The season doesn’t necessarily ride on this game, but if the Browns lose to the Steelers like they did the Cowboys last week, it will be hard to stay excited about the season. Cleveland needs to show some form of life. They need to look more like a team that has playoff hopes and less like the St. Louis Rams. It’s going to be a tough game. The defense is more banged up than Carl Parvano. Mike Adams and Nick Sorensen are our starting safeties for God sake. You can’t have a good defense if Nick Sorensen is starting for you. That means the defensive line will have to get to Roethlisberger. They put less pressure on Tony Romo last week than on a home less guy picking out his outfit for the day. But the real key, besides not dropping passes and remembering the snap count, Braylon, will be stopping the run. Combine the Browns run defense with Willie Parker’s performance last week and things don’t look good. However, I’m going with karma. It’s Sunday night football. The last time the Browns beat the Steelers was on Sunday night football. (The Browns wore orange pants in that game. Maybe the should do the same this game. But while I’m thinking of uniforms, why did the Browns wear their white road uni’s last week? Was it to force Dallas to wear their blue which the almost never wear? Stupid move. If you are the Browns, you wear your brown jerseys whenever you can. Just not brown pants.) The football Gods have to be bored with watching Pittsburgh whip up on Cleveland twice a year, every year. This is the time it changes. The Browns will be fired up (or should be but if Romeo is giving them the pep talk I wouldn’t be surprised if the team stormed out of the locker, all fired up, but instead of taking the field, they ran to Panini’s and all ordered the pastromi sandwich). They (should) know this game means everything to us fans. A win, and the season will look more promising than any other season we can remember. A loss, and let’s start looking for those top college players. Because it’s going to be hard to go into Cincinnati and Baltimore, as bad as those teams are, and win both games. Heading into the bye week 1-3 or 0-4 and DA is traded to New England. The return of Josh Cribbs (look, that’s a pun) will be huge. Huge enough to get the win, I think.
In other games… (last week I only went 7-8 so what do I know)
New England over NY Jets – Favre makes start 256 (or something like that) in a row. Matt Cassel makes start number one. And out plays him. (Of course I’m not really picking with my head. I met Cassel and like I’ve said before, his incredible hot sister.)
Tennessee over Cincy – Long live Kerry Collins.
Carolina over Chicago – I just can’t pick a team led by Kyle Orton, unless it’s a drinking team.
Jacksonville over Buffalo - I think Buffalo players are so happy to play road games and get out of Buffalo, that they really don’t care about the game.
Green Bay over Detroit – If Aaron Rodgers can play that well against the Vikings defense, imagine how great he’ll do against a high school team.
Indy over Minnesota – An 0-2 start for Minnesota, 2-0 for Green Bay, makes it hard to win a division that way. Indy hasn’t be 0-2 since 1998.
Kansas City over Oakland – really, who cares?
New Orleans over Washington – Marues Colston is out but for the Redskins to have a chance, they need Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Duece McAllister, David Patton, Devery Henderson, Terrance Copper and the entire offensive line to have some sort of illness and miss the game.
NY Giants over St. Louis – I hate seeing the Giants win.
Seattle over San Francisco – Could be the ugliest, lowest scoring game in the history of the NFL.
Miami over Arizona – My sleeper pick needs this win more than Jessica Simpson needs to stop being talked about on ESPN.
Houston over Baltimore – Baltimore was lucky enough to start the season against the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility to get a win. They only play them one more time this year.
Philly over Dallas – based soley on the fantasy value need having McNabb, Westbrook and Jackson.
*** FYI *** Monday may not be a post day since I’ll be at the Browns game late and then will be busy at work. Sorry to disappoint you but don’t let this news ruin your weekend. Enjoy the games and go Browns.
