The Capital District Browns Backers

Below is the Browns 2008 Schedule, and according to the NFL Cleveland is ready for prime time with three Monday night games, a Sunday night game and a Thursday night game.  Wow!

Of course, Carson Palmer disagrees:

“I was shocked as anybody to see that because they’re still a ways away from being a . . . They weren’t even in the playoffs.

“I think it’s a lot of hype early. Just like every year, there’s hype around one or two teams early. It’ll fizzle out once they start playing games.”

I can’t wait for the next Bengals game!

9/7 Dallas 4:15pm

9/14 Pittsburgh 8pm (Sunday Night)

9/21 at Baltimore 4:15pm

9/28 at Cincy 1pm

10/6 Bye

10/13 Giants 8:30pm (Monday Night)

10/19 at Washington 4:15pm

10/26 at Jacksonville 4:05pm

11/02 Baltimore 1pm

11/06 Denver 8:15pm (Thursday Night, NFL Network)

11/17 at Buffalo 8:30 (Monday Night)

11/23 Houston 1pm

11/30 Colts 1pm

12/7 at Tennessee 1pm

12/15  at Philly 8:30pm (Monday Night)

12/21 Cincy 1pm

12/28  at Pitt 1pm

In case you haven’t noticed it in our photo section this is the new Capital District Browns Backers logo, courtesey of hard working president Mike O’Brien. Click on the logo to see it in full size, it’s a beauty. Should look great on our new shirts!

Some pictures are so good they should be posted on the main site!

Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, over at ESPN.com predicts the Browns will win on Sunday and adds an interesting analysis of Derek Anderson to boot.

Everyone spent the past two weeks saying, “Lemme tell you something, Derek Anderson is a pretty good QB,” and “The Browns could be faced with a Brees-Rivers scenario down the road here,” but nobody seems to be asking why Anderson couldn’t win Cleveland’s starting job two months ago over Charlie Frye — the same Chaz Frye who played one bad half in Week 1 and quickly became the third-string QB for the Seahawks.

Well, what the hell happened to Anderson in July and August? How could he not beat out Chaz Frye? Was he nervous? Did he not get enough reps? Did Romeo Crennel just completely botch that decision? Or did Anderson just play three good games against two horrendous defenses (Miami and Cincy) and one overrated defense (Baltimore)? I actually like Anderson and don’t think he’s pulling a 2002 Kelly Holcomb on us, but he needs to light up the Rams if we’re supposed to believe this has the makings of Brees-Rivers Part II.

With the bye week over, and the Browns now only one game out of first (thank you Jason Elam!), it’s time to get back to work for the Browns and myself.

The Rams present an interesting challenge with Steven Jackson returning to action this week, but this is a game the Browns should win (and must if they are to present a real challenge this year).

The Plain Dealer points out a major flaw of the Browns this year, the inability to cover the opposing tight end. The Pats and Dolphins TE’s scored 4 TDs the last two weeks. Interestingly enough, the Rams TE Randy McMichael predicted the would win this week (yawn).

Nice piece in the Plain Dealer about the Dolphins’ passing on Brady Quinn during last years draft and taking Ted Ginn instead (I still do not understand that one).

The interesting part is that if Quinn was a Dolphin right now, he would be their starting quarterback this week (and the way our history has gone, punishing us for not drafting him). I think Miami will regret that decision for a long time.

It seems that Jerry Porter is trying to kick it up again with the Browns.

You may remember that Porter, when he was on Pittsburgh, fought with Willie Green in 2004, and jawed with Winslow last year (before Winslow leveled him with a stiff arm).

But this time Winslow wouldn’t bite (at least not yet), and suggests that Porter may need a hug. Nice!

I was going to hold off on posting until tomorrow night, that was until I saw this shocking news. The Browns have cut Scott Player! I’m so bummed, I’ve enjoyed watching his old school helmet and Hulk Hogan fu manchu mustache, and his 45.6 average was quite nice also.

I guess Zastudil is healthy and the Browns needed desperate DL help. Accordingly they signed Louis Leonard who was recently waived by St. Louis. More info on Leonard here.

Will post more and update pictures on Tuesday.

That is the spread on tomorrow’s Browns/Patriots game. Time to shock the world!

Okay, we haven’t actually had a celebrity analyst yet, but I came across this gem today:

Here is why the practice of calling last second time-outs on field goals is cheating: you can tell your team to ignore a play. You can let the opponent exert maximum energy while your guys can take it easy because you plan to invalidate the play so late that the opponents won’t know it. Then, on the real play, your guys will be fresher — because you cheated.– Ed Dague

I know it’s a week late, but as I said I just found it today on Ed Dague’s interesting and entertaining blog located at the Times Union website. I highly recommend you checking it out.

Can you believe that at one time the two best local newscasters were also Browns fans, pretty cool.