Catching Up

Browns vs. Lions
Jake Delhomme continues to impress in the pre-season. The obvious statement is that if this continues to the regular season, Mike Holmgren is a genius. If Jake Delhomme is impressive this year, hopefully he starts next year, and the year after that, and it turns into a Brett Favre situation, where when we finally kick him out, Colt McCoy walks onto the field and starts throwing Touchdowns. At least until we play against the Delhomme-led Vikings, who will then be replacing Brett Favre.

Browns vs Bears
Colt McCoy gets the stage tonight. Hopefully he has more than Jake Allen and Alex Smith to work with on the receiving end. And with Montario Hardesty in there, maybe he can show us something. Colt has been unimpressive so far, but he's had no help. When your first option is Jake Allen and the second is Carlton Mitchell, what can you expect? We might get a better idea of what he can do.

Wanna see something funny?

Rank Player Comp Att % TD INT
1 Jake Delhomme 38 48 79.2 2 0
2 Tom Brady 33 42 78.6 4 0
3 Aaron Rodgers 41 53 77.4 6 0

We have the most accurate passer of the Preseason.


Jim Brown. Whatever. Mike said enough. I'll reiterate. You've been an advisor to Randy Lerner. Unless he's never listened to a word you said, I think you've done a terrible job advising him. Were you part of the Couch over McNabb decision? Gerrard Warren over Ladanian Tomlinson? Courtney Brown over anyone? Whatever. Now the kids just know you as the Sphinx guy from "Mars Attacks!"



Madden 11 officially sucks. I figured for sure that Backbreaker would at least give it a little bit of a kick in the ass, but no. Each year, all the same problems remain, all the same stupid things remain. Every year, they come up with some new marketing term. Last year it was, "If you see it on Sunday, you'll see it in Madden." This year, it's "Locomotion", and "More Time on the Field."

I don't have time for "More Time on the Field." Why? Because I don't want to set up any schemes. I want to pick my play (I know where the plays I like are, at least I did until you changed all the playbooks around) and go. I don't want to set up a section of plays I want available on third and short. I don't care. FIX IMPORTANT THINGS FIRST, then waste time on crap like this.

For the third year in a row, if a player gets hurt, you can put him on IR. BUT, in Madden, this doesn't free up a roster spot. Three years in a row, putting a player on IR does NOT free up a roster spot. Three years in a row, a measly running back can block the DT coming in at full speed with no problem. Three years in a row, the swat and tackle DB animations merge. Five years in a row, suction blocking - A defender running at full speed would NEVER do a 180 to engage in a block with a lineman who was BEHIND him. NEVER. For the third year in a row, they've changed the pre-snap controls. It now takes longer to define a hot route. It used to take one step to move your D-Line to the left, it now takes three steps. The game is pathetic. The same five tackles happen over and over, and they're the same tackles from the last three years.

After playing about a week of Madden, I went back to Backbreaker, and WOW, I appreciate this game even more now. The multiple person tackles, all unique, never the same tackle twice. The giant pile of bodies at the line of scrimmage, not just players sucked into blocking animations. When something negative happens in Backbreaker, I feel like it's because I made a mistake, not because the computer cheated me out of a play. I'll post some video comparisons so more people can see how completely superior Backbreaker is in terms of gameplay.

Alright, back to work.

Draft Day 2...mocks

Good news: every mock draft out there today has the Browns taking McCoy in the 2nd round. I was unsure he would last that long until Clausen started to fall out of the first round. Now, I feel confident he'll be a Brown.

But I'm not sure why nobody has Minnesota picking Jimmy Clausen. Isn't that why they traded with Detroit? They saw Clausen was going to fall out of the first round because Indy and New Orleans were not going to pick a QB, and STL had Bradford. So Minnesota saw that they could move back, pick up another pick late, and still get Clausen. Don't they have to draft a QB? Favre is only a filler for one more year, then Claussen could fill right in on a good team and be successful. Minnesota can then trade away Sage Rosenfels and/or Jackson. All this makes perfect sense to me...but I guess I'm not an 'expert'.

Today should be a good day for the draft. I bet there's a lot of trades early because there are still some big time players on the board. I would love to see the Browns trade back into the 2nd round to grab either Taylor Mays, Golden Tate, or Toby Gerhart supposing none of them are taken after the Browns 38th pick. Gerhart's got a chip on his shoulder and I want to see him unleash it on the AFC North.

Mock Draft

Mel Kiper and Todd McShay are still scratching their heads trying to figure out who the Browns are going to pick. Their latest Mock Draft on ESPN had the Browns taking Dez Bryant or Dan Williams. Two names that for all intents and purposes have not even been whispered when discussing the Browns.

I like that a lot. I like that nobody knows who the Browns really want. Now, the reason those names came up is because they are projecting the top 6 picks to include Eric Berry; the player most people believe the Browns want. Personally I think the Browns could very likely trade down if Berry is taken early. They can go down a few spots (maybe someone wants Clausen really bad) and still draft either Joe Haden, another OL or a guy I like a lot, Rolando McClain. I want a big, bad-ass ILB on our team. Then they are back in the second round to have two shots at Colt McCoy.

I wish the Mock Drafts would predict trades, because you know there will be some. Plus, with the draft extending the 3 days, I'm betting there will be a ton of trades between the end of the first round, and the beginning of rounds 2 and 3 on Friday.