Written by Chris Hutchison

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Another week, another victory for the mighty Brownies, pulling them up to an immaculate 4-8 record and igniting playoff fever in Northeast Ohio like it hasn't seen since 1990.  Pat Shurmur made another valiant attempt to save his job, going 4-3 in the last 7 now and breaking all offensive records as we know it with his brilliant play calling and design.  With such an epic turnaround, I don't see any way this team can get rid of the Shurminator now.

Unless, of course, they want a good coach that actually has a chance of winning Super Bowls.

But that's all up to Joe Banner and Jimmy Haslam, who are apparently also contemplating trading Tom Heckert for Mike Lombardi, a move so genius that it's almost as good as trading Brandon Weeden for JaMarcus Russell.  Nowhere to go but up!

Anyway, in the tangible present, the Browns have moved up to a season-high 22 in the Hutchison Electronic Ranking Opus - HERO - a ranking system so deviously clever that you have to have a doctorate in Philosophy to understand it (finally, that degree is useful to someone).

With Baltimore at #7, Cincy at #10, and Pittsburgh at #13, the AFC North is the 2nd hardest division in the NFL by 1 combined ranking point (NFC North - 51, AFC North - 52, NFC South - 58, NFC West - 63, NFC East - 67, AFC East - 74, AFC South - 80, and the immortal AFC West - 83).  Everybody flipped out about how HARD the Browns schedule was gonna be this year, and here it turns out they played 2 of the worst 3 divisions in all of football.  Ye gods.

Houston retains the top spot (deservingly) and Jacksonville takes over dead last (also deservingly).  Cleveland takes on the 31st ranked team after demolishing - er, squeaking by - the 30th ranked team last week, so there's a good shot they float up to 5-8 and man the roof will just come off this mug!

"On the first day of Christmas, Jimmy Haslam gave to me..."

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	WP	Avg_PF	Avg_PA	Avg_Diff	Rank_PF	Rank_PA	Rank_Final
Houston	11	1	0	0.917	29.25	18.42	10.83	2	4	1
Atlanta	11	1	0	0.917	26.42	19.08	7.33	7	5	2
New England	9	3	0	0.75	35.83	21.67	14.17	1	14	3
Denver	9	3	0	0.75	29.08	20.33	8.75	3	10	4
San Francisco	8	3	1	0.708	24.08	14.25	9.83	14	1	5
Chicago	8	4	0	0.667	24.50	16.50	8.00	13	2	6
Baltimore	9	3	0	0.75	25.25	20.17	5.08	9	8	7
N.Y. Giants	7	5	0	0.583	26.75	20.25	6.50	5	9	8
Green Bay	8	4	0	0.667	24.67	21.58	3.08	12	13	9
Cincinnati	7	5	0	0.583	25.17	21.67	3.50	10	14	10
Seattle	7	5	0	0.583	20.17	16.83	3.33	22	3	11
Tampa Bay	6	6	0	0.5	27.75	23.75	4.00	4	19	12
Pittsburgh	7	5	0	0.583	21.17	19.17	2.00	20	6	13
Washington	6	6	0	0.5	26.00	25.08	0.92	8	23	14
Minnesota	6	6	0	0.5	21.83	22.67	-0.83	18	18	15
Dallas	6	6	0	0.5	23.33	24.58	-1.25	15	21	16
New Orleans	5	7	0	0.417	26.75	27.25	-0.50	5	28	17
San Diego	4	8	0	0.333	21.50	21.42	0.08	19	12	18
Indianapolis	8	4	0	0.667	22.08	25.50	-3.42	17	24	19
Miami	5	7	0	0.417	18.92	20.75	-1.83	27	11	20
Detroit	4	8	0	0.333	25.00	26.25	-1.25	11	25	21
Cleveland	4	8	0	0.333	19.08	22.08	-3.00	25	16	22
St. Louis	5	6	1	0.458	18.42	22.25	-3.83	28	17	23
Arizona	4	8	0	0.333	15.50	19.50	-4.00	32	7	24
Buffalo	5	7	0	0.417	23.08	28.08	-5.00	16	29	25
N.Y. Jets	5	7	0	0.417	19.00	24.67	-5.67	26	22	26
Carolina	3	9	0	0.25	19.58	24.33	-4.75	23	20	27
Tennessee	4	8	0	0.333	20.67	29.92	-9.25	21	31	28
Philadelphia	3	9	0	0.25	18.08	26.67	-8.58	29	26	29
Oakland	3	9	0	0.25	19.58	31.33	-11.75	23	32	30
Kansas City	2	10	0	0.167	15.67	26.83	-11.17	31	27	31
Jacksonville	2	10	0	0.167	17.17	28.50	-11.33	30	30	32

Key: WP = Winning Percentage, Avg_PF = Average Points Scored per game, Avg_PA = Average Points Allowed per game, Avg_Diff = Average Points Winning By (or losing by) per game, Rank_PF = NFL Rank in Points Scored, Rank_PA = NFL Rank in Points Allowed