INT. LIVING ROOM - SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Trevor and Sheila sit on an old brown couch, staring straight ahead.  From the lights dancing on their faces, it is clear they are watching a TV and are enthralled/zombied by what is taking place on it.  Mark drinks a beer and Sheila gnaws on some beef jerky.

In rushes Mark, wearing a suit, eager.

Mark: You guys DVR it?

Trevor (not looking up): Yep.

Mark:  I kept the radio off all the way home from work so I wouldn't find out if they won.  Did they win?

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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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