After last week's debacle, I think I needed a little time away from a place where I might have been liable to use some not-so-friendly words to describe the way I felt about the Browns—hence the lack of "filler" this week. But lo and behold, it's Sunday again and our favorite football team is going agaginst a beatable Manning-less Indianapolis Colts team.
Look, I know I dont' have to tell you how many problems the offense/defense/special teams units had last week, so I'll just get right to what I believe will be the keys to the game.
Offensively, I'm a big believer in the old adage, "It all starts up front." Maybe it's because I played on the O-line in high school, but I'm telling you, without solid play from those five guys, it doesn't matter how good the rest of the offense is—it's going to be ugly. We saw that last week with the play of Jason Pinkston at left guard and then the rotating right tackles Oniel Cousins and Artie Hicks. It's like they say about quarterbacks—if you have two of them, you have none of them (see: the Ohio State University football team last night @ Miami. Yikes).
So my biggest key this weekend for the Browns O is stabilize the offensive line. If you do that, the West Coast offense can go to work. I believe in Colt McCoy, and I think with proper time he can run the offense very effectively. We saw flashes of that last week and also in the pre-season, but it's got to be sustained for four quarters. Again, that all starts up front. If our tackles can't contain the Colts' Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, it's going to be a very, very long day.
Defensively, I actually don't have too many complaints. Joe Haden is obviously emerging as a big time, lockdown cornerback, and that is exactly what this team needs. D'Qwell Jackson was also excellent in the season opener, especially considering how much he hasn't played in the last couple of seasons.
If there's one concern I really have, it's the defensive line's ability to stop the run. Joesph Addai and Delone Carter shared the load last week, only gaining 39 and 25 yards, respectively. But keep in mind that the Colts were down by so much so fast, Kerry Collins was mostly trying to sling it all over the field to get them back in the game. So I guess I'm worried about Jabaal Sheard over on the right side, especially after he was destroyed by Cedric Benson and the Bengals last week.
I don't usually need to talk about special teams, but seeing as how the punting was so incredibly awful last week that we had to sign a new punter—oh, that's right, I'm sorry, McGee was injured. Well, in either case, the punting should be better this week. I'd also look for Josh Cribbs to take one to the house this week—you heard it here first, folks.
So down to business here,
The Prediction: CLE 14 - IND 24
After last week, I just don't see us winning this game. I think the problem with last week was more or less that Shurmur just didn't have his team ready to play. We'll probably be better this week, but Indianapolis isn't as bad as they looked last week. I know Peyton Manning does more for his team than any other QB in the league, but they have talent in other positions. Peyton isn't the only key to them getting in the playoffs week in and week out.
So that's why I think we'll be starting another season 0-2, but I really, really hope that I'm wrong.
I'll see you at the half!
~MAS
No comments:
Post a Comment