Did We Play Down To The Browns?

[Seahawkfan80]

I think we saw why some Browns fans are excited about Manziel. Put aside the hype, there is something there to work with for tools. His TD pass was a nice way to cap a good drive.

But the Browns put most of their guile out there in that first drive. They copied a cover 3 beater the Ravens used the week before, they used misdirection to take the wind out of a lathered up D at home.

And they dropped a shit ton of passes. So before we pound chest over 13 points, remember that the Browns shot themselves in the foot. a lot.

We were missing players on D, and have a lot of inexperience at one corner. So all in all, no problem. THe offense was crisp, and when the game mattered, scored every drive.

This a lot. I agree they blew their game strategy in the first series of plays. Had they done the same again...we could have lost this one.

Our team, this year, seems to be learning on the first series and then adapting on the defensive side. That is not a bad thing.

 

[Vetamur]

I dont think they played down.. 30 points by a team missing its LT, its top 2 RBs, its all pro TE.. 13 points allowed by a defense missing Kam and Shead left early.. Avril is hurt.. so.. I thought it was a decent performance.

 

[12thbrah]

Hawks made some good adjustments after Cleveland's first drive. Hard to fault the secondary when you have so many new faces playing. LOB is not a plug and play thing and we definitely need Kam back there.

 

[Seahawks8880]

Don't you already know boys? The odds maker gave the Browns 15 points and we certainly felt like it wasn't enough. So we gave them an extra 7 pts to start after their only td just to comeback and waxed them to cover the score.

 

[McGruff]

I took away two things . . .

We really need Kam.

Duke Johnson is going to be really good.

 

[LoneHawkFan]

Yeah I don't think we played down. The Browns are playing better than their record indicates. I think Manziel is very talented. He's football smart and savvy under pressure. He made a lot of very good throws on the run but his receivers didn't help. That team right there with Josh Gordon would be very tough to beat. All things considered, I think our defense did very well against them.

At times, our offense looks like a perfect machine of absolute efficiency. Again, penalties kept them from scoring more points. I thought the refs were horrible once again. I guess in my 35 years of watching football, I still haven't learned what defensive PI looks like. Russell is just sick in the face right now. A monster. Unstoppable. As mentioned in the Bevell thread...that 2nd TD to Baldwin was a gorgeously designed play to get him open in the flat. Loved it, watching it unfold like that just gave me chills.

Can't wait to see the Shams at the CLink.

 

[Seymour]

We nearly doubled their offensive output and held them to 1 TD and 13 points. Ya that first drive was irritating giving up (4) 3rd down conversions, but other than that, very solid game and nothing to get worried about IMO.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Browns have a ton of talent, on both sides of the ball, they've just never had a dependable QB.

Give credit to Manziel, I was impressed, he's just like Russell.........can run around and make plays. Not quite as accurate and obviously all the off field shenanigans. But if he gets his poop together, the Browns could be a good team.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Browns dropped a lot of passes. Dudes were open all over the field. Hawks need to be better in the D-Backfield. Browns O-Line played well.

This plus the tackling was at times not good and the offsides penalties at home are inexcusable. Offensively I felt like the Hawks were especially considrring the situation at RB.

 

[Laloosh]

Saw a lot of over pursuit by Seattle as well (to add to the comments on the dropped balls) but overall, I think playing an unfamiliar team with a mobile quarterback (who was hitting his receivers in the hands) will look like that sometimes.

Not their best game obviously but the offense didn't miss a beat and we put them away by the 3rd quarter, really.

 

[Overseasfan]

Even though the Hawks try to put emphasis on focusing on your current opponent, they can't possibly be as intense as when playing a really tough must win game. It's understandable the team wasn't in full hype mode when playing the Browns. We missed a few important players as well and with all that we still won with quite a big margin.

Next week against the Rams we'll see some more focus and against AZ it'll be prime time focus.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

btw, we won 30-13, so not sure "playing down" to the Browns is the right phrase.

Browns aren't the dumpster fire that the Ravens are, so I was not expecting to walk all over them like last week.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

The Browns dropping passes was a much larger part of the game than we might think. Noticed it all game long--even the announcers mentioned it. And it's not too far of a stretch to think if those passes were catches, at least the ones that should have been, they'd have put up a lot more points on us. This game could have been much closer than it was but for those dropped passes.

That's not on our defense for doing a good job, it's on the Browns for failing to execute when they needed to. And it's one of the reasons why it felt like we played down to them. Between that and an undisciplined penalty to end the first half, we got a bunch of lucky breaks, and it led to at least three points, if not more.

 

[CHawk]

Think the Browns came ready to play. Had a good gameplan, played hard, were patient and had some time consuming drives. Games like this give teams like the Browns something to play for. Something to build on for next year. We don't have to be perfect to win, just good

This is spot on

 

[kidhawk]

I think there was a combination of factors, but I didn't feel as though we "played down" to the Browns. Manziel definitely needed to be contained, and we did a really good job of that, but let's not forget, we also had a defensive leader, Kam Chancellor, on the sidelines. With our style of defense, having everyone on the same page on every play is critical. Missing a key guy in the communication like Kam, IMO, is like losing our center on the line. I thought it looked like there was some definite communication issues throughout the game, but it was at it's worst in the first drive, mainly because the Browns offense made plays. As the game went on, the small lapses in the defense were overcome by offensive mistakes by the browns.

Our defense is still a definite strength of our team, but they just aren't quite the same as they were in the past 2 seasons, and that is even more glaring in Kam's absence.

This isn't to say that we didn't play good defense, just that it wasn't the overwhelming defense we've been used to.

It's ok though, because we have the offense carrying the load and this team's balance is what will propel us into the playoffs.

 

[Attyla the Hawk]

Heading into the game, I really felt it was a no win kind of situation for Seattle. If we didn't put up 30+ while keeping them to 6 or less, it was probably going to feel like a game we played down to an opponent.

Offense was crisp. Defense helped by a lot of unforced errors. That first drive featured single option rub routes on every 3rd down that I knew we'd clean up as the game went on.

We beat a team by 3 scores in a manner where the outcome was pretty much never in doubt, even when we were down 7-0. We weren't sloppy. No injuries to speak of. The result should have felt more satisfying. I just think it was a case where the heightened expectations led to a threshold of dominance that was unrealistic.

 

[DavidSeven]

The Browns have some good players on offense: Gary Barnidge, Travis Benjamin, Duke Johnson, and Joe Thomas, in particular. I'm not a Manziel fan, but he is underrated on this forum, and he didn't play outside himself. Instead, he opted to get the ball to his playmakers.

Did we play down to them? No, I don't think so. Their stars came to play, and the Browns staff wisely kept the game-plan short-and-simple for Manziel.

Even when we're "motivated," do we even have a shutdown defense this year? I appreciate that we can shut-down Jimmy Clausen better than anyone, but our D has been far from unstoppable in most other games this year. Blaine Gabbert looked just as good against us.

We're riding the O this year and will continue having to do so.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

Before yesterday I thought Manziel was a bust but I think I'm wrong. He has some skills and has a shot to be pretty successful. Not Russell Wilson successful but he's the best quarterback Cleveland has had in nearly a generation.

Besides we don't have a shutdown defense this year. This team goes as far as Wilson's arm carries them. And he didn't miss a beat with a quarterback rating north of 130ish iirc.

 

[beaumaris]

I kind of thought the Browns are a much better team than their record shows,and Johnny football
(if he can keep his head square) can be an pretty effective starting QB. Just going mostly on what I watched yesterday though.

 

[Tech Worlds]

I know they only scored 13points but it really didnt look like our defense was dominant to me.

We will see what we have when we actually play a team that has a QB. I hate to say it but I need to see our defense play well against someone good before I will feel that we are a serious threat in the playoffs.