Harrycrane
Well-known member
It was a very solid winning weekend and even got away for a few days of warmer more tropical winds , sun, conch fritters and a few rum runners. .That's a win win win win ? And the loss at the end of the night felt just fine as the Brownies get their first road play-off win SINCE 1969 !!? First play off win since the first day of 1995 ? WOW . In the year of Covid , sports at times has taken on a surreal hollowness , an awkward echo ? You play games in front of an almost literal handful of people , who appear like tiny specs of color from an aerial shot. You hear piped in crowd noise that can confuse you sometimes after a big play because it belies what actually happened on the field.
In this most trying of years in a multitude of ways , the NFL has carried on about as well as can humanely be expected. if it took a pandemic to help the Bills and Browns get play-off wins after such a long time ? that would be a great thing right? Feel good moments ? As a life-long Patriots fan , I have gone through ineptitude squared , and unprecedented and almost assuredly never to be duplicated 20 year run of success . Living amongst Browns fans I started rooting for them eventually and it was easy to root against the Steelers because they were a chief rival of the Patriots .
Rooting for the Browns was kind of like rooting for that smaller less talented kid on one of your kids teams . The really nice kid who was never going to play for long or make a varsity team in the future , but you were ecstatic when they had their one of two 'moments " during a season. Browns were truly awful just a couple years ago . Baker Mayfield is a starting NFL QB in talent and confidence. But he kind of falls short as an NFL draft 'leading man " type guy . Number one's overall usually are more freakish athletically . 'Look " different . Beasts . A swashbuckling John Elway, Every bit of 6-4 , Big arm , big presence , even big teeth , lol. A Baseball corner outfielder with some power and swagger . A more athletic Dave Parker . Fills out the uniform as perfectly as a trust fund bride fills out her wedding dress. Baker is the scrappy second baseman whose uniform kind of hangs off him unevenly and is dirty by the second inning.
The thing that kept coming back to me watching this Pittsburgh meltdown was , Is this a different season than the one where the Steelers were once 11-0 and had beaten the Browns by what seemed like a hundred in week one , and had played right with them just last week when sitting multiple key players? With the esteemed Mason Rudolph the Thuuuurd presiding at QB ? So the Browns had a few guys out HC not present , had lost some practice time and yet were up 28-0 after the first quarter ? Are you freaking kidding me? The Steelers came out about as fresh and crisp as one of those sun lamped warmed pieces of pizza that often passed for Cobra Kai's Johnny Lawrence's dinner .
Bad snap , punts, , fastballs by Ben that were usually out of the strike zone , tipped , picked and returned , then rinse and repeat. Surreal doesn't suffice . Three years ago I remember watching the get down to Bortles and the Jags BIG , at home . They came back of course and almost won because, well ---- it was the Jags . What Browns fan reading this wasn't nervous when the Steelers down just 12 now with just under a quarter to play , at midfield with a 4th and one ?? If you weren't ? You were lying to yourself . Of course you were . We just saw a similar scenario in Tennessee right? So you grab the beer sigh and start to fret. Well fret not, Mike Tomlin bailed you out . He inexplicably punts the football with total momentum at that point which goes into the end zone gaining 30 yards of field position , not trusting his offense to get one yard to keep and even add to that momentum . Many of our packages and Christmas cards we sent and received arrived recently , weeks after being sent , slowed by the once in a century pandemic .
Mike Tomlin's XMAS gift to Cleveland came when he decided to over think things and take the momentum that was all on his teams side and just hand it over . Of course not being able to run the football { last in the league, talk about surreal , ? A team named after Steel can't run the football and get a yard when it has to?} And Ben's multiple high and away fastballs would make you pause for a second may be, but having to score TWO TD's to win with a quarter to play AND all the momentum , you take a tepid step back , try to draw them offsides and then punt as if you were up by a FG OR IN A TIE GAME? Are you serious ? Did any assistant say? UMM Mike , ahh you know this is a really lame kind of weak decision here and we do kind of have well ahh ALL OF THE MOMENTUM RIGHT NOW ?
As they lined up to Punt I said to the people I was watching with , this is a brutal decision , and the only slightly redeemable result will be pinning them inside the five. WRONG , Ball bounds into the end zone like an approach shot that didn't check up and your chance of birdie went kaput . BALLGAME . Steelers were once 11-0 , then went sideways a bit , and last night a week after almost beating the Browns who were playing for a play-off , with back-ups playing some key roles, looked as if they hadn't played or practiced together for weeks . Ben was like the young flame throwing pitcher who strikes out 14 but walks 11 and throws 6 wild pitches . Even Defensive lineman were making diving catches on tipped passes . Years ago , I likened some baseball managers to tenured professors . The so called 'Good baseball man, a good ole boy who may be fired once in a while but finds his next job a split second later because he is well ----- a 'Good baseball man". Mike Tomlin is one of these football tenured Prof's in a way. He has the credentials of course and overall he is a very solid coach , BUT he seems almost impervious to any fallout to some of his teams underachievement and his team appearing at times atrociously unprepared and as sloppy as a 4 year old eating a plate of spaghetti .
Congrats Browns , enjoy this . I think you have a rushing dog chance vs KC. They aren't great at stopping the run and their offense hasn't been clicking on all cylinders for weeks now . Kareem Hunt looked like he was sprung out of a cannon last night . The Browns have hands down the best RB duo in the league and it isn't particularly close. Chubb and Hunt are bad men . Got over 200 yards from those guys last night . O-Line was very solid . Baker was good . They have to duplicate this and then add to it a bit may be to beat KC . May be last weeks' uneven and shaky play in the close win over Pitt to get in was because they did feel that pressure . Last night they seemed to feel less and were really helped out by Pittsburgh's awful early effort , but they were smoother . This week they should feel ZERO pressure and just go play . Unleash the thoroughbred RB's and let it rip once they have to overly defend the run . Will be back to talk abut the other games shortly
In this most trying of years in a multitude of ways , the NFL has carried on about as well as can humanely be expected. if it took a pandemic to help the Bills and Browns get play-off wins after such a long time ? that would be a great thing right? Feel good moments ? As a life-long Patriots fan , I have gone through ineptitude squared , and unprecedented and almost assuredly never to be duplicated 20 year run of success . Living amongst Browns fans I started rooting for them eventually and it was easy to root against the Steelers because they were a chief rival of the Patriots .
Rooting for the Browns was kind of like rooting for that smaller less talented kid on one of your kids teams . The really nice kid who was never going to play for long or make a varsity team in the future , but you were ecstatic when they had their one of two 'moments " during a season. Browns were truly awful just a couple years ago . Baker Mayfield is a starting NFL QB in talent and confidence. But he kind of falls short as an NFL draft 'leading man " type guy . Number one's overall usually are more freakish athletically . 'Look " different . Beasts . A swashbuckling John Elway, Every bit of 6-4 , Big arm , big presence , even big teeth , lol. A Baseball corner outfielder with some power and swagger . A more athletic Dave Parker . Fills out the uniform as perfectly as a trust fund bride fills out her wedding dress. Baker is the scrappy second baseman whose uniform kind of hangs off him unevenly and is dirty by the second inning.
The thing that kept coming back to me watching this Pittsburgh meltdown was , Is this a different season than the one where the Steelers were once 11-0 and had beaten the Browns by what seemed like a hundred in week one , and had played right with them just last week when sitting multiple key players? With the esteemed Mason Rudolph the Thuuuurd presiding at QB ? So the Browns had a few guys out HC not present , had lost some practice time and yet were up 28-0 after the first quarter ? Are you freaking kidding me? The Steelers came out about as fresh and crisp as one of those sun lamped warmed pieces of pizza that often passed for Cobra Kai's Johnny Lawrence's dinner .
Bad snap , punts, , fastballs by Ben that were usually out of the strike zone , tipped , picked and returned , then rinse and repeat. Surreal doesn't suffice . Three years ago I remember watching the get down to Bortles and the Jags BIG , at home . They came back of course and almost won because, well ---- it was the Jags . What Browns fan reading this wasn't nervous when the Steelers down just 12 now with just under a quarter to play , at midfield with a 4th and one ?? If you weren't ? You were lying to yourself . Of course you were . We just saw a similar scenario in Tennessee right? So you grab the beer sigh and start to fret. Well fret not, Mike Tomlin bailed you out . He inexplicably punts the football with total momentum at that point which goes into the end zone gaining 30 yards of field position , not trusting his offense to get one yard to keep and even add to that momentum . Many of our packages and Christmas cards we sent and received arrived recently , weeks after being sent , slowed by the once in a century pandemic .
Mike Tomlin's XMAS gift to Cleveland came when he decided to over think things and take the momentum that was all on his teams side and just hand it over . Of course not being able to run the football { last in the league, talk about surreal , ? A team named after Steel can't run the football and get a yard when it has to?} And Ben's multiple high and away fastballs would make you pause for a second may be, but having to score TWO TD's to win with a quarter to play AND all the momentum , you take a tepid step back , try to draw them offsides and then punt as if you were up by a FG OR IN A TIE GAME? Are you serious ? Did any assistant say? UMM Mike , ahh you know this is a really lame kind of weak decision here and we do kind of have well ahh ALL OF THE MOMENTUM RIGHT NOW ?
As they lined up to Punt I said to the people I was watching with , this is a brutal decision , and the only slightly redeemable result will be pinning them inside the five. WRONG , Ball bounds into the end zone like an approach shot that didn't check up and your chance of birdie went kaput . BALLGAME . Steelers were once 11-0 , then went sideways a bit , and last night a week after almost beating the Browns who were playing for a play-off , with back-ups playing some key roles, looked as if they hadn't played or practiced together for weeks . Ben was like the young flame throwing pitcher who strikes out 14 but walks 11 and throws 6 wild pitches . Even Defensive lineman were making diving catches on tipped passes . Years ago , I likened some baseball managers to tenured professors . The so called 'Good baseball man, a good ole boy who may be fired once in a while but finds his next job a split second later because he is well ----- a 'Good baseball man". Mike Tomlin is one of these football tenured Prof's in a way. He has the credentials of course and overall he is a very solid coach , BUT he seems almost impervious to any fallout to some of his teams underachievement and his team appearing at times atrociously unprepared and as sloppy as a 4 year old eating a plate of spaghetti .
Congrats Browns , enjoy this . I think you have a rushing dog chance vs KC. They aren't great at stopping the run and their offense hasn't been clicking on all cylinders for weeks now . Kareem Hunt looked like he was sprung out of a cannon last night . The Browns have hands down the best RB duo in the league and it isn't particularly close. Chubb and Hunt are bad men . Got over 200 yards from those guys last night . O-Line was very solid . Baker was good . They have to duplicate this and then add to it a bit may be to beat KC . May be last weeks' uneven and shaky play in the close win over Pitt to get in was because they did feel that pressure . Last night they seemed to feel less and were really helped out by Pittsburgh's awful early effort , but they were smoother . This week they should feel ZERO pressure and just go play . Unleash the thoroughbred RB's and let it rip once they have to overly defend the run . Will be back to talk abut the other games shortly
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