A 7-9 record is doable for the Browns, and a 9-7 isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Can you say playoffs?
View full sizeRemember this feeling? Webster Slaughter and Reggie Langhorne celebrate Slaughter's TD pass from Don Strock that sent the Browns into the 1988 playoffs."Playoffs? Playoffs? Don't talk to me about playoffs. I just hope we can win a game!"
That was the rant from then-Colts coach Jim Mora after a five-turnover game way back when. Well, the Browns aren't in THAT kind of straits, at least not yet (we'll skip for a moment Jake Delhomme's tendency to throw the ball to the guys in the wrong-colored shirts in the hopes that his pick-free game against the Dolphins is a new trend).
But Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repository does raise the specter. Which is OK, honestly, because that's what we sportswriter types are supposed to do. And how could the Browns sneak into the playoffs?
Realistically, that's about as likely as waterskiing behind the Goodtime III on the Cuyahoga in January. To which we can only say ...Tiebreakers and other long-shot possibilities factor in, but the abridged version of the Browns’ storybook dream is this:
Finish 4-0. Hope the Ravens fly into a wall.
Tie-breakers, of course, would apply to teams finishing at 9-7. Then it gets complicated.
Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan would love for life to get so complicated. Ryan takes some solace in his brother’s team, partly because the Browns took Rex Ryan’s Jets to overtime, partly because of what happened to the long-shot Jets last year.
“If there is a mathematical chance, well,” Ryan said. “I can remember my brother last year (saying), ‘We’re out of the playoffs.’ He’s all bummed out and, hell, he made it and went to the championship game.”
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Gotcha
As the Browns were readying for this season, The Plain Dealer ran a nice piece on the worldwide reach of Browns Backers clubs by reporter (and backup Starting Blocks host) Bill Lubinger. You'd think a guy who grew up in this area would realize that.
LeBron James learned the hard way that Cleveland fans are everywhere. According to the New York Post, James and his manager-sycophant Maverick Carter were out having dinner at a Miami restaurant. Here's what happened:
That's cuz they're waiting for Jim Gray and ESPN to call to announce a reaction to "The Derision."Lebron James was heckled by Cleveland football fans while he was enjoying a celebratory dinner with his best friend and manager, Maverick Carter, at Myles Chefetz's Prime Italian in Miami, after the Heat's fourth straight win. The pack of 30 Browns fans, who were in town to see their team take on the Dolphins, chanted, "Traitor, traitor," inside the restaurant Saturday night, and were asked to leave. The rowdies waited outside to continue harassing former Cavalier James, who was forced to sneak into his car to avoid a confrontation. James' reps didn't get back to us.
From The Plain Dealer
Coach Eric Mangini spent a goodly portion of usual Monday meeting with the press insisting that he's focusing on wins, not his job, according to beat writer Mary Kay Cabot.
The Browns already have won as many games this year as they won all last year. Two winnable games lie ahead -- Buffalo and Cincinnati. It's not a stretch that the two after that -- in order, Baltimore and Pittsburgh -- aren't insurmountable tasks. And just being able to say that with a straight face means that the Browns have become a force. President Mike Holmgren may want to coach again, but really, is this the right time to take the reins away from a guy whose players are starting to believe in him ... and themselves?"If I did spend a lot of time on that I'd be a hypocrite," said Mangini on Monday. "I'm asking all these other guys to look at one game at a time and you can't know what's going to happen four weeks from now. You can't control it. Do the best you can with what's in front of you and when you do that, that's when the best things happen."
Mangini declined to say whether he thinks the 5-7 Browns have shown enough progress to keep the current regime intact. At this time last year, the Browns were 1-11 and finished with a four-game winning streak.
"I respect Mike and I think he'll evaluate things at the end of the season," said Mangini. "We've got four more games left and I really want to move the team forward. All the other stuff will take care of itself. I'm proud of the way the players and coaches have fought. Now I want to see us getting rewarded with wins."
For her Browns Insider column, Mary Kay talked to the coach about rookie Joe Haden, who's taken to his new role as a starter like a house afire: four picks in as many games. Mangini defended his decision to keep the rookie as a backup to oft-burned cornerback Eric Wright until this week. But the quick and sure-tackling rookie has earned the job now.