Why Yes, That is a Sigh of Relief

It's no secret that I was super nervous for today's game. The prediction in the Start Me Up really says all you need to know. But oh is it nice to be pleasantly surprised with this 27-19 victory over the Colts.

Yes, the Colts are a shell of themselves without Peyton Manning, but in the NFL a win is a win, you can't turn up your nose at it. And besides, the Browns played pretty darn well today once we got out of the mess that was the first quarter.

Offensively, the Browns made the West Coast offense look exactly like it's supposed to. Colt McCoy was  20/32 for 211 yards and a touchdown. That's a 69% completion rate and a 97.3 rating. Hopefully Colt can keep that up, because we haven't seen consistent production like that for a very long time. Mohammed Massaquoi was today's leading receiver with 3 catches for 45 yards, while Josh Cribbs and Greg Little also had nice games with 3 catches for 41 yards, and 4 catches for 38 yards, respectively. Evan Moore made the touchdown catch—a 16 yarder. I'd still like to see a little bit better production out of the wide outs, but when we score 27 points and win it's a little hard to complain.

One thing I'm still not too happy about is the running game. I'm not sure what it's going to take to get these guys going up front, but 94 yards on 27 carries is just not good enough for Hillis. Don't get me wrong, he had some big runs, especially late in the game, but we've got to get him averaging more than 3.5 yards a carry. He's a better back than that, bur tight now the offensive line is not doing him justice.

The other thing I didn't like today was the fumbles. Four times the Browns put the ball on the ground today, four times. I don't care that we only lost one, we've got to do a much better job of securing the football. Those bounces won't go our way when we're playing better teams.

Defensively, I just think we did a really great job. There were a few times when the Colts got down in the red zone, and the Browns defense never seemed to waver until "garbage time" at the end of the game. We did allow 109 yards on the ground, but thats's really not so bad considering what we allowed against Cedric Benson last week. Kerry Collins was just 19/38 for 191 yards, 1 TD (in garbage time) and 1 INT.

Individually, the defensive line had a fantastic day. Rookie Jabaal Sheard showed a whole lot of progress from last week, with 5 tackles—one for loss—a sack, and a QB hit. As I said in the Halftime Blurb, Phil Taylor and Athyba Rubin also had great games with five and four tackles, respectively. There was a drive when the Browns just gave up run after run after run, but for the most part, I think this new look defensive front has made some major improvements from last year.

Also, we have got to find ways to keep the ball in Josh Cribbs' hands. I mean, this guy must have really been hurt last year, because he didn't look anything like he has so far this year. He is a game changer no matter where he is on the field, and it's a pleasure to watch him.

So what's the bottom line? The Browns got a win. We won't be 0-16. And we're tied for 1st place in our division! (Never mind that the rest of the division has a 1-1 record too.)

Enjoy this one Browns fans. It's going to be a Happy Monday!

See you next week,
~MAS

Start Me Up - Browns @ Colts

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