EXT. BONFIRE - NIGHT

Trevor and Sheila stand around a fire with about 10 other people, drinking beer and holding their arms out to the flame in celebration of the chemical change.  Mark walks up quickly holding a bottle of strawberry alcoholic beverage, looking eager.

Mark:  Wassup?

Trevor and Sheila grunt at him.

Mark:  How long have you guys been here?

Trevor:  Too long.

Mark:  What time you get here?

Sheila:What?  5?  It was still light..

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The Cleveland Browns return home on Sunday to take on the Baltimore Ravens in the first of three consecutive games against AFC North Division foes.

The Browns are coming off a game in Kansas City where they fell behind to the Chiefs, staged a rally, only crossed midfield once in their final five drives of the game, and walked out of Arrowhead Stadium the possessors of a moral victory to much jubilation.

As for an actual victory? Well … they’ll get back to us on that.

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The Cleveland Browns made the right move on Tuesday, deciding to take the risk and hold on to second-year wide receiver Josh Gordon.

The NFL trading deadline passed at 4 p.m. and Gordon remained on the roster despite weeks of speculation that he would be moved out of town in large part because he is firmly entrenched in the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.

While the Browns are taking a risk that Gordon will not receive another suspension down the road, it was the right move to make. The team already had enough trouble putting points on the board and Gordon is one of only two players on offensive (along with tight end Jordan Cameron) that opposing defenses need to think about come Sunday afternoon.

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If Joshua Cribbs, the former Kent State quarterback, is the best player on your team, you don't have much of a team. Like it or not, that was the sad truth, among many sad truths about the Cleveland Browns. I'm really not trying to take anything away from the guy, nor do I believe I'm coming with a fresh concept here. At times, he sure was brilliant, and he may have won two or three games for the Browns in his eight seasons on the North Coast, but how much different would the fan experience of the Browns been, had Cribbs never suited up for the Orange and Brown?

Personally, I liked Cribbs, and it went far beyond the Kent State/Northeast Ohio connection. I thought he was a great addition to any team for his work on special teams, but I was always a bit skeptical about what he could actually contribute to the game from the line of scrimmage, where most of the game is played. Look, there's an understanding that a good return man can certainly make things easier for an offense in a game that's about field position, like the NFL, opposed to the arena game and a lot of today's college games that are more about possessions. Cribbs came to the aid of more than a few inept Cleveland Browns offense, either by awarding them a short field or putting points on the board himself, thus eliminating the charade of Brian Daboll and Pat Shurmur's Red Zone gameplan.

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