Right about now, I think the Jets have tried another onside kick. Seriously, yesterday’s 24-18 win by the Cleveland Browns over New York at The Meadowlands was a must win game for the Browns’ playoff hopes. This win, coupled with Tennessee’s overtime loss against San Diego, puts the brown and orange in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth. It wasn’t a flashy performance, just one that got the job done.
The Jets are a bad football team. They couldn’t score on a 1st and goal at the Cleveland 1 yard line early in the second quarter. Two line plunges failed, and then Kellen Clemens threw an interception so the Jets came away empty. Meanwhile, Derek Anderson took what the defense gave him for the most part, throwing underneath to his backs. In fact, the Browns took a 7-3 halftime lead on a nice play fake and toss to Jamal Lewis for a 7 yard touchdown pass.
The second Cleveland touchdown was a record tying 13th TD reception by Braylon Edwards. He tied Gary Collins club mark set in 1963. It is notable that Collins’ mark was set in a 14 game season, and Edwards’ catch came in the 13th game. It was a legitimate equaling of the mark.
The play was like many of the hook ups between Anderson and Edwards this year; the quarterback throws it up and trusts the wide receiver to come down with it. Edwards has been remarkable making these adjustments all year, thus allowing the coaching staff and fans to ignore his seemingly one drop per game.
Lewis had his third 100-yard game of the season, and put the contest on ice with his 31 yard run in the fourth quarter where he literally bulled his way into the end zone, breaking several tackles. Lewis is on record as saying he wants 25 carries per game, and he came up four short yesterday. He is running well, and should be a tremendous weapon as the weather worsens in the last three games of the season.
Defensively, Cleveland gave up a lot a yards allowing Clemens to dink and dunk his way up the field, hoping he would make a mistake. Twice he threw interceptions, the aforementioned one on the goal line and another by rookie Brandon McDonald, who continues to impress. He also took four sacks, as the Browns continue to put more and more pressure on opposing passers as the season goes on. However, once again, the prevent defense almost prevented a victory in the fourth quarter.
Next Sunday’s game against the Bills shapes up as a playoff game, particularly for Buffalo. A Browns victory will virtually eliminate the Bills from the playoff race. The schedule works in Cleveland’s favor also since two of the last three games are at home, where the Brownies are 5-1 in 2007. I know many people would have said it would have been nice to be 8-5 at this juncture, but Romeo Crennel’s crew has to finish the deal now. They have to make the playoffs. If they continue to win at home, they will be playing on the first weekend in January. That’s correct. Post season football will return for Browns’ fans.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 
Watching this team reminds me of the old cardiac kids. The only difference is Sports Center. That was not available back then. Somehow we seem to make the SC highlight reel each week. And it is in a good way. The offense is scoring and the defense is making stops when it needs to. Now if we can just get this team to play 60 full minutes of football I think we can go past the Sqeelers in the playoffs. Playoffs and Browns in the first sentence is something new in the 00’s. Once we get to the playoffs the next question is what to do with Derik Anderson. We have BQ on the bench but what do we have? We don’t know. Is DA a one season wonder? Can we pay both DA and Kribbs and stay under the salary cap? These questions and more need to be addressed. But first we need to get past Buf. We play well at home and are facing a much maligned defense. As long as the offense shows up for 4 qtrs and the defense keeps making key stops we will see Pukesburg again for the 3rd time. And history shows it is difficult to beat a tem 3 times in a row. Especially a young team that is grwoing and improving each week. This year we ushered in a new mindset. One of wining. And there ain’t nothing like wining when your wining and there ain’t nothing like winning when your not winning.
Chuck C
Dallas Area Browns Bakers