goal Drive to end the half, making 10-7 Bills.  Up until this point the Browns were dominating, however stupid penalties along with missed opportunities on defense allowed Buffalo to surge ahead.

The second half continued to be a defensive stalemate.  Baker Mayfield was leading the offense, and unlike his first game, he was stuck with all 2nd and 3rd stringers.  No Callaway’s or Njoku’s.  While, he didn’t light it up as he had against the Giants, he still played well.  He had his moments within the pocket that make you say wow.  His footwork in there is pure wizardy.

Probably Mayfield’s highlight of the night.  3rd and 6, facing a heavy pass rush, moving around the pocket, and firing a pass back across his body to convert on 3rd down.  It was a fantastic display of Mayfield’s best traits as a Quarterback.

The Browns managed a touchdown in the second half, but Buffalo was too much on this night.  The Browns dropped to 1-1 on the Preseason losing 19-17 at home.

 

Decent start so far from this new look Browns team.  They managed to win a game, and each unit has shown flashes of its potential.  In game 1 we saw the passing attack go off for multiple touchdowns, and big yardage.  In game 2 we saw an effort to run the football heavily.  This generated a few big runs, and 2 rushing Touchdowns.  In both games we saw flashes of a young, fast, athletic, physical defense.  In the early stages of the Buffalo game, the Browns had allowed 9 yards on 9 plays.  Hopefully this is a glimpse as to what is to come.

Finally with the most important news of the Preseason:

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Josh Gordon announced a mere hour or two prior to the Buffalo game via Twitter and Instagram he would be rejoining the Browns.  What. A. Relief.  All systems go.  Josh Gordon stepping away from the team for any length of time is never a good thing, but he actually fucking came back.

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It will take some time for the Browns to assimilate Josh back into the offense, but fucking A, we might get Josh Gordon Week 1 against Pittsburgh.  T’s and P’s Joe Haden.    Things keep on rolling closer and closer towards regular season football.  I cannot freaking wait any longer. Tonight the Browns take on the Philadelphia Eagles at FirstEnergy Stadium.

The game will be a National Fox Broadcast at 8pm tonight.  Expect Tyrod Taylor and the rest of the starters to play for a good chunk of the game.  I would estimate 2 and a half quarters.  What am I expecting from the Browns?

  1. Balance.  I’d like to see Todd Haley mix it up with a nice balance of Run and Pass this week.  Week 1 they struggled to run the ball, so they aired it out for the majority of the game.  Week 2 the Offense made a concerned effort to run the football.  Lets see them combine the two in the so called, “Dress Rehersal” game.
  2. Defense.  I want to see the Defense continue to terrorize opposing Quarterbacks.  So far, the first teamers have not generated a turnover.  That was a huge issue last year, in terms of yardage and points the Browns fared well defensively, they just could not generate turnovers.  I’d like to see a few take-ways from the defense.  Show some hunger.
  3. Baker.  I am not yearning for Baker Mayfield just yet, I like Tyrod Taylor, and understand the teams decision to start him over the kid.  That being said, Browns fans aren’t going to have many more opportunities to watch Baker play.  I’d like to see him continue to play turnover free Football, and demonstrate that clear command he has of the offense.
  4. Win the fucking game.  You can only learn how to win by winning.

 

Tune in live on Fox to watch defending Super Bowl Champion, Philadelphia Eagles invade Cleveland.   Hopefully this will be yet another building block for good things in the regular season.  Go Browns!

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1/13 Divisional Playoffs Round-Up: Falcons @ Eagles

The best weekend of football (arguably) has come to a close and what a weekend it was. We’re going to start with the two Saturday games, which were not as close to as exciting as Sunday but still solid.

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#1 Philadelphia Eagles 15 – #6 Atlanta Falcons 10

What do you know? The Falcons did it again and blew a winnable playoff game. I’m not going to point fingers and say I predicted it — but well, you know. Everyone was on the Falcons, which is why this is exactly the kind of game that they lose.

This game was very lackluster — as evidenced by the low score-line. The number 1 seed did successfully pull off the upset over the number 6 seed, who woulda thought? What had people buzzing on twitter most was NBC’s bird graphic:

 

Home Birds are now 10-0 against away birds — what a time to be alive. We saw them show Carson Wentz approximately 25 times and the Falcons ran the worst play on 4th down.

 

Not quite sure why you roll out Matt Ryan here and essentially only give him Julio as a target — who fell down.  Regardless, Julio did have a chance to catch it here but I have to chalk up the game to some bad coaching. The Falcons have already given a vote of confidence to their failure of an OC, Steve Sarkisian so expect more of the same next year. Nick Foles did just enough to get the Eagles the win and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

 

P.S. Lane Johnson wearing a dog mask is nightmare material.

 

London Finally Gets A Good Game! Eagles Announced to Play Jaguars

The Eagles are going across the pond for the first time ever to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars. The people of London have never seen a matchup between two teams with a winning record and this may be their chance. Both teams are still remaining in the playoffs (though both are projected to lose) and should follow up their successful seasons with more of the same next year.

London will get to see the MVP front-runner before his injury, Carson Wentz live take on the London Jaguars who suddenly cannot lose in London. They shellacked the Ravens 44-7 this season to make it 3 straight in London.

Obviously, the Jags have found success in general now but London used to be the only place they could win. The week hasn’t been announced yet but will be shortly when the NFL officially announces it.