Written by Brian McPeek

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I drifted off to sleep at some point Sunday evening and was awakened by a horrific nightmare. I dreamt that the Buckeyes had their lunch handed to them by the Wisconsin Badgers in Camp Randall Stadium Saturday night. The nightmare continued when I had visions of the Browns dropping a lamb of an NFL quarterback into a lion’s den on Sunday afternoon. 

Oddly enough my dream ended with former Tribe skipper Eric Wedge landing another managerial gig in Seattle where he was reunited with Milton Bradley and it was then that I woke up in a cold sweat. 

Thank God it was just a horrible nightmare and none of that stuff actually happened.  

Because that would have really sucked. Well, except for the Wedge-Bradley reunion. That would just be funny. 

The Kid was Alright 

I’m not ready to anoint Colt McCoy the next great QB hope for the Browns based on one game where he didn’t completely blow, but hey, he didn’t completely blow. 

That immediately makes him better than 80% of all Browns QBs since 1999.

In fact, as the game went on and slowed down for McCoy he actually looked quite comfortable and capable in the pocket and in leading the offense. He made a couple very nice throws to his receivers….err….tight ends who are actually receivers and he acquitted himself very well in a really difficult place to play and against a very difficult defense to play. 

The Browns lost to the Steelers 28-10 but that was just a small part of the story. No one with any sense expected a victory but rather were interested to see how the rookie QB would fare. 

McCoy was 23/33 for 281 yards, his first career TD pass and a couple interceptions on the day. He showed greater arm strength than I would have credited him with a month ago and the moment was never too big for him. He made a few mistakes and poor decisions with the ball but this is a green rookie in his first NFL start. And it was in Pittsburgh against the Steelers. Mistakes were going to happen.  

I liked the fact that McCoy got better as the game went on and seemed to understand where holes were going to be in the defense when the Steelers sent pressure from all over the field.

In short, the kid gave Browns fans a lot to look forward to next week in terms of seeing if he can build on Sunday’s experience. 

You know what’s not to like? Eric Wright. Again. 

I’m looking forward to winter specifically so that Eric Wright has to drive on icy roads. I’ve never disliked a Cleveland Brown or a Cleveland athlete like I dislike Eric Wright. 

He’s a miserable wreck of a football player right now and he stands out like a whore in church. It’s time to strongly consider sitting Wright starting in two weeks. His confidence is shot and he needs to see the game from a different vantage point. Not to mention if he’s on the sidelines he will be out of my range should I choose to try and bring bricks in to throw at him. 

Get him out. Get him gone. Cut him if you have to because, really, he’s doing you no good. There was a play when he bit (and I could just stop here and pretty much describe each play he was involved in) on a play fake and then stood and watched the receiver run down the sideline. Only a bad throw saved him from the shame of being beaten again but he never even chased the guy he watched run by him.  

And see if you can include Abe Elam as part of some sort of Suck Package. 

***** 

By the way, I have no problem in general with Steelers fans. They’re as passionate as Browns fans (at least the non-bandwagon ones are). But signs lining the stadium that say, “We Love #7”? Really? The hardworking people of Pittsburgh love Ben Roethlisberger? Do they just love him on Sundays or do they love him enough to leave him home alone with their 18-year old daughters and an unlocked liquor cabinet? 

He’s human waste. Regardless of the RPMs he can get on a football. 

Shake yourselves. 

No Business Being #1 

When I tell you that Ohio State was dominated from the opening kickoff until the final whistle Saturday I am not exaggerating.  

The Badgers returned the opening kick for a touchdown. That not only gave them an early lead that they would not relinquish but it also lit the fuse on Camp Randall’s explosive energy force that makes playing there at times a living hell. 

Wisconsin would ultimately run out to a 21-0 lead that the Buckeyes reduced to 21-18 at one point. But the Badgers, dominating OSU in the trenches all night, added ten more points when they had to salt the game away. 

I was thinking Saturday might be the night when the Buckeyes took to the national stage and declared that they were viable national championship contenders and I also thought that stage was set for Terrelle Pryor to emerge as the leading Heisman Trophy candidate.  

So much for either of those two thoughts. 

Ohio State was out-hustled, out-coached, out-toughed and ultimately wet the bed again in front of a nation of college football fans who have come to expect the Buckeyes to need rubber sheets at least once a year. 

For his part, Pryor was not much better than anyone else on the field Saturday night and for Ohio State to win against quality teams that simply can’t be the case. 14/28 for 156 yards, no TDs and an interception isn’t going to win games or Heisman’s and Pryor’s 18 carries for 56 yards on the ground wasn’t special either. With the mediocre effort by Pryor and the Buckeyes we can likely put away any national championship or Heisman talk this season. 

It sucks when one game determines a season but that’s how it goes in college football. You have to be damn near perfect, if not actually perfect, to win the BCS championship and the writing was on the wall earlier this season that the Buckeyes had some big holes. 

The kickoff return by the Badgers was just another in a long line of special teams failures thus far for Ohio State. Add to that that this Buckeye roster features not a single running back who takes your breath away and you can see why the Buckeyes bid for 2010 glory will fall short. Never mind trying to find the next Archie Griffin or Eddie George out there for this team. Right now I’d settle for the next Pepe Pearson or Michael Wiley. It’s downright criminal that a program like Ohio State can’t find a feature back to put in the backfield with Pryor. And while we’re looking for that tailback, can we also ask around and find out where Devier Posey ran off to the past few weeks? 

Early on you thought this Buckeye team had a chance to be special. Injuries and guys not living up to their promise have turned ‘special’ into ordinary. 

At least it did Saturday night in Madison, WI. And ordinary isn’t a word typically used to describe the number one team in the nation. As of Monday morning, or whenever the polls officially come out, the Buckeyes will no longer have to worry about that. 

Sleeping in Seattle? 

Baseball’s predictability is a comforting part of the game for many of us fans. You go with a lefty to face a lefty, your closer in the 9^th inning of a close game and you see the same things play out pretty much every day during the season. 

Baseball is also predictable in that very few players and managers get just one chance to succeed. In the business world, if an employee fails in a role they’re typically removed from that role. In baseball they just get another shot in the same role somewhere else. 

In that regard it’s not surprising to see Eric Wedge land the Mariners managerial gig. The guy did show some aptitude in taking young players and building a decent team. And, like with any other manager in the game, when his guys had career years like Rafael Perez and Rafael Betancourt  (not to mention Asdrubal Cabrera and others) in 2007 Wedge was successful. Conversely, when those players regressed to the mean in 2008 Wedge was captaining a sinking ship and wore that label as well. 

I guess that’s why I always figured Wedge would land another top job. He wasn’t bad enough or abrasive enough in baseball terms to not get one.  

What is also predictable is exactly how Eric Wedge will do in Seattle: he’ll win and be lauded if he has talented players who have good years and he’ll lose and be fired if he doesn’t. That’s just how it works in regard to baseball managers. Bobby Cox was run out of Atlanta once and then Toronto but when he went back to Atlanta and found three Hall of Fame pitchers on his roster he suddenly knew what he was doing.  

Joe Torre didn’t win a damn thing while managing the Braves, Cardinals or Mets. But he became a guiding hand of wisdom and calm as soon as he went to a Yankee ball club that perennially bought and owned the best players in the game.  

Charlie Manuel went from a country charmer who knew what he was doing when he had talent to manage in Cleveland, to a red-neck rube who was out the door when the Indians began rebuilding. Suddenly old Charlie is pretty smart again when he’s got talent to manage in Philadelphia. 

The only surprise for me in regard to Wedge being hired in Seattle is that anyone is surprised. Baseball has always regurgitated managers and managers have always been as good as their rosters.  

And if that’s not enough, understand that the teams typically hiring managers are teams with poor records and poor recent history. That might mean a lack of talent not only in the clubhouse but in the front office. So you can also have some ‘Stupid is as stupid does’ going on. Either way, guys like Eric Wedge, who live by baseball’s code and respect it as a way of life, well, they’re always going to pop up in dugouts like a bucket of sunflower seeds. 

Just the way it is.

Give it Up for Your 2010-2011 Cleveland Cavaliers!!! 

Nope.  

Still nothing. 

No interest whatsoever in this team right now. That might be a mistake given that the style the Cavaliers will employ will be fun to watch. If you like offensive basketball and an offense that looks to run at every opportunity you’ll be entertained by Byron Scott and this Cavaliers club. 

My issue is simply that winning is more entertaining than style of play to me. And that I believe the only way for a team devoid of a superstar (and Ramon Sessions does not qualify as a superstar) to have any chance in the post season is to play lock down team defense. 

That is not the forte of a Byron Scott team (although you’ll hear him preach it regardless of that fact). 

This team might be more entertaining. 

This team might be more likeable. 

But this team simply isn’t as good and after 5 years of really good basketball it’s just going to be tough to settle for ‘likeable’. As for me, well, I’ve always found winning to be the most entertaining quality of any team. 

Sadly, from what I’ve read and what I’ve seen, this team might NOT be as bad as I had initially thought and hoped. They’re going to win some 107-103 type games and they might very well win 40 of them or so. 

And that’s just not good or bad enough for the long term health of the franchise. But a new era will begin in a couple short weeks. And we’ll be here to cover it all for you. Every game will be written up right here on TheClevelandFan. So stay tuned and let’s see what we see.