Nothing like some half-and-half in the morning....

Took the above photo this morning at the train station. You have to imagine, too, that this was honestly a sky that was split in half: everything on the right was overcast, while everything on the left was clear. It was like the whole sky was overcast until someone just ripped half of the cloud cover away, like “Heck, it’s a lovely day, let’s open the shades, eh?

Friendly political discourse

I have to admit, this one actually made me laugh.

Something to keep in mind, ladies, the next time you're out at a bar.

I wonder if Ben Roethlisberger could use this as part of his next night out on the town?

For those not aware, this is Diesel’s (a trendy clothing maker) latest ad campaign. I can’t say that I think it’s all that great of one, personally. True, I’m not probably not the market share this is aimed out, but ye gads, are they really trying to encourage people to be stupid? If so, how about some more straightforward ads like, “Be Stupid. Buy Our Stuff,” “Only The Most Idiotic Morons Would Spend Money Here,” or even “You Braindead, Mindless, Dolts! Get Away From Us!”

Then again, maybe they are trying to turn “stupid” into a compliment. But if so, they’re about a decade behind the times: back when she had a show on ABC, Ellen DeGeneres covered that in an episode. Sorry, Diesel, but you’re not worthy of being called “stoopid.” But keep on tryin’, ace!

Just a typical day at Penn Station

Ah, the joy of commuting….

Stylish display stand, eh?

So, who exactly loses a shoe in the subway and doesn’t realize it?

Actually, I like to pretend this was some MFA Grad Student’s thesis project; cryptic, unintuitive, and vague enough that they can BS about it for the entire thesis year.

(Why, yes, I am a MFA Grad; why do you ask?)

Mind the gap

As someone who was hit by a car, I admit this thing always makes me wince.

Gaze into my eyes, helmet....

This is not my photo, but I love it because it looks like Mike Holmgren is hypnotizing the Browns Helmet. “You will install components of the West Coast Offense….”

This morning I was up early; probably the earliest I’ve been up on a Sunday for a long time (not counting the times at my parents house, where I tend to be up early regardless of my original intentions). This was a planned event, however: I went to bed at around 11 PM. A little before that, actually. I was able to get some sleep, and then was up and out of bed at about quarter after 6. See, I wanted to get a number of things done, but more importantly, I have an important meeting (so to speak) in the city at 9 AM. That means I’ll need to be up and out of the house in time to catch the 8 AM train.

Hey, I might run across Dex on the train. Wouldn’t that freak him out?

Anyway, I decided it would be good to get my sleeping schedule warmed up for this. Tonight I’ll be in bed before midnight, definitely, and probably around 11 PM again, so I can be up early again tomorrow. Then, tomorrow night I have basketball at 8, and thus will be leaving right afterward to get home. So I can get to bed! Yay!

[ S H I E L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]

So Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer posted a column about how Eric Mangini is not getting the credit the coach deserves for building the Jets into a Superbowl contending champion.

I find this rather bizarre given that I seem to recall Livingston making a lot of disparaging remarks about Mangini earlier in the season. Certainly, the man is allowed to change his mind, but it’d be nice to actually see him say something like “I was wrong about Mangini….”

[ S H I E L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]

I’ve been making some progress on my side video/animation project. Slowly, to be sure, but a good part of that is just refreshing myself on how to use Maya, AfterEffects, and Illustrator. So that alone has been good — nice to touch up those skills — but also this method taking the project in bite-sized chunks is also handy as it’s keeping things moving forward.

The really hard part will be coming up soon, though, which is trying to do some hand animation. I’ll have to do some tests and see if I can do the rough approach that I would like, but otherwise I may have to go the (very) long route of scanning in the drawings, then redrawing them in paths via Photoshop/Illustrator.

Stay tuned.

Two players from the Browns — Joe Thomas and Josh Cribbs — were named to the AP All-Pro Team. That’s interesting.

But what’s even more interesting is that no other team from the AFC North was voted on the First Team, or even the Second Team. Nobody from the Steelers, Bengals, or Ravens.

Think about this: the Browns had the worst record in the division, and were the only team in the division to be eliminated from the playoffs by mid-season. The Bengals won the division crown. The Ravens are still playing. The Steelers, while missing the playoffs, still were the Super Bowl champs last season. Yet, only the Browns are representing the AFC North.

And the nice thing is that Thomas and Cribbs really are no-brainers. Cribbs set a league record with most kickoff returns for touchdowns (including two of over 100 yards in Kansas City), while Joe Thomas continues to be the gold standard of a left tackle, preventing sack-masters (such as Jared Allen) from even getting close to the QB. (Of course, John St. Clair was doing his best to make up for that on the right side by impersonating a turnstile, but that’s another story.)

[UPDATE]

I missed Ray Lewis, from the Ravens, as linebacker on the All-Pro Team. That makes a little more sense that at least one other team besides the Browns landed a player on the squad.

1) Ever since Mangini has been named to remain with the Browns by Holmgren, I’ve seen a lot of revisionist thinking in the national media; even a good share of the local writers are backtracking in their first opinions that not only would Mangini been dismissed, but that it would be the only logical move that Holmgren could make. (As a quick aside, I was glad Mangini was kept on, if for no other reason than it proved that a lot of the talking heads in the media really don’t pay any attention to the Browns beyond first appearances.) Now that Mangini is staying on, I’ve seen a number of pundits and writers remark that “Well, it really makes sense, because….” and then rattle off things like the lack of viable replacements, the loss of any momentum from the past month, the possible lockout in 2011, Holmgren’s own possible return to the sidelines, the price of tea in China, etc. Yet, what I find so amusing is that none of these points were brought up just a week ago, when so many were declaring Mangini was a dead man walking. This turnaround means that those who made such bold statements A) aren’t very smart, having only thought about this after the fact, and B) have drunk so much of their own Kool-aid that they are ready to crash through a wall saying “Ohhhh yeaaaahhhhhhh!”

2) Despite Braylon’s Edwards best efforts (e.g. dropping a sure touchdown in the end zone), the Jets managed to still win. After taking the time to trash the Browns some more by talking about how the Jets weren’t concerned about “petty things” (which, I assume, refers to the incidentals that Edwards refused to pay for when staying in hotels, because, you know, Edwards is so strapped for cash these days), he proceeds to display yet again that maybe, just maybe, the reason he has been such a disappointment as a receiver is because he just isn’t reliable. On a related note, the Bengals played very sloppy football, with the 28-yard missed field the final punctuation mark on the night. Penalties, errant throws, and some poor clock management just killed any hope of comeback. Here’s another sad fact from the game: the Bengals currently have the longest playoff win drought in the NFL. Yes, that means that the Raiders, Browns, and even the Lions all have had a more recent playoff victory than the Bengals.

3) The Eagles were run over again, so apparently the whole “edge” of rematches usually going to the team that lost the first time isn’t as big of a deal as you might think. I just hope that this trend continues with the Packers, so they can win.

4) Oh, and I hope the Ravens lose tomorrow (Sunday) night, but I suspect that whatever the outcome, it will probably be a much closer game than anything that happened Saturday.

A friend of mine — who shall go unnamed — had gotten a pair of tickets to see the Browns-Jags game this past weekend (and, judging from the empty seats, plenty more were available). He mentioned on the phone that he and his dad would sojourn from Columbus up to Cleveland for the game to, “watch Jacksonville destroy Cleveland.”

My bet is that he will not call me to tell me that he was utterly wrong in his predictions.

Given that he had been a Steeler fan for a while, having lived in Pittsburgh when the Big Ben era started, I would normally suspect that he was just being a downer because the Steelers were on the outside looking in (and pop quiz: What was the last team to win the Superbowl and miss the playoffs the next year? If you guessed the Steelers, you’re right), but he mentioned that he hasn’t really been following them much anymore. This saddened me, honestly, because it seems that my friend was just a frontrunner; and that’s never good news. I’ll have to have a stern discussion with him about such dangers.

In the meantime, the playoffs are settled, and I am a bit blase about the AFC wildcard entrants. I would have liked to have seen the Texans make it in, esp. after that impressive comeback against the Patriots. As for the Jets and Ravens, well, meh. Nothing against the Jets, overall, but it would be nice to see Edwards drop some key throws that make the Jets lose the game (although Braylon tends to have big games on a big stage), and the Ravens should just lose on account that, well, it’ll be a lot easier to let go of the pain from The Move if the Ravens wind up having several bad years strung together.

Despite the Browns winning, I have to admit by the end of Sunday, I felt more or less in the “meh” mode. Part of this is because of the results of other games (more on that in a moment), but also because despite the win by the Browns, there were some things that sapped away some of the feel-good:

• Brady Quinn continues to be unimpressive as a passer. The playcalling was run-heavy, true, but his stats were still pretty bland. Barely acceptable, really, when you throw in those 2 interception. Even if the Browns win out the rest of their games, despite Quinn’s ability to effectively manage the offense, he’s going to have to show better accuracy on his passes.
• What is with the defense? Some games they play lights-out, and that here, like back in Detroit, they just give up big plays way too easily. At least this time the last second pass into the end zone was incomplete and didn’t draw a flag.
• Let’s face it: after beating the Steelers for the first time in 12 tries, the rest of the season is a bit anti-climatic.
• Cribbs continued excellence is undermined by the knowledge that the organization may very well be screwing him over by denying to rework his contract again; if a new regime comes in soon, it can decide to put contract negotiations on hold until 2012, and treating Cribbs like that after he has been the good soldier is pretty bad, and will likely start the new regime off on a very bad foot, both with the public as well as in the locker room.
• And speaking of that, I’m worried that the Holgrem deal might turn into yet another disaster if, in fact, Holgrem decides that he not only wants to have control of the personnel decisions, but also get back into coaching and decides to “do it all” by himself. We’ve seen that happen with him in Seattle as well as with Butch Davis in Cleveland, and in both cases it showed that it never worked. After the rush to hire Mangini, I can’t shake the feeling that Lerner has rushed rushed into another hire with Holgrem (assuming he takes the job), with the same results waiting.

Also, as previously mentioned, the rest of the games on Sunday didn’t make me feel all that spiffy:

• The Ravens are now in line for the playoffs, thanks to everyone else that was fighting for a spot losing. The sked the Ravens have also makes it unlikely that they will be displaced unless they lay an egg in the next two games and the other teams in contention win out.
• On the other hand, I have to admit that I was gratified to see that my pre-season prediction of the Bears implosion with Culter pan out. I felt that the media had been making way too big of a deal on Culter’s ability, and he has not failed to disappoint me. Let’s put this in perspective: the Bears were set at QB early on. The Browns were not, even up to the Bye Week. Yet, the Bears only have 2 more wins than the Browns. And maybe it’s not fair to put all of the blame on Cutler, but I just felt that he was being overhyped, and thus far, I’ve been proved right.
• The Packers lost, and the Steelers won, on a ridiculously amazing last second play. The Pack are still comfortably in place for the playoffs, but that was a game they should have won. Especially when you consider that on that last drive, a sack and an interception were nullified by penalties. As for the Steelers, I’d like to see them miss the playoffs, as well. So the hope is that the Steelers win next week to drop the Ravens, then both lose their last game while the Dolphins, Jags, and/or Broncos win out to secure wildcards.
• Speaking of the Broncos, their loss puts them behind the 8 ball, and given that it was against the Raiders — with Russell leading the final drive, no less — this puts them in a tough spot to get a wildcard berth, crowding out any other AFC North teams. Additionally, the Raiders, like the Browns, have been playing better football down the stretch, so this upcoming matchup between the two is honestly too tough to call.
• The Bengals lost, which was sad not just due to their grieving over Chris Henry, but also because this means that they haven’t secured that AFC North crown yet. And with the Ravens just 2 games back (the Bengals have the tie-breaker) if the Bengals don’t win any more games, they can lose the crown to the Ravens. At least Chad got a touchdown to dedicate to Henry.
• On the bright side, the Jets lost, and Sanchez continues to struggle as a first-year QB. These days, I don’t hear anyone bemoaning the fact that the Browns didn’t draft him with the 5th overall pick. Edwards had a great touchdown catch, so he’s probably happy about that, but the question is with just two games left to play, can he do enough to inflate his stock price after his struggles earlier this year?
• Oh, and also, the Vikings lost. Doesn’t make much of a difference as they cliched the division with the Packers lost, but what “worries” a number of people is how lackluster the team played, esp. considering they were facing a back-up QB and the sub .500 Panthers. While I doubt it, here’s hoping that this is the start of a historic collapse with losses down the stretch and then an epic failure in their first playoff game. And, again, this is just because with the way that Childress jerked around the QBs and the team in his naked pusuit of Favre, I really don’t think this guy deserves to win.

So, it seems that former Browns starter and very recently Raiders 3rd stringer Charlie Frye got the nod to start this week over former #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell. Charlie will be filling in for Bruce Gradkowski, another former Browns QB who was pulled in late last year after DA, Quinn, and Ken Dorsey all went down with season-ending injuries. A link:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d81504125&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

Browns fans will remember Charlie’s production (or lack thereof) and while Charlie was a nice guy from the hometown area, that everyone did want to succeed, he just never really was able to establish any claim to being a starting QB. Hence, it says a lot about the Raiders current opinion of Russell that they believe that Charlie still gives them a better chance to win. And it further cements Russell’s reputation as the modern-era Ryan Leaf. Not too mention it also making a further case as to why getting the first overall draft pick is more of a curse than a blessing these days, as a lot of money was sunk into Russell that could have been used to address other needs the team needed.

Anyway, as for the Browns reunion, this means that when the Browns and the Raiders play, you could have Charlie vs. Quinn in terms of the starting QBs, and in addition to Bruce, all that would be missing is Ken Dorsey to create the Browns QB roster from 2007-2008.

Come to think of it, that alone says so much about the Browns decade of futility….

(Oh, and on a side note about the Browns, they were raised from the last place of the power rankings to number 29. Hardly anything to brag about, when you hit rock-bottom, even the first rung of the ladder is an improvement.)

Well, okay, I’m not planning on getting bombed, really, but hey, this is a rare occasion for a Browns fan.

First, to start out with, an image to share. The setup: on various sites, they have a “Weekly Leader” image for NFL leaders in passing yards, rushing yards, and receiving yards. This is naturally updated as the week progresses, with the Thursday games being the start of the “week.” Ergo, there are new people in the Weekly Leaders stat, and because the Browns-Steelers game is the only one that happened yet, only players from that game are included in the blurb (for now — I fully suspect that all will be replaced by others after the games have taken place). Anyway, the point is that the guy with the most rushing yards was a true Who-Dat player for the Browns who was activated from the practice squad only recently. The result?

Who was that masked man? We may never know.

Sorry, Mr. Jennings, but the NFL does not make a habit of taking photos of practice squad players. Still, enjoy your (brief) moment in the sun!

As for the game, I had stated before the season that if Mangini if only was going to win 1 game, as long as it’s against the Steelers, that would be enough to placate the fans. Certainly, there are still those who want the man gunned down and dumped into a sewage treatment plant, but this win against the Steelers — the first time at Cleveland since 2000 — has probably brought in a stay of execution for now. It’s really bizarre when you think about it, but the Steelers were the team that Crennel could never beat, even during that magical 2007 season when they almost had them at Pittsburgh. In 8 tries, Crennel came up empty, and a number of times was blown out of the water. In Mangini’s second attempt, he managed to orchestrate a dominating win, with no 4th quarter comeback from Big Ben. In fact, Big Ben, who entered the year without ever having lost to an Ohio team, is 1-3 against them for this year. Here’s hoping the trend continues.

The big national story is that the Steelers have utterly collasped. There could be any number of reasons for this — the move from a rushing offense to a passing offense, the absence of Troy Polamalu (looks like he got the Madden curse in full, leaving Fitzgerald free and clear), Big Ben’s concussion, the Superbowl hangover, the stars are not aligned, someone lost one of their lucky socks, etc. — but the sad fact is that the good teams can overcome such turmoil and still come to play.

But the bigger underlying story is the Browns. Nobody picked the Browns to win this game. Not even people in Cleveland, myself included, really thought that the Browns were going to play as well as they did. The Steelers didn’t lose this game because they played poorly, although that was certainly evident.  The Steelers lost because the Browns played the better football game. The Steelers had more talent and experience, the Browns were fielding rookies as green as the Seattle Seahawks uniforms and castoff players, including a guy — the aforementioned Jennings — who was cut from the Canadian Football League. The Steelers needed this game to maintain any real hope of the playoffs as well as get their swagger back, whereas the Browns had nothing to lose except for pride, and even then, after all that happened, you wouldn’t think that they had much left.

Yet, it was the Brown’s D that came out and gave a beating to the opposing quarterback. It was the Brown’s running game (and particularly Josh Cribbs) that ran all over the league’s number 1 defense. More than one commentator noted that the Browns were the ones who had the sense of urgency, of “the want,” of the desire for the win.

And that points to something that only local writers seemed to have grasped: despite what logic would dictate, the players of the Browns have been playing better football as the season continues. They haven’t given up on Mangini and his “process.” In fact, it’s scary to say, but it looks like everyone is honestly starting to get fully on board. Consider that the last few games have seen steady improvements across the board from the Browns. Consider that not long ago people were talking about the Saints defense having more touchdowns than the Browns offense, that the Browns were on pace to only score 12 touchdowns, that the Browns hadn’t scored a rushing touchdown with a running back, and so on. The Browns are only 2-11, but all that other talk has died down. Even the aftermath of the Kokinis firing has died down as well. Talk still abounds about the football czar, but in Berea, the players and coaches actually look like they are doing what “good” teams do: put that aside and focus on winning the game.

For me the biggest difference is the emergence of the offense. I still think Daboll is a long shot at staying on as Offensive Coordinator, unless the offense unleashes a series of 40+ points in all of the remaining games, but at least they don’t have that some utter futility that made them impossible to watch early on in the season. It wasn’t too long ago that I couldn’t see the Browns beating anyone in the league for the simple fact that the Browns weren’t scoring any touchdowns. Now that seems to have settled itself enough that you can think of the games against the Raiders and Chiefs as “winnable.” Quinn’s numbers were barely “adequate” last night, but he definitely has been playing much better, as his current streak of 4 games without an interception shows.

Now, the Browns get 10 days to rest up and plan up for the Chiefs. Here’s hoping they can ride the momentum from this win for a change and actually try to put together a 2-game winning streak for the first time this season.

In the meantime, as for the rest of football, I hope that the Packers continue to pound the Steelers flat. I’m also a Packers fan, though to a less degree, and the Packers need to grab every win they can to stay in the wildcard hunt. And hey, wouldn’t that be a great possibility for the Packer faithful? To get a playoff game against the Vikings, and watch as Favre throws 5 interceptions to knock the Vikings out of the run? Besides, for the Steelers, another loss will be the final nail their coffin, which is sweet revenge.

Likewise, the Ravens need to lose at least one more game, preferably at least two. I’m not too hopeful that the Lions can pull the upset, here, but I would really like to see the Steelers beat the Ravens to knock them out of playoff contention as well. And to be fair, that’s not a long shot. Did anyone else see the Ravens in their loss to the Packers? Particularly the last two minutes? The Ravens were playing like the Steelers — absolutely no sense of urgency or hustle. It was sad, but man, they had clearly quit on the game.

And again, isn’t it bizarre — and delicious — that of the three teams in the AFC North who don’t have a winning record, the Browns are the only ones who are playing with intensity and refuse to quit? Man.

When your football team is in the midst of a 1-9 slump and (rightly) ranked as the 32 in the poll of which 32 teams in the NFL are the best — it really hammers it home when I explain it like that, doesn’t it? — you tend to take whatever comfort you can from others misfortunes. Especially if one of those happens to be a former wideout for the team with big play ability only surpassed by his big drop ability and big excuses ability. Braylon Edwards, traded by the Browns to the Jets some time ago, had a bad past year+ in Cleveland, and obviously wanted out, no doubt believing that all would hail his greatness once he was out of Cleveland.

Well, so far, not quite:

Braylon’s Jet stock keeps on dropping

Basically, the article quotes Braylon making some surprisingly bold excuses for a couple of his recent drops. (He shows no love for the Browns, of course, but ever since he gave that lame people-don’t-like-me-here-because-I-played-at Michigan-and-not-because-I’ve-dropped-balls-as-if-they-were-a-rabid-badger line, this should come as no surprise.) Head coach Ryan mentions that he’s pulling coverages, which is true, but it’s also true that since Braylon joined the Jets:

• The Jets have gone 1-6 after a 3-0 start.
• The Jets are on the brink of being eliminated from the postseason; the whole point of bringing Edwards in was to make a playoff run.
• Rookie QB Sanchez has regressed terribly, throwing 14 interceptions.

Naturally, no single player can really be singled out as a teams sudden bad run (the Browns, for example, continue to show true teamwork: when the offensive finally has a breakout game in Detroit, the defense manages to step back from the plate and allow an even bigger offensive breakout game for the Lions), but it certainly is not going to help Edwards bid for a contract extension. Likewise, his blatantly dismissive comments in this article won’t help his public standing at all, either.

I had said before that if Braylon thought the Cleveland media was unfair to him, just wait until the New York media smelled blood.

One more disappointing game, especially if he manages to drop another important pass, and the waters will be churning.

And yeah, Cleveland fans will revel in it. Whoo-hoo!

Currently I am enjoying the comforts of the parents home in Wisconsin, although already I have had to try and figure out what is wrong with the home wireless network (I think I resolved the issue, but I have a sinking feeling that it’s not going to last long…). I flew in yesterday afternoon, on a plane trip that — yet again — actually left on time and was pleasantly uneventful. I am honestly starting to get worried about this; after years of travel mishaps and high drama, I am constantly waiting for something particularly off-kilter to happen.

In any case, a few things I wanted to catch up on:

First, as some of you may know, the Browns lost to the Lions in a very bizarre fashion. Several people have mentioned that it was the worst way for them to lose, but obviously these people have forgotten about the “Helmet” incident from a few years back, when the Browns lost on opening day to the Chiefs because a defender threw his helmet after the play, drawing a penalty, keeping the game alive, and moving the Chiefs within field goal distance, which they scored from. But what has surprised me the most of commentaries this past week is the belief that “Oh woe is us, we are obviously at rock bottom because we lost to the Lions!” This, to me, shows that a number of these people really have no clear grasp on the current state of the Browns, nor the Lions.

Okay, so first all, The Lions have already defeated another team, so it’s not like they were winless going into the game. But far more importantly, I honestly wasn’t expecting the Browns to win. Why? Well, the Browns had no offense. Sure, you can make fun of the Lions for all their losses over the past 2 years, but so far this year, the Lions have had a much, much better offense than the Browns have had. Remember, before going into the game, the Browns had only 5 offensive touchdowns. A favorite stat cited by many people was that the Saints defense had more touchdowns than the Browns offensive. Hence, I was honestly surprised to see the Browns offense score as much as it did. What’s that? It was against the Lions defense, you say? Well, last I checked, there were better offensives than the Browns who have scored fewer points against the Lions defense.

So yeah, it was a hard way to lose the game, but last I checked, this was really one of the few times that the Browns have actually had a shot at winning in the whole season thus far. I do agree that Quinn and Daboll still need to proof that this was not a fluke (and I think that Daboll is going to be likely gone next year unless the Browns score 30+ points every game from here on out), but hey, it was a nice change of pace to see some creativity. The direct snap to Jamal for the 2-point conversion was probably the best play of the game.

Anyways.

Tomorrow shall herald in the call of family and grub, and it shall be welcomed with open arms and doggie bags. I have to admit, as well, that over the past month, I have eaten better than I have since I entered the ranks of the unemployed. This is largely due to the visits home, as well as John’s brief stop-over. I will have to get back into the “moldy bread and rainwater” motif soon enough, so if there was ever a time to eat too much, this would be it.