Browns-Bears Game

Having the 4th preseason game at home is always a pisser. You are basically watching the future mechanics and recreation workers of the world fight to see who will be on the practice squad. But I prepared myself to watch the first half and, hopefully, take away some knowledge. So, here it goes.

Shaun Rogers is one large human being. Not quite the stature of Ted Washington, but close. Against the Lions last week, he was a one-man gang. This week, meh. Handled one-on-one, the Bear center would seal him off to the right, with the back hitting the hole behind him to the left. Essentially, Rogers would penetrate, taking himself out of the play. Didn't see any double-teaming on him.

Brian Griese was known as "Dink". I think Brady Quinn may be "Dink II". Could the Browns have run any more of a vanilla offense early in that game? The only new wrinkles I saw were the quick swing pass to Jason Wright to open the game and the option play to Jerome Harrison for the Browns only TD. Lots of slants and other short balls. Don't get me wrong, the dink game moves the chains and eats a lot of the clock with high-percentage passing. It's just that you won't have the high-stakes offense of Derek Anderson when Quinn is in there. Your RBs and TEs catch lots of balls in that scenario. Effective, but not very exciting.

And Quinn missed an obvious TD pass to Kellen Winslow. I had the view from behind Quinn and you could see Winslow curl behind the defender at the back of the endzone and become wide open. Winslow was "as open as Denny's" and any Quinn pass, no matter how awful, to Winslow's right was six points. He threw it left and it was incomplete. A really bad miss.

Rex Hadnot went down with an injury. Don't know how severe. But we have Ryan Tucker in reserve, shouldn't be an issue.

Travis Wilson had a showcase when Quinn was in there. Caught three short slants, which is a chore for him, I know. Then he went back to his old self and dropped a sure TD from Ken Dorsey. I think he remains in trouble.

Brandon McDonald had another interception on a severely underthrown ball. I am still not sold on him.

Browns depth looked shaky in the second quarter on defense. Although the Bears second offensive unit did have Rex Grossman, the other Adrian Peterson, and Marty Booker in there. They made it look easy, putting up 10 points.

Beer is $7 this year. Hot dogs are $4 and Soda is $5. Each concession stand now has a name like the "Pizza Stop" or "Gridiron Goodies" or some other nonsense.

The Browns typically won't reveal their logo scheme until the opener. The field was logoless, perhaps for the college game this weekend. Two small NFL logos at the 25. And the NFL logo on the referee's caps. Is that new this year? Seemed so.

For the Heroes segment, they brought in all of the current Ohio astronauts. That was kinda neat, as there were nine men and women. They could can the Lee Greenwood song already, but you take what you can get.

Flags were half-mast for Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and there was a moment of silence, as well.

Both teams were introduced as a unit, no individual introductions. The entire Bears team and the Browns offensive unit came out as one.

Pre-game introductions had some new animation, with Brownie the Elf prominently featured, trapping a Bear. Get it? He was also part of a "Dee-Fense" chant, slamming big fists onto the ground, or was it a play table?

Highlight reel featured "Gimme Shelter". Before the introductions of the Browns, "Eminence Front" was played. That was all new. "Thunderstruck" was played before the kickoffs. That was not new.

Oh yeah, it was Bears 13, Browns 10.

Meal of Links

The highlight for me was stopping off at Steve's for some chili dogs on the way home. Way too early for the sideshow, however, as there were only two people in there.

The Obama coronation last night was pretty cool. How can the R's compete with that show? Especially when John McCain can't raise his arms because of injuries he suffered "living in a box for five-and-a-half years". The speech itself was OK. Thought the first 60% was really good, especially attacking McCain, then sort of went deep into policy and sputtered toward the finish. Best audio on the speech was CBS, but it kept cutting out. Thank you, Time Warner Cable!

I give Fox News, yes, Fox News, credit for not starting their analysis until everyone had left the stage, post-speech. CNN, as well. I understand the major networks have limited time, so they need to jump into analysis posthaste. Shame on MSNBC, where is the legacy of Tim Russert? Why would Keith Olbermann declare it the best speech since Moses while they were still on stage? That's Fox behavior. How about some decorum? MSNBC was very disappointing this week to the point of irritation. While they kept saying we are awaiting Obama's speech, C-SPAN and CNN had a clear graphic showing the start time of the speech, including Dick Durbin's intro. Bad production all around.

The Pretenders have gone country. Well, at least, roots. Album drops in early October.

Exercise Yard

Even Roger Ebert hates Jay Mariotti. He may be dying, but he can certainly still write. I love that man.

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