Monday, October 20, 2008

Random Thoughts from the Weekend

1. Nice win for OSU. Good to see them actually dominate a team for once.

2. If OSU wants any shot at the title game (or any BCS game), they're going to have to beat teams soundly. Ohio State won't get any love from the polls this year; no benefit of the doubt.

3. A good win against Penn State would really help their fortunes.

4. I said this to my friends after the Wisconsin game, but Terrell Pryor is the real deal. You can tell that he's still young and he makes his fair share of mistakes (you're allowed to throw it away) but it's pretty obvious that this kid is chock full of talent.

5. Like the second play from scrimmage.... oh, we're backed up in our own territory.... nope, one run and we're at mid-field.

6. However, eventually he's going to have to win a game this year with his arm. Tressel hasn't really let him loose (the play calling can be remarkably uncreative) but at some point teams will just be daring him to throw (if they aren't already).

7. This was really cool. I'm glad Pryor is setting the bar high. He knows he's directing an offense (and team) that had title aspirations.

8. Beanie Wells is really good. The more I see him run (and after the way USC lost) the more I realize how much the Buckeyes really missed him in that game.

9. The Browns.... fuck me.

10. 14. of. 37. 14-37. 14/37.

11. Twice they started inside their 50.... nada. The last drive... DA go the first down on the sneak and they needed 5-11 more yards to give Dawson a fair chance of making the game tying field goal.... nada.

12. Anderson is six foot fucking five, there's no reason why he should have so many god damned tipped passes.

13. Does Edwards only catch balls if he's had two weeks to prepare? Or is it a 'once every 5 games' type deal. Maybe he should drink some 5 hour energy before he hits the field...

14. You can't put this loss on the defense, they did what they had to do. This loss is placed soley on the shoulders of the offense. The D has given the Browns a chance to beat both Pittsburgh and Washington, the offense didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

15. Terry Pluto is right, this is simply a 2-4 team. They derserve to be where they are.

15. Winslow's most recent outburst isn't making this season any more fun. It's not like we have an underachieving team, a brewing QB controversy and a coach who's clock management skills are so terrible, I'm shocked he can set his alarm every morning... a trade demand (or almost) is the extra spice that this season was lacking.

16. Kellen saying that he almost asked for a trade is just about as helpful as actually demanding a trade. You're still unhappy, the media is still going to beat this story into the ground and fans will still be upset. Saying "I almost demanded a trade" is the equivilant of saying "you know, I could've done something really asshole-ish right there, but I didn't. Just lettin you know, I could've decided to be a real dick. But I won't." I mean, what's the point?

16. Look, I can't imagine what Winslow has gone through. He gets another staph infection and says the Browns didn't want to tell the media (the Browns have had way more than their fair share, it wouldn't be suprising if they wanted to keep it under wraps). So instead, he gets to hear speculation about his nuts swelling, that has to be fun. THEN the Browns go out (sans K2) and lay a whooping on the Giants, with people speculating that maybe the Browns might have a better offense without Winslow (run blocking!). Then the Browns' offense goes out and take a big stinky dump in Washington. I can see why the dude might be venting.

17. And I'm sure there's a grain of truth to Pluto saying it's all about money, but I don't know if we can pin everything on his contract. If what Winslow says is true, then he got to be brunt of jokes so the Browns wouldn't have had to publically deal with another staph infection case. That's taking one for the team... and if Savage really didn't contact him while he was sick, I don't blame him for being pissed off.

18. But again, the outburst isn't helping anyone. (and who really knows if he's telling the truth. Maybe he's just daring the Browns to say, "nope, he didn't have a staph infection, it was his giant swollen balls that kept him out." But somehow, I doubt it).

19. I heard a great nickname for Romeo today: Crennelephant. Tell me that isn't awesome. [Update] The Crennelephant has confirmed that Winslow had a staph infection. I'm sure he's thrilled with the outburst.

20. Jerome Harrison got three touches. Three. And I'm fairly confident that they call came late in the 4th period. This is just getting stupid.


21. This Brett Favre story pisses me off. Not because of what Favre did (douche move, but I really don't give a shit) but because now ESPN is going to be 'all Favre, all the time' yet AGAIN. Lord help us all if T.O. starts mouthing off after the 'Boys loss to St. Louis. I could easily lose my mind.


22. "I swear to God, if the Red Sox win tonight, I may murder someone" - Ben Cox, October 19th 2008, 8:07 PM.


23. That being said, if we reach November and the state of Florida has three world series titles in the past 12 years.... I may murder someone. Go Phillies!



24. It's nice that Ben Wallace enjoys being out of the spotlight. I just wonder how good his mood will be if he's out of the starting lineup.


25. Terry Pluto talks about Sasha Pavlovic becoming the Cavs starting 2-guard, basically by default. I think he's right; Sasha is bigger than West and quicker than Wally. My big thing with Sasha is consistency, mainly with regards to his shooting. If he can knock down the open 3 on a regular basis, it would do wonders for this team.

26. I know it's preseason, but I really enjoyed the Cavs first win on Saturday night. I was lucky enough to catch the end of the game on the radio (dear lord I love Joe Tait) and it was great to hear that the reserves lead them to victory. I was intrigued by the five that Mike Brown had on the court in the final minutes: West, Gibson, Pavlovic, Hickson and Varejao. That (really young) group finished the game with a 20-2 run. (Also, with Brian Windhorst joining Terry Pluto at the PD, Cleveland's biggest paper will finally have some decent Cavs coverage. Going from cranky Bill Livingston, Branson Wright and Roger Brown to Windhorst and Pluto makes quite a difference).

27. Having Mo Williams get himself ejected didn't help with the chemistry development issues (can Mo, West and Gibson share the court at once, small-ball style?), but I don't mind the feistyness

28. Speaking of young guys, Cavs rookie Darnell Jackson will miss 5-6 weeks with a broken wrist. Now, this isn't a good thing by any means, but it might mean that we'll see a teensy bit more of JJ Hickson. I'm high on both rooks, but I don't think that this will really set him back too far.

29. I'm so very glad that Billmon is back. Same with Fafblog.

30. A few of my friends are in the band Falling Into Fire. I might do some recording with them at some point. Check 'em out, they're too talented to be hanging out with the likes of me. (Also, in other Ben Cox news, at some point this NFL season, I may be posting links to some podcasts. We'll see what happens).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

12. Anderson might actually get so many passes batted BECAUSE he's 6'-5" and has a rifle arm. He doesn't have to put any air under the ball to get it downfield. His height also means he doesn't have to look over anybody at the line, so the idea of a lineman jumping and batting the ball never enters his mental equation. So he seldom throws the ball upward. He just throws it on a line.

15. Winslow is gone by draft day. There is a reason why Savage spent two picks to get Martin Rucker. There is some simmering tension between Savage and Winslow, probably dating to the fallout from his bike crash, and now it's starting to boil over as K2 is seeking a new deal. Savage would probably just as soon sell high before Winslow's body really starts to break down.

26. Hickson is the wild card. If he can produce to the tune of even 9 points and 6 boards as a rookie, this team suddenly gets a lot deeper. If not, Ferry will have to make a move. But it's nice to see the youngster get a chance to prove himself, as opposed to being buried on the end of the bench from the outset. That's a tough trick for a rookie to pull on a team with title aspirations.

Ben said...

That's a good call on Anderson. Hadn't thought of it that way. I remember when Peyton Manning first came into the league, he was getting a lot of passes knocked down while Doug Flutie was doin fine.

Ya, I could probably see Winslow getting dealt. I really think they've missed the boat on Anderson, he should've been traded.

I heard that Minnesota offered the Browns 2 first round picks for Quinn. That's insane. I'm not sure I'd do it though. What the hell does that say about your team when you can get two firsts for your backup QB and you really don't want to do it.

With Wallace's back issues and Jackson's wrist, Hickson could see some minutes early on this season. I really want to see him on the court with LBJ- I really want to see what James can do with an athletic big man.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe for one second that Minny offered two first-round picks for Quinn. Not for a guy drafted #22.

I agree that Winslow will be dealt. I wouldn't have always thought that, but now it seems like the relationship between the two parties is really bad. It just makes all the more sense when you consider his knee is going to be shot, real quick. And quite honestly, Browns lack so much depth that to get picks would be good for this team.

Chud has been terrible for the most part with his game planning and playcalling. Crennel has been awful at managing the clock. Oh, and Braylon.....this guy is like the Anti-LeBron, not living up at all to the hype. He's probably my least favorite Brown because his mouth and his inability to back it up (sorry if I posted this recently, it just bugs the shit out of me).

Anonymous said...

Just read ESPN's preview capsule of the Cavs. Man, Ric Bucher freaking hates this team. Sixth in the East? Five teams are better than the Cavs in the Eastern Conference? Seriously?

And can everyone get past the myth of the Cavs don't have enough frontcourt scoring to beat the "truly" elite teams in the playoffs? They almost beat the Celtics with this supposedly-impotent frontcourt, and if the ESPN-types would take a certain part of KG's anatomy out of their collective mouth for a minute or two, they might realize their beloved Celtics won it all because Paul Pierce played out of his mind for about a month. KG was solid, but he wasn't the reason the Celtics won #17.

Rant over. I feel better now. Thank you.

Ben said...

Bucher has the Cavs 6th, Chard Ford, John Hollinger, Jalen Rose and Chris Sheridan have then 5th.

There is no way in hell that the Cavs don't have home court in at least the first round of the playoffs.

This is by far the best and most complete team of the LeBron-Brown era. They went from having no compitent point guards to two. Delonte West was an upgrade over everyone last year and now he's coming off the bench. That's a huge upgrade and it should make the offense a lot more consistant.

For the Cavs to be 6th, they'd have to finish behind Boston, Philly, Detroit, Toronto and Orlando. I don't really see that happening.