Hoyer Overcomes Mistakes With GW Drive

If Brian Hoyer were so inclined to listen to sports talk shows in Cleveland, he had to be thinking there would be overwhelming support for his back up after his last interception, his third of the game, this one to Dezmen Southworth, set up Atlanta with excellent field position to take a 24-23 lead with under a minute remaining.

However, the Falcons kicked the go ahead field goal with :49 remaining and their defense had been a sieve the entire game.

So, much like his first start as a Brown last season, which coincidentally was WR Josh Gordon’s first game back from suspension in 2013, Hoyer ignored the three picks and put Cleveland kicker Billy Cundiff in position to win the game from 37 yards out.

Cundiff converted and the Browns are now 7-4 on the season, and continue to be in the chase for a playoff spot in the AFC.

While the Manzealots will continue to call for Hoyer’s benching, there is no doubt he will continue to start and play until Mike Pettine’s crew is mathematically eliminated from post-season consideration.

Make no mistake, Hoyer’s two interceptions in the fourth quarter in a game that the Browns needed to win were horrible throws and decisions.

The first one in the end zone, a back leg throw picked by Desmond Trufant, came on first and goal from the Atlanta six yard line. The smart play, the obvious play is to throw the ball into the stands. Hoyer couldn’t or didn’t get it there, and a chance to build on a 23-21 advantage went out the window.

The defense held that time, giving Cleveland the ball on their own 16 with 3:46 left. The way Atlanta’s defense had performed all day, it was certainly an amount of time where the Browns could run the ball and run out the clock.

Instead, following an eight yard run by Isaiah Crowell, and a false start on rookie guard Joe Bitonio, making it 2nd and 8, the Browns’ QB threw a deep throw over the middle to TE Gary Barnidge that was almost picked off, and did throw an interception on a sideline throw on the next play to Southworth.

Too many unnecessary risks taken by Hoyer and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.

Particularly when the Browns were gaining 5.6 yards per average running play. Crowell ran for 88 yards on 12 attempts and fellow rookie Terrance West gained 62 more on 14 carries.

Why not continue to run it down the throat of the Falcons, they couldn’t stop it all day?

We believe the hardest thing for pro offensive coordinator is to NOT pass the ball.

Atlanta threw the ball 43 times plus three sacks, so they called 46 passing plays compared to 23 runs when the Browns weakness on defense is running the football.

Granted, the Falcons only gained 63 yards on those 23 attempts, but they really made no attempt to established a ground game either, and with their defense, it would be in their best interest to keep the pigskin in their hands.

The big news coming into the game was Gordon’s return and he did not disappoint, grabbing eight throws for 120 yards and reminding everyone what a beast he is. He picks up a ton of yards after the catch because he is tough to bring down.

His presence made things easier for everyone. The ground game picked up and Andrew Hawkins (5 catches, 93 yards) and Miles Austin (6 catches, 64 yards)

The banged up defense responded somehow with three sacks of Matt Ryan, two by Paul Kruger and an interception by Joe Haden. Unfortunately, the Browns could only turn the two Falcon turnovers (a fumble caused by Kruger’s sack) into two Billy Cundiff field goals.

Cundiff responded from his horrible miss last week with four field goals, included the game-winner. Spencer Lanning punted just once, after the first drive of the game.

So, it’s on to Buffalo (or somewhere) to play the Bills and another week of people saying Manziel should be the starting quarterback.

However, if it were Aaron Rodgers who did what Hoyer did today, it would be reported how he overcame a bad game to lead his team to victory. That will be heard with deaf ears in Cleveland.

Way Too Early To Blast Blatt

It is amazing that with the NBA season just 10 games old, there are fans who are dissatisfied with Cavs’ coach David Blatt.

We know the reason. The wine and gold brought in the best player on the planet and another all-star to play for the team and they are only 5-5 after the first ten contests, so it must be the coach that is the problem.

After all, there were idiots out there projecting that the Cavs would win 70 regular season games in 2014-15, something only one team in history has done. So, really Blatt’s problem is the unrealistic expectations of the fan base.

This is not to say that Blatt has made a seamless transition from the European leagues to the NBA. He hasn’t used his bench much and that’s a big key for an 82 game schedule. This is the time of year where you develop your bench, giving reserves minutes so they can contribute as the season progresses. That has to change, and tonight’s game would be a good place to start.

He’s also using LeBron James too much. James was averaging a little over 39 minutes a game prior to Wednesday’s game against San Antonio, and played 34 minutes vs. the Spurs. That’s more in the realm we’d like to see going forward to keep him fresh for the entire season.

Also, giving James more time off would allow Kevin Love assert himself more offensively. Love admitted he is struggling to find out his place in the offense, and having him on the floor with James resting would make him the primary offensive option.

Blatt is also trying to figure out who he can trust, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. The knee injury to Matthew Dellavedova was a bigger blow than most think because he is one of the few guards on the roster who can defend. His absence has caused more playing time for rookie Joe Harris, which will help in the long run.

But once again, it is still very early in the season, the Cavs have played 12% of the regular season and once again, they have a roster where roughly 2/3’s of the players are new. We know sports fans in northeast Ohio hate the word, but it’s a “process”.

If the same issues are still in place once the calendar turns to 2015, then we can have a meaningful debate about the merits of the coach. Blatt is a smart man, and he’s not a head coach for the first time, just the first time at the NBA level. He has a lot of experience coaching professionals.

He’s not a former player without a background in x’s and o’s either. He knows the game, and he knows from a strategic standpoint how to coach it. But he does have to adjust to the NBA’s 48 minute contests. If you think about it, he rests his starters like they are playing the 40 minute games he is accustomed to.

The critics are forgetting that it’s a new coaching staff and the majority of the players also just joined the team over the summer. It takes time to develop chemistry and cohesion, mostly in terms on knowing where players need the ball to be effective, and also on the defensive end where trust in mandatory.

Guys who played for Blatt in the past have raved about him, and there’s no reason to think his style has changed drastically. The things he has struggled with early in the season should be correctable.

This team will show progress, we are confident in saying that. Blaming the coach is the knee jerk reaction in these parts. Let’s allow David Blatt to coach for a while longer before it is determined that he is the problem.

Cavs’ Defense Needs to Start With Guards

The most recognized weakness experts thought the Cleveland Cavaliers would have going into the season was on the defensive end, and to this point in the campaign, that has been the case.

The wine and gold currently rank 24th in the NBA in points allowed at 104.3, 7th from the bottom, and are third last in the association in defensive field goal percentage, allowing opponents to make 48.4% of their shots.

In regard to the points, the Cavs are scoring 106.7 points per night, meaning they are outscoring their opponents by 2.4 points a game.

In defending three-point shooting, Cleveland is in the middle of the pack, allowing a 35.8 % rate, meaning the bigger problem is inside the three-point arc.

Now, this is no question that the defense is definitely affected by the number of new people on the roster. Playing well on that end of the floor requires knowing where your teammates are and having the trust that if you leave your man to help, someone else will cover for you.

That comes from playing together, and there isn’t a question here that the Cavaliers will be a better defensive team after the All Star Game than they are right now.

However, any improvement to be made on the defensive end has to come with a better effort from the backcourt, particularly Kyrie Irving.

First, let’s remember that a good portion of defense is “want to”. Working hard on that end of the floor is half the battle.

Let’s also remember that Irving has plenty of quickness. He is a superb penetrator on offense with the ability to seemingly get to the rim any time he wants to. So, there shouldn’t be any reason why the likes of Ty Lawson and Rajon Rondo blow past him time and time again during a game.

When this happens, we all know what comes next. Either Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varajao, or Kevin Love have to stop the man going to the basket, allowing a player like Rondo to dish to the vacated teammate. Rondo wound up with 16 assists against the Cavs last Friday night, and Lawson had 12 last night.

What is puzzling is that Rondo is not renown as a good shooter from outside and Lawson was 0 for 6 from behind the arc last night. This begs the question, why not give either player a step defensively and force them to beat you from outside first?

It still comes back to Irving making a commitment to be a solid player on the defensive end. Yes, it’s still early in the season and to be sure, LeBron James has to be in his ear about getting better in that area, but the two-time all-star has to get better on that end of the floor.

David Blatt cannot continue to have to put James or Shawn Marion on the opposition’s point guard when Irving can’t handle the job. They will get worn out sooner than later.

When Matthew Dellavedova gets back, you may see him take that responsibility at the end of games.

The point is this, Kyrie Irving has too much ability to be this poor of the defensive player and any improvement in this area for the Cavaliers rests on him being able to stop the parade on opposing guard going toward Cleveland’s basket.

As Cavs’ announcer Austin Carr likes to tell the story of what Jim Chones would say to him when he didn’t keep his man in front of him. Chones would tell him he was going to let him score, rather than pick up a foul.

This edition of the Cavaliers can score the basketball, but they won’t be an elite team, a championship team until they can stop the other team. Irving is the key to making that happen.

Turnovers and Not Stopping Run = Recipes for Defeat

After the Cleveland Browns’ convincing victory last Thursday night in Cincinnati, many people started convincing themselves that Mike Pettine’s team was one of the better teams in the AFC.

The reality is that yes, the Browns are a good team, an up and coming squad, but they are like most NFL teams in that if they make a bunch of mistakes, they could lose to anybody as well.

That’s what happened against Jacksonville, and it happened today in a 23-7 loss to the Houston Texans at First Energy Stadium.

If there is a recipe for losing in the NFL, what happened today could be considered as the formula.

First, lose the turnover battle. Cleveland has been very stingy in turning the football over today, but the Browns lost this category today, 2 to 1, and the game probably turned on Isaiah Crowell’s fumble on the Texans’ 19-yard line with 3:11 left in the second quarter in a tie game.

Instead of taking a 10-7 or 14-7 lead late in the half with the Browns getting the ball to start the second half, the defense let Houston go 78 yards in ten plays for a TD and a 14-7 halftime advantage.

That was huge.

Second, you have to be able to stop the running game. Houston didn’t feel the effect of not having Arian Foster today, as his back up, rookie Alfred Blue gained 156 yards in 36 carries, and in total, the Texans ran for 213 yards for the game. It is doubtful many teams win in the NFL allowing 200 yards rushing.

This has been a problem all year, and with DL Phil Taylor done for the season with a knee injury, it isn’t going to get any better. GM Ray Farmer, Pettine, and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil have to fix this and they have to fix this before next Sunday’s game against the Falcons.

And lastly, you have to do well on third down. The Browns converted just 3 out of 15 third downs on the day. They simply couldn’t stay on the field.

These were the most glaring problems.

The Browns’ can’t have Brian Hoyer throwing the football 50 times a game and hope to win, and today’s game bears that out. Hoyer had his accuracy problems again, completing only 20 of those throws for 330 yards.

The special teams were bad too. Billy Cundiff shanked a 38-yard field goal. Christian Yount snapped a ball over Spencer Lanning’s head on a punt, Marlon Moore fumbled a kickoff return, but was ruled down, and there was a holding penalty on another kickoff return by Moore that he took to the house.

Defensively, besides not being able to stop the run, there was little to no pressure on Ryan Mallet, who was making his first NFL start. He wasn’t sacked at all, and there were few plays where he was forced to throw before he wanted to.

The coaching staff isn’t immune today either. One of our pet peeves is coaches trying to show off, and Kyle Shanahan was guilty of that today.

How? In the win against Cincinnati, Terrance West played very well, gaining 94 yards in 26 hard carries. Today, he toted the rock just five times for 12 yards as Crowell was the featured back.

We like Crowell, but we don’t understand the change from West, who has played well for most of the season.

Regardless, the Browns are now 6-4 for the season and still in the thick of the playoff race, although they aren’t the good position they were to start the day.

And they get All Pro wide receiver Josh Gordon back for next week’s game against the Falcons.

Still, the winning formula for this team is to play error free football. They didn’t today and they paid a stiff price.

Does Tribe Still Need Pitching

Yesterday was a good day for the Indians’ organization because the ace of their staff, Corey Kluber, won the American League’s Cy Young Award. He is the fourth Tribe pitcher to win that award, joining Gaylord Perry, C.C. Sabathia, and Cliff Lee.

Kluber deserved the honor, leading the league in wins with 18 and finishing second in the AL in strikeouts and complete games.

We knew this last season, but Terry Francona has a legitimate top of the rotation starter going into next season. The question is, does GM Chris Antonetti still need to add another starter, or should he be satisfied with the performance of the starters over the last two months of the season.

The answer here is you can never have too much pitching, and although the rotation was fantastic in August and September, there really isn’t much of a track record for any of the starters, including Kluber.

Before anyone goes crazy, to us, a proven track record is two to three years at a certain performance level. And while Kluber has been solid in both 2013 and 2014, the fact remains he threw only 147 innings in the prior year because of injury, and this year he pitched 235 frames. How will his arm react to the additional workload?

The only starting pitcher who toiled in the major leagues prior to 2013 is Carlos Carrasco, who was tremendous after returning to the rotation last season, but outside of the first half of the 2011 season, before needing Tommy John surgery, has little track record of success in the big leagues.

This isn’t to denigrate Carrasco, who has tremendous stuff. We are only saying it is a big leap of faith to assume the right-hander will pitch the entire 2015 season the way he finished ’14.

Trevor Bauer has the next most starts in the majors with 34, the same number Kluber had this season. His career ERA in those appearance is 4.18, which is a solid figure, but not earth shattering.

We like Bauer, and for most of last season he was the second most consistent starter for Cleveland. But, he’s thrown less than 200 innings (186) at the big league level. You simply don’t know for certain what he is going to do in 2015.

Danny Salazar? He has 30 major league starts and 162 innings under his belt.

T. J. House made 18 starts and has just a little over 100 innings in the bigs.

Josh Tomlin and Zack McAllister have more of a track record than the three guys we just mentioned. Tomlin is 29-28 lifetime with an ERA approaching 5.00 (4.89) in 477 innings. If he could pitch like he did in 2011 (12-7, 4.12 ERA) that would be nice, but that’s the last time he was effective.

McAllister is 19-25 with a 4.38 ERA lifetime in 65 starts, a total of 363 innings. He was solid in 2013, but had a mediocre season in ’14. He showed promise working in relief at the end of the season, and could be taking the same career path as Carrasco.

We wouldn’t want to bank on those two as backups if one of the youngsters falter.

It may sound like doom and gloom, but these are the things Antonetti needs to think about when constructing the pitching staff. He has to assume things will go wrong.

Think about it, Bauer and House weren’t in the rotation that opened the 2014 season.

That’s why the Tribe still needs to add another starting pitcher, preferably someone who can come in and the management can be reasonably certain they can soak up innings and pitch effectively.

The old adage is still true…you can’t have enough pitching.

The Mess That Is College Football

Really, is there any sport (or branch of it) that is more screwed up than big time college football?

Although they did expand its quest for determining a national champion by including four teams instead of two, the way they are going about it continues to be completely fouled up.

We can already see a scenario where a champion of a major conference doesn’t get the chance to play for the national title because of the inclusion of a team that doesn’t win the conference title.

For a sport that prides itself on every week being part of a defacto elimination tournament, the possibility of a non-conference champ in the pigskin version of “The Final Four” is a huge problem.

The powers that be who run college football put together a committee to determine who the four teams would be. Of course, that committee will get together at the end of the conference title games and decide which four squads will get a chance to be the first champion crowned in this matter.

No, instead there are rankings every week, which in and of itself creates a bias. Currently, the four teams in place are Mississippi State, Oregon, Florida State and TCU. The guess here is that if those teams win out, which they probably won’t, they will face off in the first playoff games.

However, if their were no rankings, and let’s say a team like Baylor dominates its last three foes (Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and #13 Kansas State). If there weren’t weekly slots shown to the public, maybe the committee decides the Bears are deserving of a chance to play for the title.

Because of the weekly standings, it’s likely that won’t happen.

Look at how winning the championship last year has Florida State positioned. Their two quality wins came over 7-2 #19 Clemson and 7-2 #18 Notre Dame. They certainly aren’t dominating teams, with only three wins by 20 points or more.

Playing in a weak conference on a week in week out basis, and with their only true blowout wins being over Wake Forest (2-7) and a football subdivision team in The Citadel (4-6), why are they sitting in the top four.

And of course we have the whole perception of superiority from the Southeastern Conference. Yes, Mississippi State gets big credit for its conference wins over Auburn and Texas A & M at the beginning of the season, but since Auburn has two losses and the Aggies have three, how impressive are those wins?

MSU’s non-conference foes? Southern Mississippi, Alabama-Birmingham, and South Alabama. Not exactly murderers row.

The system favors not playing tough teams out of conference, we get that. But why do SEC teams not get criticized for this while other teams, yes we are talking about Ohio State, are reviled for it.

There is really only one solution to the process and the college football intelligentsia continues to ignore it for now. That would be to limit the choices for any committee by putting in automatic qualifiers.

The champions of the five major conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big Twelve, and PAC 12) would get automatic bids. The highest ranked team in a determined poll not from one of these leagues would also qualify.

That would leave two teams for a selection committee to choose to fill out an eight team bracket. It just seems too logical and too simple.

Of course, that’s why it hasn’t been done.

If any other sport determined a championship in this manner, people would be livid. For some reason, it’s accepted in big time college football.

Ridiculous.

LeBron is Right, Cavs’ Fans Need to Relax

When LeBron James announced he was coming back to northeast Ohio to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers, we were all giddy. For the first time since James left, a team from Cleveland was considered a favorite to win a championship.

Thoughts of 70 wins danced in our collective heads. After all, how can any team beat the wine and gold, with their “Big Three” of James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving.

Well, we found that out three times in the first week and a half of the NBA season.

Look at the teams that are off to fast starts this year. Golden State is 5-0, and although they have a new coach in Steve Kerr, their personnel is largely unchanged. Memphis is 6-1 with for the most part, the same cast and characters.

Houston lost Chandler Parsons to free agency, but they still have James Harden and Dwight Howard, and picked up Trevor Ariza to replace Parsons. The best team in the Eastern Conference so far? Toronto is 5-1, and they are largely the same team they ended the year with.

The Cavs have five, repeat five players who were wearing Cleveland uniform last season (Irving, Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varejao, and Matthew Dellavedova). That’s a lot of new players to get to play together.

We remember the year after the “Miracle of Richfield” season of 1975-76 when the NBA and ABA merged and the ABA players on teams not absorbed into the NBA were dispersed around the league. The Cavs were successful enough the year before and therefore went in to the 1976-77 season with the same roster that ended the previous season.

The wine and gold started out 16-4 that season, but as the new players were assimilated into their new teams, the Cavs faded and finished 43-39 for the season.

It takes time for new players to get used to playing together.

We have seen that in the first five games. How many passes have gone out-of-bounds because a teammate broke a different way from what the passer thought?

And certainly the lack of knowing each other takes its toll of the defensive end. Good defense is a product of helping each other. For example, big men cover up if a guard allows his man to get by, trusting that the guard then picks up the man he vacated.

Yes, practice helps, but you really only develop that trust by playing in games together. That will come as the schedule gets played out.

Since the Cavs turned over two-thirds of its roster, things like this are going to take time, even if the old players were replaced for the most part by either all-stars (James, Love) or veterans of many NBA seasons (Mike Miller, Shawn Marion).

It also didn’t help that the schedule maker had Cleveland play four of their first five games away from the friendly confines of The Quicken Loans Arena. Going 2-2 on the first trip of the season isn’t really that bad.

So, James is correct in telling fans and the media to relax. He and his new teammates are still learning to get a comfort level on the floor with each other. The new coach, David Blatt, is still learning what combinations work offensively and defensively.

Fans want the success to be instantaneous, but it rarely is.

If these same problems are still occurring when the calendar turns to 2015, then people can begin to worry.

We understand people in Cleveland aren’t patient, but they need to be just that.

Browns Performance Workmanlike, Dominant

Anybody else doubt that things are different for the Cleveland Browns under Mike Pettine?

The Browns broke their losing streak against divisional foes on the road with a dominating performance at Paul Brown Stadium, winning 24-3 over the Bengals to move into a first place tie with the Steelers at 6-3.

It’s the most wins for Cleveland since 2007 when they went 10-6.

Pettine likes to use the expression “play like a Brown”, and tonight his entire team did just that. They played tough defense, ran the ball effectively, and avoided mistakes.

First, the running game returned for Kyle Shanahan’s offense as the three-headed monster of Terrance West, Isaiah Crowell, and Ben Tate combined for 170 yards on the ground with each scoring a touchdown. West was the feature back, getting 94 yards on 26 carries. And Crowell reemerged to give the offense a boost in the second quarter.

Brian Hoyer was incredibly efficient, completing 15 of his 23 throws for 198 yards, with Miles Austin being the primary target. Austin caught five throws for 48 yards.

On a windy night, Shanahan obviously wanted to keep the ball on the ground, and his offensive line and backs didn’t let him down.

The offense played efficiently. The defense was dominant.

In fact, it was the kind of defense fans thought they were going to see from the opening game, as they held Cincinnati to just a measly 165 yards in total offense, and QB Andy Dalton was particularly dreadful, completing only 10 of 33 passes for just 86 yards. He compounded that by throwing three interceptions, including one on the Bengals’ first drive, which was picked off by Craig Robertson.

Joe Haden was criticized early in the season when he struggled a little bit, but tonight, he took All Pro wide receiver A.J. Green completely out of the game, as Green caught only three passes for 23 yards.

Another player who gets called out when beaten on big plays, Buster Skrine, picked off two passes. Truth be told, Skrine is a solid NFL cornerback and is excellent in the slot.

Besides the interceptions, Dalton was also sacked twice on successive plays by DE Desmond Bryant in the third quarter.

And the Cincinnati running game wasn’t a factor either, getting just 86 yards on 22 carries, an average of less than four yards per carry. It was by far the Browns best performance against the running game all season.

Cleveland dominated the time of possession, holding the ball for 36 minutes, partially because of the success of the running game, but also because Jim O’Neil’s defense held Cincy to just three of 17 on third down conversions.

In short, the Browns has an answer for everything that Cincinnati threw at them.

Punter Kevin Huber was perhaps the busiest Bengal, having to kick the ball away to Cleveland eight times.

The win ensures that Cleveland will be playing meaningful football in November and should be in the mix for an extended period. That, of course, should end any thought of playing Johnny Manziel unless Hoyer is injured.

The Browns have won two divisional games in dominating fashion and the two games they lost were on field goals on the last play of the game. In order to be a playoff team, you have to be competitive within the AFC North.

Right now, the Cleveland Browns have shown the rest of the teams in the division they can no longer be taken lightly. And they showed the nation they are no longer the doormats of the NFL.

Will Tito Staying Lead to Bigger Emphasis on Winning?

During this past baseball season, we speculated that we wouldn’t be surprised if Tribe skipper Terry Francona decided to resign this off-season because of the inactivity of the front office at the trading deadline.

Yes, we knew that Tito took the gig because of his relationship with team president Mark Shapiro and GM Chris Antonetti, but we felt experiencing what we perceived as a lack of interest in going for it would show Francona that this wasn’t the job for him.

How wrong were we?

This morning, it was revealed that Francona signed a two-year contract extension to remain the manager of the Indians, meaning he is signed through the 2018 season.

Perhaps the only bad thing this means is the ownership will not be making any changes to the front office group through that same time period.

Antonetti’s comments today trumpeted the “stability” mantra, claiming it is a positive thing. And it would be if this was one of the most successful organizations in the sport over the last 15 years. However, it isn’t.

If keeping Francona means more of the last two seasons, both of which finished with an above .500 record and in 2013 ended with a spot hosting the wild card game, then we are all for that. There is no question that although people have had questions with the manager’s in-game strategy (including us), he gets the most out of the talent on the roster.

And maybe Shapiro and Antonetti understand their best chance at remaining the contender the Indians have been the last two seasons is to have Francona at the helm. Because before Tito arrived, this was a franchise that couldn’t put two consecutive good seasons together.

After two World Series titles with Boston, it is doubtful that Francona wants to wallow in mediocrity here over the next four to six seasons. So, does this contract extension mean the front office is going to make another push to bring in more talent this off-season?

Remember that before his first season as manager, the Indians brought in Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn as free agents and also traded for Trevor Bauer. Now, the club has a solid, younger nucleus in Michael Brantley, Jason Kipnis, and Yan Gomes among the position players, and a young starting rotation led by Cy Young Award candidate Corey Kluber that will be in place for the next few seasons.

So, it is incumbent on the general manager to add some pieces, some productive veteran pieces, to this young core to push them over the top. Did Francona get assurances that this would happen going forward?

Probably not, but his friends have to know how he feels.

We have maintained that this roster doesn’t need an overhaul, it just has to add one or two pieces, and those will likely come via the trade route. Both MLB Trade Rumors and Baseball Prospectus listed the top 50 free agents this winter and neither site had the Tribe signing anyone on the list.

The good news is the best manager the Indians have had in a long time is going to be here for at least the next four years. The bad news is the tie in with Shapiro and Antonetti, and Tito’s link to them probably insures they will be here for that period as well, which is fine if the Indians are regular participants in the playoffs.

If they aren’t, it will be almost 20 years since Shapiro took control of the organization without the success of his predecessor, John Hart. How long will fans accept it if Francona can’t continue to work the magic of the last two seasons.

It Isn’t Easy to Dominate NFL Teams, Even the Bad Ones.

Cleveland Browns’ fans overestimated this team after they routed the Pittsburgh Steelers in week six. With Jacksonville, Oakland, and Tampa Bay coming up on the slate, most supporters figured three blowout wins would follow and the Browns would go to Cincinnati with a 6-2 mark.

However, that’s not how the NFL works.

Instead the Browns lost to the Jaguars, and then won two home games, both in workmanlike fashion, and head to the Queen City at 5-3, still very much in the playoff race as the calendar turned to November.

The truth is that the Browns are not an elite NFL team, they aren’t even a very good team. They are in the middle of the pack, and that is good enough to play meaningful football at this point in the season.

After years of hopelessness regarding this football team, we should all be excited about that.

Cleveland’s offense couldn’t get into the end zone in the first half, getting only three Billy Cundiff field goals (49, 29, and 43 yards) and trailed going into the locker room 10-9.

After a touchdown a little less than six minutes into the second half, Mike Pettine’s team took a 16-10 lead.

The lead was short-lived, as the Bucs’ went deep to Johnny Manziel’s former teammate at Texas A & M, Mike Evans, caught a 24-yard throw from Mike Glennon to give Tampa a one point lead.

But Brian Hoyer led the Browns back, hitting rookie WR Taylor Gabriel (with the aid of a crushing block by Terrance West) to give the home team a lead it would never surrender.

As we said before, it isn’t easy in the NFL.

Look at today’s results. Cincinnati didn’t blow up Jacksonville either, although they did beat them, and San Diego, thought to be one of the AFC’s best teams, were dominated by Miami, losing 37-0.

Earlier this year, this same Tampa Bay team went into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers.

Style points do not matter, but wins do, and right now the Browns have collected five of them, one more than they had all of last season. In fact, the last time Cleveland won more than five games in a season was 2007, when they went 10-6.

That’s not to say the Browns are a team without problems.

The running game continues to sputter without Alex Mack, averaging less than two yards per carry again (50 yards in 28 attempts), and Mack’s replacement, Nick McDonald was dominated by Tampa Bay DT Gerald McCoy, who sacked Hoyer twice.

Another problem is the run defense, which to be fair, did improve in the second half, but still allowed 113 yards in total. Former Brown, Bobby Rainey, deemed unusable by Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi, picked up 87 yards on 19 carries.

Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil did make an adjustment in the second half, as Rainey gained just 17 yards on his last nine carries.

The special teams were also a huge factor in today’s win. Billy Winn blocked a field goal in the first quarter, and Craig Robertson blocked a punt that set up the winning touchdown. It was the second blocked punt of the season, and both were major factors in victories. We can’t remember the last time a Cleveland special teams unit blocked two punts in a season.

Donte Whitner had his best game as a Brown too, getting an interception off a pass batted away by Joe Haden, and he forced a fumble on a play that was called back because of a penalty. The former Glenville product is starting to make his presence felt.

And we have to mention Hoyer, who threw for 300 yards despite two interceptions, one a horrible throw, and the other off a deflection. He evened up the two picks by throwing two touchdown passes.

It’s a short week for both the Browns and Bengals as they play Thursday night. Because the AFC North is so good and so bunched up in the standings, any divisional game is huge.

Cleveland is 5-3, but they need to start playing better if they want to stay in the race for a playoff spot.