Late Mistakes Cost Young Browns

Young football teams tend to make mistakes. This was never more evident than the Cleveland Browns’ 31-20 loss to Washington this afternoon.

Hue Jackson’s crew got off to a poor start, trailing 14-0 early, before rallying and actually carried a 20-17 lead into the fourth quarter.

However, the young Browns turned the ball over three times at the end of the game, two on fumbles and an interception by Cody Kessler, and Cleveland fell to 0-4 on the season.

One reminder. They’ve played three of those four games on the road.

One of the dangers of having so many young players is there are no veterans to teach the younger guys how to close out games. The Browns have had a chance to win the last three contests, but are still winless.

It will be up to the coaching staff to get these guys to eliminate the errors costing them in the win column.

Here are this week’s positives and negatives, with a new category–bad officiating.

Positives. The Browns came into the game in the top five in rushing and showed why today. They had 163 yards on the ground, with another 100 yard game by Isaiah Crowell (15 rushes, 112 yards). They probably should have had more than 28 attempts.

Cody Parkey rebounded from his debut and made two field goals including a 51-yarder.

Another Cody, Kessler, played well too. He completed 28 of 40 throws for 223 yards, and helped the offense convert 8 of 12 third downs. As long as he plays like this, there is no reason to play either Josh McCown or even Robert Griffin III for that matter.

And the offensive line did a good job with John Greco going back to guard and using Austin Reiter at center.

Defensively, Jamar Taylor continued to show well, getting an interception for the second straight week. And the newest Brown, Cam Johnson had two sacks.

Negatives. For the first time this season, the defense couldn’t stop the run, allowing 145 yards, at an average of 5.6 per rush.

The defensive line had a poor game and Danny Shelton took a step back with just three assists.

And even though Cleveland had three sacks, for most of the game they couldn’t put pressure on Washington QB Kirk Cousins. Of course, they didn’t have a lot of good pass rushing situations.

Ray Horton’s unit also had no answer for TE Jordan Reed, which isn’t good news considering New England’s Rob Gronkowski is up next week.

Today’s horrible officiating. The NFL needs to change the pass interference call.

First, they should be no call on any under thrown ball, because the bad throw is causing the contact. That was the case on the 50 YARD PENALTY against Jordan Poyer in the first quarter.

Another bad PI call came against Joe Haden in the fourth quarter. Both Haden and the receiver were bumping each other, but Haden drew the flag. A no call would have been correct there.

And lastly, Duke Johnson’s fumble in the fourth quarter appeared to be recovered by…Duke Johnson. The official ruled Washington football.

Of course, Jeff Triplette’s crew is one of the leagues worst, so what can you expect.

Our point is the Browns are inexperienced as it is, and can’t afford to have bad calls go against them as well.

So, the Browns come home next week to take on the mighty New England Patriots. It should be another good measuring stick for the young Browns.

Yes, they are 0-4. However, many teams at 1-3 and stagnant would love to trade places with Hue Jackson’s group.

Adding Experience To Bench Should Help Cavs.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are still the NBA World Champions, but they didn’t stand pat this off-season.

Nor should they have. GM David Griffin made some subtle changes to the roster, and all of them look to be solid moves, except for the lack of a backup point guard, and our guess by the time the playoffs roll around, that will be addressed as well.

Obviously, the starting five was untouched (assuming JR Smith is signed soon), so once again the wine and gold will be led by LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, with Tristan Thompson providing defense and rebounding, and Smith stretching the floor and also providing better defense than you would think.

Griffin added two veterans to the bench in G/F Mike Dunleavy (36) and C Chris Andersen (38). While many people always think get younger, adding these two vets to the bench to go with Richard Jefferson (36), who was a major contributor last year, is a great move.

Think about it. The problem for older players is maintaining production over 25-30 minutes per game and over an 82 game season.

These players don’t need to do this for the Cavs.

All Tyronn Lue needs from any of this trio is to provide no more than 10 minutes per game of solid basketball, and based on their past, it should be no problem for them to do just that.

You can add another older player, Channing Frye (33), to that mix as well. And we all saw the impact he made in the post-season a year ago.

Older players are great coming off the bench because a coach has a reasonable idea what he is going to get from those guys. Inexperienced players can be up or down. They could give the team a big lift or be down right awful.

Which is why Lue probably doesn’t want to rely on rookie Kay Felder as Irving’s back up.

And all of the veterans, outside of Andersen, can shoot the rock, and the Cavs management loves to surround James with guys that can knock down shots from behind the three point line and Dunleavy is certainly capable of that, making 38% for his career.

The only thing we would like to see if another big man make the regular season roster.

Right now, you have Thompson and Love as the starting center and power forward, with Frye and Andersen backing up. Frye is better than you think defensively, and “Birdman” is definitely a banger.

There would seem to be an opening for another C/PF, and the candidates would be 6’10” Eric Moreland, 6’9″ Cory Jefferson, both third year pros, and 6’9″ Jonathan Holmes, a first year player out of Texas.

One of those guys could take over the Sasha Kaun role of last year.

We are also anxious to see how G Jordan McRae will perform in the exhibition games. McRae can definitely score, as he showed in the regular season finale last season, but can he do the other things, like move the ball and play defense.

He will need to do those things to get minutes once the games start for real. It is our contention that it was McRae’s presence that convinced the team to part with Matthew Dellavedova this summer.

And we are also curious to see how winning a title enhances the games of Irving and Love. Our bet is their confidence will be out of this world because they are champions and their games will take a quantum leap.

For the first time in 52 years, a Cleveland team will be defending a title. We think this group is up to the task.

Tribe Earned This Title In Many Ways

The Cleveland Indians are the 2016 American League Central Division Champions!

No one game wild card nonsense this season, the Tribe will start the AL Division Series next Thursday somewhere, hopefully at Progressive Field.

Although the Indians have been in first place since June, it hasn’t been an easy trip to the division title despite the margin being eight games as of this morning.

Terry Francona has been without arguably the team’s best player, OF Michael Brantley, for the entire season. He has played just 11 games, getting 39 at bats for the year.

The starting catcher, Yan Gomes was mired in a batting slump the entire season, and then separated his shoulder in July and has missed the remainder of the season.

And in the past few weeks, the team has lost two starting pitchers, the strength of the team coming into the season, as Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar were ruled out for the rest of the regular season.

Look, all teams have injuries and they overcome them as well, but we are simply pointing out that this hasn’t been one of those magical seasons where everything fell into place for the Indians.

The Tribe earned this division title by dominating within the division. They have a 46-24 record against Central Division teams, and have a winning record against the other members of the division.

They earned this title by going on a 14 game winning streak in June, a franchise record. And for those who belittle the accomplishment and point to the team’s record without the streak, we would say that every major league had the opportunity to win 14 in a row.

To date, only the Cleveland Indians have done it.

They earned this title by ranking first in the American League in staff ERA, and scoring the second most runs in the league. If you do that, chances are you will have a very good record.

They earned this title by dominating at Progressive Field, going 53-28 at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. They’ve gone .500 on the road too, so it’s not as though they are horrible outside of Cleveland.

They earned this title because they had young players from their farm system step up in the wake of the injuries that occurred, and guys like Jose Ramirez, Tyler Naquin, and Mike Clevinger have been major contributors to the cause.

They earned this title because two veterans signed in the off-season became major contributors. Mike Napoli had career highs in home runs and RBIs, and Rajai Davis is going to lead the league in stolen bases at age 35.

Both have also become leaders in the clubhouse and taken the younger guys under their wing.

They earned this title because the front office went out at the trade deadline and acquired perhaps the best relief pitcher in baseball in southpaw Andrew Miller, whose addition has made the Tribe relief corps maybe the best in the game.

They earned this title because they have one of the game’s most dynamic young players in SS Francisco Lindor and his partner at the keystone, Jason Kipnis.

They earned this title because Carlos Santana rebounded from a couple of lackluster seasons in the power department to bash a career high 34 dingers, a club record for a switch hitter.

Lastly, they earned this title because they have one of the game’s best skippers in Francona. We have questioned his in-game strategy from time to time, but you can’t doubt the respect he has from his players.

The hugs he gave his key guys as they left the field last night spoke volumes as to the relationship he has with the players.

Now, it’s time for some rest, but the Indians also need to win some games to secure home field for at least the first round.

But it was a sweet scene last night in Detroit. And if they couldn’t clinch at home, that’s the next best place to do so.

Browns Lose Again, But Continue to Show Improvement.

Most Browns’ fans probably resigned themselves to a blowout today, having to watch Cody Kessler in his first start as an NFL quarterback.

The news didn’t get any better later in the week with injuries to CB Joe Haden and K Patrick Murray, more on the latter later.

Instead, the Browns took the Miami Dolphins to overtime, losing 30-24 to drop to 0-3, but also showing the improvement we wanted to see week to week.

We haven’t changed our tune about judging Hue Jackson’s team based on the improvement of the team week to week, so we can’t be too upset about the defeat.

Also, two more weaknesses have shown themselves that must be addressed, so we will see if Jackson and his staff take care of them before next Sunday’s game at Washington.

Positives. What more can you say about Terrelle Pryor? He is showing he can be a force on offense. He caught eight passes for 144 yards, ran for 21 more, and completed 3 of 5 passes for 35 yards.

And he wasn’t happy with the outcome of the game. You have to wonder what was stopping the previous coaching staff was looking at with this guy.

You would have to assume the Dolphins came into the game hoping Kessler would have to beat them, but the Browns ran the ball very well again, getting 169 yards on the ground, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. Isaiah Crowell had 79 yards and Duke Johnson pitched in with 69 more.

One of the rookie wide receivers emerged, but it was not Rashard Higgins, rather it was Ricardo Louis, who caught three throws for 40 yards.

And Kessler acquitted himself well too. He completed 21 of 33 for 244 yards, and appeared more comfortable as the game went on. He earned another start in our opinion.

Defensively, did anyone think Briean Boddy-Calhoun would contribute this season? The rookie out of Minnesota had a pick six to give Cleveland a 10-7 lead in the first half.

Jamar Taylor, a former Dolphin, also picked off Ryan Tannehill.

And Corey Lemonier, picked up on waivers from San Francisco after the last preseason game, almost won the contest for the Browns with a strip sack/fumble recovery with under a minute to go.

Christian Kirksey had nine tackles and Danny Shelton played well again too.

Miami had only 115 rushing yards on the day, a major improvement from what teams did to the Browns in 2016.

Negatives. The special teams continue not to be special, and eventually, doesn’t Chris Tabor have to answer for that. Corey Parkey missed three field goals, including a 46 yarder that could have won the game.

You miss three in one game? You will find your name on the waiver wire. Expect a new kicker next week.

And Britton Colquitt’s punt in overtime was right down the middle allowing a decent return. The ball had to be kicked away from Jarvis Landry.

Austin Pasztor should have shown the coaching staff that he is not a tackle. If he wasn’t being flagged for a false start, he was getting caught holding. Hard to think Spencer Drango or Shon Coleman can’t do a better job.

Kessler still needs to work on getting rid of the football. He turned it over in on the first possession because he held on to the pigskin too long, and did it a few more times as the game went on.

The last problem was choosing to kick off at the start of overtime. The defense did hold, but it resulted in poor field position after Miami punted.

Taking the ball would have given Cleveland the ball probably at their own 25.

Next time, take the ball coach.

Hopefully, Haden and Carl Nassib will be back in action next week against Washington. That would help the defense.

And the Browns need to keep running the football, that will help Kessler feel more comfortable.

Again, we saw this team getting better, and that’s what Jackson should be proud of. This team has some football players who may be able to contribute weekly. That’s also something positive.

Why Don’t People Understand Browns’ Plan?

It happens every fall. The national media and some of the local media reach for the lowest of the low hanging fruit in regards to the National Football League.

They take turns hitting the speed bag that is the Cleveland Browns.

Look, the Browns deserve it. Since they returned to the NFL in 1999, they have been a joke of a franchise. Two winning seasons, one playoff appearance. The teams slogan should be “At least 10 losses every year”.

They’ve changed coaches like people change underwear. They’ve gone through multiple front office executives, general managers, and directors of football operations.

In essence, they deserve exactly what they get.

So, now the Cleveland Browns are trying something else. They blew up their roster, getting rid of most of the veterans on last year’s team and we trying to build a winning team by getting a whole bunch of young players and letting them develop together.

That actually sound logical.

Will it work? Well, that remains to be seen, but nothing else they’ve tried has worked in the last 17 years, so really, why not try it?

Of course, many people in the media don’t know what to make of it, so they fall back on what has worked for them in the past, and that is, hammering what goes on in Berea.

In a way, it’s lazy reporting.

For example, based on Carson Wentz’ two very good starts (against the mediocre Browns and Chicago Bears), people are questioning the organization’s decision to go with Robert Griffin III at quarterback.

It’s not that complicated. They weren’t convinced that Wentz was a top tier starter and Griffin was an experienced alternative to playing the 37-year-old Josh McCown.

A national writer wondered why the Browns would bother to start the former Heisman Trophy winner when McCown is clearly better?

Really? You can’t figure that out? Griffin is 26-years-old. Maybe you can salvage something out of his career, maybe not. The Browns know McCown doesn’t have much left. If you know you aren’t contending for a playoff spot, why not see what a guy who is younger can do?

A local station is running through the statistics and reporting on what the players who the Browns have unloaded in recent years are doing. Did we miss something and the Browns were actually a playoff team the last four or five years?

You will never be able to convince us that getting rid of aging players from a 3-13 team is a bad idea. Players over 30 generally aren’t going to get better as they age. So, why Karlos Dansby can still play, he’s not a good fit for what the Browns are doing.

The point is many people still have the mistaken notion that the Browns want to go 6-10 this year and they should have kept and played veterans to achieve that record.

However, that’s kind of like being the 8th seed in the NBA playoffs. You aren’t going to get a high lottery pick, and you don’t have a chance at a title.

Again, whether it works or not, the Cleveland Browns are trying to build around a lot of young, drafted players who will grow together. They will draft their franchise QB at some point, perhaps next year, a player who they love.

In the meantime, the media shouldn’t look at this football team the same as they normally do. They can’t acknowledge trying something new.

Are Tribe’s Post-Season Chances Done?

After Carlos Carrasco left Saturday’s game with the Detroit Tigers with a broken bone in his hand, The Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes wrote that the Cleveland Indians’ playoff chances ended before the post-season even began.

We aren’t going to get into whether or not the column was appropriate, nor are we going to discuss the reactions to the piece in the Tribe clubhouse.

We did want to analyze whether or not the Indians’ really do not have a chance once the post-season begins the first week in October.

Perhaps as little as five years ago, losing two starting pitchers from a team that leads the American League in ERA could have been a death blow to that squad’s World Series hopes.

But baseball has changed over the past few seasons, and in the playoffs, the bullpen is becoming more and more important as managers bring in one flamethrower after another to work one inning in October.

Certainly, the Tribe will need its ace, Corey Kluber, to give them a lot of innings in the games he starts, much like Madison Bumgarner does for the Giants. Terry Francona will need Kluber to go deep in games, because he will lean on his bullpen heavily in the games he doesn’t start.

From there on out, Francona will be happy with at least five innings from his starting pitchers and then he will turn the game over to his bullpen where he can pull a page out of Joe Torre’s book and ask his three best relief pitchers, Bryan Shaw, Cody Allen, and Andrew Miller, to give him four outs each instead of the three he usually asks for in the regular season.

Trevor Bauer would probably be the game two starter, and if he is throwing strikes, could be another guy who can soak up some innings. For all of Bauer’s inconsistency, especially after the all star break, when he is on, he can be dominant.

Our guess is if the other two starters, Josh Tomlin and Mike Clevinger, can give Tito four solid innings, the skipper will be satisfied.

That’s because the post-season roster will have either eight or nine bullpen options, depending on what Francona feels comfortable with.

It’s also why Tito has been conducting some tryouts over the last month to see who will be part of his playoff relief corps.

Obviously, Dan Otero will be one of those members, as will Zack McAllister, who has been much more effective over the last six weeks.

We also believe Kyle Crockett will give the Indians an extra left-hander in the ‘pen in the post-season.

The last two spots are up for grabs, and the frontrunners are probably veteran Jeff Manship and rookie Perci Garner, who the manager has gone to in some very high leverage situations lately.

His strikeout of Victor Martinez on Saturday, with a man on third in a scoreless game, may have clinched the spot for him.

Without a doubt, it would be easier for the Indians with four starters who can give the team at least six innings throughout the post-season, but that ship has sailed.

However, we can definitely see a scenario where the pitching burden is put more on the bullpen in October, and that gives the Cleveland Indians just as good of a chance for success as they would have if the starting rotation was intact.

Did Browns Improve From Week One? Yes

After last week, we told everyone you cannot evaluate the Cleveland Browns are wins and losses, but rather on how the team progresses throughout the season.

Based on that, we would give Hue Jackson and his team a passing grade for week 2, despite a 25-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at First Energy Stadium.

The Browns jumped out to a 20-0 first quarter lead, and the Josh McCown mafia was probably busy telling everyone who would listen, “I told you so”. But after that quarter, the brown and orange looked a lot like last week’s squad.

They couldn’t put up any more points, and continually shot themselves in the foot on both sides of the ball.

Positives. The running game improved, getting 145 yards, but 85 of those were on one play, Isaiah Crowell’s touchdown scamper in the first quarter.

The Ravens ran the ball more often (26-23) despite trailing for most of the game.

Corey Coleman played like a first round pick, scoring two touchdowns and making five catches for 104 yards.

Duke Johnson continues to show he needs the football more often, with four receptions for 44 yards. However, he carried just three times from scrimmage.

Defensively, Derrick Kindred continues to impress, and ILB Chris Kirksey played well too. He’s one of the guys we felt was minimized by the previous coaching staff.

Danny Shelton continued to show he is not a bust with two tackles and six assists. He’s a big reason why the defense once again held the opponents to under four yards per carry. Baltimore averaged just 3.1 per attempt.

And Joe Haden improved from a week ago with two interceptions. Haden still had plays where improvement is needed, but perhaps he is shaking some rust off.

Also, kudos to the front office. They traded Andy Lee for a fourth round pick, and then picked up a solid punter on the waiver wire. Britton Colquitt averaged 40.8 yards per punt, and put two inside the 20.

Negatives. McCown’s interception at the end of the first half is a reminder as to why he is a below average NFL quarterback despite the Cleveland media’s love for him.

It gave the Ravens three points they shouldn’t have scored. You cannot, repeat CANNOT turn the ball over in that spot.

We keep hearing about special teams’ coach Chris Tabor being one of the best in the league. Why?

A blocked extra point and a long return on first kickoff say maybe the Browns can do better.

Cleveland has had a lot of kicks blocked in the second half of last season and another one today. And it cost the team three points, meaning a field goal could’ve won it at the end.

Lastly (and it won’t be the last time this year we say this), the NFL officiating is horrific. The taunting penalty against Terrelle Pryor in the last minute, negating a play that would have put the Browns in a first and goal situation, ranks as one of the worst calls we’ve ever seen.

Pryor was simply flipping the ball to the official. He didn’t jam it into the defender’s face, he was giving it to the official, and Ladarius Webb just got in the way.

The NFL officials are THE WORST in professional sports. They make ridiculously bad calls every week.

Next week, it’s on to Miami to take on the Dolphins. Will McCown, who was banged up, be able to play?

Will the run defense continue to do its job? Will more special teams’ gaffes occur?

Stay tuned for how the Browns’ progress turned out next week.

Fans, Media Need New Way To Evaluate Browns

Not even the most optimistic fan of the Cleveland Browns is predicting a successful season.

Before the first game last Sunday, we think the highest win total we heard for the brown and orange was eight, and those folks must wake up every morning thinking today’s the day the pot of gold will appear at their doorstep.

If Hue Jackson’s crew went 3-13 or 4-12 in 2016, it wouldn’t be shocking.

That’s why we were surprised at the vitriol which followed the 29-10 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener.

What exactly were fans and the media expecting?

On Monday, we actually heard people putting Jackson’s job in jeopardy and calling the Robert Griffin III experiment a failure. AFTER ONE GAME!

Perhaps it is the frustration of all the losing this franchise has endured since 1999, or maybe it was optimism that the Browns could win game one because they were facing a rookie quarterback, but it is difficult to see why fans and media alike were extremely hot and bothered by Cleveland losing its opener once again.

We wrote this before the season started and we certainly aren’t changing our mind after one regular season game.

We understand the Browns aren’t going to be very good this year, in fact, we would guess they aren’t going to win more than three games this season.

The difference is they will be doing it with a whole bunch of young players who figure to get better every week with the experience they gain during every contest.

If that’s not happening, then everybody needs to worry about Hue Jackson and his coaching staff.

The goal should be for this group of players to be better on January 1st against the Steelers than they were last Sunday.

It’s not that difficult to understand.

The Browns have a few players from the previous regime that they need to decide on, guys like Danny Shelton, Cam Erving, Nate Orchard, Xavier Cooper, and Ibraheim Campbell come to mind.

If they can get six solid starters, one or two being Pro Bowl players, out of this year’s draft class, then the 2016 can be considered a success. The best bets among those draftees are Corey Coleman, Carl Nassib, Emmanuel Ogbah, Derrick Kindred, and Joe Schobert.

Then since you have 14 picks in the 2017 draft, you get more six more solid starters at least. That would give you 12 starters, young starters, that you can build a foundation on.

And we are being conservative. You might wind up with 15 or 16 players with a solid future ahead of them.

Maybe it doesn’t work, but the Browns haven’t gone down this road before, and you cannot hold the sins of past regimes on Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Hue Jackson.

The great dynasties of the NFL were built through the draft. This isn’t to say every team who tries to build through the draft develops into a consistent Super Bowl threat, but the Steelers of the 70’s, the Cowboys of the 90’s came about by smart drafting.

Time will tell if Brown and Jackson have drafted the right people. However, we can tell you that one week isn’t enough time to make the decision that they didn’t.

In the meantime, the new management should be judged on how the young players progress throughout the season. Forget the wins and losses. We understand that is different from how we have all been trained, but if you don’t adopt this philosophy, you will have a very unhappy football season.

Also, stop putting Carson Wentz in Canton based on one game against a totally rebuilding team.

That is all.

Sign Lindor Long Term, He’ll Be Best Ever For Tribe

It should be fairly obvious by now that the Cleveland Indians have a very special player in shortstop Francisco Lindor.

He’s already the best player on a team that will likely make the post-season, and he’s just 22-years-old, not turning 23 until well after the season is over.

Since getting called up on June 14th a year ago, the switch-hitter has batted .316 with a 825 OPS, and this year, he has an outside shot at a 200 hit season.

We have been advocating since last year (yes, we know that sounds crazy), to sign Lindor to a long term deal to make sure he stays in a Cleveland uniform for a long, long time.

And we mean not just a deal to cover his arbitration seasons and maybe delay his free agency by a year or two. No, we would sign him to a ten year deal, keeping with the franchise through the prime of his career and beyond.

That’s how good we believe this kid is.

Throughout his minor league career, we thought that Lindor could be to the Indians what Derek Jeter was to the New York Yankees, and we’ve seen nothing that has made us change our mind.

Besides his playing ability, and remember, a baseball player’s prime is usually between ages 27 to 29, so he is five years away from that, Lindor’s joy for the game is always evident. His smile and zest for baseball should be marketed not only in Cleveland, but by Major League Baseball.

We also believe that if Lindor would stay for ten more years, he would become the best position player in the history of the Cleveland Indians.

We understand the names that came before, Hall of Fame players who spent the majority of their careers with the Tribe. Names like Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Lou Boudreau, Earl Averill, and those players of recent ilk like Jim Thome, who will be inducted into Cooperstown soon.

Look at the Tribe’s list of all time leaders, and tell me Lindor wouldn’t top all of these lists if he remained healthy and played a total of 12 years here–

Games played: Terry Turner 1619. Lindor played in 241 after last night, and if he played 140 per season, which is probably conservative, he would be at 1641.

Runs: Averill 1154. Lindor has 142 to date with 92 this season.

Hits: Lajoie 2052. Frankie’s next hit is #300, with 170 hits per season, again conservative, the shortstop will be at 2000.

Doubles: Speaker 486. Lindor has 49 right now, and as he gets older and stronger, we can see 40 per year as a norm. Besides, it’s no disgrace to be behind “The Gray Eagle”, who is the all time leader in this category.

RBI’s: Averill 1084. Lindor has 121 for his career, and again as he gets stronger, should be able to start knocking in 80-90 per season.

By the time he would have completed that decade with the Tribe, the only major stats he would likely not be on top of would be home runs (although he would be in the top ten), and stolen bases, because that aspect of the game has been de-emphasized.

We don’t go crazy with superlatives either. Part of the reason Lindor could be the best Tribe player ever would be that the franchise has never really been able to keep great players for an extended period.

Even throughout the golden age of the 1990’s, none of the great players who played at Jacobs Field ever played their entire career in Cleveland.

The front office needs to make a long term deal with Lindor this winter. He is simply worth it, and it would show fans that this ownership is anxious to keep a player like this here for the long haul.

We are seeing the beginning of greatness with Francisco Lindor. Let’s hope we continue to watch for a long time.

Browns Lose, But What Will They Learn?

We have been saying all along not to expect too much from the Cleveland Browns in 2016. They shed most of the veterans from a squad that went 3-13 a year ago, so this is a year to lay a foundation for future success.

Therefore, we are not going to judge today’s 29-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that harshly. The best chance Cleveland had for a win today was poor play by the home team’s rookie quarterback, but Carson Wentz made enough plays to bring home a winner.

That doesn’t mean the Browns blew it by passing on Wentz either. A year ago, the Titan’s Marcus Mariota was fantastic in the season opener, and in week two, the Browns, yes the team that won only three games, handed the rookie his lunch.

Our point is that it is way too early to judge Wentz.

Here are some of our observations for Game 1:

Positives. Many of the rookies looked good, particularly Emmanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib. The latter seemed to be in the Eagles’ backfield a lot, batted down two passes and had a sack.

Derrick Kindred was another rookie who stood out, with five tackles.

Corey Coleman caught two passes for 69 yards, including a 58-yard play. Coleman was also open on Robert Griffin III’s interception, but the ball was way behind him. If the throw was on target, it would have been a big game.

The run defense was solid, allowing the Eagles just 3.9 yards per carry. Not great, but much better than we saw in the pre-season.

Last year’s first round picks, Cam Erving and Danny Shelton, looked better than a year ago, except for…

Negatives. …the Browns ran 50 offensive plays today and Erving had 49 good snaps. However, the one bad snap kind of changed the momentum of the game, as it resulted in a safety.

Griffin missed a lot of plays with inaccuracy, one that resulted in his only interception. He also missed an open Andrew Hawkins for a touchdown, and an open Terrelle Pryor on a sideline pass. You can’t leave plays on the field consistently.

Joe Haden showed a lot of rust after missing a lot of time last season, giving up a long TD pass to Nelson Agholor, and Jordan Matthews had over 100 yards receiving.

The third down woes reared its ugly head again, as the Browns were just 2 for 10. The inability to stay on the field led to the Eagles having the ball twice as much as the Browns.

Also, the running game struggled early. Running the ball helps keep the defense on the sideline and also will help the passing game. Cleveland simply has to get better running the football. Perhaps Duke Johnson should carry the ball more.

We know Hue Jackson is trying to set a tone with his football team, but it seemed like he gambled a lot today and none of his gambles paid off. Going for it on 4th and 5 in your own territory in the first half is a tad reckless, and the last Eagles’ touchdown was because he went for it with less than three minutes to go.

None of the negatives should be picked apart until they see them raise up on a weekly basis. If the Browns learn from what they did wrong, that’s great. That’s really the purpose of this season.

Same with the things that went well, unless you can do these things every week, it’s can’t be considered a building block.

Those critical of today’s performance are missing the point. This isn’t a good football team. If they are a lot better by the end of the season, then Jackson and his staff are doing a good job. That’s what they should be judged on.