Written by Brian McPeek

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Just when you thought it was nearly impossible for a bad team to get any worse the Browns took the field Sunday afternoon at Invesco Field at Mile High and quickly dispelled that notion. We're looking at another loooong season Browns fans. Next stop Baltimore, for a beatdown at the hands of the unbeaten Ravens. In The Weekend Wrap, Peeker hits on the Browns loss, the 38-0 "road" win for the Buckeyes on Saturday, and losses for USC and the Steelers.

Next Sunday Should Be Fun 

I'm starting to wonder where those 5-7 Browns wins I predicted are going to come from. We can safely scratch Denver off that ‘potential win' list. 

Just when you thought it was nearly impossible for a bad team to get any worse the Browns took the field Sunday afternoon at Invesco Field at Mile High and quickly dispelled that notion. 

They were worse. I'm talking expansion-type bad.  

The defense couldn't get off the field on 3^rd downs against the Broncos and the offense couldn't stay on it. Brady Quinn did next to nothing in his second start of the season, the Browns lost the turnover battle 3-1 and Correll Buckhalter, the backup Denver running back, out-rushed the entire Browns team 76yds-54yds. And Buckhalter needed only nine carries to accomplish that task. 

The worst part is that any type of competency on the part of the Browns wins that football game. Denver was plain bad through the first three quarters too and seemed more than willing to cede a loss to Cleveland. 

I'm not looking to hang Brady Quinn here. He gets the season in my opinion. I give him that because this team blows, we know that what we're going to get from Derek Anderson is not enough and we need to see if Quinn develops. If he doesn't it's onto the next candidate. But the one thing I can't get past with Quinn is just how bad the talent is around him. Take Braylon Edwards and the left side of the offensive line away and this team is truly pathetic. Josh Cribbs dropped one ball that hit him in the hands and then fumbled another that he did manage to catch. That's your #2 wide receiver. Jamal Lewis looks like a guy on the wrong side of 30 years old and he's your running game. And RT John St. Clair is a virtual sieve. Elvis Dumervil literally beat St. Clair silly all day and recorded four sacks  

The lack of offensive production is not an accident in Cleveland. It's been earned righteously through bad drafts, poor free agent signings and questionable trades.   

Ray Lewis and the rest of the Baltimore Ravens defense, fresh off a 31-26 win over Phillip Rivers and the Chargers, are foaming at the mouth awaiting the arrival of the Browns offense next Sunday.  
 

What a Terrific ‘Road' Win (Yawn) 

Everybody feel better about the Buckeye's bed-wetting against USC after they went on the road, beat a tough MAC opponent 38-0 and totally redeemed themselves? 

It's good to be the king of Ohio football. 

Ohio State played their first ‘away' game of the 2009 season yesterday against the University of Toledo. They played it in front of about 55,000 of the most loyal Buckeye fans in the world in Cleveland Browns Stadium though. That was the result of Toledo selling their soul to the devil for a bigger payday. It certainly didn't do much else for the Rockets. 

Toledo, who had beaten the French 12's University of Colorado earlier this season, was pasted on Saturday by Ohio State. The 38-0 whitewashing was indicative of the talent disparity between the two teams. Ohio State is just bigger, stronger and faster than the Rockets as a whole.  

So, if I can summarize what that game meant yesterday it would be that Ohio State may not be able to beat a USC team starting a freshman quarterback under the home lights but they can go ‘on the road' after a brutal loss and completely destroy a MAC squad. For Toledo it meant a really nice payday and it was also a powerful recruiting tool that told potential recruits, "If OSU doesn't offer you a scholarship you still can come here and occasionally play them in what will likely be a lopsided neutral site ‘home game' in front of their fans."  

Great win Buckeyes. Hurray. 

And while we're still salty about the USC loss of a week ago, let's take a moment to congratulate USC head coach Pete Carroll for once again losing to a crappy opponent. The Washington Huskies, behind a determined and gutsy performance by QB Jake Locker, beat the 3^rd-ranked Trojans on Saturday in Washington. That marks the 27^th straight season in which Carroll has inexplicably lost to an inferior opponent.  

Petey is always regarded as a loose, care-free Phil Jackson-type Zen master if you listen to the media types who go out of their way to praise him. He often gets a pass when he loses games like this while Jim Tressel is nationally maligned for the Buckeyes national championship game losses. Not really sure why that is other than Carroll tends to win prettier while Tressel's style and philosophy lends itself to second guessing.  

For my money it's a bigger sin to lose annually with an athletically superior roster that Carroll has at his disposal. 

Don't even get me started on Bob Stoops. 
 

The End is Plainly in Sight 

If the Indians were a family pet you'd have already taken them to the vet and had them euthanized. To not do so would be cruel. Some would eschew the veterinarian and just tie the whole squad up in a huge burlap sack weighed down by a couple good sized boulders and heave the whole damn thing into the nearest pond. 

Clearly I don't condone that method of euthanizing animals. But I am willing to consider it with this baseball team. I'd settle for being able to take them for a nice ride into the country and dropping them off on an idyllic farm where they could all run and play and frolic happily ever after.  

Just so long as there was no baseball diamond on that farm because they'd get the living crap kicked out of them on that field too. 

The Tribe has lost eight straight games and 17 of heir last 20 after being swept in Oakland this weekend. Manager Eric Wedge, in a pretty big hole to begin with as far as retaining his job, is now shoveling heaping mounds of dirt onto that hole. Wedge is a dead man walking through the final fourteen ballgames. Where a month ago it was laughable to consider the Indians had a shot at losing 100 games it's not nearly so funny today. 2-12 over the final 14 games might be optimistic. 

For his entire tenure here Wedge could rightfully claim that his teams, no matter how bad, how overmatched or how lacking in talent, never quit playing the game hard or the right way. That was an admirable quality to find in any team and it was a reflection that the manager was still effectively communicating with his players. Well, that's not happening anymore and there are definitely some guys on the current roster who have tuned out Wedge and his staff. 

When the ax inevitable falls on Wedge I'm going to be sick to my stomach if Torey Lovullo or another Wedge-type protégé gets the gig. I'm not sure GM Mark Shapiro has the stomach or the inclination to go outside the organization for his skipper but it would be refreshing to see him bring someone in that's not so steeped in the current organization's philosophy. We've been down that road for nearly a decade with too little to show for it.  

That's nothing against Torey Lovullo. He may be a fine manager one day. But I'd prefer he cut his managerial teeth with someone else while the Indians hand the reins to somebody who's managed and won in the big leagues before. 

One thing is for sure: the Eric Wedge era in Cleveland is over in two weeks. Wedge appears to be a far better person than a manager so we'll wish him well while waving goodbye. 

Etcetera 

• The old "At least the Steelers lost' refrain just doesn't do it for me any more. Not when you watch what we watch from the Browns week in and week out and not when you know the Steelers will be in the mix for a playoff berth, if not another Super Bowl title, when all is said and done. Save that for someone with hope for their own squad. To say Steelers fans have scoreboard over Cleveland fans even after Pittsburgh loses is a drastic understatement.
  
• This is a landmark ‘Wrap' of sorts. While the column existed previously under a couple of different titles this edition is the 100^th ‘Weekend Wrap'. I wanted to thank those of you out there who read it each Monday or afterward and let you know I appreciate your feedback, criticism and replies. It's been a pleasure marking time with you over the past couple of years.

It'll be even more of a pleasure when we have something to celebrate. 

Also, thanks to Rich Swerbinsky for the space and the support. The man does an amazing job of putting this site together. He manages egos and tracks down talented people to write for Cleveland fans and he often brings them all together to enjoy a golf outing or tailgate.  

Tip of the cap to you Rich. 

• Come on Cavs, gotta make it happen. Come on Cavs.