Dawghouse Blog

September 2006 - Posts

• Notes for a (Black and) Gray Week

  I didn't have time to say anything about the loss to the Ravens. Here are some belated thoughts. Early on it seemed like the Ravens defense was going to really eat up our offense. The fact that Frye & Co. countered and were able to put up some points was great. It seemed like the Browns matched the Ravens intensity in the passing game. Hopefully that is a promising sign for the remainder of the season. The Ravens d still dominated in the trenches though. The Browns couldn't run the ball, and not having Droughns didn't seem like a factor in that. The inability to run the ball is a killer for this season. And a perennial problem. Winslow is the man. He brings it on Sunday and you have to respect that. Without Frye's ability to move in the pocket, the Browns lose this game handily. But Frye's inability to throw accurately from the pocket is a real concern. The ball rarely gets to the receiver in a good spot, making catches harder and limiting the ability for guys to gain yards after the catch. The defense played well. I don't even have a gripe about the Raven's game-winning drive. For playing without two corners, the defensive backs played pretty well. It's just that pretty well wasn't good enough to keep the Ravens from picking up barely enough yardage for a field goal try. McNair is a huge upgrade for the Ravens. And he looks old. Nice to see Simon Fraser make such an impact. McGinest sure makes a difference. He put to rest doubts. Now if only he can put to rest that calf injury. Edwards had another big statistical game. He's put up monster stats despite some obvious struggles. If he polishes his game we will have a real force on the team. And Edwards and Winslow, at times, really looked threatening on the field together. The Browns are a long way off overall, but those two guys are more dangerous than any player on half the teams in the NFL. The Browns scored twice and both times the defense stopped the Ravens' ensuring drives. That was key, and the first time that happened this season. The offense's ability to still pick up a couple first downs before punting was what really kept the Browns in the lead for most of the afternoon. It's one thing to score some points. It's almost as good to move the ball and gain field position even on "failed" drives. Still, this was a loss. I don't think this radically changes the fortunes for this team in '06, but it gives the team a chance to stay on a positive track as far as developing Frye and getting Winslow and Edwards to the point they are legit NFL stars. Side note: I didn't watch the first half. Instead, I listened to it on the radio while going for a run. I wasn't expecting much, and would have preferred to have watched the game if I had enough free time on the weekend. Anyway... listening on the radio was a pleasant suprise. Jim Donovan contiues to be a very good play-by-play man. Dieken is klunky, but he's one of our own and that's cool. And a better-than-expected performance by the team was cool... at least until I got home to see the end of the game. Can't ask for everything. Regarding the radio broadcast -- the inane cross-promotion with the Ohio Lottery has got to stop. Besides being distracting to the game, it's a woefully ineffective marketing strategy. What is the point of announcing that lottery pitchman Leslie Nielson is in the broadcast booth, yet not actually speaking with him? It adds nothing to the broadcast (though I suppose it could take _away_ from the broadcast if Nielsen chimed in with irrelevant commentary). It is completely out of place. It's not even very clear what Nielsen has to do with the Ohio Lottery, and it's definitely a stretch to think the lottery has anything to do with the football game going on. This is just a waste of time and money. And that money is kind of tax payer money since state government has an inherant interest in the lottery marketing itself effectively and generating income. Ah well. What else is new, right? No preview vs. the Raiders. Frankly, I find it hard to care much about this game. The Brown had better get their first victory. But the Raiders are a pathetic franchise at the moment and it's damn near impossible to look forward to playing them. While the Browns have little to lose in 2006, they have little to gain in this game vs. the Raiders. I anyone wants to put me on IR and let me hang out in San Diego all winter, let me know. I could not care less about TO either. The guy is screw-loose crazy. What else is new? I doubt he tried to kill himself and the whole thing seems like a self-feeding controversy. Why does anyone give a crap? I'm happy that whole sideshow is in the NFC. Remember when Browns fans everywhere wanted Robert Gallery and we wound up with Winslow instead? Posted Sep 28 2006, 04:31 PM by MikeB with no comments Filed under: Browns

• Vs. Ravens - Best Case Scenario

  You'd be stupid not to be preparing for the worst this Sunday. The Browns have looked bad so far, and now the injury list is lengthy. Baltimore is healthy and has demolished two suspect opponents. I'd say the Browns clearly fall into the "suspect opponent" category. Of course, I would love nothing more than for the Browns to deflate the Ravens just as the entire country seems to be jumping on their bandwagon. A week ago I thought the Browns would fall to the Bengals but still have a good shot at upsetting the Ravens. I don't think that anymore. There's too much going wrong for the Browns and too much going right for the Ravens. But I'm still hoping for the best... So here is my BEST CASE SCENARIO. Frye comes out looking reasonably sharp. That is, he throws the ball where receivers can catch it and stand a chance of running down the field. The Browns target Edwards and Winslow down the field. Run fly patterns and fades to Edwards. Even if he doesn't catch the balls it ought to force the Ravens safeties to help out. And frequently send Winslow up the middle of the field. You still have to have Winslow run short routes most of the time, but I'd target the deeper range routes often enough to keep the Ravens honest. Move the pocket. Frye responds well on the move so I'd move him around early in the game to get him sharp. It's okay if he has to throw the ball away at first. Once Frye sees how the Ravens will defend that kind of play he can figure out how to beat it. you have to put Frye in position to make some plays on instinct. It's our biggest potential advantage this game. Use playaction early and make quick passes off the playfake. We have to do something to keep the opposing linebackers on their heels just a bit. On some passing plays, change the blocking schemes so we get an o-lineman or two on the ravens LBs. Even if that means potentially letting the Ravens DL get penetration, I think Frye can evade those guys much more effectively than fending off a charging Ray Lewis. In fact, I'd say targeting Ray Lewis and bowling him over once or twice early in the game would loosen things up quite well. Continue to play a lot of zone coverage. There's really no other choice, at least early in the game. If we are in a zone, consider not putting Ralph Brown in the nickel slot. He might play better on the outside. At least he shouldn't fall down as much. If we play any man, put Leigh Bodden on Derrick Mason because he's their best route runner. Dress Willie McGinest. Heck, I'd consider telling him he's gotta play no matter what. I get a feeling something strange is going on here. Let one linebacker be the pass rusher on any given play, and give him the freedom to line up anywhere he wants. I know it sounds kind of stupid, but I think it would be more effective than whatever else we've been doing so far. Browns get a modest early lead, not enough to be conservative but enough to play with confidence. Along the way we find out that we don't suck as bad as we fear. And we get to see Ray Lewis lose his helmet on a Kellen Winslow hit, Braylon Edwards outleap Chris McAllister, and Charlie Frye cooly evade the rush to hit guys running 10 yard crossing routes. Browns win 23-17. I can't think of much else. It's Friday. Time to go home and chill. One other thing... Browns fans are #1 -- according to www.bizjournals.com. I guess that is cool. But frankly the reason Browns fans rank so highly in these types of surveys is because the team sucks. It's not necessarily an award you want to receive. Posted Sep 22 2006, 04:33 PM by MikeB with no comments Filed under: Browns

• BALCO Reporters Headed to Jail, Ergo Dire Consequences for Our Nation

  The guys who wrote about the BALCO investigation and put out that book on Barry Bonds could be <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2597854">heading to jail.</a> The reason? They are refusing to comply with a grand jury subpeona and identify who illegally leaked testimony. But what do these guys have to say about it? "I'm supposed to keep my promises when people help me and take me at their word," Williams said in court. ...Um, yeah... just a thought, but maybe you aren't supposed to make deals with people to illegally leak grand jury testimony? And if you do get ahold of grand jury testimony, maybe you shouldn't publish regular newspaper columns and a massively-hyped book about that leaked testimony? "I do despair for our country if we go very far down this road, because no one will talk to reporters." Give me a break. You mean people might consider if leaking something to a reporter is illegal or not? You mean people might realize that, sure, a reporter will keep a secret, but that grand juries, couirt orders, etc. trump such agreements? "It's a tragedy that the government seeks to put reporters in jail for doing their job," said Bronstein. !!! I think this might be the crux of the problem hear. And why Mr. Bronstein is going to jail. YOUR JOB DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO BREAK THE LAW. Your job is not to conspire with people to publish information that has been illegally divulvged to you. And, for chrissakes, if you do it anyway even though you damn well know it is illegal, please spare us all the dire warnings that the country is going to hell in a handbasket because you don't respect a grand jury. What is galling about these dudes is the fact that they hold their status as reporters above the status of the legal institutions that enforce law and order. Would they not despair much more for the country if no one would talk to a grand jury? Isn't that just a bit more important? If they want to start going off about how this is a matter of principle, that somehow reporters should be excluded from following the specific rules of the American judicial system, then I expect they would be prepared to tell us why their reporting is, in principle, more important than a grand jury's investigation. At the heart of it these guys think it's more important for the public to know various details about BALCO, Bonds, etc. than it is for U.S. Attorney's to be able to do their job successfully. That seems rather unlikely to be a trade-off worth making.   Posted Sep 21 2006, 11:53 PM by MikeB with 2 comment(s) Filed under: General

• Winslow

  Winslow is getting a lot of attention for talking yesterday. While a part of me is a little cautious with Kellen because he can still rub me the wrong way, I don't really see what the story is here. Winslow didn't say anything particularly suprising in his assessment of his own playing time, and he didn't strike me as very cocky in saying he needed to be on the field. Heck, I used to feel the same way back in my eighth-grade flag football days. So  I'm in Winslow's corner on this one, except... I'm not comfortable with the implicit challenge to the coaches. Winslow intimated that things are going to change. That's either information that ought to be mentioend by Crennel, or it's Winslow's way of putting pressure on Carthon and Crennel. Depending on what else is going on out of earshot of the press, Winslow could be walking a dangerous line. That's something we just aren't in a position to know right now. All that said, after a pathetic effort against the Bengals, it was refreshing (yeah, that's the word) to see a Browns player as upset as fans. Since 1999 I've routinely been bothered by players not seeming to care, which is franly an insult to the many thousands of fans who drop money on the team. We might not be able to tell if Winslow is pushing things too far or not. But we can certainly tell that he cares about the performance on the field. And as long as this is his motivation, I'm with him. UPDATE: Even PFT has changed it's initially overwhelmingly negative comments on this incident. Got to PFT.com to read it.... but here's the whole post because PFT offers no way to link directly to a particular post. REVOLT COMING IN CLEVELAND? We'll admit that this story isn't the result of any scientific research on our behalf (as if anything we ever do is "scientific"). However, we firmly believe based upon the flood of e-mails we've received over the past few days that folks in Cleveland are inching dangerously close to storming Browns headquarters and seizing control of the team. We've ripped players in the past for airing out a team's dirty brown towels to the media, but we have never, ever received anything like the mountain of messages unequivocally supporting -- and thanking -- tight end Kellen Winslow for saying what the fans firmly believe needs to be said. Though, on the surface, Winslow was stupid to sound off on the struggles of the team's offense and his role in it, the hidden genius of his tactic is that he is now the most beloved Brown since Bernie Kosar. And we strongly suggest that the organization pay close attention to this one. A mutiny is coming unless changes are made. The primary target of the fans' venom is offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon, but it remains to be seen whether he gets the shoe. After all, it was head coach Romeo Crennel who saw fit to hire Carthon, and Crennel is smart enough to know that dumping Mo is an implicit indictment of the decision to give him the job. But if the offensive output doesn't improve, and if Carthon doesn't get crap-canned, the wrath will be re-directed at Crennel. Ultimately, however, we think the fans need to scrutinize ownership. Chronically bad organizations (e.g., the Lions, the Cardinals, the Saints, and until lately the Bengals) have bad owners. The Browns generally have been terrible since returning to the league in 1999. Though the problems can be laid at the feet of a string of bungling execs from Dwight Clark to Carmen Policy to Butch Davis to John Collins, someone had to decide that it was a good idea to hire them, and the buck goes no higher than the owner. And, frankly, Randy Lerner is a big step backward, by all appearances, from his father, Al. After Roger Goodell was elected to become the new Commissioner, Policy praised Goodell for unflinchingly telling Al Lerner in 1998 that in order to land the reconstituted Browns franchise he had to be willing to pay more than anyone else. Maybe if the league had focused less on further lining the owners' pockets and more on ensuring that the ownership group was in the best position of the various candidates to put a successful product on the field, the fans in Cleveland wouldn't be ready to revolt. So we can't believe we're saying this, but keep it up, K2. Like Maximus in Gladiator, you've won over the mob -- and that might be enough to eventually take down Commodus. Posted Sep 19 2006, 09:30 AM by MikeB with 8 comment(s) Filed under: Browns

• O-2: Scary

  It looked like a number of Browns players gave less than a full effort on Sunday in an ugly, ugly, ugly loss to the Bengals. And we are clearly looking at another year where the Browns are FLAT OUT BAD. I really hate to say it, but we are two weeks into the new season and the games are not "must see tv." It's a sad state of affairs. The Bengals are a much better team than the Browns. Their offensive line is better all around. Their defensive line is better all around. Their veteran defensive backs are very solid. Bryan Simmons is at another level than Andre Davis at middle linebacker. They've got an All-Pro QB. They've got a Pro-Bowl caliber rurunning back. They've got a Pro-Bowl caliber wide out. And they've got several other very dangerous WRs. The Browns have none of those things. So it's no suprise the Browns lost by a wide margin. What is troubling is how they lost. The Browns' gameplan was shredded almost as soon as the game started. The defense often seemed helpless to stop the Bengals offense. And our offense showed almost no intensity. As bad as the loss to New Orleans felt, this one feels worse because the Browns didn't belong on the same field. Scary. I give some credit to our defense. They played hard, even while they got used. But at least somewhere in there the defense managed to stifle the Bengals at times. They generated some sacks. They made some big hits. The front seven got outplayed but at least they appeared to play aggressively. The defensive backfield got shredded. Plamer rackes up 350+ yards, and I bet half of that came at Ralph Brown's expense. Much of the rest were passes to wide open receivers sprinting through very soft spots in whatever zone the the Browns were playing. But I'm also alarmed by the defense. My perception was that the Browns front seven just could not consistently control the line, and if that's the case we all ought to be very worried. We're playing a 3-4 but it looks like our linemen are playing a one gap system. And our linebackers were either misreading a lot of plays or were not able to get free enough to make stops. Wimbley looked good as a pass rusher, but I suspect he made his share of mistakes in other area. Matt Stewart seemed to be the most consistently in the right place. And that's not the guy the Browns are counting on to be the team's best linebacker. Scary. The offense, on the other hand, is getting killed by a number of things. Mainly, the Bengals dropped back in coverage, let their d-line win the battle in the trenches, and then just cleaned up the trash. The Browns never looked good running the ball, though at least they stuck with the ground game well into the second half. And Frye and/or the receivers couldn't do anything through the air. Everyone will point to Frye and his arm strength; I'm more concerned about a lack of accuracy -- rarely are balls thrown to the right spot and receivers are forced to make a lot of tough catches. And our receivers are unable to do that more times than not. I was also concerned by how often the Bengals successfully anticipated the snap. That has got to change. One guy who couldn't make any tough catches was Braylon Edwards. yeah, he had a lot of yards. But he left almost as many on the field, and certainly left 4-5 first downs out there. Edwards did have to make touch catches. But I wasn't alarmed that he didn't come up with the ball as much as his effort -- they guy just did not go for the ball very hard. He waited for the ball to come into his arms, and you can't do that in the NFL. Edwards is supposed to be our rising #1 guy, the WR who will fight for the ball and act like he OWNS the damn thing. He looked very much the opposite of that Sunday as he made multiple lazy attempts at securing imperfectly thrown balls. After his drop in Week 1 that allowed a game-sealing INT, Sunday's performance was a giant red flag for Edwards. We can only pray that his very poor body language is the result of comng back too soon from injury. Scary. Winslow seemed to not be in the gameplan at all. After showing himself to be the best offensive weapon on the team in week one, Winslow instead was off the field on countless third downs. And in a game where the Bengals played relatively soft coverage, Frye/Carthon inexplicably failed to find Winslow. When he did make a grab he looked pretty good. And when balls were poorly thrown he still went for them. The rest of the team... no shows. Northcutt caught a few balls and did his thing, but he's not going to do much against the types of schemes the Bengals were running. No other WR made plays of note. The offensive line didn't give up a sack. They also couldn't open up much on the ground. While it's an improvement from Week 1, they still looked below average. Overall, the offensive failure appears to rest on the shoulders of Carthon, the o-line, and Frye in that order. Maybe Frye should be more culpable. But everyone knows he's still green and the Browns expect to be able to run the ball and they couldn't. If the Browns played better, if they had some success on the ground and Frye and the WRs hit on 10% more of the passing plays, the Browns still lose this game. But we'd feel a whole heck of a lot better in the process. Instead, it's frightening to think of what might lay ahead. I'd love to hear what the discussions in Berea sound like today. Because now it is time to regroup and maybe even redefine what this season is about. The best I can say is that, hopefully, the rest of the season will be unpredicatble, because that would indicate there are some successes to go along with the very, very low-lows like this game. Posted Sep 18 2006, 05:27 PM by MikeB with no comments Filed under: Browns

• Top 5 most dissappointing things about the Saints loss.

  We were beat in the trenches. This was most obvious along the offensive line, and I was particularly disturbed by the failure to get the ground game going. This has been and continues to be the most glaring and destructive failure of the Cleveland Browns. Things were also suspect on the other side of the ball. For much of the game it did not seem like our d-line was able to shield blockers from our linebackers. Even Ted Washington got pushed around a little too frequently, though he did make some plays when it mattered around the goalline. Carthon. Everybody is harping on Carton, and I've been reluctant to point the finger too much in his direction. But the abandonment of the running game in the second-half was embarassing. There were only 4 "real" inside running plays in the second half. This despite it being a close, one or two-score game. This despite the fact that the Browns have a 1200-yard rusher and a very capable fullback. This despite the fact it was only Frye's 7th game as a starter and he can't (quite) win games on his own. This despite the fact the Saints were teeing up on the pass rush. This despite the fact that everyone knows that getting a decent number of rushing attempts is imperative. I would rather lose the game by a few scores with 25-30 rushing attempts than lose the way we did on Sunday. Jurevicius getting hurt. Maybe he won't be out for too long, if we're lucky. But Frye needed him in the second half. And every game he is now out, he'll be missed. No pass rush, for most of the game anyway. This is partly excusable because the Browns were justifiably concerned with covering Reggie Bush. But it sure would have been nice to see a little pressure from time to time. It's reasonable to expect a couple sacks even if only 3 or 4 guys rush on every play. Braylon Edwards dropping a ball during the two minute drill, resulting in a game-sealing interception for the Saints. I know a lot of people are thinking it was just one play, but big-time players don't drop that ball. Braylon may grow into one, but he's not a big-time player right now. Posted Sep 14 2006, 05:00 PM by MikeB with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Browns

• Week 1 Not-Crappy Rankings

  1 Pittsburgh - Will be hard to beat.  2 Chicago - Offense is there.  3 Jacksonville - Solid all-round, though lost Heyward for season.  4 Cincinnati - Rusty in win.  5 Philadelphia - A contender. 6 Indianapolis - Not sold, but a playoff lock.  7 Seattle - Rough start, but victorious.  8 New England - Ugly start, but victorious.  9 San Diego - River looked very good.  10 Baltimore - Will ride momentum, up or down.  11 Carolina - A poor start, but not the end of the world.  12 Tampa Bay - Alarming loss. They can recover though.  13 St. Louis - Could be really good.  14 Miami - Not there.  15 Atlanta - Talent is there, but you have to believe in Vick.  16 Minnesota - Why not?  17 New Orleans - Brees the perfect QB for Bush.  18 NY Giants - A decent team.  19 Denver - Could be a rough ride. 20 Washington - Not going to disappear.  21 Dallas - Good skill positions. Bad QB and OL.  22 Arizona - Not good. But something to watch until Lienart plays. 23 Kansas City - Losing Green is bad; a below average OL is worse.  24 NY Jets - Pennington looked solid.  25 Detroit - Likely to beat some good teams.  26 Cleveland - Dissappointing, but there will be better days.   27 Buffalo - 28 Tennessee - Young can handle it.  29 San Francisco - Nothing to lose.  30 Houston - Screwed with Davis out.  31 Green Bay - Car wreck.  32 Oakland - Barren wasteland.  Posted Sep 13 2006, 05:15 PM by MikeB with no comments

• Vs. Saints Notes

  Dissappointing. Not without some positive signs, but definitely dissappointing. The offensive line's struggles were very alarming. We couldn't run the ball at all for much of the game. Frye was under pressure almost every passing play. And the shotgun draw plays were a joke because the blocking was so bad. This is easily the most concerning thing to come out of this game. The injury to Joe Jurevicius is the second-most concerning. What a huge, huge blow. That leaves us with very little at WR -- Northcutt and Edwards. Neither distinguished themselves. The defense was okay. No pass pressure, which is a big problem. Pretty soft zone coverage, frustrating at times but effective more often than not. Seemed like we had some struggles playing the run at times -- as if linebackers were guessing wrong. Other times, however, the D was rather solid. Reggie Bush didn't light things up, but the Browns seemed to have a poor strategy to match up against him. Most of the time, Ralph Brown had him in coverage and Brown usually got toasted. Ugh. Then again, who would be a good defender to cover Bush? You're not going to take your top cornerbacks and put them on a RB. You don't want to use a linebacker. I don't know what choice the Browns really had. No doubt, Bush is going to create a lot of match-up problems. All that said, I thought the Browns played him reasonably well and Bush never made a play that killed us. But he made a lot of productive catches and first downs. Drew Brees looked very good to me. He was sharp, and looked Brady-esque in delivering the ball to whoever was open. He also throws a great swing pass -- a nice talent to have with a guy like Bush. Did Willie McGinest play? Did Pool play? Good to see Winslow make an impact. He got better as the game went on. Needs to chill out about the no-catch ruling in the endzone. Edwards... you can not drop that ball. Really, this scares the hell out of me -- big-time players make that play every time. Droughns was okay. Crennel just looked dissappointed on the sidelines. What was up with Vickers in on short-yardage plays? I thought Droughns would be a better choice most of the time there. Ted Washington made some big plays. But he was surprisingly blockable on some others. Kevin Shaffer -- the heat is going to be on if you have another game like this next week. That was horrible. Same for you Coleman. Not that we have anyone to replace you. Posted Sep 11 2006, 05:00 PM by MikeB with 2 comment(s)

• Bring on the Saints

  The Plain Dealer tried to drum up some enthusiasm for a "Jeff Faine returns to Cleveland" storyline, but it just can't be done. Sure, the center position for the Browns has been a disaster since Bentley went down. But it was also a disaster before Bentley arrived! Faine is just one of the cast of characters to have manned the position. Sure, Faine is decent some of the time. He's a good puller and is sort of like another guy we used to have, Dave Wolaubaugh. But he got used far too often the past few years. And it's hard to see how the Browns would be better off with Faine than Fraley or Friedman. For all the excitement around the center position, I'm relatively at ease about it. The guys we have now seem capable at least. We might not see above average play for the firt week or two, but once those guys get settled I'm expecting the team to be in decent shape. I'm pretty happy that both Fraley and Friedman could play guard as well because it's at guard that I think the Browns are most vulnerable to injury or a drop-off in play from Coleman or Andruzzi. Whatever happens, the line at present does at least have enough depth to withstand _one_ injury. It doesn't sound like much, but compared to years past it's not that bad. So what'd gonna happen Sunday vs. the Saints? I think the Browns win. But, unfortunately, this is no sure thing. Some thoughs: Frye needs to look the part. Just like last year, he doesn't need to win the game or make a ton of big plays. But he must make good decisions and throw good balls. And Frye ought to follow the most underrated law of pro football: When in doubt or when a play breaks down, throw deep. I'm not worried about Droughns. Isn't that nice? We have two guys who play much better when it matters in Frye and Jurevicius. Hopefully they connect more than a few times. This is, if you think about it, Kellen Winslow's big debut. He's no longer a rookie, and he's been around the team for so long he should know exactly what's going on. We know he's going to be a presence. Hopefully that presence will extend to the stat sheet. I know I'm excited to see how he'll do. And, somewhat to my surprise, am rooting for the guy. Our linebackers looked good in the preseason and there is a tone of promise there. But they didn't look that great in covering running backs coming out as receivers. That's where Reggie Bush scares me. Of course, the news that Bush will also return punts means Zastudil may kick conservatively. That might be a good idea. But overall, I'm skeptical of Bush. I wonder if he can get to the outside, and whether he can gain tough yards when nothing else is there. The whole country will be waiting for him to bust a big play, and thuse all eyes will be on the defense. Especially the backside defenders who'll have to sit back and prevent big cutback lanes from opening up. Yeah, watching Faine collide with Washington will be entertaining. Faine will surely be one-half of a double team. Is Joe Horn fully healthy? If he's not, that should help our injured secondary. Still, the Saints don't have recognizable names behind Horn. Devery Hendersen is getting a little hype as the #3 WR. And I've never heard of Marques Colston. Hopefully Ic an still say that Sunday afternoon. OSU grad and Westlake resident Kevin Houser is the Saints longsnapper. Drew Brees seems like a great quarterback to get a guy like Bush the ball. Brees is sort of like a Tom Brady-lite. He throws a good ball, hits the open guy, and has no problem dumping off to the open guy. Which means he can't have time to throw all afternoon. The keys to me are simply 1) Stop the run, 2) Deny Bush the ball and hit him hard when you can, 3) sitck with a conservative offensive gameplan and occasionally throw deep. A few thoughts about the Steelers/Dolphins game last night: Willie Parker looked really good. He's still fast, but he ran with a bit more power than last year. I think the Steelers are in a good shape as long as Parker is suiting up. Culpepper '06 still looks a bit like Culpepper '05. I just don't think he can play very well when the pressure is on, but we'll see. Charlie Batch is officially a "solid backup." And, of course, he's got the best job in all of sports now -- good backup, plays sparingly, will have a very long career, hometown hero, and under little or no pressure. Oh, and makes a good buck considering. Hines Ward wasn't smiling for much of the night. What gives? Heath Miller is going to be a big beneficiary of Randle El leaving town. That long TD pass and run was a little flucky, but expect Miller to collect a fair number of 25 yard rumbles. For this night, the Steelers appeared quite capable of defending their title. The defense in particular seemed ready to roll. The Dolphins didn't really look bad either. The defense played well until the Heath Miller blown coverage. The offense looked pretty good at times, but hte o-line broke down a lot and Predictions for this weekend's games in the NFL... and yeah, i wrote this on Tuesday but am not getting around to posting it until Friday, so it's hard to claim too much credit for the Thursday night game. Not that it matters much. Freaking Steelers. Thursday, Sep. 7 Miami at Pittsburgh. Steelers find a way, but with Roethlisberger destined not to play it wouldn't be shocking for the Dolphins to win this. I just don't think Culpepper is ready to face the Steelers defense. Sunday, Sep. 10 Atlanta at Carolina. Falcons have no answer for the Panther offense. Baltimore at Tampa Bay. Tampa makes a statement. Buffalo at New England. New England wins but it could be an ugly game. Cincinnati at Kansas City. Cincinnati looks like a juggernaut. Denver at St. Louis. Denver controls the pace, and the Rams offense doesn't show up. New Orleans at Cleveland. Bush is bottled up, and Saints don't have the receivers to take advantage of Browns secondary. N.Y. Jets at Tennessee. Titans exceed everyone's expectations. Philadelphia at Houston. Houston scores the upset. Seattle at Detroit. Seattle wins with defense. Chicago at Green Bay. Bears win easily. Dallas at Jacksonville. Jaguars remind everyone they were a contender in 2005. San Francisco at Arizona. Cardinals will start the season on a high note. Indianapolis at N.Y. Giants. Giants win, Colts thin roster is exposed. Monday, Sep. 11 Minnesota at Washington. No one should win this game, but the Redskins are at home. San Diego at Oakland. A great chance for Rivers to start on a positive. But a loss would be killer. Posted Sep 08 2006, 05:43 PM by MikeB with no comments

• NFL Predictions + Week 1 Power Rankings

  I don't think these predictions and rankings are typical. I'm starting off with what I think _will_ happen. I think the AFC will be a bit muddled. I think the NFC has a lot of weak teams, and the solid teams will pile up a suprising amount of wins. And I think Carolina, Seattle, Tampa, and Chicago will all be for real. And I think the NFL playoffs will continue to be about match-ups, meaning regular season records will be out the window. 1. Carolina 12-4. The most solid team to start the year. Doesn't mean they will win it all. 2. Cincinnati 12-4. Palmer playing and looking good means a lot. Plenty of talent. 3. Tampa Bay 12-4. No glaring weakness, favorable division. 4. Seattle 12-4. No glaring weakness, favorable division. 5. Chicago 12-4. How are they not better than 2005? And look at that terrible division. 6. Pittsburgh 11-5. Defending champs still look very tough. 7. Indianapolis 11-5. When the only position you've improved at is kicker, you didn't get better. 8. Jacksonville 11-5. Not sold on Leftwich, but it's hard to see them regressing. 9. Philadelphia 11-5. Easy schedule, will win in trenches, and people are healthy. Best team in that division. 10. New England 10-6. Weaknesses abound, but Brady is at his peak. 11. Miami 10-6. Could go either way, but right now things look good. 12. Denver 10-6. Eventually things are going to go south in Denver, but not yet. 13. NY Giants 10-6. The post-season quitting is alarming, but lots of offensive players around their prime. 14. St. Louis 9-7. There's still a lot of talent here and division is a joke. 15. San Diego 8-8. As Rivers goes... 16. Dallas 8-8. Bledsoe is as worrisome as TO. Hard to believe it will be a smooth ride. 17. Minnesota 7-9. No names, but last year's good finish was no joke. Will be competitive. 18. Kansas City 7-9. Herm Edwards scares me. 19. Atlanta 7-9. Should be better. 20. Washington 7-9. Should be worse. 21. Cleveland 6-10. Will be much improved, but hard to see a lot of wins on the schedule. 22. Arizona 6-10. Might as well start Lienert. 23. Baltimore 6-10. Did not improve roster at all, though maybe with better health they can improve. 24. Tennessee 6-10. Won't be that bad. 25. Houston 6-10. Still won't be that good. 26. Detroit 5-11. Some tools, but still an air of incompetence. 27. New Orleans 5-11. You have believe Bush is Superman for Saints to really improve. 28. Buffalo 4-12. No excuse for team to be this bad. 29. Green Bay 4-12. Favre should either retire or designate himself the backup. 30. San Francisco 4-12. Could be a lot better, but Alex Smith will have to figure it out. 31. Oakland 4-12. Randy Moss will be responsible for all 4 wins. 32. NY Jets 3-13. Lucky to win three. AFC Championship: New England over Pittsburgh. NFC Championship: Tampa over Chicago. Super Bowl: Tampa over New England. The Bucs still very good defense and straight-forward but effective offense will well in the post-season. Posted Sep 07 2006, 10:17 AM by MikeB with no comments

• Cut-Down Blather

  Suggs was not a suprise at all, particularly after he didn't even really play at the end of the preseason. And while he may go elsewhere (Miami) and do well, this isn't a case where anyone should be bummed if he lights it up in another uniform. The Browns are not at a point where they can take a chance on such an injury-prone guy, particularly one who did nothing to inspire while playing against 2nd and 3rd teamers in the preseason. Best of luck Lee, hopefully you can keep the NFL career going a couple more years. Will Green hasn't looked so good either. It's been a mystery to a lot of fans why Green apparently was a shoe-in for a roster spot after performing consistently but poorly in 2005. Well, now the questions have ben answered as the Browns wished to cut him but couldn't since he apparently has a minor injury. So he's on IR and the rest is just details. Green has been a fairly durable backup the past year or two. Before that we all hoped he was the real deal and big-time RB, which he wasn't. Other than a few monster stiff-arms and a huge long TD run against the Falcons to get the Browns into the playoffs (the highlight of the post-expansion era), Green spent countless plays running in quicksand and generally no hitting the hole. Other suprises -- a lot of recent lower-round draft picks were cut loose. This is a good sign, I think, and is the opposite of what fans got used to in the Butch-era when it seemed like every draft pick was retained. Instead, it appears Savage is determined to unearth decent talent on the bottom half of the roster and is not shy about cutting loose the Browns own draft picks. The biggest name here is NT Babatunde Oshinowo, who apperaed to be a shoe-in to backup Washington at NT. But Baba seemed far to small for the role and looked more like a potential DE than anything else. Other guys we'll posibly miss -- Frisman Jackson, who seemed to regress this year. Nick Speegle, who couldn't distinguish himself at LB. Andrew Hoffman, who'd converted to OL a few weeks ago. And Ross Tucker, acquired a few weeks back from the Pats. Oshinowo was signed to the practice squad -- cool. I think he's got a chance to develop. He at least showed some ability to get into the backfield, although frankly I'm not sure Crennel wants that from his d-linemen. But we'll see. Hoffman was kept as a OG and the fact that he's stuck around this much might be promising. WR Mosley stays and he was the most impressive of the backup WRs in the preseason. And C Rob Smith will get a chance to come back from injury and make it to the actice roster.   The Browns also picked up two guys off waivers that sound promising-- OT Kelly Butler and DE Jovan Haye. Butler started all last year for the Lions and sounds like much better depth than the departed Kirk Chambers. Haye sounds like a real player on the d-line, and we need depth everywhere there. Finally, the biggest news is the Browns trading a 7th (or 6th) round pick in 07 for C Hank Fraley. He and Friedman will compete to start at center. I'm not thrilled about either of these guys, but they are at least experienced and competent NFL players. And Fraley, if fully healthy, could be pretty good. But since both these guys are new to the Browns we can expect them to struggle a bit the first few weeks. I wouldn't be suprised if Andruzzi was called upon to the make the OL calls during the first week or two. All in all, an interesting weekend of cut-downs and signings. And I'm ready for the regular season and a winnable game vs the Saints. Big Ben is out this Thursday after getting an emergency appendectomy. It's gotta be karma -- getting off scott-free after the motorcycle accident was too good to be true. It will also make the game vs. the Dolphins a much tougher matchup. And if Roethlisberger is out for a few games it could certainmly change the landscape of the AFC North this season. Posted Sep 04 2006, 10:29 AM by MikeB with 1 comment(s)