The chosen 30th that is.
Alright, so the trade of Josh Gordon is disgusting. I get it, they must’ve told him he has to be perfect to make the team, then he fucked up by hurting himself shooting an unauthorized promo video, which is a legitimate fuckup. But the guy isn’t even getting suspended, it’s not (as far as we know) drug related.
We spent 4 years trying to keep Gordon on the straight track because his potential is worth it, and now after all that you throw it away on what ends up being a relatively minor fuckup that only cost him a week of football and no suspension?
Josh Gordon should’ve played for the Browns or no one. Trading him for scraps is going to come back and haunt me every fucking weekend because Gordon is going to get his head on straight and become a star somewhere else, and I have to live with that every fucking week for the rest of his career. That bugs me more than 0-16 (as compared to 3-13 or whatever) bugs me.
So I predicted 7, maybe 8 wins this year. I’m looking pretty good on that so far. They’re handling the Raiders today, which will give them their first winning record since… a long time ago.
I may have to start hating them again.
…and they blow a 14-point lead and are now down 3.
They really are the Cleveland Brownsiest.
…and now are up 8.
The Kardiac Kids are back, Browns fans.
To try to avoid accusations of bias, everyone thinks the Browns blatantly got game-changingly screwed by the refs multiple times, including a particularly baffling measure-then-respot-then-measure bullshit where a first down would’ve lead to kneeldowns to end the game, which even the studio guys, who were sucking the ref crew’s dicks all game, were baffled by. I would almost say it’s unprecedented for them to change the spot of a ball in the manner they did with no supporting evidence, but I’m sure it’s happened once or twice before.
Excuses and blah blah and teams should overcome them but the reality is that the Browns won with that first down, and the refs forced them to win again. That’s now 3 OT games with ridiculously close finishes.
No, they got jobbed. I agree completely.
There are some calls from the refs this year that I just don’t get. Maybe the worst this weekend was Lynch getting blown dead while spinning away from a tackler. He’s Beast Mode, he’ll just keep going. And he wasn’t even stopped, he was just getting around the guy.
You’d think these were the replacement refs again. Or refs from FIFA. They really are crapping on this sport and making it less watchable.
I didn’t see the game, just followed the ticker and saw a couple game breaks. How did Mayfield look? His stats weren’t stellar on the ticker, but I’m more interested how he fared with the eyeball test. Regressing like Darnold, or still looked good?
Still very good. There were a large number of drops that hit receivers, and also the field was really shitty so that when Mayfield tried to throw to a spot and throw the guy open sometimes they’d slip on their cut and what should’ve been a completion wasn’t. Missed a 60 yard bomb by a foot which would’ve been caught if Callaway had run hard for his entire route.
Didn’t look as sharp as the game wore on, but his offense scored 42 points in his first start
Mayfield is the top rookie (at any position), Genard Avery is the top edge rusher, Denzel Ward is top CB.
3 of the top 10 is pretty damn good.
…and the Bengals Jesse Bates gets an honorable mention. Woot!
I thought the same thing looking at that.
I feel like the “Browns are losers” days are over, and I’m a bit sad that the one constant in the NFL is gone. But good for Cleveland fans. It must be exciting to root for the Browns this year, knowing you have some real talent on rookie contracts. That gives your team a chance to really build up over the next few years.
Every damn game this year is like this. But we finally won one.
When I caught a glimpse of that wobbly ass kick in OT I thought it had been blocked and I was sure it was going to be another tie.
That final kick was so bad I’m wondering if this will be the first time a kicker is cut after hitting the winning field goal.
Man, Browns could have been undefeated by now. Kardiac Kids days again?
It’s going to be like this all year. The defense is good enough to keep it close. The offense is still a work in progress. I’ll take ugly.
Cue the ancient curse of, “May you live in interesting times.”
FROM:
Wayne Mackie
Vice President of Officiating Evaluation and Development
NFL Football Operations
TO:
Cleveland Browns on Erie
Cleveland, Ohio
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Once again, on review, it appears, there may have been an officiating error in your past game against the [del]San Diego[/del] Stub Hub Chargers. Regrettably, a linesman missed a six foot five, three hundred and fifty pound offensive tackle jerk suddenly upright and back off the line of scrimmage a full count before the actual snap. This error, which was evident to a number of defensive players and tens of thousand of fans watching the game, caused several of said players to believe an illegal procedure (false start) penalty occurred and anticipate the play being stopped. This did not occur and resulted in an easy completion for the offense (Chargers).
The non-call was discussed in our standard review of official’s performance. The crew chief offered the following possibilities for the error:
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We arrived as late as possible to Cleveland and wanted to get out of town as early as possible. Delaying the game for a 5 yard walk off and down replay would have cost us at least a minute. While only one call, these delays add up.
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Crew composition. Our crew has the highest number of personnel being treated for narcolepsy in the league. Also having Riddick, Neo, and Eli on the crew puts us at a significant visual disadvantage.
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There was some confusion over whether to take the red pill or the blue pill during warm-ups.
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The Chargers were curb-stomping them anyway.
Please accept our apologies, hope and prayers for improved officiating performance in forthcoming games. The league offices and the Commissioner are making correct calls a matter of continuing emphasis. Congratulations on your return to relevance.
WITH UTMOST SINCERITY:
ALBERTO RIVERON, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF OFFICIATING
RUSSELL YURK, VICE PRESIDENT OF INSTANT REPLAY & ADMINISTRATION &
WAYNE MACKIE, VICE PRESIDENT OF OFFICIATING EVALUATION & DEVELOPMENT
Well this is the first game the Browns got beat convincingly. Every other game could’ve easily been a win, and probably should’ve been. The Chargers are quietly good this year and no one really cares, possibly because they don’t have a fanbase.
I was convinced that these “WTF, ALMOST” passes Mayfield keeps throwing were going to start connecting once he had more practice with his receivers. I’m starting to think that the receivers are garbage. Certainly Calloway needs to spend about 500 hours in catching practice. Every week we have to deal with 5+ passes that hit the receivers in the hands only to amount to nothing. Or a 50+ yard bomb that Callaway misjudges by a foot and it’s ALMOST THERE EVERY FUCKING TIME. He should have like 4 60+ yard scores this year.
I’m not sure if the receivers (particularly njoku and callaway) are bad, or if this is just the result of Mayfield getting no first team reps all year and the chemistry just isn’t there. I was hoping it was the latter, but how many damn weeks do we have to see the same thing?