It made no difference in the long run, but in the third quarter Denver coach Josh McDaniels made a request for a measurement when his team was clearly a full yard, and maybe more, short of a first down. What a waste of time. In such situations, the officials should be allowed to refuse a measurement. All McDaniels wanted was a little more time to decide what he was going to do on fourth down.

Another play that made little to no difference in the outcome, but in the third quarter there was a clear late hit on Brady Quinn. In addition to the hit coming late, the Denver blitzer hit him in the legs. It was a double rule violation and nothing was called. I guarantee if the QB had Brady (as in Tom) on his back rather than Quinn he would have gotten the call.

Not a good day for the Cleveland secondary.

On Gaffney’s near TD in the third quarter, what exactly was McDonald doing. He had relatively close coverage on the receiver, but simply watched as he caught the ball and then made no effort to tackle him until Gaffney ran by to the inside. I don’t think he could have prevented the catch, but he sure could have stopped Gaffney from running all the way to the 1-yard line.

And on the TD run by Buckhalter in the fourth quarter Wright and Pool looked completely lost as the Denver RB ran through and around them to the end zone. It was an awful effort.

This loss is especially depressing because it came in one of the games on the Browns’ schedule that seemed like it was winnable. Sure it was on the road, but the Broncos have been in turmoil throughout the summer and needed a miracle play to beat Cincinnati in week one. With every “winnable” game that disappears, the Browns take another step closer to 4-12 (or maybe even the 2-14 that Peter King predicted). They must win those games, because at this point it would take a miracle for Cleveland to beat Pittsburgh or Baltimore (and even the Bengals for that matter).

One side note from the bits and pieces of other games I watched today. Phillip Rivers of the Chargers throws for a ton of yards. But he makes an awful lot of poor decisions with the football. When throwing it away Phillip, throw it out of bounds rather than in the middle of three defenders. (That said, I love seeing the Chargers lose. I hate that team.)

Now back to the start of the half. Coye Francies impressed me during the preseason. And again he is in on a big play to start the game on the fumbled kickoff return.

I love Brandon Stokely. He had the huge play last week against Cincinnati and has had a big first half against the Browns. The guy is one of the smartest players in the league. Last week he ran off several seconds by running along the goal line before scoring the game-winning TD against the Bengals. And if you remember, he made another smart move on Monday night last season against the Browns. After Brandon Marshall scored what would be the winning TD, Stokely came running over and hugged the immature wide receiver to keep him from doing his planned celebration. Had Marshall celebrated, it would have meant 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff for the Browns and a much better chance to drive to win the game.

The Browns have been flat-out horrible in short yardage and goal line situations. They get no push at all, last week or today.

Third down has been pretty awful as well. On third-and-goal on the opening drive, Quinn made a horrible throw. And even if he had made a decent throw to Furry, the ball would have gone the distance back down the field for a pick-6.

Also, the Browns continue to fall into the pattern of running 2-yard patterns on third-and-6. It makes no sense, especially when the pattern is not even a slant or something that would allow the WR to run after the catch. Instead, the play in the first quarter was a 2-yard comeback to Cribbs. In the second quarter it looked as if Quinn wanted to throw deeper, but couldn’t find anyone downfield. That one was more forgivable.

Good teams convert TDs when they get turnovers inside the opponents’ 30-yard line. The Browns settle for field goals.

I believe I heard the announcer refer to Eric Wright as “one of the best corners in the league”. I’m not quite sure which league he was referring to. Certainly not the NFL. Maybe he meant the WAC.

More after the game.

Tennessee -6.5 vs. Houston – The Texans, as usual, were a sleeper pick for a lot of people this year, but looked horrible against the Jets. New York’s defense is good, and Tennessee’s is as well. Titans roll.

St. Louis +9.5 at Washington – I don’t necessarily like backing road teams and St. Louis is bad. But Washington is also bad. Consider that their big play against the Giants was a field-goal fake TD run by Hunter “The Punter” Smith. St. Louis should easily be able to stay within 9 points.

Green Bay -9.5 vs. Cincinnati – Green Bay is a good team, my Super Bowl pick. Cincinnati is still Cincinnati, a team, like the Browns, able to find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Packers are going to win in a blowout.

Miami +3 vs. Indianapolis – Indianapolis is still good, but not like they have been in the past decade. Miami is a secretly good team, and Chad Pennington is a very reliable QB. Take the points at home on Monday night.

Coach Mangini has not shown much confidence in Brady Quinn. The offense has been very conservative with the exception of the long play to Edwards that ended up in the pass interference call and led to the Browns’ second field goal. He has taken the ball out of Quinn’s hands in third-down situations and in the goal-line series that followed the pass interference call.

That said, Jamal Lewis has been solid thus far.

Brian Billick has solidified his spot as a horrible announcer (or a preening schmo, as Tony Kornheiser likes to call him). He messed up about as many things as possible in his description/analysis of the Edwards pass interference/TD play. (By the way, the officials got the call absolutely right.) Also, his criticism of the Browns giving the ball up to Minnesota with about 3 minutes to go was ridiculous. I enjoyed his thought that the Browns should be worried about giving the ball back to Bret Favre, who he called “One of the all time great quarterbacks of all time.” Brilliant. At the time Favre had thrown for an oh-so-frightening 39 yards. And he didn’t finish the half with much more. It so happened that there were four more possessions after his dumb comment, including TWO failed Minnesota possessions and the Josh Cribbs punt return for a TD.

But, there is an argument to be made that the Browns could be a surprise team this year.

If you look at trends, starting in 1999 there has been a major surprise team every year. And those surprise teams have held some common traits. Mainly, teams that come out of nowhere, in general, have done so with new starters at the key positions of quarterback and running back. Now, in some cases those new guys were obvious from the beginning and in others they came in because of injuries (see Kurt Warner and the ’99 Rams). Others came by way of players returning after missing the previous season with injuries. Just to prove the point, let’s track the surprises throughout the years:

1999 – St. Louis Rams – Won the Super Bowl after losing Trent Green to injury and turning to quarterback Kurt Warner. This was also the first year in St. Louis for Marshall Faulk.

2000 – Baltimore Ravens – Won the Super Bowl behind newcoming quarterback Trent Dilfer and rookie running back Jamal Lewis

2001 – New England Patriots – Won the Super Bowl when Tom Brady took over for the injured Drew Brees. Also, Antowain Smith was in his first year in the backfield after coming over from Buffalo.

2002 – Atlanta Falcons – Reached the playoffs and became the first team in ages to win a playoff game in Green Bay before falling in the division round. Did it with rookie quarterback Michael Vick and running back Warrick Dunn, who came over from Tampa Bay as a free agent. (Note that newcomer running back Michael Pittman was key to Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl title).

2003 – Carolina Panthers – After 2002 off, newcomers again played a big role in the Super Bowl. This time it was Jake Delhomme, traded from New Orleands, and Stephen Davis as the Panthers lost in the Super Bowl to New England.

2004 – Pittsburgh Steelers – Not a perfect example, but they went 15-1 with rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Although Jerome Bettis had been with the team for some time, he split carries with newcomer Duce Staley.

2005 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Went 11-5 behind new quarterback and running back Chris Simms and Cadillac Williams.

2006 – New Orleans Saints – Go 10-6 and reach the division round of the playoffs after signing free agent quarterback Drew Brees and getting running back Deuce McAllister back from injury.

2007 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – They make the list again after reaching the playoffs with first-year members of the team in Jeff Garcia and Earnest Graham.

2008- Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins – OK, so last season was wild and crazy, but it shows the trend in crazy numbers. Tennessee went 13-3 with Kerry Collins and Chris Johnson. The other two went the rookie QB route with Atlanta reaching the playoffs thanks to Matt Ryan and Michael Turner and the Ravens making it, knocking out Tennessee and reaching the AFC title game with Joe Flacco of La’Ron McClain.

So, what is the point of this look at the last 10 years. The point is, there is a chance, maybe even a good chance, that the Browns could fill the mold. Brady Quinn already fits the bill. It seems like he has been around forever, but let’s not forget he made just two starts last season. And, after watching the preseason, it is definitely within the realm of possibility that James Davis could be the leading rusher for the team. Hopefully the Browns will be more disciplined as well. If everything falls into place, who’s to say Cleveland couldn’t be this year’s shocker?

AFC

East – New England Patriots

North – Pittsburgh Steelers

South – Indianapolis Colts

West – San Diego Chargers

WC – Miami Dolphins

WC – Baltimore Ravens

NFC

East – Philadelphia Eagles

North – Green Bay Packers

South – Carolina Panthers

West – Seattle Seahawks

WC – Atlanta Falcons

WC – Chicago Bears

Super Bowl

New England Patriots over Green Bay Packers

Cleveland Browns prediction – 4-12 (although I have a post coming where I play devil’s advocate and actually offer an argument for why the Browns could be good!)