thebandit27

Huh, who would've thought that utilizing the team's best pass rusher, Edmunds, would improve the pass rush?

There are parts of his game that need clear improvement; your analysis is among the worst assessments of anything I've ever seen. No offense

Yes, fragile is how I would describe the QB with the most 4th quarter comebacks in the league this season...if I were a fool

Solid vino there.

I get the Perry thing, but Stanford is basically the only backup LB on the roster...and he's actually pretty solid. There were times last season in which he outplayed Edmunds.

Foster catches a 60+ yard TD... ...that gets called back for holding

Everything with Allen comes down to the game slowing down for him. Always has. When folks criticized his accuracy at Wyoming, what they were really seeing is him reacting late and rushing throws, which sent them sailing/diving. He's clearly made strides, as evidenced by his leading the league in comp % under 20 yards through 8 weeks...but he's got a ways to go yet. As for his deep ball, he's got to stop trying so hard to be "touchy"; just rip it in there. QBs develop in different ways. Some guys come into the league "ready" a la Dak and Andrew Luck. That's not Josh. Some guys have a base level and are a "light comes on" kind of guy like Goff or Brees, where they make a meteoric jump early on. That may be Josh, but my guy tells me no. Then there's the guy that develops in "levels". He's got a lot to figure out, so it takes longer. He goes from super raw to survival, from survival to game management, from game management to competent, etc. Some of these guys (like Fitz or Tannehill) never get beyond a certain level. Some, like McNabb and Stafford, progress from competent to franchise QB. We've seen that Allen can hit new levels. Some might say he's a game manager, others might call him competent, and folks like myself will say he's probably in the process of going from game manager to competent. What's truly exciting about Allen is what he will become if what we're seeing is the development, and if he does in fact have another 1 or two levels left to hit.

Eliminating the bye for the #2 seed will probably result in a lot more #1 seeds making the Super Bowl. Regardless, here's what I would do: Division winners and WCs are decided same as today, and those are your 7 teams #1 seed gets bye and home field Seeding for the rest of the playoff field is decided by record.

Allen has work to do, let me get that out of the way first. Now I'll move on to this: Knox, like pretty much every other skill position player on this team, makes absolutely no aggressive attempt for the football on 100% of his targets. Our guys simply let DBs beat them to the ball...a LOT. Knoc has let it happen multiple times, Brown does it at least once or twice per game. McKenzie too. They just wait for the ball. Attack it. Make a play. Help your QB. It won't fix everything, but it'll certainly make a difference on 2-3 key plays per game. If you become an expert at hitting the pause button, you can show a handful of "this guy is wide open" plays for every QB every game. Of course, you won't know the route combination, progression, or player keys that tell the QB where he "should" go with the ball, so it's kind of silly to over analyze.

Blackout policy has been gone for 2 years, hasn't it?

So the fact that you only show up to criticize the QB after a loss isn't, in fact, lost on you.

Nice of you to stop in. I've noticed that you've been active on the board after 3 specific games this season. I wonder if there's a contributing factor as to which games you decide to post about. Just thinking aloud. I'm sure there's no really, really obvious and agenda-driven pattern.

Joe should listen to Eric Wood. The reason that Allen was able to throw with anticipation on the final drive is that Buffalo was in a hurry-up and didn't afford Cleveland a chance to change their personnel or looks. That gave Allen easy pre-snap reads, and we've all seen how good he is under those circumstances. Then, of course, we decided to huddle on 3rd down without calling a timeout, and we saw how that went. A smart fan might wonder why the offense doesn't operate on a fast-paced basis more often after seeing how well the QB plays in such a scenario. At least until Allen hits his next level of development and the game slows down more for him.

Tyreek Hill would've caught up to the McKenzie deep throw

Actually his first deep shot to Foster was money. TD if Ward doesn't interfere.

Saying that he's the only practical option at TE is a FAR different statement than stating that he's a trusted pass catcher, which is what you said. He's the opposite of that--unreliable. He drops the ball. A lot. So neither Moss nor Rice would've caught the deep ball that Brown dropped against Norman last week? I disagree

He's caught 84% of his targets despite 92% of them being catchable. His drop rate is terrible, and yet you "trust" him? That, coupled with the phony stats you posted in the OP, makes me doubt just about everything you're saying here

You would trust Knox? To do what? His drop rate is 16.1%, which is atrocious. https://www.rotowire.com/football/player.php?id=13466 Are you purposely putting out misinformation here?

So basically the OP's stat is made up?

Only because Preston Williams is hurt. He abused Levi last time around.

More or less agree, but that ball was on the money. He'd have caught it and scored, and Ward knew it. Really smart play by him.

How much different are the game result and narrative if Denzel Ward doesn't interfere with Foster on the opening play? Because that was a TD he saved

There will be no excuse for a repeat performance in the 2020 draft. It's absolutely loaded at WR.

Strongly disagree that he's shown no improvement in those areas. There's a gigantic chasm between no improvement and some-improvement-but-not-there-yet.

Having taken some time to reflect, here's what I've got: Allen didn't have a great game, but my word, he was nowhere near as bad as some folks in here say. It's no wonder why some posters get accused of wanting to see the kid fail. He was mostly accurate with his intermediate throws, missed a few, had the usual half dozen dropped, but generally moves the offense. Shame that Denzel Ward made a really smart DPI foul on Foster early, because that would've been the deep throw TD folks have been asking for all year. My biggest beef is with the staff. For starters: the next time Daboll puts a player in position to maximize his personal talents will be the first. Why is our QB running a timing offense? Why is Cole Beasley running deep routes? Why are Andre Roberts and Dawson Knox continuing to get play time on 3rd downs when they consistently drop passes in critical moments? But mostly, there's nothing wrong with doing what works. Allen has been absolutely money on 3rd downs when working shallow crossers and flood concepts. Where were those yesterday? Why do we refuse to put him on the move in key conversion situations? Bad coaching. My other big beef continues to be a total lack of play making ability on offense. Does anyone honestly remember any pass catcher on this team making any type of play on a ball in the last 16 months? This team has a ways to go. Allen needs to be better, and I believe he'll get there, but it would sure be nice if the staff either attempted to work with his ability OR gave him a surplus of talent to work with so that he didn't have to be the hero. They've done neither. More concerning is that they seem to be just fine with it.