Cleveland Browns: Regression, Injuries, and Schedule Strength

Cleveland fans are all too familiar with the story: a successful but unsatisfying 2007 season leading to a disappointing 2008 season. It started when the Cavs lost in the NBA finals and failed to repeat that success the following year. The Indians made it to the ALCS in 2007, but injuries and inconsistency kept them out of the playoffs in 2008. Now, it looks like the Browns are repeating that storyline. But how and why?

Regression

When teams and players play above their head one year, you can expect them to come back down to earth the following year. That may be the case for the team as a whole, but not necessarily for all of its players.

The Browns offensive core of Derek Anderson, Josh Cribbs, Braylon Edwards, and Kellen Winslow are all 25 years old this year. The NFL may have a rapid aging curve, but it's not that rapid. Anderson, Cribbs, Edwards, and Winslow are, in theory, still young enough to have an equal chance of improving with age as they are to regressing to the mean.

Injuries

The 2008 Browns are eerily similar to this summer's Indians when you take injuries into account. Even those players who did recover from preseason injuries still showed lingering effects in the regular season. Prior to the Giants game, Braylon Edwards had more drops than catches. Joshua Cribbs, meanwhile, has rarely seen the other side of the 50 on his returns so far this season.

Injuries to an already thin wide receiver corps have also hurt the Browns this season. Joe Jurevicius has yet to see the field, and may not at all this season. Joshua Cribbs was nursing his preseason injury. Donte Stallworth was out until last week's Giants game, which was perhaps not-so-coincidentally a Cleveland win.

Before that, the depth chart had Edwards, Syndric Steptoe. No disrespect to Steptoe, but he was a seventh-round pick taken mostly for his return potential. Prior to Stallworth's return, opposing defenses could smother Edwards and Kellen Winslow and leave Derek Anderson with few other reliable options.

Schedule Strength

In 2007, the Browns had arguably the easiest schedule in the league, and were bound to have a tougher slate this year. I tried to play the optimist with this situation, reasoning that the players didn't necessarily know that their 10-6 record was a result of weak competition, and that it had given them the confidence to beat anyone.

Five games into the season, that may not be the case. To paraphrase that one commercial, Cleveland is 2-3 and knocking on mediocrity's door with many talented opponents on the schedule this year. This year may end in disappointment, but 2009 is looking good once again for the city of Cleveland.

Cleveland Browns Training Camp Opens

In case you missed it, Browns training camp opened on Wednesday. The full schedule can be found here. All practices listed on that schedule are open to the public.

Special events include locker room sales on July 30 and August 10, and the popular Family Night on August 1.

Cleveland Indians: Quick & Dirty Second Half Projections

The Hardball Times recently released a tool that uses the Marcels projection system to create quick-and-dirty projections of a player's performance over the rest of 2008. Picking up on what's already been done for the Mets and Brewers, here's what the tool had to say about the Indians.

Hitters

The Marcels are best for rate stats, such as batting average, OBP, SLG, and OPS. Here, I measure improvement or regression in terms of the difference between a player's OPS-to-date and their "balance" OPS, or their projected OPS from now until the end of the year. This is labeled as OPS_delta.

Massive Improvement

(> 3 Standard Deviations)
Josh Barfield

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	3	6	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2008 (proj balance)	66	131	123	33	7	1	2	7	20	0.264	0.308	0.387	48	1	0.695	0.695
2008 (proj total)	69	137	129	33	7	1	2	7	20	0.252	0.294	0.369	48	1	0.663

This one really isn't fair, since Barfield will obviously improve on his 0-for-6 start. Unfortunately, .695 and .663 are still below league-average OPSs.

Much Improvement

(> 1 Standard Deviation)
Jorge Velandia

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	10	16	15	3	1	0	0	1	4	0.2	0.25	0.267	4	0	0.517
2008 (proj balance)	66	105	94	25	5	0	3	10	18	0.266	0.342	0.42	40	1	0.762	0.245
2008 (proj total)	76	121	109	28	6	0	3	11	22	0.257	0.329	0.399	44	1	0.729

Travis Hafner

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	46	188	157	34	9	0	4	23	44	0.217	0.332	0.35	55	4	0.682
2008 (proj balance)	66	268	226	61	14	1	12	38	44	0.271	0.384	0.497	112	3	0.882	0.2
2008 (proj total)	112	456	383	95	23	1	16	61	88	0.249	0.36	0.437	167	7	0.797

I can't guarantee all the Jorge Velandia fans out there that he'll play 66 games over the rest of the season. But I can back Marcel's other guarantee - that Travis Hafner, when healthy, will greatly improve over what he's done so far.

Some Improvement

(< 1 Standard Deviation)
Andy Marte

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	33	90	82	15	3	0	1	4	23	0.183	0.23	0.256	21	1	0.486
2008 (proj balance)	66	179	164	38	10	1	4	13	31	0.231	0.295	0.376	62	2	0.672	0.186
2008 (proj total)	99	269	246	53	13	1	5	17	54	0.215	0.271	0.336	83	3	0.607

Asdrubal Cabrera

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	53	189	161	30	7	0	1	22	41	0.186	0.288	0.248	40	1	0.536
2008 (proj balance)	66	234	208	51	11	1	4	24	36	0.248	0.331	0.369	77	2	0.7	0.164
2008 (proj total)	119	423	369	81	18	1	5	46	77	0.221	0.309	0.316	117	3	0.625

Victor Martinez

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	54	217	198	55	11	0	0	16	23	0.278	0.335	0.333	66	1	0.668
2008 (proj balance)	66	263	236	69	15	0	7	25	29	0.294	0.368	0.449	106	2	0.817	0.149
2008 (proj total)	120	480	434	124	26	0	7	41	52	0.286	0.352	0.396	172	3	0.748

Franklin Gutierrez

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	76	231	214	46	10	1	3	10	50	0.215	0.263	0.313	67	4	0.576
2008 (proj balance)	66	199	185	47	10	1	5	13	38	0.253	0.307	0.4	74	2	0.707	0.131
2008 (proj total)	142	430	399	93	20	2	8	23	88	0.233	0.282	0.353	141	6	0.635

Ryan Garko

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	84	328	291	70	11	0	7	25	47	0.241	0.32	0.351	102	9	0.671
2008 (proj balance)	66	256	230	63	12	0	8	19	37	0.273	0.347	0.434	100	7	0.781	0.11
2008 (proj total)	150	584	521	133	23	0	15	44	84	0.255	0.33	0.387	202	16	0.718

Michael Aubrey

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	9	30	27	5	0	0	2	3	3	0.185	0.267	0.407	11	0	0.674
2008 (proj balance)	66	218	196	50	9	1	7	20	30	0.256	0.331	0.418	82	2	0.749	0.075
2008 (proj total)	75	248	223	55	9	1	9	23	33	0.247	0.323	0.417	93	2	0.74

David Dellucci

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	77	248	224	51	13	0	8	17	53	0.228	0.3	0.393	88	6	0.692
2008 (proj balance)	66	211	188	46	10	2	8	20	39	0.246	0.329	0.437	82	3	0.766	0.074
2008 (proj total)	143	459	412	97	23	2	16	37	92	0.236	0.312	0.413	170	9	0.725

Shin-Soo Choo

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	37	131	111	26	8	1	3	16	29	0.234	0.341	0.405	45	2	0.746
2008 (proj balance)	66	232	205	53	13	2	5	24	42	0.26	0.345	0.419	86	3	0.764	0.018
2008 (proj total)	103	363	316	79	21	3	8	40	71	0.251	0.342	0.414	131	5	0.756

There are positives and negatives to be taken away from this group. First, Shin-Soo Choo, who has been hitting well (especially compared to his teammates), is actually due for a minor improvement over the rest of the season. Second, Victor Martinez, Ryan Garko, and David Dellucci are all due to hit at an above-league-average clip in the second half. That's just what this team needs, and what those players need individually. Now the negatives: yes, Andy Marte, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Franklin Gutierrez are due for some improvement. But that still won't make their final numbers very pretty.

Exactly the Same

Jhonny Peralta

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	88	372	345	90	25	1	16	23	72	0.261	0.307	0.478	165	0	0.785
2008 (proj balance)	66	277	251	68	15	1	9	24	53	0.27	0.337	0.447	113	1	0.785	0
2008 (proj total)	154	649	596	158	40	2	25	47	125	0.265	0.318	0.465	278	1	0.783

Earlier this year, I noticed that Jhonny Peralta's career slash stats were almost exactly league-average. Peralta once again will live up to that Mr. Average billing; he'll see an increase in his OPB but a slight dropoff in his slugging percentage.

Some Regression

(< 1 Standard Deviation)
Kelly Shoppach

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	58	186	168	41	12	0	7	11	61	0.244	0.31	0.44	74	5	0.75
2008 (proj balance)	66	210	193	48	12	0	7	15	53	0.251	0.313	0.426	82	3	0.739	-0.011
2008 (proj total)	124	396	361	89	24	0	14	26	114	0.248	0.31	0.433	156	8	0.743

Jamey Carroll

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	68	248	213	57	7	4	0	20	38	0.268	0.35	0.338	72	7	0.688
2008 (proj balance)	66	239	213	54	9	2	2	22	31	0.254	0.334	0.342	73	3	0.676	-0.012
2008 (proj total)	134	487	426	111	16	6	2	42	69	0.261	0.336	0.34	145	10	0.676

Ben Francisco

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	64	266	239	70	19	0	8	22	41	0.293	0.357	0.473	113	2	0.83
2008 (proj balance)	66	272	248	70	17	1	8	23	42	0.281	0.346	0.455	113	2	0.801	-0.029
2008 (proj total)	130	538	487	140	36	1	16	45	83	0.287	0.35	0.464	226	4	0.814

Grady Sizemore

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	92	426	366	100	20	4	23	53	72	0.273	0.374	0.538	197	6	0.912
2008 (proj balance)	66	303	264	75	16	3	12	34	49	0.285	0.377	0.501	133	5	0.878	-0.034
2008 (proj total)	158	729	630	175	36	7	35	87	121	0.278	0.375	0.523	330	11	0.897

Casey Blake

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	88	345	305	86	23	0	10	30	64	0.282	0.36	0.456	139	7	0.815
2008 (proj balance)	66	257	232	60	14	1	8	21	44	0.261	0.333	0.432	100	4	0.765	-0.05
2008 (proj total)	154	602	537	146	37	1	18	51	108	0.273	0.346	0.446	239	11	0.792

Most Indians fans know that these are the guys who are having good years. Unfortunately, that party's about to end for some. The good news is that the dropoff is slight. For most guys, Marcel predicts most of the regression to come from slugging percentage, not on base. For example, Marcel says Grady Size is due for a 0.003 decline in OBP but a 0.037 drop in SLG. This is because Marcel is an imperfect model (no offense, of course, because it wasn't meant to be perfect) based on past performance. Grady's never hit 23 HR before the break before, and that's taken into account for his second-half performance. Meanwhile, those urging the Indians to sell high on Casey Blake may finally have their statistical proof.

Much Regression

Sal Fasano

Year	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	HBP	OPS	OPS_delta
2008	4	15	13	5	1	0	0	2	5	0.385	0.467	0.462	6	0	0.928
2008 (proj balance)	66	246	226	54	11	1	8	15	54	0.239	0.3	0.396	89	5	0.696	-0.232
2008 (proj total)	70	261	239	59	12	1	8	17	59	0.247	0.31	0.399	95	5	0.709

Sorry Sal, but we knew you couldn't keep it up for that much longer.

Pitchers

The Marcel projections returned two useful rate stats - ERA and WHIP. I added these two together to create a Total_delta for each pitcher.

Massive Improvement

(> 3 Standard Deviations)
Brian Slocum

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	2	0	27	2	8	1	0	1	4	15	2	6
2008 (proj balance)	1	0	4.48	1	3	2	1	0	2.5	10	0	1	-22.52	-1.5	-24.02
2008 (proj total)	3	0	17.89	3	11	3	1	1	3.4	25	2	7

Brian Slocum was the curve-wrecker on this one. Then again, 2 IP with 6 ER to date will do that for you.

Much Improvement

(>1 Standard Deviation)
Tom Mastny

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	6	1	13.01	8.3	13	9	8	0	2.52	47	3	12
2008 (proj balance)	4	1	4.39	6	8	6	3	0	1.93	32	1	3	-8.62	-0.59	-9.21
2008 (proj total)	10	2	9.52	14	21	15	11	0	2.29	79	4	15

Like Slocum, Tom Mastny's numbers were affected by his small sample size. (Unlike Slocum, Mastny also had that ugly emergency start to his credit.)

Some Improvement

(< 1 Standard Deviation)
Jeremy Sowers

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	9	9	7.52	44.3	66	26	19	1	1.92	214	10	37
2008 (proj balance)	6	6	4.73	30	37	19	11	1	1.61	145	5	16	-2.79	-0.31	-3.1
2008 (proj total)	15	15	6.39	74	103	45	30	2	1.79	359	15	53

Rafael Betancourt

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	42	0	6	42	48	42	14	0	1.48	185	8	28
2008 (proj balance)	29	0	3.58	29	29	26	9	1	1.32	126	4	11	-2.42	-0.16	-2.58
2008 (proj total)	71	0	5.02	71	77	68	23	1	1.41	311	12	39

Juan Rincon

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	24	0	6.11	28	33	20	16	2	1.75	133	5	19
2008 (proj balance)	16	0	4.17	19	21	16	8	1	1.57	90	2	9	-1.94	-0.18	-2.12
2008 (proj total)	40	0	5.32	47	54	36	24	3	1.68	223	7	28

Paul Byrd

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	18	18	5.47	102	121	44	17	5	1.35	435	23	62
2008 (proj balance)	12	12	4.76	69	82	35	15	3	1.4	295	11	37	-0.71	0.05	-0.66
2008 (proj total)	30	30	5.18	171	203	79	32	8	1.37	730	34	99

Jensen Lewis

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	24	0	4.41	34.7	38	26	19	2	1.64	160	4	17
2008 (proj balance)	16	0	3.94	24	25	20	10	1	1.46	109	2	10	-0.47	-0.18	-0.65
2008 (proj total)	40	0	4.22	58	63	46	29	3	1.57	269	6	27

Edward Mujica

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	13	0	4.85	16.7	15	12	4	1	1.14	69	3	9
2008 (proj balance)	9	0	4.1	11	11	8	3	0	1.28	47	1	5	-0.75	0.14	-0.61
2008 (proj total)	22	0	4.55	28	26	20	7	1	1.19	116	4	14

Those who have watched Jeremy Sowers' last two starts know he's already started to improve. Meanwhile, it's nice to see Rafael Betancourt, Paul Byrd, and Jensen Lewis - the poster children for regression on the pitching staff in 2008 - at least have some room for improvement over the rest of the year.

Some Regression

(< 1 Standard Deviation)
Rafael Perez

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	43	0	3.16	42.7	40	43	16	1	1.31	177	5	15
2008 (proj balance)	29	0	3.65	29	26	26	10	1	1.24	120	3	12	0.49	-0.07	0.42
2008 (proj total)	72	0	3.36	72	66	69	26	2	1.28	297	8	27

Aaron Laffey

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	15	15	3.61	89.7	91	41	29	9	1.34	384	10	36
2008 (proj balance)	10	10	4.21	61	60	37	20	4	1.31	261	6	28	0.6	-0.03	0.57
2008 (proj total)	25	25	3.85	151	151	78	49	13	1.33	645	16	64

Fausto Carmona

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	10	10	3.1	58	54	23	38	3	1.59	255	1	20
2008 (proj balance)	7	7	3.94	39	39	26	16	2	1.38	173	3	17	0.84	-0.21	0.63
2008 (proj total)	17	17	3.44	97	93	49	54	5	1.5	428	4	37

Jake Westbrook

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	5	5	3.11	34.7	33	19	7	1	1.15	139	5	12
2008 (proj balance)	3	3	4.01	24	24	13	7	1	1.3	94	2	11	0.9	0.15	1.05
2008 (proj total)	8	8	3.48	58	57	32	14	2	1.21	233	7	23

Masa Kobayashi

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	42	0	3.05	44.3	40	28	11	1	1.15	182	5	15
2008 (proj balance)	29	0	4.18	30	29	20	10	1	1.28	124	3	14	1.13	0.13	1.26
2008 (proj total)	71	0	3.51	74	69	48	21	2	1.2	306	8	29

Cliff Lee

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	18	18	2.31	124.7	109	106	20	0	1.03	488	5	32
2008 (proj balance)	12	12	3.66	85	79	58	22	2	1.19	331	8	34	1.35	0.16	1.51
2008 (proj total)	30	30	2.85	209	188	164	42	2	1.1	819	13	66

Matt Ginter

Year	G	GS	ERA	IP	Hit	K	BB	HBP	WHIP	BFP	HR	ER	ERA_delta	WHIP_delta	Total_Delta
2008	1	1	0	5	5	5	0	0	1	20	0	0
2008 (proj balance)	1	1	4.11	3	3	2	1	0	1.28	14	0	2	4.11	0.28	4.39
2008 (proj total)	2	2	1.66	8	8	7	1	0	1.11	34	0	2

Again, most Indians fans would agree that these are the pitchers who had good first halves. Rafael Perez, Aaron Laffey, and Fausto Carmona are all due to see their ERAs increase but their WHIPs decrease. I'm not sure what to make of that, other than the fact that neither is a perfect stat to indicate a pitcher's overall performance. Meanwhile, predictably, Cliff Lee is due for some regression to the mean. Still, I doubt anyone will be upset if he finishes with a 2.85 ERA and 1.10 WHIP.

Cleveland Browns 2007 Retrospective

A solid hit by a Titans DB on 4th and long solidified the playoff picture. Tennessee held on to beat the Colts 16-10 and move onto the playoffs, leaving the Browns at home. Who's to blame? Derek Anderson, for throwing away the Bengals game in week 16? The Colts, for resting their starters and refusing to use their last timeout to get the ball back?

I say neither. The Colts were obviously looking out for their best interests. If you want to be shortsighted and pick one moment that cost the Browns their season, you have plenty to choose from. Blame the defense, or coordinator Todd Grantham, for letting the Steelers come back. Blame the line for letting the Raiders block that last-second field goal. Blame the coaching staff and front office for naming Charlie Frye the week 1 starter; if Anderson had started that week, maybe he would have been better prepared against the Raiders. Heck, if you want to be more perverse, blame Frye for playing so well in the preseason and beating out Anderson.

In the grand scheme of things, seasons never really come down to one moment. Besides, there are many positives to take away from this season. At the beginning of the season, 8-8 looked like a stretch for this team, much less 10-6. Any team or fan would be and should be absolutely ecstatic that a first-year starting QB only has two bad starts. Yeah, the Browns went 10-6 by playing the weakest schedule in the conference. But now they have a young, hungry team that believes they can win.

Things look good in Cleveland. Sure, the Cavs need to work out a few kinks. (I'm from the school of thought that if you're not the most talented team in the league, you just need to put forth more effort than anyone else. Then again, I'm not an NBA coach.) Baseball Think Factory's ZiPS projections have some nice things to say about the 2008 Indians. I agree that they're a trade or two away from surpassing the likes of the Red Sox and Tigers in the AL. So again, optimism is the word in Cleveland.

Cleveland Browns 16, Kansas City Chiefs 12

Kansas City's two star running backs didn't even play. Their other top three offensive weapons only made token appearances. (Tony Gonzalez and Eddie Kennison started and each caught one pass. Damon Huard attempted 4 passed after relieving Brodie Croyle.) So it's no wonder their offense was nonexistent. Their touchdown was scored when Browns RB Jerome Harrison let a lateral sail over his head and failed to retrieve it. The safety was scored after Browns PR Brandon McDonald let a punt go by that was stopped at the one. And the final field goal was scored on the 3rd team defense.

That being said, the Browns managed to let the Chiefs stay in this game in spite of themselves. As was the case far too many times over the past two years, the Browns were able to move the ball down the field fairly well, but they fell apart in the red zone. Four trip inside the 20 resulted in three field goals and a botched attempt at a fourth. With time running down at the end of the half and no time outs left, Charlie Frye tried to improvise and scramble for a touchdown but fell well short.

Of Cleveland's starting QBs, Frye did look the best. Sure, most of his passes were checkdowns and dumpoffs, but 3 yards gained is better than no yards gained. Derek Anderson failed to find any rhythm at all, and most of his passes were either off target or forced into openings that just weren't there. Ken Dorsey was supposed to play the entire second half, but Romeo Crennel decided to give Anderson the first drive of the third quarter to attempt to redeem himself. He really didn't. Because of this, and because the game was still relatively close at the end, Dorsey stayed in for the remainder of the game. Despite chants of "Brady, Brady" starting late in the third period, Quinn stayed on the bench.

Jamal Lewis looked fair in his first appearance wearing brown and orange. He averaged 5 yards on 4 carries, and showed good hands hauling in 3 checkdown passes. A bulked up Jerome Harrison had a few good runs against the backup defense, while Jason Wright struggled. Twice the Browns tried to run up the middle on obvious 3rd and short situations, and twice they were stuffed. That's nothing new.

Buck Ortega was the star receiver, as the tight end caught four passes from former Hurricanes teammate Dorsey against the Chiefs third stringers. Seventh round pick Syndric Steptoe looked unimpressive both as a receiver and a returner.

On the line, Joe Thomas was called for holding twice. It could be a case of a rookie needing to adjust to the league, or it could just be a case of the refs calling him tight in his first game. But surely Browns announcer Doug Dieken felt right at home hearing holding called on his old number 73.

On the defensive front seven, Kamerion Wimbley again caused havoc, despite not recording a single tackle. He did however pressure Brodie Croyle into throwing an interception right to Leigh Bodden. Lineman David McMillan and linebackers Kris Griffin and Clifton Smith heard their names called often, which could help them stay on this ballclub.

The secondary played a very good game. On the first drive, rookie Eric Wright was tested on a deep ball. With his back to the play, he simply reached his arm up to knock the ball down. While that's perfectly legal in college, defenders are required in the NFL to turn around and face the pass. So that's something Wright will have to be careful about. Bodden, as mentioned above, had a gift-wrapped interception. Last year, after Bodden the corners weren't anything to write home about. But even those returning DBs played well. Daven Holly had a clean interception.

But the play of the game came with less than two minutes to go, when reserve RB Chris Barclay returned a kickoff for the go-ahead touchdown. With 95 seconds remaining, the Browns still needed to make a stop to seal the victory. They did, but just barely.

NFL Draft Review

What, original content?

From the Cleveland Browns' Perspective

• It was a wild but successful first round for the Browns. Cleveland took OT Joe Thomas with the third overall pick, but they weren't done yet. After Brady Quinn was still around as of the 22nd pick, Cleveland traded their 2007 second round pick and 2008 first round pick to Dallas for the chance to draft Quinn. Fans and "experts" alike are hailing this as the day that potential puts the Cleveland Browns franchise back on track.


• It looked like the Browns were out of the second round, until GM Phil Savage swung another deal. After trading for a second round pick, the Browns picked up troubled DB Eric Wright. Wright is a first round talent, but a troubled past got him kicked out of USC. After that, he ended up at UNLV. When interviewed, Romeo Crennel pointed out that if Wright can stay trouble free in Las Vegas of all places for two years, his character shouldn't be much of an issue any more.


• Following Wright, the Browns picked up another cornerback and two defensive ends. The Browns are decent at corner when their players are healthy, but that's happening less and less these days. Both DEs are big enough to play the line in a 3-4, and will be the heir apparents to the aging Orpheus Roye.


• The Browns finished out their draft with Syndric Steptoe, a WR/returner. If Steptoe has an impressive training camp, he essentially replaces the departed Dennis Northcutt.

From Notre Dame's Perspective

• It was a long day for Quinn, but in the end it turned out well. Perhaps wisely, the Browns chose to strengthen their line with the #3 pick. (Someone related their previous first round picks to a sugar rush.) But after Miami took Ted Ginn at #9 (even Cleveland-area radio announcers thought that that was far too high for Ginn), no one else really needed a QB... until the Browns traded for the little kid in the Bernie Kosar uniform.


• Victor Abiamiri and Ryan Harris have found themselves in great situations. Abiamiri is going to the Eagles, where he will backup Jevon Kearse. Harris was drafted into the Broncos system, which has always turned out great offensive linemen. In what is perhaps not a coincidence, Denver usually employs "undersized" but agile linemen.


• Derek Landri was picked up by Jacksonville in the 5th round, a tribute to his "motor." It will be interesting to see what position the undersized Landri plays in the pros.


• In another feel-good move for ND fans, the Patriots drafted Mike Richardson in the 6th round. Richardson is a smart player who arguably could play safety as well as corner. This proves that Richardson was perhaps the most improved defensive player of the Charlie Weis era to date.


• The Bengals used two 7th round picks on Dan Santucci and Nedu Ndukwe. In a way, Santucci makes up for the loss of Eric Steinbach to Cleveland, while Ndukwe was no doubt drafted for his athleticism and potential.


• Perhaps surprisingly, neither Darius Walker and Rhema McKnight went undrafted. But by the time you read this, they will probably have signed with a team as free agents.

Finally, a note that will hopefully serve as a preview for an upcoming ND baseball alumni update. Jeff Samardzija is doing well in the High A Florida State League, but has tough luck earning his first win. Meanwhile, Jeff Manship's numbers have been outstanding in the Low A Midwest League. Sure, he's playing in a lower league than Samardzija, but Manship's performance is still nothing to scoff at.