Monday, October 8, 2007

Just another losing Sunday......

Three games on Sunday and three losses as the Indians lost Game 3 of the ALDS to the Yankees,The Browns lost as expected to the Patriots and the Seahawks lost in humbling fashion to the Steelers.

The Browns played the Patriots closer than any of their other victims in a 34-17 loss,but the game could have been closer and more interesting.
With the Pats leading 3-0 in the first quarter,the Browns marched to the New England 1 yard line for a first and goal.
The Browns then called two passes of the 3 plays and the 3rd was intercepted taking all momentum away from Cleveland.
New England then proceeded to take the ball and score a touchdown and the game was likely gone.
I was pleased in the Browns effort in playing the powerful Pats even up in the second half and never stopping grinding the game and got as close as 27-17.
New England scored a garbage TD with under a minute left on a Kellen Winslow fumble for the final score.
Derek Anderson threw 3 picks,but did fire 2 TD's and I thought made a fair showing considering the opposition and it looks even better when you consider that he had Jason Wright as his running back for most of the game after Jamal Lewis was injured on his first carry of the contest.
Another nice game for the improving Braylon Edwards with 6 grabs for 110 yards.
I am really impressed with the improved effort from Edwards this year.
Another player that I have ragged on played an excellent game yesterday.
Rookie CB Eric Wright played his best game of the season in basically controlling Randy Moss.
No other team had done that yet,so great to see Wright having a good outing.
Big injury losses with the losses of Lewis and Joe Jurevicious.
Lewis will have an MRI done on his injured right foot today,while JJ injured a knee and will know more today.
All and all,the loss was expected ,but some mistakes could have been prevented and maybe kept the first half closer.
If you do that,anything can happen.
We haven't seen New England challenged yet,would have been nice to have seen it yesterday and it could have happened.
The Browns return home next week at 1:00 to play the winless Miami Dolphins.

The Seattle Seahawks battled on even terms with Pittsburgh for most of the first half.
The Steelers scored the first points on their last drive of the first half to lead 7-0 and with the clock winding down in the half,Seattle was knocking on the door to respond with at least a field goal,if not a touchdown.
However,Matt Hasselbeck threw a awful pass that even the noted stone handed Steeler Ike Taylor could not drop and that ended the drive,the half and any other threat that the Hawks could muster in a 21-0 defeat.
The Steelers controlled the ball for 14 minutes and all but 3 plays in the 3rd quarter and the result was one touchdown and a drive that resulted in the Pittsburgh TD in the 4th quarter.
I cannot blame the Seattle defense under the circumstances that they played under.
A lesser defense would have allowed twice as many points.
The offense was simply inept as Shaun Alexander continues his steep decline and after the loss of Deion Branch to a sprained foot,the Hawks were sending out receivers that are strictly special team material.
Hard to say much positive other than Julian Peterson and Lofa Tatupa are going back to the Pro Bowl.
Seattle returns to action next Sunday night in the evening game against the winless New Orleans Saints.

The Indians knocked Roger Clemens out of the box and looked to be on their way to eliminating the Yankees,but it was not to be as the New Yorkers grabbed Game 3 8-4.
Cleveland led 3-0 paced by a Trot Nixon homer,but Jake Westbrook was hammered for 6 runs in 5+ innings and the Yankees finished with 7 combined runs between the 5th and 6th innings.
The Tribe's vaunted pitching just isn't that great once you get past Sabathia and Carmona.
Westbrook and Game 4 starter Paul Byrd are just pedestrian starters.
Byrd attempts to close the series tonight at 7:30 vs Chien-Ming Wang for New York.


Bullpen Notes

Lost a lot of respect for supposed class acts Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau for their antics in yesterday's win over the Browns.
The taunting and celebrating for these two veterans was way overboard considering that their efforts were in a home game against the Cleveland Browns.
Hooray for you....

Watched the Samuel Peter-Jameel McCline fight.
Better than expected action wise as surprisingly it was McCline scoring all three knockdowns.
Peter won a razor thin unanimous decision.
We had the fight a draw at 114-114.

The New Jersey Devils are in Ottawa for a 3:00 game against the high powered Senators.
Today is Columbus Day in the USA,while being Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

Photo Credits
Browns defense-Elsa-Getty Images
Tatupu-Scott Eklund-Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Hafner-Bill Kostroun-AP Photo

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