I haven’t quit on sports. I still follow my teams. I still keep up with what’s going on in the rest of sports, too. I don’t think I could quit doing that. But writing about them regularly got to be too much of a commitment.

If you’ve been reading, thanks for visiting. If you’re already subscribed to receive updates, you can keep your subscription. That way, if I should decide at some point in the future to revive this blog, you start receiving the new updates like before.

I am still writing regularly for my two other blogs: Plain Bible Teaching (religious) and Plain Punditry (politics). I invite you to check out those if you’re interested.

Again, thanks for visiting.

Go Cavs/Indians/Browns/Buckeyes!

Indianapolis beat Jacksonville in a wild Thursday night game, 35-31. The win is the Colts’ 23rd straight regular season win, an NFL record. The Jaguars gave them all they had. But in the end, the Colts were just the better team.

Peyton Manning threw for 308 yards and 4 touchdowns. Dallas Clark caught two TD passes. Reggie Wayne and Austin Collie had one each.

The Colts are now 14-0 and their remaining games are against the Jets and the Bills. Both are winnable games, if Indy wants to shoot for 16-0. They may choose to sit some of their key players in view of the playoffs though. They do have the #1 seed in the conference wrapped up. 16-0 means nothing without  a Super Bowl (just ask the Patriots).

So what should they do? Play the reserves, but play to win. After all, you never know when you might need them for real. Might as well try to win with them instead of kill time with them.

• The Cowboys beat the Saints on Saturday night, 24-17. New Orleans’ loss ends their shot at perfection, leaving the Colts as the lone undefeated team. The Saints are now 13-1, still in good position for the #1 seed. The Cowboys improved to 9-5 and showed they can win in December.
• Last night, the Minnesota Vikings had a chance to move within a game of the Saints for home field advantage in the playoffs. Instead they got embarrassed by the Panthers, 26-7. Favre had 0 TD’s and 1 INT. Peterson only rushed for 35 yards. There is reason to worry in Minnesota.
• Pittsburgh beat Green Bay 37-36 on the final play of the game. The win keeps the Steelers in the playoff hunt. Yes, they still have a shot. After everyone went on and on last week about the Browns effectively knocking the Steelers out of the playoffs, they still have a chance. They’re 7-7 now. Next week’s game against the Ravens will be key.
• Speaking of Ravens, they beat the Bears 31-7. Joe Flacco had 4 TD’s and the Bears turned the ball over 6 times. Baltimore is now 8-6 and leads the AFC wild card race.
• The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the San Diego Chargers, 27-24. The Bengals had a chance to clinch the division. Instead, they’ll try to do that next week against the Chiefs. Meanwhile, the Chargers have won 9 in a row, are 11-3, and have clinched the AFC West.
• The Tennessee Titans beat the Miami Dolphins, 27-24 in overtime. Both teams are now 7-7, right in the middle of a congested AFC playoff race.
• The New York Jets, with three interceptions from Mark Sanchez, lost to the Falcons 10-7. They are also now 7-7.
• The Oakland Raiders started former Browns QB Charlie Frye against the Denver Broncos. Frye was knocked out of the game and replaced by struggling JaMarcus Russell. In the end, the Broncos’ playoff hopes became a little more uncertain as the Raiders won 20-19.
• In the race for the #1 draft pick, St. Louis now has the edge. The Rams (1-13) lost to Houston 16-13 while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-12) beat Seattle 24-7.

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Josh Cribbs had not one, but two kickoff return touchdowns in this game. The first, which broke the NFL record for total kickoff return touchdowns, was for 100 yards. The second was 103 yards. Cribbs now has 8 in his career.

Jerome Harrison also had a record setting day, rushing for 286 yards and 3 touchdowns. He broke the team’s single game rushing yards record of 237, previously held by Jim Brown.

Who knows what changes are in store for the Browns after this season. Hopefully, both of these guys are back with the team. Cribbs has been consistently amazing and Harrison has shown that when he gets a chance, he can also be a solid producer.

Forget draft positioning. It feels good to have the Browns win, even these meaningless games.

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The Philadelphia Eagles won a wild one in New Jersey last night with a 45-38 win over the Giants. During the high-scoring game, Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson tied an NFL record. He had a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown, and also a 60-yard reception for a score. The two scores brought him to 8 touchdowns of 50+ yards this season.

The Eagles are now 9-4 and in first place in the NFC East. Meanwhile, the Giants are 7-6, barely holding on to their playoff hopes after a 5-0 start followed by a 2-6 stretch. Their remaining games are against Washington (4-9), Carolina (5-8), and Minnesota (11-2).

After improving to 8-3 with a Thanksgiving Day win over the Raiders, the Cowboys have lost two straight and are now in second place in the division with a record of 8-5. The rest of the season will not be easy, struggling or not. Their last three games are against New Orleans (13-0), Washington (4-9), and Philadelphia (9-4).

The Chargers on the other hand, are finishing strong after a rough start. San Diego has won their last eight games and are now 10-3. They are currently the #2 team in the AFC. If the playoffs started today, they would have a first-round bye.

The win was also their 22nd consecutive regular season win, which is a new NFL record.

The game wasn’t necessarily pretty. Peyton Manning was only 20-42 passing (47.6%) with three interceptions. But he did have four touchdowns and ultimately led his team to victory. In the end, that’s all that matters.

The Colts remaining schedule includes games against the Jets, Jaguars, and Bills. The first two teams are still very much in the hunt for the playoffs, so they will not be easy games.

The win is their second straight 3-point victory. One has to wonder if this Saints team is beginning to run out of gas. Their first eight games were won by an average margin of over 16 points. Then in week 10, they won a close game to the lowly Rams. That was followed by two strong wins against Tampa Bay and New England. Then the past two weeks have been close against the Redskins and Falcons.

Should the Saints be concerned? If they want to finish 16-0, then yes, they should be. But looking forward to the playoffs and a run at the Super Bowl, they’re fine. As long as they can get whatever kinks they have ironed out in the next three weeks, they’ll be alright.

The first-place Cincinnati Bengals traveled to Minnesota to face the Vikings. The Bengals got crushed, 30-10. Is this team for real? Sure, they’re a win away from clinching the division. But I keep thinking that eventually they’re going to fall apart. This week’s game was against a very good Minnesota team. Any team could lose this game. We’ll see how they close out the season.

The Baltimore Ravens destroyed the Detroit Lions, 48-3. The Ravens had 308 rushing yards. Ray Rice rushed for 166 yards and a touchdown. Willis McGahee ran for 76 yards and two touchdowns. With the win, Baltimore improved to 7-6 and is very much in the playoff race.

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ embarrassing loss to the Browns on Thursday night just about knocked them out of the playoffs. But mathematically, they do still have a shot. Right now, they’re sitting at 6-7 with five teams ahead of them vying for two wild card spots. Do they still have a shot? Unfortunately, yes. But it is becoming increasingly unlikely.

• The Chicago Bears lost whatever playoffs hopes they still had with a 21-14 loss to Green Bay. Jay Cutler threw two interceptions. Unfortunately, the Bears really needed a better game from him as their running game only accounted for 59 yards.
• The Tennessee Titans tried to keep their playoff hopes alive with a 47-7 win over St. Louis. The Rams’ QB was rookie Keith Null. Making his first NFL start, Null threw five interceptions.
• The Houston Texans kept up with the Titans with a 34-7 win over the Seahawks. Matt Schaub threw for 365 yards and two touchdowns. Both scores were to wide receiver Andre  Johnson, who had 11 receptions for 193 yards.

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Cleveland’s last win over Pittsburgh came on October 5, 2003. In their second meeting that season, the Steelers began a 12-game winning streak over the Browns with a 13-6 win. Interestingly, it was a 13-6 win by the Browns tonight that snapped that streak.

The game was broadcast on NFL Network. I hesitate to call it a nationally televised game though. But those who were able to see the game saw the Browns all but end the Steelers’ playoff hopes on a bitterly cold and windy night.

The Browns offense was good enough. The defense was tough, limiting the Steelers to 6 points, piling up 8 sacks, and only allowing Pittsburgh to convert 3 out of 14 third downs.

The win makes it harder for the Browns to get the #1 draft pick. It also makes it more likely that Eric Mangini will be around another year. But none of that matters tonight. The Browns beat the Steelers.

The loss drops the Steelers to 6-7 on the year. They are on a 5-game losing streak that not only includes a loss to the Browns, but also to the Raiders and Chiefs. If the Steelers start winning, mathematically, it’s still possible for the Steelers to make the playoffs. But the best they can do is 9-7. A lot of times, that’s not good enough anymore. Hopefully it won’t be for the Steelers this year.

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New England lost to Miami yesterday 22-21. This despite the fact that the Patriots were up 21-10 in the third quarter and the Dolphins were without their most dangerous offensive weapon — Ronnie Brown.

The Patriots were winning 21-19 when they punted the ball to Miami with under four minutes to play. All they needed was for the defense to make one more stop. Leading the Dolphins offense was second-year, backup to Chad Pennington quarterback Chad Henne. Surely New England would make this last stop and close out the game, right?

Wrong. Henne led the Dolphins 51 yards down the field in a drive that took just over a minute. It ended with a 41-yard field goal to put Miami on top 22-21. The Patriots tried to come back, but they couldn’t do it.

So now, while the Patriots are still in first place in the AFC East, they have fallen to 7-5, are only one game ahead of the Dolphins and Jets, and fell to 1-5 on the road this year. Of their remaining four games, it’s very possible they win three or four of them and get into the playoffs. But their failure to win games like this has got to worry New England fans.

The Redskins were winning 30-23 with two minutes left. They had a chance to kick a 23-yard field goal to seal the win. But they still managed to lose.

The field goal went wide right. Drew Brees led the Saints 80 yards down the field in 33 seconds to score a touchdown to send the game into overtime. In the extra period, the Redskins got the ball first, fumbled the ball away, then let the Saints drive down to the one yard line where they kicked a field goal to win the game.

Big break for New Orleans. They move to 12-0. Tough loss for the Redskins. They should have won this game, but they blew it.

Vick had two touchdowns — one passing, one rushing. Good for him. I hope he can continue to turn things around. He deserves a second chance as much as anyone.

The Eagles improved to 8-4 and are now tied with Dallas for first place in the NFC East. The Falcons, who are missing injured QB Matt Ryan, fell to 6-6.

The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Lions, 23-13. The win moves them to 9-3, firmly in control of the division. They will have either a two or three game lead, pending the result of Baltimore’s game tonight.

The Pittsburgh Steelers. Reigning Super Bowl champs. Started the season with a 6-2 record. Then what? Four straight losses. The latest came yesterday against the Oakland Raiders. Bruce Gradkowski threw an 11-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds left to give the Raiders a 27-24 win over the Steelers. With games yet against Green Bay, Baltimore, and Miami, Pittsburgh may just miss the playoffs. Wouldn’t that be great?

The Baltimore Ravens travel to Green Bay to face the Packers on Monday Night Football. Baltimore is 6-5. Green Bay is 7-4. Both teams are in the hunt for a wild card berth. The Packers are 2-point favorites to win.

• The Indianapolis Colts improved to 12-0, but had a much easier time staying perfect than the Saints. They beat the Titans 27-17.
• With the loss, the Titans fell to 5-7, just about ending their long-shot playoff hopes.
• The Houston Texans also watched their playoffs hopes disappear this week with a 23-18 loss to Jacksonville. After a 5-3 start, the Texans have dropped four straight.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers stayed in the hunt for the #1 draft pick with a 16-6 loss to Carolina. Quarterback Josh Freeman threw 5 interceptions in the loss.
• Two elderly quarterbacks faced off on Sunday night. Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals came out on top, beating the Brett Favre led Minnesota Vikings 30-17.

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The game started well. The Browns scored first when Brady Quinn hit Mohamed Massaquoi for an 11-yard touchdown pass. According to @OfficialBrowns, it was the team’s first opening-drive touchdown in 35 games. They fell behind 13-7 at halftime, completely lost control of the game in the third quarter, and despite 17 fourth quarter points, they could not come back.

The Browns are now 1-11. Keeping pace are Tampa Bay and St. Louis.

Now, we really shouldn’t be all that disappointed. Sure it would have been nice to have the Browns win. But no one expected them to win. Everyone was predicting a loss. So let’s just look at some positives from the game.

• Brady Quinn had a good day throwing the ball - 25 for 45 (55.5%) for 271 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and a 95.7 QB rating.
• The Browns rushed for 115 yards despite being without Jamal Lewis.
• Jerome Harrison had 35 rushing yards on 10 carries and 62 receiving yards on 7 receptions, including 2 touchdowns.
• Quinn connected with eight different receivers.
• Brian Robiskie got some playing time and hauled in four catches for 69 yards.
• The offense converted 50% of their third down conversions (8/16) and 100% of their 4th down conversions (2/2).

So yeah, it’s a loss. But it also may be a step in the right direction.

Also in this game, San Diego running back LaDainian Tomlinson moved past Browns’ Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown on the NFL’s career rushing list. Tomlinson is now at #8. Jim Brown congratulated him after the game.

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#1 - Zydrunas Ilgauskas broke the team record for number of games played at 724. I love Z. He is, hands down, my favorite Cavs player ever (yes, even more than LeBron James). He has played his entire career in a Cleveland uniform and battled through foot injuries to make it this far. This year he has had to move to the bench with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and is adjusting to that in the best interest of the team.

Congrats, Z. Hope to see you help this team finally win a championship this year as well.

#2 - The blue & orange uniforms. These were the uniforms I grew up with. In my opinion, they’re still the best. Nice to see them brought back for this game.

#3 - Shaquille O’Neal beat his former team, contributing 12 points and 9 rebounds. On top of that, the Suns just were not any good tonight. Shaq supposedly did not fit into the Suns fast-paced, high-scoring offense. But tonight the Cavs held the Suns to just 29 points in the first half.

#4 - Back to Z. He led the team with 14 points, but also moved to number three on the team’s list of all-time scoring leaders. He trails LeBron James and Brad Daugherty. He could pass Daugherty later this season.

#5 - Seven Cavaliers scored double-digits: Ilgauskas (14), Hickson (13), James (12), O’Neal (12), Williams (11), Parker (10), Gibson (10).

#6 - Delonte West had another good game: 8 points, 6 assists, 2 steals, in 24 minutes. Here’s hoping he can continue to contribute to the team, and, more importantly, work to overcome his off-court issues.

Great game all around for the Cavs. Next game is Friday against the Bulls.

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What did we learn from last night’s game? The Saints are legit.

If there was ever any doubt, even after winning their first ten games, it was erased after their eleventh. The Saints piled up 480 yards of offense. Much of that came off the arm of Drew Brees who was 18 for 23 (78.3%) for 371 yards and 5 touchdowns.

When you have a team that plays this well against another one of the league’s top teams, especially this late in the year, you have to be thinking about their Super Bowl chances. If this team stays healthy, watch out. They’ve got to be the favorites right now.

The Colts fell behind early, which has become common for them. They trailed 20-7 at halftime. But they came back to win the game, making it the fifth straight game in which they came from behind to win.

Aside from two interceptions, Peyton Manning had a fairly good day - 27 for 35 (77%) for 244 yards and 3 touchdowns. The defense also pitched in with a score when an interception by Clint Session was returned 27 yards for a touchdown.

The Colts became the first team to clinch their division title this season. They are three games ahead of Cincinnati and San Diego in the AFC in the race for the #1 seed in the playoffs.

Just how dominant were the Vikings? Look at how lopsided the stats from the game are: total yards (537-169), passing yards (378-126), rushing yards (159-43), first downs (31-8), total plays (83-38), time of possession (40:55-19:05), takeaways (3-1).

Brett Favre continued his impressive season by throwing for 392 yards on 32 of 48 passing (66.7%), including 3 touchdowns.

Right now, I would love to see the Vikings and Saints meet in the NFC championship game. It could happen. They have been, by far, the most dominant teams in the conference up to this point.

Well, the Bengals beat the Browns to improve to 8-3. They completed a sweep of their division rivals. They also had a 100+ yard game from Larry Johnson, who they just picked up after he was released from the Chiefs. He filled in nicely with Cedric Benson being out. They’ll really be in good shape when Benson returns. This teams has turned out to be a very good team. But even though I don’t despise them as much as the Steelers and Ravens, I still cannot bring myself to root for them.

The Ravens and Steelers played a dandy of a football game Sunday night in Baltimore. When I first started watching the game, I didn’t think I’d finish it. I usually get annoyed watching these teams play competent, competitive football while the Browns have a long way to go to improve to mediocre status. But I watched, all the while not knowing who to root for. Finally in the fourth quarter I decided I ought to root for the Ravens. Why? They had the worst record of the two teams. But this wasn’t about pulling for the underdog. Instead, I was figuring if Pittsburgh lost, it was more likely they would miss the playoffs, and Baltimore was a long shot to begin with. So I started hoping the Ravens would win. They did. I’m still not happy they won. But I’m very happy the Steelers lost.

• Two teams left in the hunt for an undefeated season - New Orleans & Indianapolis. For their remaining schedules, the Saints opponents have a combined record of 22-33 (.400), the Colts opponents are 27-28 (.491). Two of the five Saints opponents still have playoff hopes, compared to four against the Colts. If one of these teams goes undefeated, it’s probably going to be the Saints.
• After snapping a four-game losing streak in overtime last week, the Giants are losing again. This week it was to Denver, 26-6.
• San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson didn’t have a big game rushing the ball (39 yards), but it was enough to move him to #10 on the NFL’s all-time rushing list.
• You know that Lions team the Browns beat 37-31 lost to 38-37 last week? They were embarrassed on Thanksgiving, losing to the Packers 34-12. Last week’s hero Matthew Stafford threw 4 interceptions in the loss.
• I used to be able to mock the locals here that their Titans had a worse record than the Browns. That was several weeks ago. Now Tennessee has won five straight. The latest came when Vince Young led a 99-yard touchdown drive, using all of the final 2:37. Now the Titans have an outside shot at a wild card berth. Makes me sick.

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The Browns lost again to fall to 1-10. The loss came against the Bengals who are now 8-3 and have a 2-game lead in the division.

Brady Quinn didn’t pass the ball exceptionally well - 15 for 34 (44%) for 100 yards. Then again, he didn’t really get a whole lot of time to throw the ball. Cincinnati’s defense was putting pressure on him at will, particularly from the right side of the line. Not many quarterbacks would put up good numbers under those conditions.

Cleveland’s one score came on a Brady Quinn 9-yard touchdown run. That drive included a trick play where Josh Cribbs took a direct snap, Quinn rolled out to the left, and Cribbs completed an 18-yard pass to the QB. I don’t know if that means they ought to run more trick plays with Quinn catching the ball, or if Cribbs should play more quarterback.

Other than that drive, the offense was basically ineffective. On the defensive side of the ball, they did give up just the one touchdown and hold the Bengals other scoring drives to field goals. But Cincinnati, even without their leading rusher, was able to run all over the Browns defense. They rushed for 210 yards, which helped them eat up the clock and win the time of possession battle (38:11 to 21:49).

There were two frustrating things about this game.

The first is the stark contrast between these two teams. Last year, Cincinnati finished at 4-11-1, a half game ahead of Cleveland at 4-12. This year, after supposedly upgrading at head coach, the Browns are 1-10. Meanwhile, the Bengals are 8-3 and in first place with a 6-0 record in the division. Why did the Browns take such a big step backwards? Blame that on the coaching staff and the draft (Mangini).

The second is the contrast between Brady Quinn and Pittsburgh Steelers backup Dennis Dixon. In tonight’s game, Dixon started in place of Ben Roethlisberger and nearly led his team to victory against a Ravens defense that held the Browns to a total of 3 points in two games this year. Is Dixon that much better than Quinn? Hardly. What’s the difference? Pittsburgh is able to give their QB time to throw the ball, and they have a good running game to take pressure off of the passing game.

If the Browns could use the next draft to build up their offensive line and find a good running back, that will go a long way in improving the offense.

5 more games. The Browns are still tied with the Buccaneers and Rams in the chase for the #1 draft pick.

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