Winslow Confirmed

You didn't need to be a doctor to see this coming. The people in Berea are totally, completely full of crap this time of year. It'd be fun if we were winning though.

Team Lame In the House

Buch Davis is droning on and on about how the team is getting better, taking positive steps... oh come off it. The team sucks at the moment, they have been pathetic for about 85% of the offensive snaps for the past two weeks. There's nothing else to say at the moment.

Midnight Notes

I think the Browns lose tomorrow, but it will be a good game. The up+down principle of the NFL demans it be so. Heck, they might even win.

Unfortunately (due to my extraordinary good fortune) I won't be able to view the game live tomorrow. instead I'll be watching on tape delay around 4 o'clock. What can you do....

Now that Tim Couch is filing a grievance with the Packers over getting released while injured, do the Browns look so mean for not letting the guy work out in the offseason when it became clear he was going to be moving on? I mean, I thought Couch looked decent last season when he played, but if he goes to Green Bay and Brett Favre doesn't even know his name doesn't that say something -- like, this guy must not be so good? Just a thought.

How to Recover

Hehe, I like the sound of the title -- it's as if I know! Well, I don't know, but I have a couple ideas anyway. They could be dumb, who knows, but their worth a try....

1. Line up and run the ball -- What's going on with our prized new addition? The Browns have failed to run the ball effectively, and Terrelle Smith hasn't been much of a force. Most of that has to do with the team getting into long yardage situations and Green not always following Smith's blocks. Not now we need to get the 3 and 4 yard gains, and Green/Suggs running behind Garmon, Faine and Smith is the way we have to do it. Perhaps in some sense the loss of Winslow will help this happen from a better blocking perspective. Perhaps.
   
2. Stretch the secondary -- The effectiveness of Jeff Garcia as well as the ground game depends on the defense not being able to stack the line. The only way the Browns can effectively do this is to threaten to make big gains down the field. Andre Davis and Quincy Morgan should rarely be running routes that are less than 8-9 yards, and I'd make the post and fly routes common to almost every play being run. Let Northcutt and the tight ends + running backs catch the short balls, at least to start the game. I'd point out that the Browns don't even have to complete long bombs to make the defense compensate.
   
3. Linebacker play -- I'll say it: Andra Davis and Co. have been unremarkable so far. Considering the competent play of the DL so far, this is disturbing. Maybe it's time to use Chaun Thompson as a pass rusher more. Or start rolling the dice on blitzes more often.
   
4. Survive in the secondary -- it sounds like Henry and Cutch may both sit. This could be big trouble. The way I see it, that means a defensive gameplan of getting to Warner while playing conservatively in the secondary. And that just keeps us in this week's game.
   
5. I'm running out of things.... anyhow, overall I think there's a chance we see a better football team when it comes to the simple stuff -- there are so many players out that everyone should be focused and executing. We might fall short, but I think the effort will be there. Hopefully that is enough for Garcia to do something with on offense and gut out a win.
   

IMO: Brown's Done in Cleveland, Winslow Done for 2004

Hey, I could be wrong and am no expert, but I'm not naive either -- if you break your leg your not gonna be right for 10 or 12 weeks, and even then you're unlikely to have all your normal leg strength back. I will hope Winslow can make a triumphant return for the last 5-6 games and still manage to be a factor, but it's foolish to count on it. The overwhelming odds seems to be that any more playing time KWII sees this season will merely be a tune-up for the offseason and next year.

As for Courtney Brown -- it's over. There is no way he's coming back from that injury. A defensive lineman puts a huge amount of pressure on his foot cause he needs maximum leverage. Considering this injury has already ended a few careers and C Brown's injury track record, I think it's merely stating the obvious to say that Brown's Cleveland career is over. Maybe he'll go on injured reserve for the remainder of the year, or maybe the team reaches an injury settlement. But there's no way the guy is not released by next summer.

The other injuries might be more problematic in the short term -- the Browns need Warren upfront and will hurt without him; that's the number one spot where someone has to step up for the Browns to remain in the hunt. Losing Tucker is huge, despite the fact the line wasn't playing so great. The team will really need to gut out a couple wins over the next month. It's time for Davis and Robiskie to earn their keep and find a way.

Browns F Themselves, Get F'ed

First things first: Quncy Morgan is the worst receiver to wear a Browns uniform since, oh, Andre Rison. This sack of sh!t can't catch and, in fact, he can't even try and catch. WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE ON THE FIELD? He drops balls in the end zone. He fails to dive for balls within his reach. He fails to even step up and try and snag crucial late-game first-downs even even if it means a defender catching the ball. THE GUY IS WORTHLESS AND A HINDRENCE TO THIS TEAM BEING GOOD. His final stas today: 1 catch for 11 yards. What his final stats should have been: 3 catches 85 yards, if not more. Pathetic.

Coaching: There is 2:10 left in the game, DAL has the ball on first down, Browns have two time outs. After stopping DAL on a short run the Browns call a time out with 2:04 left. WHY?!?!?!?!?!? All this does is give DAL the option to pass on the next play!!!! Sure enough, they throw a long bomb to Glenn and the endgame begins. Anyone who plays freaking John Madden on the PS2 knows not to call a timeout in that situation.

Overall I can't really fault any specific player for this loss, except maybe Robert Griffith. There were so many penalties, so many little mess ups, so many ponderous play calls. Not to mention a few questionable officiating decisions (DAL offsides on Garcia/Jackson's INT, Glenn pushing off late, a unsportsmanlike conduct on Little for tackling the receiver, giving DAL 3 points, etc.

In the end, the most damaging thing to the Browns today was that they came out and go overwhelmed early and never could quite recover. They somehow were not prepared for the fact that DAL would throw the ball aggressively, despite the fact that this was a case of their opponent's strong point against their own teams perceived weakness.

Second most damaging was Robert Griffith's complete inability to defend the pass. You say I'm crazy, he had a big interception? Well he put DAL inside the 10 twice by not playing the ball. The first misplay when Keyshawn caught the ball at the 1 was a joke -- the safety should be among the smartest guys on the defense and ours was making a wild guess where the ball would be, leaping past the receiver when he could have made an easy play and knocked down the ball. Later he did virtually the same thing and gave up another long ball. While I admire his aggressive instincts at times, I think this dude gives up far, far more big plays than he creates. At the SAFETY position your job is to prevent big plays. Griffith is guaranteed to manufacture one for the opposing offense at least once a week. Probably more.

Annoyed, dissappointed in Rocky River. I'm out.

Perspective and Prediction

Let's get one thing straight -- Last Sunday's big, big win over Baltimore, while not that important in terms of the Browns returning to the playoffs this season, was huge enough on a fan-level that the team could finish 2-14 (another BAL victory) and we'd still feel pretty good in Cleveland. So before I launch onto an enthusiasm tempering rant, it should be clear that I and everyone else am still ecstatic over beating the Ravens in such fashion, and nothing that will happen in the future will change it. Okay....

It's difficult to recall the Browns winning two important back-to-back games as big as BAL/@DAL since The Return. They had some nice back-to-back victories in 2002, most notably @BAL and ATL to end the season. And I'd probably argue that a win @DAL would achieve something along the same lines as that win over ATL -- beat expectations, confound the national press, and unleash delirium in the MUNI Lot.

The Dallas game is a classic let-down game after a big win: it's on the road against what should be a fundamentally sound team that's coming off a loss. Davis' Browns have always seemed to have that roller-coaster thing going on where they beat the good team and lose to some crappy ones. A win at Dallas would significantly alter that reputation.

There are a lot of reasons why the Browns can win this game, and they start with Jeff Garcia. The guy is a leader, and we shouldn't fear going on the road with a guy like that at the helm. Not to belabor it, but the difference between Couch/Holcombe and Garcia should be strikingly obvious. It was vs. BAL and he didn't even have a great game.

Winslow looked pretty comfortable too. Dallas' defense is not chopped liver, but for Winslow to play well against an aggressive unit like the Ravens can only do good things for the guys confidence. I'm still hesitant about his blocking (just check the tape) but it would seem reasonable to expect continued progression from Winslow this week. And the matchups seems to be favorable for him to be utilized much more. We'll see.

The d-line obviously had a good game too, and that bodes well. This week the Browns won't have an 8th guy in the box so in some ways this will be a greater test, but if Lang, Brown, and Roye can consistently play well the team should be very happy. We'll find out this week. The health of Warren is definitely cause for concern though.

So -- we'll fin out if our defense is for real this week, as Testeverde and Keyshawn represent the polar opposite of the Baltimore offense we last saw; if the secondary holds up I think we can conclude the defense should be solid all year. Garcia and the offense, however, I think will remain a work in progress. Suggs won't play, which sucks, but otherwise we'll hopefully see some better execution and a couple nice scoring drives. Hopefully that's enough to win the game.

Prediction: Browns 20-17, in a very close game.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Dr. Z power ranks the Browns all the way up to 11. I'm happy to see such enthusiasm, but in this case it just proves what I've been saying for a long time -- Dr. Z is a moron. He had the Browns 29th (!) last week. And this week he puts Baltimore all the way down the line. Maybe the guy does know lots about football but you couldn't tell by reading his columns. Does the Z stand for zero?

Bell to Start

Ignatius and Miami (OH) grad Jacob Bell will start for the Titans this weekend due to injury. Pretty fast for a rookie to be starting, but let's hope he does well.

Verdicts trickle in

ESPN puts the Browns at #20. I guess that's about right -- the Browns played higher than that on Sunday, but they have to win a couple games to prove it's for real. Plus ESPN hasn't exactly been predicting great things for the Browns. Worth noting the Cowboys are a couple notches ahead of them. It's lame that the Browns are still behind the Bengals though.

Sportline has 'em at #19, ahead of the Cowboys and the Bengals.

None of this matters though. Let's look forward to a good showing in Dallas instead.

Just Fantasy, But Annoying

The Cowboys will be primed to redeem themselves in their home opener, and the Browns might be their unfortunate victims. Look for Dallas to dominate at home, as the passing game continues to click behind Vinny Testaverde. The defense will be primed to tee off on Jeff Garcia, who will be hard-pressed to play well again.

MMQB

As expected, Peter King is relishing the Browns win. He is smart enough to make the obvious point though -- don't get too excited about the first game of the season. Check it out.

Nice Words From the Enemy

Jamal Lewis: "They are a different team, and of course they were not going to let us come in and do what we did last time. They played good defense."

HELL YEAH!!!

It started slowly, but the Browns whipping of the Ravens was very sweet. The 4th quarter was probably the most pleasurable you can get as a Browns fan. Check out these scoring drives: 5 plays, 58 yards, TD, then 11 plays 85 yards for a FG, then the 3 play, 94 yard clincher. Awesome. Add in a great Anthony Henry interception and two HUGE back-to-back sack-then-strip plays from Kenard Lang and it adds up to the biggest victory since 2002.

And especially gratifying while watching from home was the pathetic snickering of the NBC pregame and halftime broadcasting teams. Not only were we subjected to a really, really long pregame special on Deion Sanders return to the NFL and how he was going to high-step like it was 1999, we got to see Marino and Sharpe eat crow (sort of) after prediction a Ravens blowout. Heck, even with the game tied at halftime they were going on about the Ravens "inspired" play and showed exactly zero Browns highlights. They actually showed extra highlights of Deion doing nothing on a pass play and getting immediately tackled on a punt return. Ooooooooh! Hehe.

OK, quick serious analysis:

The offense really struggled in the first half. Garcia looked bad, William Gren looked worse. Alarmingly, the constant short passes and dump offs looked a little dink+dunkish.

The running game did not hold up to the Ravens defense (few do). Late in the game they got some things going, and that's a good sign.

I'll take Suggs over Green any day. We missed him today.

Winslow looked pretty good as a receiver, but hit or miss as a blocker. You can tell he's got a lot to learn but, still, he made a positive impact today. At the least, he won't be a bust, and we all expect him to be significantly more.

The defense looked good all around, and not great anywhere -- I'll take that.

Chaun Thompson looked good. A little undisciplined maybe, but his aggresiveness paid off today.

If the offense will consist of all we saw today, we'll have to hope for more broken plays where Garcia can freelance through the air. But hopefully there will be more to come.

Peter King, one of the few big national writers saying the Browns would be solid, must be feeling all right this afternoon.

How about Kenard Lang!?!?! The guy basically put away the game.

Ray Lewis is a good football player. I can't stand him.

Quincy Morgan looks lazy today. Maybe it's unfair to judge him this way, but if you look at the way he lumbers back to his feet fromt he turf you'll see what I mean. It's sad, cause it's mental.

Andre Davis and Northcutt were seriously MIA until Davis caught a huge bomb late in the game. It's too bad he stumbled cause he would have outran everyone for a TD.

Robert Griffith was solid too. Something in the water?

It's a great win, but it's probably not yet indicative of what kind of team we have this year -- we have a solid defense, a crafty QB, some decent talent. But we didn't see anything where we really put it all together and executed. We'll see.

Enjoy the week.

My Season Prediction

The 2004 Browns will make fools of the national publications (like this) who pick them to be miserable. No, this team will be competitive and will have it's share of nice wins. There is just oo much talent not to matchup favorably with opponents, and I think the addition of Garcia, Winslow and Smith are good for a couple more wins than 2003. That doesn't quite get us to playoff-caliber football but it's a big improvement.

There are a lot of things to be concerned about when you look at the team's preseason perfomances. The offense generally struggled, especially the passing game, but it's the defense that I worry about the most. The Browns added almost no one to a solid but medicore group, and that sort of stagnancy is a little scary. We are basically betting on key guys to significantly improve from their 2003 performance, and there's no way that happens with al the players we'd like to see that fro. Warren, okay I can see it. C Brown, I guess to a lesser extent. But at the outside linebacker spots? Can Lang and Roye really play any better? Can Robert Griffith do anything but go a the big hit? Can McCutcheon again be a reliable presence? There are just so many questions. I can see our d-line faring prety well. The linebackers, will probably be steady, and if they just don't over pursue too many plays I'll be happy. But the safeties have me petrified of big plays. And someone really has to step up at corner to pair with Anthony Henry, who has to maintain his high level of play. There are likely to be some bumps in the road and the lack of playmakers in the secondary is the biggest obstacle towards a playof run.

Right behind the secondary, the O-line is again a big concern. I don't like not having a promising aub at guard to plug in, and am dissappointed the Browns brought in no one during training camp. Yes, I like to think this speaks well of guys like Beasley and Demar and maybe it does, but they really, really need to prove it on the field. Anyway, this is mostly a question of depth. The starting 5 is good enough and should be formidable in the running game. In pass blocking I think Garmon is a bigger liability than anyone is talking about. Overall, the offense will have to play to the strengths of the offensive line. If they do that, the OL won't look good every week but could look good a majority of the time.

Garcia, though not a perfect QB, will be a huge upgrade and we'l see it as the season unfolds. His health is the major concern, because the offensive libne is not built to adequately protect a guy like Holcomb. I love Garcia's instincts and aggressiveness, and hopefully his leadership will produce some positive results. Like his last few years in San Fran, the Browns offense will have to be based on running the ball. We appear to have the personnel to do that well. I love Suggs, think Green is adequate, the addition of Terrell Smith will be noticeable, and even getting Winslow will hopefully soften up the middle of the field a bit. At WR, the reality has been that Morgan is not a reliable guy, Northcutt is a huge playmaker without the size to get consistent seperation, and Davis is solid also has some dificulty gettting open. Do we have some good tools here? Definitely. Is this among the better NFL receiving corps? No. It's middle-tier. Finally, Winslow promises to really change the face of this offense and gives the Browns a tremendous upside. If he's a game-breaker we'll have a dangerous offense; if he's a non-factor we'll struggle. It's that simple.

Ultimately, however, this season will come down to coaching. The 2004 squad is probably the best test of coaching you'll see in quite a while. The team has plenty of talent, and obvious shortcomings. The success/failure will depend largely on schemes and playcalling, in attacking the opponent using the skills we have. And after the kind of offseason that went on in Cleveland with Butch Davis gaining huge territorial ground in Berea, perhaps this is as it should be. We also have quite abit riding on Terry Robiskie's adjustment to offensive coordinator. It won't take more than a month to see how this is likely to pan out.

Final prediction: 8-8, with a 1 game swing either way. I think this is optimistic too, as the team could conceivably really sink like last year, but is unlikely to win 10-11 games under even the best of circumstances.

Vs. Ravens

Although I'm moderately bullish on the Browns chances this season, I'm a little less so about today's matchup with the Ravens. I'm very distressed that Suggs probably won't play, which has me banking greatly on our defensive front getting to Boller. If getting decent field position the Browns have the firepower to score a couple touchdowns. And hopefully we don't need any more to win. I'd put us at 4 point dogs, losing 17-13.

Entertaining things to watch: Northcutt vs. Deion on third down. Chaun Thompson staying at home vs. Jamal Lewis. Winslow butting heads with Ray Lewis. The d-line getting to Boller. KJ and going over the middle.

Oh Happy Days

I've taken the week off from just about everything as our first child was born, Ava. She is awesome! I'm excited about the Browns opener today too, but haven't given it much thought until the last half-day or so. All I know is my week could not possibly be spoiled by anything that happens on the field at CBS today.

Oh Baby

Suggs may nto play. Odgen and Deion sound like they will. Big week, but I'll be MIA, as we are having a baby and, well, that is more important. Though I am pretty impressed our little girl knows to arrive on a Tuesday and not a Sunday.

Odgen hopeful for opener

Hopes that the Browns pass rush would have a good day against he Ravens would seem to be diminishing with news that Jonathan Odgen thinks he'll be able to play.

Browns Waive CJ Jones, Word

A lot of people have to wondering WTF today. C.J. Jones? He looked like a nice threat returning kicks but apparently Northcutt will be the sole man on punts, and Dee Brown seems to be the guy on kickoffs. But still, cutting Jones AND Frisman Jackson in favor of Richard Alston is very surprising. Now we have two backup WRs from Miami. Alston may also figure in on kickoff returns.

And Mark Word, who'ds performed very well as a pass rusher that last two years, was also surprising. The Browns go with Ekuban and Corey Jackson.

The other really notable move was Darnell Sanders. This move was long overdue IMO. Sanders never really showed anything in a couple years with the team. He's also the first Butch draft pick to get cut. It's a bit surprising the Aaron Shea made the team though. It means Winslow will have to pay out for his jersey number.

Payne Gone

Hardly knew ya!!! What is going on in Berea? I haven't seen any reasons given for this anywhere, not yet anyway.

Curry gone, Jackson staying?

The Browns waived Georgia safety Kentrell Curry to make room on the roster for Lewis Sanders. Too bad Curry didn't make an impact at safety -- this team could really use a young prospect there this season.

It is looking more and more like James Jackson will ride out one more season with the Browns as the 3rd back. Miami is the only team left with a dire need for a runner, and they haven't exactly been giving signs that Jackson is their man. We may really be happy to have him if there are injuries to Suggs/Green, but right now this feels like an opportunity lost. The bright spot may be that, shou the Browns find themselves in the playoff hunt, Jackson will contribute to that effort a lot more than a mid-round draft choice might.