Take a second to list all of the “elite” quarterbacks in the NFL, however you define elite. Here’s my list, in no particular order:

Aaron Rodgers

Drew Brees

Tom Brady

Peyton Manning

Now, make another list of the quarterbacks that have either led their team to a Super Bowl or could conceivably lead their team to a Super Bowl in the near future. Here’s what I came up with:

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After another solid day at the office, the Cleveland Browns defense has become the strength of the team.

The Browns are currently third in the NFL in total defense 291.5 yards per game), eighth in points allowed (and tops in the AFC North), fourth in rushing (79 yards per game), and tops in the league in yards per carry (2.9).

“They really, really have played well. I can’t be more pleased with our defense,” Browns coach Rob Chudzinski said in his Monday press conference. “We’ve improved. You look at the secondary as a whole, that was the best performance and best game that they played to date this season. We just continue to get better and better in that area.”

And as the Browns get ready to hit primetime on Thursday against Buffalo, the defense is drawing some national attention.

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Irrespective of venue, the surest way to lose money in a high/low game of poker is to choose the middle course, or worse to shift course once committed.

When the Cleveland Browns traded Trent Richardson (20 carries, 60 yards on Sunday, a tidy 3 yards/carry, again), it seemed that they had committed to go low to improve their lot in next year's draft. But with another improbable win against a supposedly improved Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday the Browns find themselves tied for first in a poor division and probably pondering whether to shift course and now go high.

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The Cleveland Browns rode a defense that is getting better by the week to a 17-6 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

The win is the Browns second in a row and, coupled with Baltimore’s loss in Buffalo, leaves the Browns tied for first place in the AFC North with the Bengals and the Ravens.

The Browns took a 7-0 lead with 2:13 left in the first quarter on Jordan Cameron’s fifth touchdown reception of the season on a two-yard-pass from quarterback Brian Hoying.

For the day, Cameron had 10 catches for 91 yards and, though four games this season, has already surpassed his career total in receiving yards (360 this year vs. 259 career yards) and receptions (30 this year vs. 26 coming into the year), clearly thriving in Norv Turner’s offense.

It turned out that those seven points were enough, as the big story of the day was the Browns defense, which continues to get better and, in the process, is giving the rest of the division a heads up that it is no longer going to be a day off when they face the Browns.

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