Start Me Up: Browns @ Bengals

Let's hope Brandon Weeden will have a better
rating than 5.1 today.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday—the second Browns Sunday in the 2012 season.

Straight up, I'm having a very hard time finding positive reasons that the Browns will win this one.

Let me explain. Obviously, the Browns offense still isn't very good. Brandon Weeden is a rookie, and he's going to need some time to adjust to the NFL. I think the game speed overwhelmed him last week—something that isn't entirely unexpected since he only played five quarters in the preseason. Trent Richardson also played too much last week, as even head coach Pat Shurmur admitted he played probably 10-12 more snaps than he was prepared for. But irrespective of the snaps, you can't convince me Richardson should've had 19 carries after not taking a live snap since the National Championship Game in January.

Okay, yes I do expect Richardson to be better this week after getting his feet wet against the Eagles, but who knows what to expect from Weeden? Even if he stinks again, they have to keep him in there. He's a first round pick. If you think he should be taken out in favor of McCoy, you're lost.

I have more confidence in the other side of the ball, but not much. Joe Haden's immaturity got the best of him and now the Browns won't have him for four pretty key games. The other starting cornerback, Sheldon Brown, is reportedly going to play, but won't be at 100 percent after sustaining a shoulder injury last week. With an elite caliber receiver in AJ Green on the Bengals offense, how will Dimitri Patterson, Buster Skrine, and 2012 7th round pick Trevin Wade do against the pass?

Also, lost in the shuffle last week was that the Browns allowed 110 yards on 20 carries to LeSean McCoy. That's 5.5 yards a carry. Why Andy Reid had Michael Vick throw the ball 56 times when he had a running game that effective will always be a mystery to me, but the Browns are going to have to do a better job against the run if they want to win today. Despite getting demolished by Baltimore last week, Bengals RB Benjarvus Green-Ellis rushed the ball 18 times for 91 yards—that's 5.1 yards a carry.

I'm not really a betting man, but if I were I'd put money on the Bengals pounding the run today with the Law Firm and trying to play ball control offense.

But despite all of that negativity surrounding the Browns this week, let's think about what we know about the Bengals. They always have these flash-in-the-pan years, and then go back down to earth. It's happened plenty of times before—they won the AFC North in 2005, then went 8-8 in 2006. Then they won the division again in 2009, and went 4-12 in 2010. They really weren't even competitive against Baltimore on Monday night, and with the short week who knows how they'll look today?

So what's going to happen in this game? Honestly, I have no clue. I think it'll once again be a low scoring affair, with Dick Jauron once again doing a bang up job with the "Bend but don't break" defense. I think both teams will try to establish a solid running game early and often. And I think the Browns will probably struggle trying to cover AJ Green.

But without further ado...

The Prediction: Bengals 20 - Browns 17

It'll be close, the Browns will once again be winning in the fourth quarter because the defense has kept the team in the game, but a tired D will once again lead to a heart breaking loss.

Can you really see this one playing out any other way?

Well, no matter what happens, I'll see you after.
~MAS

Start Me Up - Browns vs Bengals

That's right everybody, football is back and so is the regularly scheduled Start Me Up!

But before that, I'd just like to take a moment to commemorate this day, the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Too many good men and women lost their lives that day, and the impact of this was felt from friends and families across this great country and across the world. On a day like today, thinking back to the attitude of Americans in the aftermath of that fateful day 10 years ago, I am so incredibly proud to be an American. This country never quits. We fight back until justice has been served. And I am so thankful that many of the families and friends of victims of 9/11 have seen Osama Bin Laden pay for what he did to this country.

To  our men and women in uniform serving our country, I pray that you come home safely, and I thank you for your service.

I know we will always remember 9/11 as a tragic day, but we have not and will never let the terrorists win.

God Bless the USA.

Alright, back to the regularly scheduled football post, already in progress... So, because this is the first post of the season, there's going to be a bit of a season preview element in here.

As an aside, for those of you who still want some baseball coverage, you're going to have to look elsewhere. I'm sorry, the Indians are done, it's time to focus on something positive here, and what's more positive than Colt McCoy and the new Browns O?

That's really what I'm looking forward to the most out of today's game—watching this new West Coast offense at work. Granted it was a pretty small sample size, but everything from the first team's execution in the pre-season left me encouraged.

Of course, the problem with the offense is depth. 'Injuries have already hit the offensive line hard, as left guard Eric Steinbach is out for the season with a back injury, and right tackle Tony Pashos could be out for today's game with an ankle injury. Add that to the fact that we have a fairly inexperienced player at right guard in Shawn Lauvao, and The Real McCoy could be in some trouble. I've got to say, the new starter at left guard, Jason Pinkston, was not at all impressive when I saw him in the pre-season. That's probably a consequence of the lockout which wiped out the OTAs, so Pinkston wasn't able to study the playbook until August. That being said, with Pro Bowlers Joe Thomas and Alex Mack anchoring the line at left tackle and center, I still like our chances.

Another big question mark lies with the wide receivers. ClevelandBrowns.com lists Brian Robiskie as the #1 receiver and Mohammed Massaquoi as the #2, but I'd bet we're going to see a lot of Josh Cribbs and Greg Little on the field too. I have plenty of confidence in Cribbs, and Massaquoi showed flashes last year, but Robiskie is the one that really has something to prove this year, his third in the league. The reason I've got such a big question mark with them is that honestly, none of those guys are proven, reliable targets. The closest would be Massaquoi, but even he only has 70 receptions for 1,107 yards in two seasons. That's one productive season for many wideouts in the NFL. Just sayin'.

But besides the wideouts, keep an eye on tight end Evan Moore. He's a huge target that causes match-up problems for the defense, and can really catch passes. He seemed to have developed a really nice connection with McCoy in the preseason, and if he stays healthy, he could have a huge season.

Other than that, the offense should be great. McCoy has a football mind, has all the intangibles, and all from all indications is a great leader. With someone who actually understands offense calling the plays now in Pat Shurmur, the balance between pass and run should help both McCoy and our Madden cover-boy, Peyton Hillis. (And yes, that was a dig my favorite whipping boy, Brian Daboll)

Defensively...I'm really nervous. Switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3 is not going to be a process completed overnight, but with Dick Jaruron as the defensive coordinator, I feel pretty good about our coaching. You know Pat Shurmur knows little to nothing about defense, so it's great that he has someone with head coaching experience heading that unit.

We should be better against the run, with the bigs Athyba Rubin and Phil Taylor in the middle, but aside from Rubin, the D-line is seriously inexperienced. The secondary has standout second year players T.J. Ward and Joe Haden, but Sheldon Brown and Mike Adams seemed to be a bit inconsistent in the preseason.

But the biggest question mark on defense has got to be the linebackers. D'Qwell Jackson seems to be healthy again, and if he stays that way could have a great year in the new 4-3 defense. Scott Fujita played in the 4-3 defense in New Orleans, and has a Super Bowl ring from that experience. But he also battled health problems last year, and ended the season on the IR. Finally, Chris Gocong has a great chance to have a breakout year, but he might not even be able to play the first game. Now, the question mark comes from the fact that behind these guys—who have pretty serious injury issues—there really isn't much talent.

Basically, the whole season will ride on whether or not the Browns can stay healthy—much like the Indians. Think about it, if Joe Haden, Peyton Hillis or Colt McCoy goes down? You can forget about the Browns looking that great. What is working for us is that we have a fairly soft schedule, after playing one of the toughest last year. And even though we have that soft schedule, I'm going to go pessimist with my prediction for wins this season.

The Season Prediction: 6-10, 3rd Place AFC North.

We're going to be better than the Bengals, and we'll probably beat either Baltimore or Pittsburgh at home, but I just don't see us winning more than 7 games. I'd love to be wrong with this, but with the division we play in, combined with the facts that we lost a lot of time to the lockout and Shurmur is a rookie head coach, I just don't see the Browns making too many improvements for Ws this season. But I do think we've got the right building blocks in place for years to come.

Now for today...

The Prediction: CLE 28 - CIN 10

Cincinnati looked absolutely awful in the preseason, and if the Browns look anything like the first team we saw in the preseason, we should get a very nice W. Honestly, the Bengals could very well be the worst team in the league this year, so I'm thinking the Shurmur era of Browns football gets off to a great start. I really hope I'm right.

I'll see you at the half!
~MAS

Start Me Up - Browns vs. Bengals

Well the Browns travel down to southern Ohio today looking to improve their record to 6-8 as they take on the strug-a-ling 2-11 Cincinnati Bengals.

I don't think this game will by any means be an easy game to win for the team in brown and orange, but, let's be serious, this is a game they not only should win, but have to win in order to save Eric Mangini's job. A lot of people, myself included, were expecting a great win last week against the team ranked dead last in the league against the run, but I think a lack of offensive game plan other than "Peyton Hillis is going to run the ball, sometimes!" prevented that from happening. Hopefully they can get it squared away against a division rival this afternoon.

Offensively, I think the Browns will get back to where they were before losing to Jacksonville with Colt McCoy back as the starting quarterback. I wrote earlier in the week that McCoy seemed to have a better handle on the mid-range passes, and I believe the Browns will get back to more of the bootleg passes that they seemed to run so well with him. Whether or not Peyton Hillis keeps his hands on the football will also be huge today, as Cincinnati has the firepower to take advantage of turnovers, whether they have a 10 game losing streak or not. Also, it would be great if Josh Cribbs is healthy enough to take a bunch of snaps from the wildcat, as the lack of that package since the Jets game has obviously hurt the offense.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Browns are going to have to contain Terrell Owens a lot better than they did in week four when he gashed us for 10 catches and 222 yards and a touchdown. I think the secondary has been much improved since that time with the emergence of Joe Haden, and so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Carson Palmer has thrown for 3187 yards with 21 touchdowns and 18 interceptions, good for a 60% completion percentage and a 78.1 QB rating. This may not sound too bad from our perspective, but it's clearly a disappointment for that team as they thought they would be getting a marquee offense with T.O. and Ochocinco, but that just hasn't happened. They have Cedric Benson at running back, who is having a very average season with 856 yards rushing and six touchdowns, and only 3.5 yards per carry. I think Rob Ryan's crew should be able to handle these guys better than they did in the win in week 4.

I've picked the Browns to win every single one of these "Start Me Up"s that I've done, but I'm going to continue the trend today, if for nothing else than because I like Eric Mangini and I'd like to see him keep his job. Still, the Bengals are a mess of a team right now, and Colt McCoy coming back should give the Browns the shot in the arm they need to look like that team who beat the Saints and Patriots.

The Prediction: CLE 20 - CIN 10

A slight blogging note, I have a final from 2-5 today (I know, who gives a final on a Sunday?!) and so I clearly won't be doing a Halftime Blurb, and nor will I do a postgamer since I won't have seen the game. Check back mid-week to find the wrap up after I've gotten back to CLE and away from all finals.

Go Browns!
~MAS

We Got One!

It doesn't matter how you get it, you just want to get it, and today the Browns got their first win of the season. It was really starting to look bleak there during the second half, but the team stayed strong and controlled the clock in the fourth quarter to come away with a 23-20 victory against the Bengals.

I was really impressed by the tough running from Peyton Hillis today, especially in the second half. I have been an especially harsh critic of Brian Daboll, especially for what I found to be his lack of halftime adjustments, but I thought the Browns did a really nice job controlling the ball in the second half. Another thing that the Browns did well today was stay away from the turnovers. Even though Seneca Wallace threw an interception, it didn't turn out to be very costly - a credit to the defense. But again, I can't say enough about Hillis and how nice it is to see a big bruising back for the Browns' running game. I saw a graphic during the game today that I believe said that Peyton Hillis was the first Browns running back since 1975 to have a rushing touchdown in the first four games of the season. That's also great to see since the Browns haven't really had a consistent running attack since they came back in '99.

On the defensive side, it's definitely your day when you give up 371 yards passing and you still win. Carson Palmer really looked like he was back in form, and T.O. didn't look like he'd been in the league since 1996 (which I'm a little pissed about, because he's on my fantasy team and would've had a whopping 41 points if I'd started him...). But Rob Ryan's squad was able to pull out the victory with a little strategy called "Bend but not Break." It's not that I recommend that kind of thing, but if you're going to win in this league, a lot of times that is what's going to happen. Even though they gave up a disgusting amount of passing yards, they held the Bengals to only 67 yards rushing.

T.J. Ward committed a hit on Jordan Shipley that will probably get him fined, but all the same I think it gives off a nice impression to the rest of the league. I mean, yes I know Shipley got a concussion, and I know concussions are dangerous, and I'm not advocating for getting concussions, but I think that it's important to have a strong safety who's an enforcer - especially in the AFC North. I'm just saying that if you didn't know, now you know that Ward is a serious heavy hitter.

All in all, what's important is that the Browns got a huge win this week. Absolutely huge. We've got the Falcons next week - a game we can win if we play to our potential. I think having Jake Delhomme back next week will definitely help the passing offense, which has not been nearly as offensive as the past few years, but Mohammed Massaqoui could definitely use the boost of having his starting QB back in the huddle. But celebrate this win, Browns fans, it's always good to have one in the division. See you next week,

~MAS