Game Thread 49ers

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

The thing that strikes me is WHY? WHY were Holmgren/Heckert so sure that our offensive talent was fine? Was there too much need to invest in the defense, and of course you can't say "Well our offense is shit but we're worrying about the defense right now." They're going to say what they need to say on a PC level. We've "overhauled" the defense. It still needs some work, I say we're an OLB, DE, and a CB away from having a GOOD defense, a defense that will SCARE opposing teams. We have some good players on D but the whole defense is not at that level.

On offense, cutting Robo should say everything it needs to say: Oopsie! Maybe they learned their lesson (maybe they didn't) about stagnating on our 'offensive talent' We need WR's we need OL, we need work done on the offense for it to get better because it's clearly not getting better on progression alone?

I think some of that comes from what was available in the draft and free agency. Once Atlanta offered us the deal too good to be true, the best WR was gone. So they decided to go mostly defense again and just take Little. and I think yes, there were so many needs on so many levels that they took defense first because they felt that Shumur could make more with less on the offensive side of the ball. IS that a lesson they needed to learn? Not really. It's just the decision they made at the time. And while this may sound contradictory to things I am saying in the offensive game plan thread. But yes, we need more time for this offense to gel. But Shumur also needs to get better at gameplanning and playcalling. and we need more playmakers. And as the other thread shows. only one of those three things can we debate as Browns fans right now. We can't debate time, it's linear, it's there. We can't debate more playmakers, we aren't going to get anymore this year. We can debate Shumurs role and how he needs to improve.

[Greythan]

EE, good post. I'd add FS to your list of defensive needs in terms of trying to develop an elite defense.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Without throwing Shurmur unde the bus, Master's POV mirrors my own. I don't want to be too hasty to judge Shumur, as the bigger picture will be told once the season's over. BUT that being said, I've said it previously, Shurmur just isn't inspiring much confidence in this team, or this team's offense. Given his major selling point was "offense, offense, QB Guru for McCoy, offense" we've seen very little of any of that.

Since my post has kind of gone off on a tangent (that I am going to share in the offensive thread) I just want to state this. Shurmur as an offensive minded head coach, should be able to get the most out of his guys. He hasn't really been doing that.

[King of Kings]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

The thing that strikes me is WHY? WHY were Holmgren/Heckert so sure that our offensive talent was fine?

Ego and delusions of grandeur.

[Masters]

I don't think MH/TH actually thought the offensive talent was fine. I think they believed it was serviceable until they could upgrade it next.