Manny Acta Out as Tribe Manager

The Cleveland Indians and manager Manny Acta parted ways Thursday afternoon, ending Acta's three year tenure with the club.

Acta came to the Indians after two subpar seasons as manager of the Washington Nationals.  Manny always seemed to get his ball clubs off to quick starts but could never seem to finish things out down the stretch.  Acta amassed a record of 214-266 with the Indians, not living up to expectations.

Sandy Alomar Jr. will serve as interim manager for the remaining six games of the 2012 season.  Alomar figures to be a candidate for the Tribe's managerial position in 2013, but I am certain the Indians will look around before coming to a decision.  Maybe we'll find Joe Torre or Terry Francona calling the shots for the Tribe in 2013...who knows.

Just know if the team does bring on one of the three I mentioned, you heard it here first.

NFL, Officials Come to Terms

Late Wednesday night the NFL and league officials agreed to end a three week lockout.

The deal is expected to be signed sometime Thursday morning in preparation for the Browns vs. Ravens game Thursday evening.  The two sides also agreed to establish an NFL referee developmental program.  The program will instruct 21 officials and prepare them for officiating in the NFL.

The lockout is over, so hopefully we don't have to deal with this again...

Browns Fall Short Against Bills

Another week, another loss for the Browns.

Week 3 seemed like the perfect opportunity for the team's first win of the season but in the end the Browns fell short once again.

The Brownies took on the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, dropping the contest 24-14;  a game I predicted the Browns to lose and unfortunately I was correct.

At the end of the first quarter the good guys trailed 14-0 thanks in part to TD hook ups from Ryan Fitzpatrick to T.J. Graham and running back C.J. Spiller.  Apparently only dudes with initials as their first names were allowed to score in the first period.

Although the Bills had the upper hand at this point in the contest, bad news struck when the NFL's top rusher, C.J. Spiller exited the game with an apparent shoulder injury.  Spiller could return to the practice field later this week for Buffalo.

In the second period Trent Richardson found the endzone for the third time in the past two weeks.  Richardson has definitely been a glimmer of hope for a franchise that has struggled...a lot...for the past decade.  The Bills took a 14-7 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The third quarter was highlighted by Travis Benjamin's first career NFL touchdown as the Bills tacked on three more points on a field goal by kicker, Rian Lindell.  The Bills held a slim 17-14 lead at the end of the third but this was all the closer the Browns would get...

After another TD pass from Fitzpatrick, this time to Stevie Johnson, the Browns found themselves down by ten points with five minutes to go in the game.  One would think five minutes would be plenty of time to get a quick score, get a three and out on defense and then score again to win the game.  But let's face it, it's the Browns, and Weeden decided it would be a good idea to throw two interceptions.  Nice decision making there Brandon...He has thrown six picks through three games this season, and in case you didn't know, that's bad...

Final score Bills 24   Browns 14

Game Notes:

Passing:  Weeden - 27/43, 237 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
Rushing:  Richardson - 27 yards, 1 TD
Receiving:  Benjamin -  44 yards, 1 TD

With the loss the Browns fell to (0-3) on the season as the Bills improved to (2-1).  If the Browns aren't careful they could soon be (0-4) tomorrow night as they take to field in Baltimore for a Thursday Night Football matchup with the Ravens.  Game time is 8:30 PM, NFL Network.

Prediction:  Ravens 27   Browns 10

Controversy In Green Bay

As most viewers are aware, the replacement officials made an interesting call in the final play of the Monday night contest between the Packers and Seahawks.  Many people are in outrage and calling for the refs throats, as what appeared to be an interception by Green Bay was called a touchdown, giving Seattle the victory.  In fact, the NFL announced the following morning that the refs had made a mistake.  Here is my take, and to the surprise of many, I am going to back up the refs here.

Though initially the Packer DB caught the ball, the receiver did have a hand around it, and two when the players hit the ground. The Seattle receiver, Golden Tate, clearly brought the ball close to his chest as the two were fighting for possession while in the air.  By rule, if possession is shared, even if its not 50-50, the offense gets the ball. It may be a crappy rule, but the refs had to stick to it. Especially as replacements, they stuck to the book rather than making a completely judgmental call, which is the best they could have done in the given situation.  The loss is on the Packers though, had the DB just batted the ball down they would have been out of there with a W. May it be noted, the replacement refs are abysmal and changing the outcome of games, but they will get crap for this they don't deserve.

The good news from this is that because of all the publicity, the NFL refs which are now very much coveted by the fans should be making a return sooner than later. But, none the less, I think they made the right call on the field.

Bengals Outlast Browns

Week two has come and gone and the Browns remain without a victory.  The team dropped this week's game to the Cincinnati Bengals 34-27.

The game didn't start off too hot for the Brownies giving up a punt return for touchdown to Adam Pacman Jones.  The TD gave the Bengals an early 7-0 lead and a lead that they would never relinquish.

The Bengals were led offensively by the ginger ninja, Andy Dalton.  Dalton completed 24 of 31 passes, slinging 3 TDs and 1 INT.  He picked apart the Browns' defense like it was nothing.  Joe Haden was suspended by the NFL and his absence was evident.  The Browns only gave up 17 points in week one as opposed to 34 in week two.  Brandon Tate, AJ Green and Andre Hawkins hauled in Dalton's 3 touchdown passes.

Dalton's counterpart, Brandon Weeden, who struggled in week one had a much better showing in week two.  The rookie quarterback looked much more comfortable in the pocket and did not throw a single interception.  Weeden completed 26 of 37 passess for 322 yards and tossed two touchdowns in the process.

Another bright spot for the Browns was rookie running back Trent Richardson.  One word for you Browns fans...STUD.  Richardson rushed for 109 yards and one touchdown and averaged 5.7 yards per carry.  Not to mention he had a receiving touchdown as well...

The Browns will head back out on to the field in week three at home against the Bills (1-1).  Game time is 1 pm.

Prediction:  Browns 24   Bills 27

Go Browns...

Haden Suspended

Joe Haden played yesterday but won't be playing for the next four weeks.  The top corner for the Browns tested positive for Adderall in the offseason which is a banned substance per NFL rules.  Haden will not be eligible to return to the field for the team until October 8th against the New York Football Giants.

Haden played a very important role in yesterday's 17-16 loss to the Eagles.  It will be interesting to see if Buster Skrine, Sheldon Brown, Trevin Wade and Dimitri Patterson will be able to fill the void left by Haden during the suspension.  This is definitely a large loss for a team that relies so heavily on their defense.

The Browns play next, this Sunday, September 16th at 1 pm in Cincinnati against the Bengals (0-0).  The game will be broadcast on CBS.

Browns Drop Heartbreaker to Eagles

A new season and renewed hope...well at least until the end of the fourth quarter of game one on the sesaon we had hope...

The Browns struck first thanks to a field goal off the foot of good ole faithful Phil Dawson.  There wasn't much other action in the first quarter outside of two Eagles turnovers.  The Browns led 3-0 after the first period.

The second quarter was a bit of a different story.  Weeden, who made poor decisions the entire game, threw the first two of his four picks on the day.  These turnovers led to 10 points for the bad guys, coming off a field goal and an 18 yard TD pass for Michael Vick to Jeremy Maclin.  Eagles led 10-3 at the half.

The third quarter began a string of terrible coaching decisions made by Pat Shurmur.  If Shurmur keeps up at this rate, he be out of work by week four.  If you didn't watch the game all you need to know is that Shurmur is stupid.  

3rd Quarter Summary:

Weeden Pick

Vick Pick

Browns FG

Shurmur lost challenge...DUMB

Haden INT

And by the way...Pat Shurmur is dumb.

The Browns inched closer on another field goal by Dawson, closing the gap to 10-6 at the end of the third quarter. 

It was evident at the start of the fourth quarter that the Browns would not score an offensive touchdown and if the team was going to win the game, the defense would have to come through.  They did exactly that.  D'Qwell Jackson intercepted Vick (his 4th INT) and took it back 9 yards to the house for a Browns touchdown.  After the PAT, the Brownies led 16-10.  But...it's the Browns...

Vick led the Eagles on a drive the resulted in a touchdown pass to Clay Harbor giving the Eagles a 17-16 lead with just over a minute remaining in the contest.  

Take a look at the picture below and you can probably guess what happened next...read from the bottom up.

Weeden threw his fourth interception of the game and that's all folks.

If there is one positive that we can take away from this game however, it has to be the Browns' defensive.  With the exception of allowing a TD late in the 4th quarter the defense played stellar all game long.  The Browns forced five turnovers and converted one of them into a touchdown, while only allowing 17 points.  If the team can get things figured out on the offensive side of the ball, they'll have a decent squad and could surprise a few people. 

Notes:  The Browns rookie #3 overall pick Trent Richardson carried the ball 19 times for 39 yards. 

The Browns take to the road next week and head to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals (0-0).  Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm and the game will be broadcast on CBS.

Buckeyes Roll Over the Redhawks

Following much anticipation, the Urban era has finally kicked off in Columbus.  105,000 fans gathered in C-Bus to witness the first display of the high powered spread offense, quite contrary to the pro style offense run over the previous decades.

To the disappointment of many, the team started out uncharacteristically slow.  The men of scarlet and gray struggled to muster up only a few first downs in the first quarter of play, while Miami moved the ball with little trouble, primarily through the air.  They drove down the field and created 2 first and goal opportunities, but were only able to come up with 3 points (2 field goal attempts, 1 missed).  Surely a 14-0 deficit would have put the crowd in shock.

As the final score indicates, the game was all OSU after the 1st quarter. Touchdown after touchdown, primarily through effective passing.  Ohio State's Devin Smith made potentially the catch of the year with an incredibly athletic one handed grab in the endzone for OSU's first score.  When all was said and done, and after a controversial score with 44 seconds left in the game, OSU rolled.  56-10 was the final with running up the score.  Urban made his statement, that this is our conference and we will play hard football from start to finish, and made it well. 

In terms of player performance, Braxton was so so.  Many of his throws were flat and did not have good rotation.  In blunt terms, it looked like a freak athlete with a middle school arm was on the field at many points in the game.  Granted, with the athleticism of this OSU team, all most of our receivers need is a lobbed pass for them to have a good chance at making a catch.  He ended up completing about 50% of his passes, but was more than efficient on the ground with 161 yards rushing.

The defense as a whole was solid.  CB Christian Bryant was burned a few times early in the game, but played shut down D for 3 quarters.  John Simon and the burly D line allowed for -1 rushing yards the entire game- Wow! Schaizer and Roby have great speed, this should be a fun team to watch.

The Buckeyes will take the field next 9/8 against UCF, many expect to see another blow out.  Let's just hope the Bucks show up for a full 4 quarters in this one.

Browns 2012 Season Preview

Well Browns fans, it's a brand new season and we've got a brand new signal caller under center.  What else is new in Cleveland though right?  Regardless of fans who believe Colt McCoy deserved one more shot this season, myself included, Brandon Weeden is the dude who will trot onto the field this Sunday against the Eagles.

Let's take a second to remember how great the Browns were last season...Okay moving on now to 2012.  The Browns have a tough schedule this year and if they are not careful could end up with a similar win loss record to 2011.  The team will take on the Giants, Chargers, Cowboys and a Denver squad led by Peyton Manning this year in addition to two contests each with the Ravens and Steelers.  If you ask me, those match ups could get a little sloppy.

Call me a pessimist if you so choose but I've come to realize with Cleveland sports you must be a realist.  There is no sense in sugar coating a group of traditionally subpar professional sports teams seeking their first title since 1948.  However, there is one positive we can look forward to this season and it rhymes with Brent Trichardson.

That's right, you guessed it the Browns will look to their 21 year-old, father of two, Trent Richardson, to provide some hope for a successful season; and by successful I mean a season with 5 or more wins.  Anything that is an improvement over last season would be just dandy, baby steps right?

Richardson is coming off of knee surgery, which may lead some to question his durability in the league, and he did not play a single down for the team during the preseason.  He had a stellar career at Alabama, leading the Crimson Tide to the 2012 National Championship and was drafted #4 overall by the Browns in this year's NFL Draft.  On the defensive side of the ball look for third year players Joe Haden and TJ Ward to lead the way.  If both can remain healthy and if Haden can avoid a 4 game suspension for substance abuse the Browns' secondary may be an improvement over last season.

The Browns will look to bring the heat on defense and try to take down the elusive Michael Vick.  Vick will be wearing a kevlar vest to protect a tender midsection when the game begins on Sunday at 1 pm.   A couple solid hits on Vick and he could be knocked out of the game.

Expect Richardson and Weeden to find the endzone at least once and how could we forget Phil Dawson.  He'll chip in at least one field goal before the clock hits triple zeroes.

Week 1 Prediction:  Eagles 24      Browns  17