Browns fall in Oakland,Seahawks rally to beat Bengals.

The Cleveland Browns played poorly and still had a chance to win,but Phil Dawson's 40 yard field goal to win the game was blocked by the Raiders and gave Oakland a 26-24 win.
The Browns defense is going to struggle all year.
Get used to it.
The Raiders were able to consistently run the football on the Browns with LaMont Jordan and Justin"huggy bear Jr."Fargas.
Last I checked those two weren't exactly Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen.
Wait until better runners come calling.
A personal favorite was Jordan running through the Browns for first down on a 3rd and 23 shovel pass.
Of course,it isn't like the pass defense covered itself in glory either.
Eric Wright was beat by Ronald Curry for a TD and he wasn't even on the television screen when Curry waltzed into the end zone.
Mary Kay Cabot in the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that Wright could even be benched.
That I disagree with even though Wright deserves it,there is no one on the bench that can replace him,so let him play and continue to gather experience.
Let's see where Wright stands after a full season of play.
That said,he has been awful thus far.
And one of the important yet overlooked plays of the game was a completion for 20 yds to Jerry Porter on 3rd and 9 late in the game.
This play allowed Oakland to make Cleveland use timeouts and handcuff the offense on the last drive of the day.
The pass rush outside of Kamerion Wimbley is non-existent.
Wimbley had both of Cleveland's sacks in the game,so nice to see he showed up at least.
Derek Anderson was a bit erratic,but showed guts and poise on the last drive to set up the possible win.
Anderson ran for one touchdown and threw for another,but did get intercepted twice.
His last drive performance impressed me as he had not had a great game,yet was able to keep things calm when it was needed.
Jamal Lewis only rushed for 56 yards on 15 carries,maybe a further commitment to wearing teams down with Lewis will open things up for the passing game.
Josh Cribbs is rapidly becoming one of the leagues most feared kick returners as he took a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown.
This was a winnable game,despite less than stellar play and this could haunt the Browns and Romeo Crennel as the next two games look like probable losses to Baltimore and New England.

Meanwhile in Seattle,the Seahawks rallied to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Emerald City 24-21 on a Matt Hasselbeck to Nate Burleson pass from 22 yards with a minute to go.
Hasselbeck threw TD passes to Bobby Engram and Deion Branch as well as part of his 3 TD day/
Shaun Alexander rushed for 100 yards and seems to be turning the corner on the comeback trail.
I cannot give more specifics on the game as I haven't watched the tape yet.
When both teams play at the same time,the Browns win out.
I will try to give some thoughts later in the week.

Bullpen Notes

From the Sour Grapes times.....
Lane Kiffin whined all week about the tactics of Denver's Mike Shanahan in calling time-outs on a field goal attempt in the Raiders overtime loss and then did the EXACT same thing to Cleveland.
And no,I don't want to hear about how the Raiders "deserved " to win because they lost to the Broncos in the same fashion.
Using that logic,the Browns can do that down the road and then they deserve that win.
It is a never ending cycle using that logic.

More on this-watch for the NFL to make a rule change next year on this.
I would wager the rule will be this-If you want to ice the kicker,you must call the timeout before all players are set.

Congratulations are in order for the Cleveland Indians for clinching the AL Central title.
I have gotten several questions on why the Indians don't get covered here as much,yet their minor league system gets equal coverage to the Pirates.
Hang in there,Upcoming column on why is this and we will have a lot of coverage of the Tribe's playoff run.


On the topic of congrats-a tip of the hat to Brett Favre for tying Dan Marino's career TD record in yesterday's Packer win over the Chargers.
I have always been a Favre fan and I root for just about anyone to erase Dan Marino's name from record books....

Speaking of the Chargers,Did anyone else see the hiring of Norv Turner as a disaster in the making?
Oh,half the world?
Never mind.

Buffalo rookie and former Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny broke his arm and could be out for the season.
He was playing quite well for the Bills and looked to be the early leader for defensive rookie of the year.
Have a great story on Podluszny for a slow day,as it was a rare Big Ten issue that Ryan and I were on the same side of and the linebacker was involved-live and in color!

The new POTUS channel debuted on XM radio this morning.
The channel will deal with nothing but the Presidential election for the next 14 months.
I like the premise and will likely listen here and there,but what a stupid name.........

Can anyone believe that the Canadian Loonie (dollar) is now equal to a US dollar.
Stunning,but for the first time since 1976,the two are worth the same value...........

And finally,looking forward to this weekends Middleweight title fight between Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik.
The fight is televised by HBO and I will have a pick later in the week.

Photo Credits
Browns-Marcio Jose Sanchez-AP Photo
Seahawks-Ted Warren-AP Photo