Cleveland Browns Tackle Football Tonight: What Are You Hoping To See?
August 13, 2011Colt, Cribbs, and Shurmur talk about the West Coast Offense last night
August 14, 2011While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Tribe beats Twins again: “Five games into a stretch of 12 straight against division opponents, with precious ground to make up in the American League Central standings, the Tribe has claimed consecutive series wins against the Tigers and Twins. The latter was locked up on a pristine Saturday night at Progressive Field, with Josh Tomlin’s sterling start and Asdrubal Cabrera’s latest big blast paving the way to a 3-1 victory in front of an announced crowd of 30,619 fans.
“It’s very important,” manager Manny Acta said of the series win, “because that’s what’s going to determine our fate. These games are important both ways. You try not only to reach the Tigers, but you’re also trying to separate yourself from the people trying to catch you. These games have double-meaning.”
On this night, the Indians remained three games behind the Tigers, as Detroit defeated the Orioles 6-5. Cabrera was the star of this game with a single swing. It came in the third inning, after leadoff man Shin-Soo Choo drew a walk and Jason Donald, spelling the red-hot but dog-tired Jason Kipnis at second base, grounded a single to center. Up came Cabrera. Twins left-hander Brian Duensing quickly fell behind in the count, 1-0, and when he tried to catch Cabrera off-guard with a changeup, Cabrera turned it into a no-doubt-about-it blast to the left-field porch to make it 3-0.” [MLB.com / Anthony Castrovince]
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First impressions of Browns after game one of preseason: “On Saturday night at Cleveland Browns Stadium, the first time the Browns defense was on the field, they had 12 players. You can only use 11.
The first time the Browns offense was on the field, Colt McCoy threw a pass to the flats that could not be handled by Owen Marecic. In reality, it was a lateral that was fumbled, but not called as such by the referees. In both instances, the result was better than the start.
The Browns defense held the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers to a three-and-out on the game’s first possession. The Browns offense took their first possession and drove 71 yards in eight plays that culminated in a 27-yard touchdown pass from Colt McCoy to Josh Cribbs. Somewhere in between lies the truth about the 2011 Cleveland Browns. Welcome to preseason.
“We got a long way to go before we’re going to be a real good football team,” coach Pat Shurmur said at halftime.
Thirty minutes later, Cleveland walked off the field 27-17 winners over Green Bay.” [OBR / Don Delco]
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Speculating that maybe the Dolans are looking to sell: “Through the Indians attendance and financial rollercoaster of the last 11 years, Forbes still values the franchise at $353 million, slightly more than what the Dolans paid for it. Maybe ownership has decided this might not be the perfect time to sell, but it certainly isn’t the worst. Dolan could recuperate his initial investment and some extra money to lick the wounds of his day-to-day expenses of his more than a decade of ownership before having to suffer a potential nightmare in 2014.
Maybe the decision to trade the team’s most valuable prospects in Drew Pomeranz and Alex White wasn’t so tough, because while the Indians are telling fans they are going for it, they are just fixing up their house before putting the team up for sale. You don’t think too much about the future if you aren’t planning to be around for it.” [Did Tribe Win / Mike Brandyberry]
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More notes on Browns from yesterday: “In the second half, the Browns started things off by really trying to get backup running back Brandon Jackson involved. Jackson had a lot of touches, and looked about a million times better than Mike Bell did at any point last season. The drive was capped off with a nice 46-yard field goal by backup kicker Jeff Wolfert.
Former Browns-invitee Graham Harrell then came on at quarterback for the Packers. He was leading the team to a decent looking drive until undrafted free agent linebacker Brian Smith came unblocked on a blitz. He drilled Harrell, forcing a fumble. Linebacker Titus Brown was right there to scoop it up and ended up running it back 43 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
Seneca Wallace’s job as the backup quarterback is safe, but he struggled against the Packers, making several overthrows, including an interception.
Fans were excited to get a look at third-string quarterback Jarrett Brown, but he fired an interception on his first pass of the day. That gave Green Bay good field position, but when they got into a fourth-and-goal situation mid-way through the fourth quarter, the snap was botched and the defense was able to come up with the stop.” [Dawgs By Nature]
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On the Tribe in August: “The biggest difference that has occurred over the last two weeks has been the resurgence of the Indians’ offense, which has averaged 5.2 runs per game in the month of August, allowing them to stare the Red Sox, Rangers, and Tigers down and get through a brutal part of their schedule with confidence growing for the team as they begin to beat up on the lesser lights of the AL. To put some context around that, the Tribe averaged just 3.6 runs per game from their 19-run outburst in Kansas City through the end of July as they went 28-39 in that stretch, so with the offense looking rejuvenated around a top-of-the-rotation that boasts a dominant Masterson and Ubaldo (who has an ERA of 3.09 since June 1st…if you exclude that absurd final 1-inning outing for the Rox), the Indians – quite suddenly – look like a team that is coming together at the right time.
Certainly 12 games in August is still just 12 games in August, but the Tribe has gone 7-5 in the month, with their offense coming together and their pitching staff (after the bullpen implosions in Fenway and Arlington) rounding into shape. While August 1st is still a largely arbitrary date, it is important as it represented the day after the Ubaldo deal and…perhaps even more importantly, the cancelling of The OC. While the moves at the end of July were decried by some as giving up too much (in the case of Ubaldo) or too little, too late (in terms of Kosuke), the Indians were pro-active at the Trading Deadline (and beforehand) as they set the table for themselves for the remainder of the season. ” [The DiaTribe]
1 Comment
WFNY should pool its money and make a bid for the tribe. I’d trust that ownership more than any other (plus it would spend about as much as the Dolans do anyway).