If you watched the game yesterday, then you’re probably just as angry as me.  You should be at least.  How could the refs signal first down for the Steelers when they clearly came up short on 4th down?  Don’t give me any of this camera angle BS either, because if you look you can clearly see it’s a side view.  You can even see the white yardage marker the ball is sitting on.  There’s nothing wrong with this point of view.  They were SHORT, end of story!  Here’s the picture.

Will somebody please explain to me why there’s been absolutely no backlash against these referees?  They screwed the Browns.  It does NOT matter if you think we still would have lost the game.  The fact remains that in the spirit of FAIR competition, this kind of crap should not happen… EVER!  It is the worst officiating call I’ve ever seen in my life.  The fact that there was NO explanation from the referees was bad too.  How could you make such an error on the field and not even have the guts to explain yourself.  If this had happened in Cleveland, the field would have been littered with whatever fans could throw, regardless of how right, wrong, or embarrassing it would have been. 

Fans should be outraged.  Yes, our team sucks, but that doesn’t make this right.  If the Steelers had any class at all, they would have said something.  They don’t have any though, and the abundance of BS calls in their favor is sickening. 

I hope these referees are fined, demoted, and never able to officiate an NFL game again.  I want an apology from the league.  There is no excuse for standing behind this injustice. 

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… and I don’t necessarily buy it.

Here’s the link from Pro Sports Daily

www.prosportsdaily.com

Quinn’s basically saying that his house is just too much for a single guy.  I might even believe this line if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a single guy and I’d be thrilled to live in a house like that.  Quinn says that it’s just too much upkeep for him and he doesn’t like the 30 minute drive to the Browns facility.  Does he really expect us to believe that he mows the lawn himself?  It’s nearly an acre and I’ll bet he’s hired someone to do that for him.  What’s he going to do, move into a one bedroom apartment right next to the facility in Berea.  That way he has no lawn to mow, minimal rooms to clean, and he can walk to work.  It doesn’t make much sense to me.  If you’ve got money, which he most certainly does, you can afford to live nicely.  His home doesn’t overwhelm with extravagance, but it’s very nice and I would say it’s fitting for a young NFL player.  Here’s some pics from the listing on HowardHanna.com

Now that you’ve seen it, tell me, would you live in this house if you could afford it?  Maybe I just put too much stock in superficial things, but this house would be great compared to my apartment.  This all sounds too coincidental to me.  His house just happens to go on the market when his job here in Cleveland isn’t looking too great.  Yeah, I’m not swallowing that BS, especially since there’s a huge difference between Avon Lake and Berea.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Berea, but it is definitely a step down, and that’s just not Quinn’s style. 

In my opinion, he’s preparing for a quick exit from Cleveland and doesn’t want his money tied up in a long drawn out house sale.  If he takes care of this now, then whether he’s traded now or during the offseason he’ll be ready for it.  His comments and Mangini’s comments are the typical excuses to try to keep from distracting the team.

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It’s been reported by profootballtalk.com that Brady Quinn’s has been put up for sale. Here’s the link.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/10/13/brady-quinns-house-is-for-sale/

This will only help to further the rumors or speculation that Quinn may be traded. Afterall, it usually is a pretty good indication that there’s some trade talk going on. Most of the experts say that IF a trade does happen, it is unlikely to happen during the season. I’m not so sure about that though. There are teams out there that have a need at QB, but we’ll see whether or not they think Quinn is good enough to trade for. In my opinion, we’re not going to get much value for him at all… BUT I say trade him anyway. We’re not going to get much more value for him in the offseason either and it’ll do my stress level some good to quiet the QB controversy. Of course when DA throws a pick I fully expect all the Quinn lovers to chime in with "I told you so man!" But I’ll just smile at them and say, "Oh well, go cry somewhere else".

It doesn’t much matter whether Quinn is traded now or after the season’s over, but the sale of his house is some pretty good evidence that it will happen eventually. We’ll know soon enough, because the Browns can’t trade him after week 6. I do personally hope he goes and I hope to get at least a third round pick for him. That’s wishful thinking though, but anything would be enough to get rid of the controversy once and for all.

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Well Browns fans, we finally won a game.  And what a horrible game it was.  I’m not sure I’ve ever watched such an uneventful game.  To me, it was like watching a battle for the leagues worst team, and luckily the Browns proved they are not the worst team…by 3 points.  Now I know that the Bills are definitely not the worst team in the league, but I feel like they played like it yesterday and the Browns weren’t far off.  Let me explain what irritated the crap out of me yesterday.

Our playcalling was a complete joke to say the least.  How many times in a row is Brian Daboll going to call a running play?  I could understand running play after to play in order to set up a nice play action pass, but the problem was that that never happened.  We just kept running the ball and eventually the Bills stacked the box and forced a 3rd and long.  Then, everyone and their brother knows we have to pass the ball for third down and have no shot.  You either run the ball to set up the pass, or pass the ball to set up the run… WE DID NEITHER.  I understand that it was a very windy day, but there is absolutely no excuse for passing the ball only on third downs.  That’s just stupid.

Another problem was that every time Daboll did call for DA to pass the ball, our receivers dropped it.  Nearly every time Anderson dropped back to pass, he hit his receivers on the hands.  They might not have been the best passes, but the ball hit them on the hands.  The blame ALWAYS falls on the receivers when they don’t catch a pass that hits them on the hands.  I felt absolutely sick when I saw Robert Royal let that deep ball slip right through his fingers.  That ball was thrown perfectly. 

For everyone out there who blames DA for his stats yesterday and claims he played a horrible game, you seriously need to go back and actually watch the game… or you just don’t have an actual clue about football.  You cannot ask much more of DA than to hit his receivers on the hands and hand the ball off to the RB’s all game.  I watched the game with someone who was screaming for DA to get benched and Quinn to play.  Are you kidding me???  It makes NO sense.  How is it Anderson’s problem that his receivers were letting him down?  How is it Anderson’s problem that the coach is only calling running plays?  Do people really think the coach will suddenly call an abundance of passing plays with Quinn suddenly in the game?  It’s a ridiculous thought.

And of course, let’s not forget that Brady Quinn’s arm is so weak that if he threw the ball down the middle of the field, the wind would have blown it over to the sidelines.  It’s to the point where I never want Quinn to start another game for the Browns.  I hope he’s traded away before the deadline in a few days because I can’t stand the controversy anymore.  To me there is no controversy, but as long as he’s still a Brown, there will still be some fans who’ll call for him to save the day… and it honestly makes my ears bleed and blood pressure skyrocket.

But… a win is a win is a win!  And I’ll take it no matter how ugly and boring the game was. 

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Unfortunately Edwards isn’t out of Cleveland just yet.  It seems that he wasn’t able to catch the flight to NY.  (Get it???  You see I made a really corny joke there about how Braylon can’t catch).

Seriously though, he’s gone.  From what I’ve heard, the Browns received WR Chansi Stuckey and LB Jason Trusnik.  For me personally, that would have been enough.  However, the Jets were nice enough to package in a 3rd and 5th round draft pick in the 2010 NFL draft.  That’s what I’m most happy about.  As it stands, the Browns now have 10 draft picks in 2010… but unfortunately we need 30.

Braylon has had one good season with the Browns and every other year has been nothing but disappointment.  He either has a major case of stone hands, tries to catch the ball with his chest,  or jumps four feet off the ground to catch a ball thrown to his waist.  He was not worth the draft pick we spent on him and in all accounts, he’s a bust. 

I’ve also heard that Jets fans are ecstatic over this trade and are looking forward to having the Sanchez-Edwards connection.  What they don’t see coming is that after a few games, Sanchez will be throwing to someone else.  I hope I’m right and Edwards drops every pass thrown to him.  If he thinks Cleveland fans were bad to him, wait till he hears the boos in NY and feels the pressure from their media.  Cleveland fans would have at least not booed Edwards if we spotted him around the city, but he won’t get the same courtesy there. 

Edwards believes that he was never liked here in Cleveland because he went to scUM… (That’s University of Michigan for those of you who didn’t know.)  It’s true, most Clevelanders are Buckeye fans and the truth of it is that we can be a little bit of homers.  But Braylon, if you had done well here and played like I think you’re capable of, this city would have loved you. 

GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE

The kind of funny thing is that Braylon and LeBron will probably end up in the same city together again next year.

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DA to start against Bengals

Well, it looks like the Brady Quinn era in Cleveland is officially done… until Mangini becomes unhappy with Derek Anderson and puts Quinn back in.  Then, once Quinn proves himself useless yet again, Mangini will turn to third stringer Brett Ratliff. 

Seriously though, did anyone not see this coming?  It was no shock to hear that Anderson would start against the Bengals considering Quinn got yanked at halftime against the Ravens.  The coaches had no confidence in Quinn, clearly seen from the QB sneak on 1st and 10 last weekend.  That had to be a big clue to anyone with just a little knowledge about football.  Even the stupid announcers covering the game were baffled.  The coaches may have not had confidence in Quinn, but here’s a list of people I have no confidence in:

Brady Quinn

Derek Anderson

John St. Clair

Eric Mangini

Brian Daboll

Rob Ryan

The entire freaking offense

The entire freaking defense

In fact, the only thing I have confidence in is special teams.  Let’s see if we can surprise the league and beat the Bengals.  If I could bring myself to do it, I’d bet against the Browns this week. 

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Wow, do the Browns suck or what?  They’re horrible!  Unless something drastically changes, I wouldn’t expect us to win one game the whole season.  And this is coming from a fan who thought we’d be 7-9 on the season this year, someone who thought we’d at least be competitive in most games, and someone who doesn’t normally fly off the handle when things look bad.  Well things are looking really bad! 

During half time, Shannon Sharpe made a comment that everyone watching the Browns had an idea that the team was bad, but they in fact are even worse when you see them live.  What did he mean by that?  I wasn’t angry with him in the least for making that comment.  He’s right.  However, I want to know what exactly he sees on that field that makes us a worse team than we actually think by just watching them on TV.  I wish he had elaborated and told us what he was seeing. 

It makes me physically sick to see the Browns perform the way they are.  It’s pathetic and an extreme disappointment.  Browns fans deserve better than this crap we see on the field every week.  We are the joke of the entire NFL.  If you think I’m wrong, ask anyone who the worst team in the league is.  The answer is sure to be the Browns. 

If you’re still arguing about who’s better, Quinn or DA, then you’re not paying attention.  The Browns suck at just about everything in the game, not just passing.  Do I care that Quinn was yanked after just 2 and a half games?  NO I don’t!  Do I care that DA came in and threw 3 interceptions?  Nope, I don’t care about that either.  Quinn sucks worse than Charlie Frye and DA was just trying to force plays.  (DA sucks too, but I hope to God he starts this coming Sunday.)  I was one of the people calling for Quinn to start, I’ll admit that.  But he is terrible.  He will not throw down field!  You cannot tell me that the play calling is different for Quinn and DA.  That’s BS.  Quinn chooses to throw to the RB and TE on almost every play and is afraid and/or not able to throw downfield.  DA isn’t afraid to throw anything, and I’m starting to understand that having a timid and scared QB is much much worse than having an inaccurate one.

I’m hearing rumblings that DA will start this Sunday against Cincinnati.  That could be about the best news I’ve heard since Quinn was named the starter at the beginning of the season.  It’s funny how everything, including who the QB will be, is all a relative perspective. 

For all those who are calling for Mangini’s head already, I understand your reasoning.  I’ve even called for it myself when I was still upset Monday over Sunday’s performance.  However, we’re still paying Crennel’s salary and there’s no way they’ll buy Mangini out too and pay three coach’s salaries.  We’re stuck with the guy for 3 years.  Maybe he’ll work out, maybe he won’t, but I think he’s here for a while.

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Vikings 34 – Browns 20

Ok, we lost… is that enough reminiscing???

Alright, so I’ve got a little more to say about it than that.  This game was pretty bad.  Quinn didn’t look good at all.  He wasn’t on the same page with the receivers, whether that’s his fault or the receivers’ fault is irrelevant.  What is relevant is that they get on the same page this week in practice because we can’t have another repeat performance like that.  This was a winnable game.  Here’s what went wrong:

1.  Quinn showed his inexperience.  He either threw to the wrong side of a receiver or hurried in the pocket because of phantom pressure.  Hopefully with a few more starts he’ll calm down and develop some chemistry with a couple receivers.  I’m not writing him off yet.  He may be a third year QB, but he’s got the experience of a rookie.

2.  The offensive line was letting way too much pressure get to Quinn on the right side.  St. Clair is looking to be a turn-style sort of Right Tackle and it shows how much this team misses a healthy Ryan Tucker.  Even when there wasn’t any pressure coming from that right side, Quinn was always studying it and flinching, rather than studying the field ahead of him.

3.  The defense played a great game through the first half, but after Minnesota pulled ahead in the second half, all they had to do was run the ball down our throats.  Our defense, nor any other defense in the league could have kept up with that abuse.  If we had had some success on offense in the second half, even a couple long sustained drives, this game might have went a different way. 

4.  The playcalling was horrible.  I’m referring to the wildcat formation on the goal line that failed not once, but twice in a row.  If you’re going to call the wildcat formation two straight times, at least call for a pass on one of them.  Running Cribbs twice in a row doesn’t sound too sneaky to me, considering the whole audience knew what was going to happen.  I would have been happier to see Jamal Lewis pound the ball at the goal line twice and fail.  Maybe I’m just not a fan of the wildcat formation. 

I’m sure there was a lot more too it than that, but if you ask me those were the most glaring problems.  I think it all rests with Quinn.  If he can grow up on the job a little here and there, we’ll get better as a team. 

The one question that is on a lot of people’s minds is, “Would we have won the game with Derek Anderson at QB?”

I don’t believe that we would have.  Anderson would have thrown two picks to equal Quinn’s one pick and one fumble.  It’s time that all of us fans realize that if Quinn is not the guy, then we’re screwed because we’ll have to draft one next year.

I’m giving Quinn the whole season to earn my loyalty.  He’s got my support because he was chosen to start and he should start the entire year.  In no way should he be yanked in favor of DA.  The kid needs at least till midseason to see if he progresses any, and by that time if he still sucks there’s no point in putting Anderson in.

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Link

According to Sports Illustrated, NFL agents are advising their clients against playing for the Browns.  There are several reasons why I can see this happening:

1.  The Browns aren’t that good of a team.

2.  Mangini isn’t a players’ coach.  (A point that I’m actually quite happy about.  We don’t need another Romeo right now.)

3.  The many cases of Staph over recent years.

However, I’ll bet that agents aren’t actually telling their clients to stay away from Cleveland.  Chances are that ONE agent doesn’t like how his client was or is being treated by the Browns because of a contract dispute.  And this agent is trying to gain some leverage in the media making the Browns sound like the outhouse of the NFL.  Could this be Josh Cribbs’ agent?  I don’t know, I’m just speculating. 

None of this really matters anyway.  If it is actually true, it just means that the Browns will have to pay slightly higher than other teams in free agency to bring in high profile players.  But, Mangini doesn’t strike me as a coach who wants to bring in high profile players.  He wants to build through the draft and bring in serviceable veterans through free agency that can hold up until the younger guys take over.  You don’t need to get into bidding wars for the free agents Mangini will bring in.  If there is a high profile free agent worth picking up at any price, and the Browns are interested, we’ll just have to pay for it. 

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I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like it’s been a long offseason, training camp, and preseason.  All the hope and predictions no longer mean anything, not that they ever meant that much.  Today we’ll get a taste of whether this will be another disappointing season or a successful one.  I say it’ll be a taste because you can never know exactly what’ll happen in a season after one game.  In 2007 the first game was a disaster, but after we shipped out Charlie Frye it turned out to be a pretty good one.  I don’t know if we’ll win this game (I really hope we do and I’ve bet on it), but there’s a few things I’m looking for this game to determine what kind of team we’ll be this year.

1.  Brady Quinn – Quinn will start at QB today and hopefully for the entire year.  There’s a lot of haters out there, but if Quinn can come out and have a solid game then it will shut all those haters up.  In my opinion he’ll make less mistakes than Anderson and be overall better.  If he turns out to actually suck, well then we’re looking at a top 10 draft pick next year and we can try again at a franchise QB. 

2.  Defense – I want to see these guys stop the run.  If our defense can play well then we don’t need a high powered offense.  Our cornerbacks are talented enough to cover any receiver in the league as long as our defensive line and linebackers can put pressure on the QB.  They have to establish an identity with the guys on the line stuffing everything that comes their way and getting sacks.  Everything else falls into place after that. 

3.  Receivers – I’m less worried about the receiving core this year.  In fact, I think it’ll be a strength of the team.  However, I’d like to see less dropped balls and clutch catches on third down by Furrey… and by all accounts that doesn’t look to be a problem.  A little play action would be nice to see too.

4.  Running game – If Lewis can’t get it done this year, then give Harrison and Davis a shot.  Because if we can’t establish a decent running game the whole season will suck.  We need the running game to open up the passing game and for play action to actually work.

Just look at the hated Steelers.  The only reason they won the game on Thursday night was because their defense played great.  The offense looked like garbage.  They had a few good plays here and there, but really they held on by a thread.  It just proves that you can win with a manageable offense and a good defense.

and if… if the Browns can win today… we’re super bowl bound baby!  J/k

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