Tantrums

Some of you clowns are little babies. Eric Wright starts out good, and has now become recognized by everybody who knows anything as one of the elite corners in the NFL. He has one bad game against an elite reciever, and you call him a bum. "WAAAH!" Shut the hell up.

Anyway, on more than one of those plays, rookie TJ Ward almost certainly misread things and was late to help him, and Flacco had too much time. Wright caught all the ignorant spears, but he was doing Ward a favor.

Why didn't Davis get the ball? Hillis. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Benard should be back for this game. The team still needs Rogers (and the rest of the starting defensive line--which except for Rubin missed the Ravens), but Benard is pretty special, and should get heat on Palmer.

The Browns can run the ball against anybody. I'm with Terry Pluto on what Daboll said: If you got second and nine, don't automaticly pass. That "tough mindset" that running teams have is partly the willingness to risk three-and-outs early in a game.

It's also a tendancy that defenses draw a bead on in a hurry. With power football, they can draw the bead as fast as they want--it doesn't matter if you just can't stop it.

A running team is like a shorter boxer: It attacks the body, bruising ribs and weakening core muscles. It often seems ineffective in the early rounds, but later the opponent weakens and slows down.

Running lets the offensive big people slam into the defensive little people. It makes defenders hesitate before they fire into gaps after a quarterback, depriving them of that most critical advantage. It gives the blockers the first shot and makes defenders struggle against superior leverage, down after down.

An often overlooked part of this is our big, strong recievers, extra backs, and tight ends blocking safeties and cornerbacks. They're keeping these fastest defenders away from the backs until they're well past the line of scrimmage, and then they have to pursue with bad angles in space.

Of course, we can't go nuts. You MUST pass now and then to keep the safeties uncommitted--especially when there are so many check-down options, and the pass can be a long handoff, and when you've got two tight ends with deep speed and a wide reciever who averaged nearly twenty yards per catch as a rookie with inferior quarterbacks.

Ask Jeff Fisher. He passes the ball sometimes as often as 40% of the time. Lots of play-action.

Brian, you lack reach and you're not fast, but you can slip punches and are strong like bull. USE IT.

Don't worry about Harrison. He couldn't be more different from Hillis, but is no less effective. It depends on the matchups. Maybe this week. Maybe not. With Mal...that linebacker there...hard to say.

I think last week they woke up. They got a real shot today.

I HAVE SPOKEN.