SteveSmithTD89

Nah he's giving the refs poo for not paying attention to the clock "What are you watching?"

Red hot probably not but it would certainly get uncomfortably warm. I think a lot depends how the team looks in the next few games but I could see the plug getting pulled at 0-4.

Oh I 1000% agree. I dont think it matters enough to be considered a key the game so to speak but more so just a fun added tidbit to think about.

I stood right there screaming from the rooftops this was a bad call but... it really wasnt. Panthers in their mic'd up video they posted of Luvu showed an angle I hadn't seen where its pretty obvious Burns hits the QB in the facemask/neck area which would be a penalty. I think its a soft call but could at least understand why that flag was thrown. Link if you want to watch in real time.

One thing OP did not touch on but the Giants DC is Wink Martindale who was the Ravens DC during Bakers entire time in Cleveland and faced him twice a year. Baker and Wink both probably have a pretty good understanding of each others tendencies - maybe not to the extent of Browns/Baker but enough so it could be an advantage for the side that's able to capitalize on it.

At which point its time to figure out why that is and address/correct that problem hopefully with a new coach sooner than later. I will say - in years past under this regime the starting slow hasn't been an issue-I'd argue its been a strength. Its always been the adjustments and sustaining it (ESPECIALLY in the 3rd quarter) and in the future games once there's some film out on the offense. A lot of that got laid at the feet of Brady. Hopefully McAdoo handles it better.

That first half was definitely not good. I would agree that I would even characterize it as bad, but can we quit with the revisionist history and hyperbolic statements? Half this sub is complaining about Rhule cherry picking stats you literally just did the exact same thing by only including the first half. Giants game last year. Bucs game last year. Pats game last year. That's 3 games where in the entire 60 minutes we scored less than we did in the 1st half Sunday, 3 games were we had the poo kicked out of us and watched the team quit on the sideline. 3 games where we scored less in an entire game than we did the first half on Sunday. That's just in Rhule's tenure - do we really want to dive into the record books and look at the other 7 years - especially the games without Cam? Specifically the end of 2019 after Ron got fired? Against the Colts with Grier? Against the Saints? I get it - I want to win as much as anybody but how would you have answered the question? He was specifically asked what positives he saw on offense. He prefaced this with a whole tirade about how it took too long to get the offense moving, whether it was the ball getting put on the turf, explosive plays getting called back on penalty or someone lining up wrong - he mentioned all of that. Then he says once they got in the groove he saw the explosiveness the know they have.

You thought it looked worse than last year? No disrespect man but did you watch our games last year? The wheels got stuck in the mud for a quarter and a half on Sunday and we STILL scored as many or more points than we did in THIRTEEN of our games last year. I agree with you though - no matter how many points the offense scored, the result was the same and we're all left wondering "what if." It's time to put up or gtfo town for Rhule.

No he's not. It's the final 5 minutes of the 2nd qtr (TD drive before the half) and the entire second half. That's the 35 minutes. We scored on 4/5 possessions and TDs on 3 of them. It's the same thing that has been pointed out here several times. Once the offense got the rust/nerves whatever the hell was going on for for the first 1.5 quarters they looked really really good. Good enough that there is reason to think they can build on that.

Rhule at his PC "Obviously there's some good players on that list which is concerning but the expectation is most of these guys are integrated before the end of the week" He's fine, he'll play.

Honestly the game was an example of what our worst case scenario looked like: Our initial game plan clearly did not work. Baker played bad for about 1.5 quarters. CMC was rendered ineffective. Icky got his lunch eaten more often than not. Defense could not stop anything on the ground. The refs did us zero favors and botch two monumental calls. Bozeman who took more reps with Baker than Elf is out and we have 5 botched snaps in the game. Even the Henderson PI play, if that ball wasn't such an absolute duck and even a moderately decent throw CJ may have timed that breakup right or at least it wouldn't have looked nearly as egregious. All of that - and we had a lead with 77 seconds to go. I'd like to think that Rule and the team come and actively work to correct those issues and come out strong in week 2 but I'm not holding my breath. Of course it doesn't matter what me or anybody else that isn't on the team thinks - maybe the team is fully bought in and rebounds with an "us against the world" mentality. I will say, that last season if we had a game start like that in the first half then the second half of this game looks like the Tampa, Buffalo, Giants, Dolphins games last year and just snowball and spirals out of control with a visibly defeated team on the sidelines. For what its worth - I didn't see that on Sunday.

The joint practices - should have clarified.

I'm gonna disagree on that - one of the things that stood out to me from the Pats radio broadcast was them commenting on how poor EVERY snap was. Hardly ever were they right on the money, Baker and Darnold would need to reach, squat, stretch to get the ball... and since we played primarily the ones during practice and Bozeman went down with an ankle injury early day 1... think its pretty obvious who the culprit was.

From the last 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter on these were out offensive drives: TD Half 3 and out punt (Drive Icky got his lunch eaten back to back plays) TD TD FG with 77 seconds left in the game to take the lead. End of Game Once we got into a groove and got the rust/nerves whatever shaken off the offense was cooking. I saw plenty of reason to be optimistic about the offense moving forward. The Defense? Not so much.

It ends next week.

If the 2nd half is an indication of getting into the groove of things the season may have some meaningful football played in November for the first time in 5 years. Need to get Elflein out of there. The inability to snap the damn ball is something I would expect him to do at the very least if he can't block worth poo.

Right. Not my first rodeo. We've seen that happen - it was a textbook Ron play. I absolutely hate playing not to lose especially with how the offense was finally getting in rhythm. But given how trash Elf was all day and the dropped snap on 1st down putting us behind the sticks, with how bad Icky was getting beat most the afternoon - I can understand the reasoning behind it. I wouldn't have done it - I still hate it. Even more so in retrospect but if the refs get one of those 2 calls right we likely hold on. Hindsight is always 20/20.

That is inex-fuging-cusable on the refs. Absolute horrendous roughing call on Burns. Then not calling the intentional grounding despite explaining to the crowd why it should have been intentional grounding. Just terrible. Absolutely atrocious.

Like those old bud light commercials said "Its only weird if it doesn't work" Here's to your new chair!

Ceiling - Super Bowl Winner Floor - 1st overall pick Did I go out far enough on the ledge with that one? If the line plays how we hope it does, CMC and DJ stay healthy, Baker returns to his 2020 form and Brown can make that leap in year 3 then we are much closer to the Ceiling than the floor. Is it a lot to ask? No doubt. Does that make it impossible? I don't necessarily believe that. While in total it looks like a perfect storm, individually each of those components aren't that farfetched. I've maintained since before the draft a LT at 6 and Baker makes us a playoff team. I'm not wavering on that now.

Can't forget we made Drew Lock look like John Elway a couple years ago too although I can't remember if he was a backup for them or their initial starter who came in.

Are you new here? I have nightmares still of backup QBs throttling us for years. Romo on prime time TV Gus Ferrotte in MN Matt Hasselbeck in TN Jake freaking Delhomme in Cleveland Christian Ponder in MN Brady Quinn with KC Post But Fumble Mark Sanchez in Philly And I'm sure there's others... Those are just the ones seared into my brain.

Mims and a 5th for TMJ and a 7th. I was a huge of Mims coming out I like TMJ a lot but there isn't another WR like Mims on our roster.

I'd love to see one completed deep shot to Robby or DJ Doesn't need to be a TD but an uncorked 40-45 yard chunk play to one of our top WRs would be great to see given its absence from our offense the last few years. Also interested to see if the run defense has shored up from last year.