Taking a closer look at a few plays and sequences from yesterday’s Browns/Texans tilt: The Texans started the game with four straight effective offensive plays as the Browns sat back in their base defense. Once they began to apply the heat — an untouched Leon Williams forced an incompletion, then a third-down safety blitz kept […]

When was the last time a Browns team finished a game by rushing the ball right down their opponents’ throats? When those numbers were on the helmets every game? Maybe not that far back, but it sure seems like it. Today’s topping of the Texans wasn’t as thrilling a game as we’ve come to expect […]

One of the frequently-heard phrases from my three-year-old these days, as he tries to decipher the workings of the world: “Is it magic?” Sometimes I’m not even sure. There’s really little more that could amplify “Double Doink” Dawson’s exploits in Baltimore. What better way to vindicate the previous week’s just-short effort in Pittsburgh in a […]

UNDER STANDINGS: I had hoped the Browns could steal a win but realized that even a respectable loss keeps us in the thick of the playoff hunt. But that doesn’t ease the disappointment of letting a solid 6-3 tie for first place slip into a fairly middling 5-4 dawgfight. Sure, the remaining schedule is favorable, […]

BEAVER BELIEVER: So much for the Good Derek, Bad Derek alternating pattern. Bad Derek must have taken his harmless turn during the bye week. His last two games are easily the best performances of his pro career, and the numbers are so similar it’s spooky: vs. Miami: 18-25, 245 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs at […]

This game cemented the status of the 2007 Browns as a decent, mid-level team. Traveling into the Foxboro den of iniquity, Cleveland performed just about as expected: losing decidedly but not terribly to perhaps the league’s best team. It is thin consolation that the Patriots scored as few points as they had in any of […]

The first quarter of the Browns’ season is in the books. A downright dismal debut. A triumphant track meet. Dismay by the Bay. And now, the rise to respectability. By accomplishing the two things they set out to do — start fast on offense and settle down on D — the Browns caged the blackbirds […]