Sunday, September 21, 2008

Where's Waldo

Do me a favor, find the W's on the Browns schedule.
Week 1 - Dallas - L
Week 2 - Pittsburgh - L
Week 3 - @ Baltimore - L
Week 4 - @ Cincinnati
Week 5 - Bye
Week 6 - NY Giants
Week 7 - @ Washington
Week 8 - @ Jacksonville
Week 9 - Baltimore
Week 10 - Denver
Week 11 - @ Buffalo
Week 12 - Houston
Week 13 - Indianapolis
Week 14 - @ Tennessee
Week 15 - @ Philadelphia
Week 16 - Cincinnati
Week 17 - @ Pittsburgh
Which games are sure things?

I guess you can count the home game against the Texans.... and the Colts haven't looked like world beaters (they should be 0-3). If the Browns lose next week, I'm not sure they win a road game all season (well, if the Steelers rest their starters in Week 17...).

I mean, do you trust them at Washington? Nope. At Tennessee? HA! At Philly? I don't think so. At Jacksonville? Heh. At Buffalo? Eh...

Maybe I'm a pessimist, but this season is very close to getting very ugly (if we arent' there already). You know what's sick? I'm agreeing with Bill Simmons opinions about a Cleveland team (from his NFL preview column):

I'm not a big fan of this formula: Artificially high expectations + too many nationally televised games (five in all) + brutal schedule + too much luck last season (what are the odds of them getting 32 games from Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards again?) + brewing QB controversy + horrible preseason = Yikes.

Also, their two biggest offseason moves were fundamentally illogical: Trading for Shaun Rogers and keeping Derek Anderson. In the salary-cap era, you can't keep Anderson (who had two good months and tailed off) after dealing a future No. 1 and committing all that money to Brady Quinn. It's like drafting QBs in the first two rounds of a fantasy draft -- yeah, you can do it, but it never works. Why not trade Anderson for two draft picks and back the guy who you loved so much a year before? And why compound the error by trading your 2nd and 3rd round picks plus a valuable cornerback (Leigh Bodden) for expensive and possibly shaky defensive linemen (Corey Williams and Shaun Rogers). That's a swing of four draft picks plus Bodden! Didn't they see what happened with the Giants last year? If you made a "How to win the Super Bowl" formula, would "Pay two quarterbacks big money" and "Don't get anything from your draft" be two of the pieces? OF COURSE NOT!!! On the bright side, "taking the Browns to the Super Bowl" remains my favorite euphemism for making a doody.

I can't find much to disagree with. Sure, I like the Rogers trade (I'm actually OK with the secondary and wasn't that high on Bodden) but their lack of depth is really showing right now. I'm with him on trading/letting go of DA.

But of course it looks good in retrospect... but I really didn't expect there to be an actual QB controversy this season... I expected Anderson to play so-so but have the Browns to stick with him out of loyalty/consistency/general stupidity. But he's been awful. He was absolutely dreadful throughout the second half today.

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Also, what else does Jerome Harrison have to do to get playing time? Did he even touch the ball in the second half? And do the Browns have linebackers? I never hear their names called...

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