Capitol Dawg Pound

You want to know how out of touch with Cleveland fans the Browns' organization is??? Go to ClevelandBrowns.com today.

I went to my team's website expecting to hear some spin about how the Browns are going to rebuild for a better year in 2007, how the front office has a plan to fix morale problems, how Romeo really just needs one more year to realize his coaching potential.

Instead, I thought that I had been redirected to some Brokeback Mountain spoof... There's a picture of a chest-bearing cowboy wearing a pearl necklace and tight jeans on the homepage. It looks like the Browns are more interested in pimping some country cowboy concert than in winning back those disillusioned die-hard fans who bothered to visit the website of the third-worst team in the league during the playoffs... If I want lame, overpriced concert tickets, I'll go to ticketmaster -- not ClevelandBrowns.com. I guess I need to go someplace else to find out what the hell is wrong with this franchise...

I'm sick of Chad Johnson talking. I want to see Bodden pick Palmer for 6. I want to see the defense show up this week and stuff the run. I want to see Droughns running up the middle on 3rd and 1. I want to see a blitz.

No matter what happens this week, at least we won't have to hear ravings about Reggie Bush's "magic feet". I guess with $100,000 you can buy a pair of those.

I think many fans over-reacted to the loss last week, but we did have higher hopes going into the season. But the Bungles have shown a weakness against the run and if the Browns stick to a sensible gameplan of power running and quick passes to keep the rush off Frye, they do have a shot this week.

Well, there is always good news and bad news in Cleveland. The bad news is that Joe Jurevicius will not play this Sunday. The good news is that the MRI revealed the ribs were not broken. The bad news is that if these players don't stop making mindless penalties, this team is not going anywhere. We played poorly against New Orleans and still had a chance there at the end. We can not play the same against Cincinnati or else we will get demolished. We need some good coaching to get these guys' heads out of their asses. The players need to perform on the field, but these coaches need to perform in the lockerroom. These next two games are going to be tough to pull out, but if we go on the road to Oakland and not win... this is going to be a long season.

Thursday night was the Browns' first preseason game. They came out average at best. The offense was very stagnant. The first team offense only came out for 2 drives in which Droughns had 4 carries for 21 yards and Frye was 4 of 7 for 23 yards. However, the bright side of the game was the defense. The best part was it was the younger/newer players that made the difference. Brodney Pool had at least 4 key plays. David McMillan had back to back sacks to force the Eagles to punt which resulted in the Browns having fantastic field position. Additionally, young first rounder, Wimbley, looked quick off the outside, giving fans a lot of hope. Unfortunately, Winslow dropped a ball and missed another fairly easy catch, and Frisman Jackson dropped a ball. 3rd round hold out Travis Wilson caught a 20 yard pass from Lang Campbell to eventually set up an 8 yard touchdown pass from Campbell to Jerome Harrison in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. What really impressed fans was the play of Alonzo Ephraim, starting center. With Bentley out for the season and Hallen turning in his retirement papers today, he is going to be the center piece to the offensive line (no pun intended, well, maybe a little). The reason why they can't go with Rob Smith, according to Crennell, is because he sweats too much on the ball which causes the quarterbacks to have a tendency of dropping or throwing incorrectly. The tandem of Heiden and Winslow looks very promising, and both Jurevicious and Northcutt caught balls from Frye. Hopefully, offensive coordinator is taking it easy in the preseason to protect from injuries, but he needs to be more aggressive if we want to average more than 14.5 points per game this year. The first defensive series, the Browns came out soft, but came up with a huge stop on the .5 yard line to force the Eagles to kick a field goal. The rest of the half with the first team played extremely aggressive on defense and looked promising after the first drive.

The Browns' draft seems to be impressing more and more NFL experts...
I liked the Cleveland draft on paper last April. I gave the Browns my one A+ on the grade card.
The Browns like their draft even more now that they've seen their rookies on the field in training camp. Second-rounder D'Qwell Jackson (right) could start at inside linebacker in Romeo Crennel's 3-4 defensive scheme. Other early standouts from this rookie class are second-day picks Leon Williams (ILB, fourth round), Jerome Harrison (RB, fifth round) and Lawrence Vickers (FB, sixth round).
Take a look at Rick Gosslen's "Grade Card", the Browns' get an A+, the rest of the Division couldn't pass the state exit exam. (No retakes on the field!)

Summer TV sucks. After one aborted attempt to watch "America's Got Talent" (hint: apparently it doesn't), I have been stymied in my attempts to find decent entertainment.

But there is hope.

The Brown and Orange will soon grace my screen again. We West-Coasters must depend on tape-delayed NFL Network airings of preseason games for our Brownie fix, but it's better than nothing. The schedule is as follows in PST:

Friday, August 11th Cleveland at Philadelphia- 1:00 PM
Saturday, August 19th Detroit at Cleveland - 1:00 PM
Tuesday, August 29th Cleveland at Buffalo - 1:00 PM
Saturday, September 2 Chicago at Cleveland - 7:00 AM

Live, tape-delayed, youtube.com internet streams, I could care less. Anything with the Browns on TV that isn't an ESPN Classic airing of "The Drive" will do.

NOTE:
If you don't have the NFL Network, you'll want to find out who does. Likely one of the biggest games of the next season, Pittsburgh at Cleveland, will air on the NFL network on December 7th (the NFL network got the rights to Thursday Night Football under the new TV package).

The Cubs have the goat and the Red Sox had the Babe. Now the Browns have Lake Erie. Once again, Cleveland Browns fans are devistated before the season even starts. Their biggest offseason acquisition, LeCharles Bentley, suffered a torn patella tendon in his left knee which will keep him out for the entire 2006 season. At first, they were hoping for just a partial tear which would have kept Bentely sidelined for only part of the season; however, after a MRI on Thursday, they ruled that Bentley would need surgery. As a result, Bentley will be heading into surgery first thing Friday morning. Bentley was the cornerstone to the Browns new offensive line. Fortunately, the injury occured early enough for Crennel/Savage to make adjustments before the season starts, but to lose a Pro Bowl player will definately be a big disadvantage for sophomore quarterback, Charlie Frye.

According to Crennel (courtesy of ClevelandBrowns.com), "Nothing has changed, but when you lose a Pro Bowl player, you're not quite as good. I told the team we're going to need some guys to pick up the slack, and I think they will. I'm still excited about the season."

Unfortunately, Crennel decided to keep the players out of full pads yesterday to prevent them from going full throttle trying to avoid injuries. Fortunately, it wasn't a defensive lineman that caused the injury (rumors were that Ted Washington accidently stepped on him), but was rather a result of just landing on the knee wrong.