Monthly Archives: October 2013

So after 5 weeks of the NFL season, who out there had the browns tied for first place in the AFC North with a (3-2) record?  Not me. Probably not even Rob Chudzinski, Joe Banner and Mike Lomabrdi either.  But kudos to all three of those men for taking chances, making non popular moves and so far getting positive results on those moves. 

Will those results continue now that they have to go back to Brandon Weeden as their starting quarterback instead of their chosen one – Brian Hoyer? Who knows? But right now Weeden is the best option they have at the position, so Norv Turner and Chud will give him another chance and try and work their offensive magic and turn Weeds into a winning quarterback.

Does anybody on this free agent QB list excite you enough that you’d want them to quarterback the Browns over Brandon Weeden right now –  Vince Young, Troy Smith, Tyler Thigpen, Tim Tebow, Jordan Palmer, Matt Leinart, David Carr, Pat White, Dennis Dixon, Jamarcus Russell or Jimmy Clausen?  Me neither! So I say let’s see, after spending a couple of weeks on the sidelines watching Hoyer work his magic, if Brandon Weeden has learned a few things that will make him a better quarterback.

Speaking of becoming a better quarterback, in a strange way, I’m hoping that Braxton Miller isn’t 100% healthy and that’s why he played so poorly and indecisively the other night at Northwestern. How else do you explain Miller’s poor performance in the Buckeyes 40-30 win over the Wildcats? Three turnovers, tentative cuts and moves while running the football and missing a wide open touchdown pass to Chris Fields. With really only one tough game left on the regular season schedule at Michigan on November 30^th, Miller can get away with a performance like the other night for most of the remaining games, but if the Buckeyes want to win the Big Ten championship game, as well as the National Championship, Miller is going to have to play a heck of a lot better than he did at Northwestern.  Urban Meyer almost pulled him in the third quarter of that game, but stuck with his junior signal caller and it worked out.  Here’s hoping the vote of confidence and Miller getting back to 100%, both physically and mentally will turn his season around in time for the most important games on the schedule, at Michigan, in the Big Ten title game and hopefully in the BCS Championship game.

Major props to the Indians for an exciting baseball season! They far exceeded my expectations and gave me meaningful baseball in October and I loved it. It would be nice to have that every year for a while and with a young nucleus, the valuable experience they gained playing in the post-season and maybe adding a couple of legit free agents, hopefully we’ll have that here in C’Town.  For me the biggest need for Shaponetti (Indians President Mark Shapiro and G.M. Chris Antonetti) is to go out and find a legitimate 30 homerun/100 rbi guy via trade or free agency and put him in the clean-up spot for Terry Francona.  That would have a positive domino effect on everyone else in the order. They also need to replace Chris Perez as their closer. That could happen from within with guys like Cody Allen, Vinnie Pestano or maybe Carlos Carrasco as possibilities as well as some others. Or maybe they find that end of the game stud in free agency or a trade. I really don’t care how, they just need to move on from the disaster that was Chris Perez this past season.  Shore up those two things this off season and I’ll be a happy fan and it will make them a better ball club.

And two other things – Go Cavs and Go Monsters! I can’t wait to see the new look Cavaliers under Mike Brown and I’m also hoping for another exciting season on frozen pond with the Lake Erie Monsters. I’m expecting both teams to make the post-season this year!  So step your game up fellas!