Randomness from last night's Browns home game:























Special Guest: Gale. This time without blankets. We ended up taking a cab to get close to the Stadium last night. With all of the late traffic, we were dumped out on West 9th. On the corner of West 9th and St. Clair, I sent out a shoutout from my window to Felix the scalper. Would have looked better coming from the window of a limo, but you take what you can get.

So, we had to navigate the parking lot between West 9th and West 3rd to get near the Stadium. Had not been there in ages. At night near gametime, it is much like descending into Dante's Inferno. I was looking for a sign, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". I trust the cops who are on-duty down there hope no one gets killed.

Then it was up to the seats, where the crowd was pumped for the game.

Tonight's Opponent: The New York Football Giants. Cue "Eli's Comin'". Not much of a rivalry between these two teams lately, not like the '50s and early '60s. I'll be honest, I can't remember the last game we played against the Giants. But it's Monday Night Football and the Giants have a lot going on coming into the game. They are the defending Super Bowl champs. They are unbeaten in 4 games this year. They have not lost on the road since last September, covering 11 games. They are a very good team.

Browns Version 2.3, however, is in danger of becoming a non-entity if they do not win this game. The Browns have had two weeks to prepare and that's a good thing. The offense has been real spotty and coming off a rather tepid effort at Cincinnati, so there's not a whole lot to crow about. The defense has been playing OK lately, but these are the Giants. My biggest fear going on is the Giants running game. Eli Manning has been effective this year throwing the ball, so unless the Browns resuscitate themselves, I don't think it looks good.

I give the Browns the slightest opportunity to win the game, but that was based solely on some of the strange results from Sunday's games. They still have a lot to prove with this game.

The Browns are actually wearing the throwbacks that include the numbers on the helmets this evening. Maybe that will change some luck.

Parking: East 6th between Superior and Bolivar. I consider that not so bad.

Browns Player on Ticket: It was not a player, but the Browns Legends logo. Legends inducted last night were Warren Lahr from the '50s, Paul Wiggin from the '60s, Walter Johnson from the '70s and Eric Metcalf from the '80s. Lahr and Johnson are no longer with us, BTW.

Pre-Game Festivities: The Browns Spirit Flag was unfurled again. National Anthem duties were handled by Akronite, Melina Kanakaredes, from "CSI:New York". I think she was on hand, just in case the Browns were DOA.
























At halftime, the Browns Legends ceremonies took place. After intros, the new plaque was unveiled. Those plaques are on the south side of Cleveland Browns Stadium, if you are ever in the vicinity. Hall of Famers get their own recognition.

Worst Feature (For Me): "Hang on Sloopy" at the end of the third quarter. I think there were several drunks spelling "O-L-E-O".

The Weather: Hollie Strano, once again, neglected to show us the Channel 3 Dual Doppler radar, always a feature from the Marky Nolan days. I like my radar at the games. Anyhow, it was wonderful to be at a game in October, at night, wearing shorts. Weather was outstanding.

Today's Giveaway: Surprisingly, there were no material goods proffered. The Browns gift of a wonderful Monday Night Football win warmed everyone's hearts. Apparently, that was enough.

Section 345: Few Giants fans around. But everyone was into the game, no one got tossed. Fairly tame. Helps that they cut off beer sales at halftime.

























Best Browns Play: Eric Wright's 94-yard interception return. This was at the Dawg Pound end, opposite my seats. You see the play developing and Eli Manning throws the ball to Amani Toomer. But you can see it's slightly behind Toomer and Wright jumps in and snares it. He then has a wide-open field in front of him. The place is going nuts because the Giants drive is over, but you realize almost immediately after the interception, he may score. He starts blazing up the sideline towards our end of the field and then Eli is the only one he has to beat. It appears Manning has the angle on him, but Wright outruns him at the Giant 40. There is no one left! For the next 40 yards, it's a given, he's going to score. The Stadium, by this time, is insane. Wright starts high-stepping about the 12 and it's pandemonium. Game over. Football is back in this town (at least for a few days)! May have been the best crowd reaction since "Run, William, Run!"

Best Giants Play: For me, it was the Giants first touchdown by Brandon Jacobs. If you ever wanted a classic, textbook example of power running, this 7-yard touchdown run was it. The guy is a beast.

Worst Browns Play: The early throw from Derek Anderson to Donte Stallworth on third down in the red zone. Anderson was in a pattern early in the game of doing the short drop, get rid of the ball quickly thing. On this play, he barely surveyed the defense before unloading the ball. Not even close to first-down yardage. They needed 15 yards, they got 6. The Browns, of course, then settled for a field goal.

Second Worst Browns Play: On the Browns final offensive scoring drive, Anderson decided, all of a sudden, to start throwing to Darnell Dinkins. Two incompletions resulted. Not sure what happened with the play-calling there. Although, the drive continued and resulted in a Braylon Edwards TD.

Worst Giants Play: After cutting the Browns lead to 17-14 on their final drive of the first half, the Giants inexplicably called for a long pass on their first play of the second half. This was the Manning pass that Brandon McDonald intercepted. Plexico Burress was open, but it was really a terrible throw. The Browns proceeded to drive for Phil Dawson's second field goal to take a 20-14 lead. I thought if the Giants had stuck with the run at this point, it would have been a different ballgame. Although they threatened later, the Giants never scored after that interception. A very strange call.

Best Line from Me: After watching a drunk guy in a Cribbs jersey stumble and fall over a curb pre-game: "That's great. I have Cribbs on my Fantasy Drinking team."

Second Best Line from a Me: When Eric Metcalf joined the group awaiting the coin toss. "Wouldn't it be cool if the ref called not heads nor tails, but "Metcalf up the middle!"?"

Best Line from a Random: After the doctor (some old guy wearing a suit) finally arrived to take care of the Giants' Aaron Ross: "It's about time you got your ass out there. Get him off the field!"

Oddest Browns Jersey: 5 Garcia, 31 Green, 34 Droughns, 41 Prentice, 48 L. Johnson, 58 Rainer. There was also 1 Dad, although I don't know how official any of these rankings really are.

Food Items: None. Had my pre-game Corona Lights at Alesci's. Also, some stuffed chicken with pasta. Then I became stuffed, as well.

Best Fan Cam Feature: I think the guy who wore a pumpkin head, with Browns colors, was the winner. Could you imagine the smell and the size of that pumpkin to fit comfortably on your head so you could see?

The Fuckin' Run: The Browns gave up 181 yards on the ground. I realize many of these yards came late, but the game was still in doubt when the Giants continued to bust runs up the middle. The Giants averaged 7 yards a carry. Under normal conditions, that won't get it done.

Worst Stat: It would be extreme nitpicking to find something egregious.

2nd Worst Stat: But in a game with several runs up the middle, Shaun Rogers had only two tackles. That was his lowest output of the season. It may be a sign that the loss of Shaun Smith in the rotation is bigger than we might think.

Most Interesting Stat: The Browns had ZERO punts. This is the Browns Version 2.3 with the legacy of punter Chris Gardocki as team MVP. Amazing. BTW, the Giants only had two punts for the game.

Penalties: Another Browns specialty. The false start, two men in motion type of penalties. Had a lot of them last night. I think my favorite was Braylon Edwards jumping the start of a play by at least two seconds. It was funny to see him as the only man moving while everyone else stayed put.

















No question, the Browns saved their season last night. Trust me, the crowd was ready to pounce early and as a matter of fact, the boos were starting especially after the short third-down pass to Stallworth wasn't even close to first down yardage. But it was the Browns best offensive display of the year. Everyone was involved in the running game and the passing game.

But before we start doing a Winston Wolf on each other, there are still some issues that need to be addressed. The Browns run defense was awful. I am not sure why the Giants didn't pound the ball even more, especially in the first half. And, let's face it, the Giants did drive the ball pretty much the whole game as two of the Browns interceptions were after long drives. The Browns defense had not one three-and-out. The stupid penalties of the nagging variety must stop. Last night, these were overcome.

Also, the Browns had two weeks to prepare for this game. Let's see how they do in DC this week, with a short prep time.

Make no mistake though. Last night's game was pretty special. Browns win, 35-14.

Meal of Links

Here come those Santa Ana winds again.



Palin as President. Uh-oh.

Chris Buckley gets removed from National Review for endorsing Obama. Not news, until you realize his famous father, William F., founded the magazine.

"All the President's Men" gets the Turner Classic treatment a couple of days before the election. With John Dean. Watch it if you can, just for Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee when he says, "Run that baby."

We made another list. Cleveland is Number 5 on the Worst Bang for Your Buck Cities.

How to keep those fruits and veggies fresh. Always store those tomatoes on the countertop, my friends.

Exercise Yard

Steve Bartman, five years later. If you ever watch the replay of that moment, look how many people go for the ball and are now thankful they didn't catch it.

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