Not Ready For Primetime*
*the following article is written with the author knowing full well that's it's been a great season no matter what happens because seeing December games that matter was beyond his comprehension during all of the preseason and especially after week 1.
Cleveland.
Cleveland.
Cleveland.
You're still alive for the playoffs.
You don't deserve to be there if you back in.
Today you went on the road to face an inferior opponent and you let them beat you even though several times they tried to hand you the game.
It just shows that the team, while it's made great strides this season, is not quite ready to take the next step to be among the better teams in the league. The future looks bright but it will have to wait until 2008 apparently.
Going into today what were you most worried about?
Cleveland's defense against Cincinnati's offense, right?
You, like me, figured that it was going to be another shootout and it would come down to which defense made more plays to preserve the victory at the end.
If
Derek Anderson in specific would have shown up to play today then the effort by the Browns defense should have been more than enough to beat Cincinnati going away.
I'm sorry, playoff teams with good quarterbacks simply don't let a reeling division rival do that to them.
Cleveland now doesn't control it's own destiny, they have to hope the Titans lose one of two and there is absolutely no pressure on the Steelers to do anything next week because they won the division (yes, I know they're playing for playoff seeding but that's minor in comparison to fighting Cleveland for the division).
Cleveland, you've made it exciting this year and I'd love to see you in the playoffs because the offseason is too long without Browns football but......
You're not going very far.
No matter what, this season will end with a collective and familiar "just wait until next year" utterance from Browns nation.
Only this time, it feels more positive than in years past.
Now that's something to feel good about as we close out the 2007 campaign.