Week 17 - Jan 2 @ Cleveland

[Finnegans Wake]

Negatives, briefly:

*Defense was aggressive, and sometimes that didn't work.  Timmons and Woodley got penetration into the backfield but whiffed on tackles, allowing McCoy completions.  Gotta take your man down.  Pola gets excused for getting a hand on McCoy but missing the tackle on that gonzo hurdle at the GL.  Fucking insane timing, that.
*Seriously, Mendy, you're taking it out of bounds?  How about lowering the boom and punishing a defender instead?  Or fake like you're heading out, then zag it back at a 45 degree angle?  I like Mendy but that was a puss move, dude.
*I try to ignore the idiot announcers as much as possible, but they're talking about how Ben grew up in Findlay, OH but was a Niners fan (Montana), not a Browns or Bengals fan.  Next breath, announcer gushes that it's amazing how many great QBs hail from Western PA.  True, but: have we annexed Ohio?  I mean, does this beatdown mean Ohio has relinquished its sovereignty and is now part of the Commonwealth?  Dumbfuckery.  Reminds me of when the Pats played the Jets on MNF, and pregame you have the dildo Steve Young giving his opinion of what the Jets' liabilities would be.  So dumbass says he thinks the safeties for the Jets are, specifically Jim Leonard.  This is a Monday broadcast, and Leonard broke his fucking leg in Friday practice, so yes, Jim Leonard would be a liability... if he were playing.  Oddly, Rex Ryan chose not to play him.  Perhaps he senses that a guy with a broken fucking leg can't run effectively.  What insight!

[BleedGreen710]

A lot of you have already mentioned it, but if Bruce Arians calls games like that in the post-season, the sky is the limit for this offense.  Those quick strike passes have been missing all season.  Everyone here including myself has been clamoring for him to call more plays like those all season long.  Knowing what I know about BA, I'm going to temper my optimism about his play calling, but like I said... that is how are offense should be run.  Picture perfect, with the exception of the ground game...

[Preacherman0]

I try to ignore the idiot announcers as much as possible, but they're talking about how Ben grew up in Findlay, OH but was a Niners fan (Montana), not a Browns or Bengals fan.  Next breath, announcer gushes that it's amazing how many great QBs hail from Western PA.  True, but: have we annexed Ohio?  I mean, does this beatdown mean Ohio has relinquished its sovereignty and is now part of the Commonwealth?  Dumbfuckery.

I've decided that this is the problem:  They think they HAVE to talk.  Take a lesson from Pat Summerall, it's okay just to let the play happen and save your verbage for after the fact.  If they would just realize, "Hey, it's okay to have brief silence while you think about what you say or read your prompter," they might be okay.

BTW, Tory Holt is the absolute worst.  I have never heard anyone that bad on color commentary.

Picture perfect, with the exception of the ground game...

Yet, we still managed to rush for 100+.  Again, people keep talking about the deficiencies of the offense and they are plentiful.  But if
you reconfigurethe stats for what Big Ben might have done as opposed to CB, this may well be a top 10 offense.  We've won Super Bowls with worse.

[otismalibu]

Take a lesson from Pat Summerall, it's okay just to let the play happen and save your verbage for after the fact.

Pat was either drinking or pissing during those breaks.

[Preacherman0]

Pat was either drinking or pissing during those breaks.

Better to piss quietly than to piss from the mouth.

[aj_law]

At the time, I said that if they push the lead to 20+ to nothing, Cleveland will just give up.  Sure enough.  Might've even happened before that time, but I won't go there.

Another point I'd make is that this offense has been all over the map this year.  Game to game, drive to drive, the inconsistency is maddening.  At times, it looked like we couldn't move the ball on a squad of determined Girl Scouts.  At other times, it looked like the OL "got it" and we could drive on any defense any time.  So much of that comes down to my favorite goats, the OL and OC, but there are other factors. 

I know it was the Clowns, but it was nice to see a full, complete game from this squad.  Start to finish.  60 minutes.  Couldn't come at a better time.  Nice playoff primer.

[msdmnr2002]

BTW, Tory Holt is the absolute worst.  I have never heard anyone that bad on color commentary.

I haven't heard him, or at least didn't know it if I did.  But no one on the planet can be worse than Theismann.