Ultimate Rant

No rant here, but if you enjoy the dark side, click on the Arsonist's Daughter tab above for a deeper look into the abyss.

Cheers.

Brownie Bits

I have heard some lament how few wildcat touches Josh Cribbs gets per game.  With Peyton Hills' history of injuries and the mammoth workload he has undertaken in the past 5-6 games, it is now even more important to shift some of the attempts toward Cribbs.  It might even be necessary to gameplan the scrubbish Thomas Clayton into the offense.  The goal is for Hillis to avoid breaching the 370 touch threshold that most consider to be upper boundary regarding keeping a running back healthy season-over-season.

There have also been rumblings (have another pill Bernie) that if Mangina retains Colt McCoy as his starting QB when/if Seneca Wallace and/or Jake Delhomme are healthy, it would break the unwritten NFL rule that a player should never lose his job due to injury.  Granted, I've never been in an NFL locker room, but shouldn't the only, THE ONLY, metric that determines a starter be his ability to produce wins.  Some might argue that statistically, it's a toss up and that Wallace might be the better option for the rest of the season.  Are the Browns going to make the playoffs?  I'm not going to say no, but it's damn unlikely.  Colt McCoy is now clearly the future.  Any reps that he might lose due to the social graces of the league are unacceptable.  If Wallace wants to whine about it, I don't care.  Allow me to repeat -- I.  Don't.  Care.  Neither should you.  Neither should Mangenius.  Neither should other veterans playing well enough to keep their jobs.  In fact the only people this should concern are the under-performing as it might lead to a youth movement & the termination of their careers.  There is no quarterback controversy at this moment.  Anyone who disagrees is, with the utmost of respect, an idiot.

Whistle Stops

How to beat the Cover 2.

Cliff Lee's suitors -- Yankees, Rangers, Red Sox, Cubs, Angels, Astros, Phillies & Dodgers

The A's won the bidding to negotiate with Japanese stud right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma.  They paid $17mil to negotiate with the 30-year old starter.  Sheesh.

Cam Newton is a damn, dirty cheater.  I don't care.  Read it here.  (Is it weird that FoxSports is part of the Microsoft network?  Does that mean FoxNews:MSNBC::Colbert Report:Daily Show?)

There is conjecture (not mine) that the Tribe is pursuing ManRam as a free agent.

Jason Garret, fellow University School alumnus and brother of my freshman football coach, is now the Cowboys head man.  Let's see how long that lasts.  Cough... cough... Cowher... cough.

New Indians Unis

Note that the grey jersey with the block C cap is now the official road uniform.  The all-blue jersey with the all-blue small Wahoo is now an alternate, just like that awful cream jersey and odd red hat.  Chief Wahoo is dying my friends.  What a shame.  Soon he'll be relegated to the oblivion of the left sleeve like the Devil Ray in Tampa.  I do dig that block "Cleveland" though...

Time For St. Jude

I know, I know, the Buckeyes had a bye.  Yes, I am aware that there are still 4 unbeaten teams, all of which are due to have their tickets punched before OSU.  But I will tell ya, I'm getting pretty sick of this leapfrog BS.  The latest example?  Stanford.  Last week they were ranked 13th in the BcS.  They beat Arizona, who was ranked 15th.  Result?  Stanford is now 6th.  What?!  I can buy LSU jumping to 5 after they knocked of Alabama, but where is the logic of moving the Cardinal up 7 spots, jumping over 2.5 Big10 teams (Nebraska).  Another point of contention (I might post on the Big10 3 team tie-breaker system, but not today): conventional wisdom deems that Wisconsin should be ranked above Ohio State because the Badgers beat us.  Ok, but Michigan State beat Wisconsin.  True, the Spartans got throttled by Iowa, who lost to the Badgers.  The Bucks play the Hawkeyes in 2 weeks.  Does this mean that if we beat Iowa (currently #13), we then jump Wisconsin, Nebraska and Stanford?  Yes?  Probably not.  The fact of the matter is that the Big10 was done indelible damage by Ohio State's back-to-back ugly losses to SEC teams in the national championship game.  Until the conference proves that it can hang with the big boys on that kind of stage, the disrespect by the pollsters will continue.  Don't even get me started again on how we need to completely remove the repugnant subjectivity from the system.  Start rubbing those medals, kids, it's just not gonna happen this year.

Pretty Girl 11.09.10 - Jenna Fischer

The ultimate girl next door.

Bleeding Brown and Orange

Most people believe that NFL football returned to Cleveland in 1999 with a blowout loss to the Steelers.  Tim Couch made his debut that September night.  I take a different stance and contend that only as of Sunday Cleveland has a true NFL team for the first time in 15 years.  The Browns dominated the best team in the NFL (record wise as least) from kickoff to final whistle, for 60 minutes.  It was a thing of beauty, true quality smashmouth football.

Colt McCoy and Peyton Hillis are well on their way to folk hero status and with good reason.  I cannot recall a rookie QB appearing so comfortable and in control on the field.  McCoy is the winningest signal caller in FBS history and every snap he takes betrays that fact.  He plays impassioned ball while keeping his wits about him.  His ability for improvisation, either by land or air, is ridiculous.  While the game speeds up on so many people, the action appears to slow to a crawl for Colt, facilitating nearly faultless decision making.  His gamesmanship is a pleasure to watch.  As is Hills' absolute refusal to go down.  At times this may work against him, given his history on injury.  If the Browns can coach just a mote of restraint into the man and keep him healthy, then the sky is the limit.  That being said, the most impressive play Hillis made was on a reception down the right sideline, an incredibly athletic play for someone of his build, heck for anyone.  Add to the mix Thomas, Steinbach, and Mack on the line, Evan Moore as a 3rd down tight-end and potential for elegant trick plays and the Brownies have the true makings of an offense. 

The defense is enigmatic.  It was difficult to pinpoint what was so different about the corps on Sunday, but the Pats looked out of sync all day.  Tom Brady was frustrated, the receivers never became involved and the D avoided big plays.  Notably Eric Wright had an excellent game for the first time this year and the resolve that Abe Elam (I learned his name!) showed prying the ball out just before the half was astonishing.  While the pass rush was by no means overwhelming, there was more than enough to throw Brady Bieber off of his game and piss him off to no end.  While the team does not have an immense amount of talent, they are becoming proficient at playing mistake free football, an excellent first step in building toward playoff contention.

The future looks bright and, as opposed to the 2002 or 2007 seasons, there seems to be a foundation in place.  Instead of acrimony amongst the ranks and headcases playing over their heads, strong fundamentals and team unity are the words of the day.  Congrats Browns.  We appreciate the hard work and the results.

Cheers.