49ers at Browns

[Niner Outlaw]

Well, we are traveling to Cleveland to play the Browns in the early game this Sunday. Niners were favored by 4, but that line has moved to 6.5. With the Niners coming off the high of beating Dallas in a nationally televised game and the Browns coming off a bye, this is a classic trap game. The Browns cannot be taken lightly.

The Brownies are currently #1 in total defense (2nd in points allowed, 1st in yards allowed). They also lead the NFL in QB knockdowns and pressure %.
--It's crazy that we just played Dallas, who was, at that time, the #1 defense in the NFL. It's like we were just here! STill, the BRwons are #1 against the pass, top 5 against the run, and #1 on 3rd downs, so the Niner offense will have their work cut out for them.
--Some will point out that the Browns have only faced a beaten up Burrow and Cincy, the Steelers, the Titans, and the Ravens. None are known for their prolific offense. Still, they held the Titans to less than 100yds of offense. They literally couldn't move the ball.

Garrett has been scary good this season. He has 5.5 sacks and a forced fumble this year. The Browns have 3 different players who have 5 TFL. That is a very aggressive defense.

On offense, the Niners are sporting a top 5 ranking. I'd expect the Niners to focus on the running game, short throws and screens. We'll have to play protection against Garrett much like we did against Parsons--focus our blocking on him so he has to face 2 blockers on just about every passing down.

On defense, the Niners are #1 in points allowed and #3 in yards allowed. That makes the Niners #2 in overall defense, right behind the Browns.
--We don't know who the Browns QB will be. Watson didn't play last week and hasn't practiced at all this week due to a shoulder issue.
--Stefanski announced that PJ Walker will start if Watson can't go--it looks like Cleveland is preparing to go without Watson. Naturally, that helps the Niners b/c Walker isn't nearly the same QB as Watson, although Watson hasn't shown much this season (and the Niners have lost to Colt McCoy's cardinals!).

The Browns offense is rather anemic. They're 23rd in points and 21st in yards gained. And they're 30th on 3rd downs and have given up 16 total sacks on the season. The Niner defense should have a relatively easy time of holding down the Browns offense, but we've said that before haven't we? With Chubb injured, the Niners will face Jerome Ford at RB. The Browns leading receiver is A.Cooper, with 18 catches for 259yds and 1 TD and their TE Njoku has 16 catches for 138yds. Cleveland is 5th in rushing yards, so their offense will be all about the ground game and the play action passing game. If the Niners can stop the run, they'll stop the entire BRowns offense.

I think the Niner defense will have to take the lead in this one as we might be conservative on offense.

Well, what do we think?

 

[Niner Outlaw]

Read somewhere that Kyle is 0-8 against the Browns DC Schwartz and has never scored more than 20 points. That's not a good sign.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

heard on cowturd,s show today that watson may sit this one out.

 

[Niner Outlaw]

heard on cowturd,s show today that watson may sit this one out.

I read that if he can't go, the Browns will go with PJ Walker at QB instead of DTR, their rookie who played last week.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

I read that if he can't go, the Browns will go with PJ Walker at QB instead of DTR, their rookie who played last week.

with either player,it,s a 49er cake walk all the way.browns gave,nt got a thing that would worry the 49ers.

 

[deep9er]

Well, we are traveling to Cleveland to play the Browns in the early game this Sunday. Niners were favored by 4, but that line has moved to 6.5. With the Niners coming off the high of beating Dallas in a nationally televised game and the Browns coming off a bye, this is a classic trap game. The Browns cannot be taken lightly.

The Brownies are currently #1 in total defense (2nd in points allowed, 1st in yards allowed). They also lead the NFL in QB knockdowns and pressure %.
--It's crazy that we just played Dallas, who was, at that time, the #1 defense in the NFL. It's like we were just here! STill, the BRwons are #1 against the pass, top 5 against the run, and #1 on 3rd downs, so the Niner offense will have their work cut out for them.
--Some will point out that the Browns have only faced a beaten up Burrow and Cincy, the Steelers, the Titans, and the Ravens. None are known for their prolific offense. Still, they held the Titans to less than 100yds of offense. They literally couldn't move the ball.

Garrett has been scary good this season. He has 5.5 sacks and a forced fumble this year. The Browns have 3 different players who have 5 TFL. That is a very aggressive defense.

On offense, the Niners are sporting a top 5 ranking. I'd expect the Niners to focus on the running game, short throws and screens. We'll have to play protection against Garrett much like we did against Parsons--focus our blocking on him so he has to face 2 blockers on just about every passing down.

On defense, the Niners are #1 in points allowed and #3 in yards allowed. That makes the Niners #2 in overall defense, right behind the Browns.
--We don't know who the Browns QB will be. Watson didn't play last week and hasn't practiced at all this week due to a shoulder issue.
--Stefanski announced that PJ Walker will start if Watson can't go--it looks like Cleveland is preparing to go without Watson. Naturally, that helps the Niners b/c Walker isn't nearly the same QB as Watson, although Watson hasn't shown much this season (and the Niners have lost to Colt McCoy's cardinals!).

The Browns offense is rather anemic. They're 23rd in points and 21st in yards gained. And they're 30th on 3rd downs and have given up 16 total sacks on the season. The Niner defense should have a relatively easy time of holding down the Browns offense, but we've said that before haven't we? With Chubb injured, the Niners will face Jerome Ford at RB. The Browns leading receiver is A.Cooper, with 18 catches for 259yds and 1 TD and their TE Njoku has 16 catches for 138yds. Cleveland is 5th in rushing yards, so their offense will be all about the ground game and the play action passing game. If the Niners can stop the run, they'll stop the entire BRowns offense.

I think the Niner defense will have to take the lead in this one as we might be conservative on offense.

Well, what do we think?

Yes, the classic trap game.

It could very well be a close game, coming down to a field goal? But if its a close win that's ok, no team plays at a high level every game. Special Teams cannot make mistakes.

BTW - Nobody wants to lose but IF we do, rather lose to an AFC team than NFC.

 

[deep9er]

with either player,it,s a 49er cake walk all the way.browns gave,nt got a thing that would worry the 49ers.

The 49ers could suffer a bad game and lose it themselves? No team is "perfect" all the time, so it can happen. The odds are low but this why there are 'trap games' all over the league.

A bad game starts with turnovers and then goes on to penalties. Miscommunication on defense is another mistake, allowing explosive plays. Miscommunication on pass blocking is another mistake, creating the potential for bad things.

Main thing is to protect Purdy against Garret and the rush. It is ok if Purdy throws it away early, just don't take a big hit.

 

[Niner Outlaw]

Watson will not play according to reports. So PJ Walker will be the Browns QB on Sunday with the rookie, DTR, backing him up.

I thought it was an interesting nugget that the Niners brought in a punter for workout. Nothing wrong with Wishnowsky, but the punter they brought in was left-footed and so is the Browns punter. They brought the guy in so RayRay could get some practice fielding punts from a left footer.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

another sf blowout like i previous said.arnold may get playing time.

 

[Niner Outlaw]

another sf blowout like i previous said.arnold may get playing time.

I hope you're right as to the win, but who is the arnold you're referring to?

 

[redskinsfan1963]

I hope you're right as to the win, but who is the arnold you're referring to?

the qb,i think it,s sam arnold.

 

[Niner Outlaw]

the qb,i think it,s sam arnold.

Oh, you mean Sam Darnold. The niner's backup QB. Got it! And yea, I hope the Niners are so far ahead that he gets PT.

 

[deep9er]

another sf blowout like i previous said.arnold may get playing time.

Could be but weather might be a factor.

 

[Groo]

Hopefully it's the proverbial kick in the pants loss an over confident team needs.
At least it came from a non conference opponent

 

[deep9er]

Hopefully it's the proverbial kick in the pants loss an over confident team needs.
At least it came from a non conference opponent

Yep, no one wants to lose but losing to the Browns is better than losing to a West team...............or the Cowboys.

Yes, it just might be the humbling experience this team needed. I wouldn't say they're "peaking" but did seem as though the first 5 weren't challenging enough.

No team plays particularly well in poor weather conditions, but can't help think this style of offense is particularly bad? This offense predicates on open space and allowing our players to 'go wide', so wet fields really affects them. Bad weather forces us to use inside runs whereas our O-line is a little more geared to being mobile. We like to think our run game is good, but not if it has to leans on inside runs.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

purdy may have played bad,but he drove the 49ers down to kick the winning fg,the guy just missed it.he had to do it without his running back and a favorite wr too.the 49ers were due a loss,i jut never thought the browns would hand them the 1st one this season.

 

[Niner Outlaw]

Honestly, we were due for a loss. And ugly game. Well we got it. I thought this is how the Dallas game would go, so I’m glad it happened against the Browns rather than Dallas.

The Niners didn’t deserve to win the game. They played like shit in all 3 phases. The offense couldn’t move the ball--only 215yds of offense--the defense couldn’t get stops, and the ST missed 2 FGs, including the game winner. It was a complete team failure.
--This loss reminds me of the loss to the Bears last season in the monsoon game and The Denver loss where Jimmy stepped out of the endzone.
--The Niners won the turnover battle, but lost the game. That is statistically very rare.
--I said before the game that this was a classic trap game. Road game in rainy weather against a team with the #1 defense, #1 pass defense, and #1 3rd down defense. All after a nationally televised huge win over Dallas. We fell right into the trap.

Purdy finally had a bad game. It was past due to happen. He was 12 of 27 with 1 TD and 1 INT. A career worst 55.3 passer rating. Easily his worst game.
--Purdy suffered from 4 dropped passes (3 by Aiyuk, including a 40yd bomb that hit him in both hands)
--Purdy was off even when he had open receivers, missing guys by a few feet
--he had an ugly intentional grounding penalty as well
--as bad as Purdy played all day, when it mattered, he drove the team down for a chance to win the game with a 41yd FG that the rookie kicker missed. That’s not on Purdy.
--the wet ball seemed to effect Purdy quite a bit. The ball came out of his hand funny and he even had a fumble where the ball just slipped out of his hand on a pass attempt that he just barely recovered.
--it’ll be interesting to see how/if? Purdy bounces back after this game. One thing Purdy does well is learn from his mistakes. So we have to hope that he learns a LOT from this game.

CMC had 11 carries and 43yds. And 3 catches for 9yds and a TD. He left with an injury that we’ll have to see how it turns out.
--Yet again CMC was the subject of multiple personal fouls early in the game. These are looking more and more deliberate.
--Mason was the first RB to come in to spell CMC. That says Mason has moved up the depth chart ahead of Mitchell. Mason had 5 carries for 27yds and a TD. He needs more touches. He is a great bowling ball complement to CMC’s more slashing running style.

Deebo needs to mind his own business. He had 2 carries for 11yds and no catches. The pregame fracas where Deebo was obviously trying to start shit is just poor sportsmanship and bad attitude. And it was just karma that he left the game with an injury. Don’t tempt the football gods.
--BA had 76yds, but he only caught 4 of the 10 balls that went his way and he cleanly dropped 3 passes that hit him in both hands
--Jennings was very good in blocking and had only 2 catches for 26yds and 2 first downs. He’s not called “First and Juan” for nothing.
--RayRay had 1 catch for 4yds, but he had 2 carries for 23.
--Not sure why Kittle wasn’t a bigger part of the passing offense. My money says it was b/c he was kept in to block more in this game, but the Browns weakness was at LB in coverage and we never exploited it.

Myles Garrett didn’t kill us in this game, but the rest of the Bears DLine did. 3 sacks and consistent pressure was given up much of the day.
--For most of the day, Aaron Banks got his ass kicked by Tomlinson. Just think of how badly that would’ve turned out against the Eagles’ DTs.
--TW had an overall good day, but he suffered an injured ankle. That bears watching.
--Banks, Burford, and TW all had penalties on the day
--Browns averaged 4.7ypc on the ground, so the DLine didn’t cover themselves with glory

Browns backup QB PJ Walker threw 34 attempts, 18 completions and 2INTs and he was sacked twice, for a passer rating of 45.2. That should’ve been enough for a win. But it wasn’t.
--the defense gave up 160yds rushing and lost the TOP by more than 6 minutes
--they averaged 4.7ypc on the ground. Ford had 84yds on 17 carries for 4.9 by himself! The Eagles running game would eat us alive!

Randy Gregory made his debut and had a sack and 2 TFL and 3 Qb hits. All in just 26 snaps. Pretty good for game 1. We can expect to see his workload increase in the coming weeks.
--Bosa got a sack, 3 tackles, a TFL, a pass batted down and 3 Qb hits, but really wasn’t much of a factor in the game, which sadly has been the case for much of the season. Is Bosa not as good b/c he finally got paid?
--Hargrave had 5 solo tackles, including 1 tackle for no gain
--Ferrell had 2 solo tackles and a TFL

Burks led the LBs with 8 total tackles (4 solo)
--Warner got 7 tackles, an INT, and a pbu and was pretty good in coverage.
--DFF had 3 tackles and a TFL
--But the LB corps clearly missed Greeenlaw, particularly against the run.

The secondary gave up a passer rating of 45.2. That should’ve been easily good enough.
--Demo picked off a pass and got he ball back to the Cleveland 8. Where Mason scored shortly thereafter.
--BUT, the secondary gave up 108yds to Cooper and committed 2 critical (and completely BS) penalties on the Browns final drive.

Moody missed the game winning 41yrd FG. Completely unacceptable. That is a kick that the rookie MUST make if he is to stick around in the NFL.
--A rookie PK will cost you at least 1 game. Let’s hope this was it. B/c if Moody misses a 2nd or 3rd chip shot like this, we should be bringing in other kickers for competition
--Somewhere Robbie Gould, an unsigned FA, is chuckling

I put a lot of this loss on coaching.
--Schwartz had Kyler’s number. He knew the Niners tendencies and he caught the team on an off night in bad weather.
--Then Kyle had some questionable play-calling. We got the ball with 3:21 left in the game and a 1pt lead. Common sense says to run the ball and make the Browns use their TOs. Mason was running at 5.4ypc. Kyle called 3 straight pass plays and went 3 and out. Then when we got the ball back with 1;40 to go, we drove to the 23 with 30 seconds left. Instead of spiking the ball and running one more play get a few more yards and then using our final TO to set up the FG, we let the clock run down and tried the FG from the 23. Questionable at best.
--Niners had 12 accepted penalties for 105yds! Yes, 2 of those penalties came on the Browns’s game winning drive and replays showed that they were both bullshit calls, with one of them coming on 4th down and rather than ending the game, it gave Cleveland a new set of downs. It’ll be interesting to see if the league admits that the calls were bad (they were).

Honestly, if you’d told me that we’d be 5-1 at the 6 game mark with a huge win over Dallas, I’d be thrilled. And I really am.
--I’m glad they got this loss out of their system this early. They need to be reminded that they CAN lose to a bad team if they play poorly. The only real silver linings of the game were that the Eagles also lost and so did the Seahawks. So the Niners remain in the driver’s seat for NFC HFA and the NFCW. Though, with the way they played against the Browns, there is no way we'll beat the Eagles.

Next up is a road trip to Minnesota. The Vikings will be without Jefferson at WR, but the Browns were without their star RB, pro bowl OG, and starting QB, and it didn’t matter. So, the Niners better come out with their hair on fire and play like they mean it if they want a win against the Vikings.

 

[Niner Outlaw]

Think Kittle gets fined for this shirt?

 

[Caliskinsfan]

 

[Niner Outlaw]

A good breakdown of what all went wrong and just how close we were...