A win is a win ... but ...

So the Browns managed to hold on for a 24-23 win over Carolina yesterday. Hooray and what not. Wins in the NFL are not always easy to come by, especially for the Browns the last few years. But let's not get too giddy. The Panthers are possibly the league's very worst team; certainly one of the worst. They have the league's worst record, at 1-10, and finished dead last in the ESPN power rankings. And the Browns should have demolished them, but instead had to rely on a missed 42-yard field goal on the game's last play.

Oh, there were some things in this game for Browns fans to be thankful for. Peyton Hillis, for example. Hillis was the clear MVP of this game, rumbling for 131 yards on 26 carries to bring his season total to 905, with five games to go. Looks like he'll comfortably top 1,000 yards, and has a chance to beat Jamal Lewis' expansion-era team record of 1,304, set in 2007. And of course, Hillis scored all three of the Browns' touchdowns in this game, on the ground, and even added six catches for 63 yards.

Jake Delhomme, returning as the starter, was serviceable, but he really gave the Panthers life with the interceptions he threw on his first two passes of the second half. The latter of those was returned for a touchdown that brought the Panthers within one at 21-20. But he did complete 24 of 35 passes for 245 yards, which is a perfectly acceptable performance.

But the Browns' defense was a weak point in this game. How many missed tackles were there? Where was the coverage? Brandon LaFell made a good catch on the play that set up the last field goal attempt, but why was he that open? (Incidentally, I believe the officials made an error on that play. It was clearly a catch, but he came down in bounds with five seconds left, and the Panthers were out of time outs. The clock should have kept ticking, and they'd have never been able to get lined up in time to spike the ball before it hit triple-zeroes. It was reviewed for whether he actually caught the ball, but they didn't look at the issue of whether he came down in bounds or out of bounds. I suppose there wouldn't have been much they could have done about it.)

Anyway, this game goes in the books as a win, because that's what the scoreboard said at the end. But if not for a miss on a fairly easy field goal by an experienced kicker, it would have been a loss to the NFL's worst team. So take it with a grain of salt.

I'll leave you with a thought about the pressure of being a kicker in the NFL, or really at any level of football. I was just telling my wife the other day about how that would be the last position I'd want to play on a football team, because you so often come in on situations just like that. If you make the kick, you just did what was expected of you; but if you miss it, you go home feeling that the loss was your fault. (Which, to be honest, it was, at least to some degree.) And John Kasay, the kicker who is wearing goat horns in Carolina today, made postgame comments that reinforce that idea. From the Associated Press story:

"I was the one who failed," Kasay said, accepting blame for Carolina's fourth straight loss. "This is one of those days where they did everything they needed to do to win. I was the one who let them down. There's no other way to cut it."

To the extent that I can feel sorry for a professional athlete for something that happened on the field, I feel a little sorry for him.

Quarterback carousel gets back to Delhomme

With Colt McCoy the third Browns quarterback to sustain a high ankle sprain this season, coach Eric Mangini has no choice but to give the starting job back to the guy who had it coming out of training camp. Jake Delhomme was pretty unimpressive in what little action he's seen so far this year, and I don't have high hopes for him now. I'd rather see Seneca Wallace, frankly. But Mangini knows his players better than I do, so I've just got to hope he knows what he's doing. The game is against Delhomme's former team, the Panthers, so maybe his inside knowledge of their system will be of some benefit.

Mangini says he doesn't think McCoy will miss as much time as Delhomme and Wallace did. My above statement about how he knows his players better than I do doesn't apply to this situation. I'm not saying I know much about high ankle sprains, but my point is that Mangini is a football coach, not a doctor. With just six games left in the season, I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we see McCoy in uniform is in 2011. That would be a bit of a shame, because I'd like to see him get some more experience under his belt this year; but it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. It's a whole lot more important that McCoy is healthy in '11, '12 and beyond than it is that he's healthy the rest of this year. The Browns aren't going anywhere in 2010 anyway.

Cavs lose again; more thoughts

* OK, so maybe the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers aren't the second coming of the Showtime Lakers. The Cavs have been very up-and-down in the early season, which I suppose can be expected of a team that is trying to find its identity after losing its all-world superstar in the offseason. After last night's not-nearly-as-close-as-the-final-score 100-89 loss to the Pacers, the Cavs are now 5-8 and in a three-way tie for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Obviously, there's still a long, long way to go, and there's still plenty of reason for hope that the Cavs will get this figured out.

* Ohio State goes into Saturday's game against Michigan with a very slim chance of taking the Big Ten's spot in the Rose Bowl, despite the fact that they've only got one loss. That loss is to Wisconsin, which also has just one loss; and Wisconsin has Northwestern this week. Michigan State, also with one loss, has a tougher game than the others, against Penn State, and also the weakest tiebreaker. The bottom line for the Buckeyes is, they need to beat Michigan and for Wisconsin to lose to Northwestern. I just don't see that happening. They might get an at-large spot in another BCS bowl, but we almost certainly won't see Terrelle Pryor clutching a rose between his teeth this year.

* Speaking of Ohio State, university President Gordon Gee has weighed in on the whole TCU-Boise State quest for a national title. As we all know, those schools come from lesser conferences, and while their undefeated (so far) seasons are impressive, they have compiled those records against decidedly inferior opponents compared to the schedule a school from the Big Ten or ACC or one of the other major conferences has to play. Gee's opinion: TCU and Boise State don't deserve a shot at the title, even if they win out. My opinion: Gee is right, at least under the current structure. Were there a 16- or even eight-team playoff, you could make the argument, but I'm sorry, going undefeated in the WAC doesn't prove you're one of the two best teams in the country.

* Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful Of Fair Hooker readers. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was listening to Wills and Snyder this morning on WTAM, and they were talking about how the show's producer, Scott "Scooter" Reese would be giving his tips on deep-frying a turkey, for those who might be trying it for the first time. Bill Wills mentioned in passing the importance of keeping a fire extinguisher on hand for the job. Then they went to commercial, so I switched it over to Mike & Mike in the Morning on WKNR. Mike Golic at that very moment was talking about how if you're going to deep-fry a turkey, be sure to look at some online videos of people doing it, because you don't want to start a house fire. So let me reinforce that message: Don't start a fire deep-frying your turkey tomorrow.

Browns should have won

Ladies and gentlemen, the Browns team we saw in the early part of the season is back. Remember how it seemed like every week, they'd hold tough the whole game before blowing it in the end? They did that last week against the Jets, and they did it yesterday against the Jaguars -- who were trying their hardest to lose that game.

The Jags turned the ball over on five consecutive possessions in the second half, and the Browns only managed to turn that into 10 points -- seven of which came on Abram Elam's touchdown on a fumble recovery. The Browns' offense only converted one of those turnovers into points, and even then, all they got was a field goal.

Apart from the turnovers, Jacksonville really outplayed us in this one, especially in that second half. Had the Browns defense been a little better, they'd have forced a few three-and-outs instead of having to get the ball via turnover. The Jaguars were moving the ball pretty much at will, and you had to just know that if they could hold onto the ball, they were going to put some more points on the board. That's what wound up happening, of course, when Maurice Jones-Drew scored two plays after his 75-yard catch and run down to the 1/2-yard line. Joe Haden's touchdown-delaying tackle on that play just gave the Jags a chance to run nearly another minute off the clock, giving Colt McCoy just over a minute to work with on the Browns' last drive.

And McCoy and the Browns' offense weren't doing dookie. They finally started moving the ball after the Jaguars tied it at 17, but McCoy pulled up lame on his 18-yard run that set up the field goal that gave the Browns a short-lived 20-17 lead. And they got some nice gains on the ill-fated final drive too, but it was too little, too late.

Incidentally, I haven't heard anyone else mention this, but even if Ben Watson had caught McCoy's pass around the 5 on the Browns' last offensive play, the Browns would still have lost. He was falling down as he tried to make the catch, there were less than 10 seconds left, the Browns were out of timeouts, and there was no way they could get up to the line of scrimmage in time to spike the ball and stop the clock.

Well, as I said a week ago after the loss to the Jets, the goal for this season was improvement, and we've definitely seen that. So I can't complain too much. But it would be nice to pull out a game or two like these.

Cavs are hanging tough

I don't know if any of you have noticed this, but after last night's 101-93 win over the 76ers, the Cavaliers are back to .500 at 5-5, and if the season ended today, they'd be the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. This despite the fact that many of their better players have missed some time with injuries: Mo Williams has missed five games, Antawn Jamison three games, Anderson Varejao two. This is really not a bad team at all, ladies and gentlemen, despite all the predictions that they'd be one of the NBA's worst.

By the way, can you think of anyone who predicted they'd be about this good before the season started? I can. Me. Not to toot my own horn, of course ...

How have they done it, despite the lack of a superstar? Balance. J.J. Hickson is currently the club's leading scorer, at 15.2 a game, but Williams has averaged 14.6 in his five games, and Boobie Gibson is putting in 14.2 off the bench. Jamison and Ramon Sessions are also in double figures. Varejao is leading the team in rebounds, at 8.9; and we're also getting solid contributions from guys like Anthony Parker, Ryan Hollins and Jamario Moon.

Can you guess without looking who leads the Cavs in player efficiency rating, the complex calculation developed by ESPN's John Hollinger to take into account everything a player contributes to his team? I would have guessed Williams or Jamison, or possibly Varejao. Hickson and Gibson would be next, if those were wrong. Probably about the eighth guy I'd have guessed would be Ryan Hollins. But that's who it is.

I'm starting to get kind of excited about this team. I don't think they'll contend for a championship or anything like that, but this is a pretty good team. If they stay healthy, they've got a chance to do some special things.

Can't be too disappointed

The Browns lost a game yesterday that they could (arguably should) have won, against one of the NFL's best teams. It would have been their third straight win, all against teams that are considered top contenders. From that standpoint, it's disappointing that they lost to the Jets.

But just look how far this team has come. Remember when the Browns were 1-11 last year, and there seemed no reason for hope? Then they started this season 1-5, and though they had chances to win almost all of those games, they couldn't pull any of them out.

Suddenly, the Cleveland Browns seem to be able to go toe-to-toe with anybody in the National Football League. Given a fortuitous bounce here or there -- if Chansi Stuckey hadn't fumbled, Phil Dawson might have had a shot at a game-winning field goal; if Joe Haden hadn't intercepted that pass, the punt return team might have given the Browns better field position on their last drive; if either of those replay calls had gone the Browns' way; if, if, if ...

That didn't happen. And now the Browns are 3-6 and have basically zero chance to go to the playoffs. But seriously, did you think at the beginning of the season that they might get there this year? What did you realistically want to see out of the Browns this season? Personally, I thought I'd be happy with steady improvement. And we've seen plenty of that. With Colt McCoy calling the signals, the Browns' offense is clicking pretty well, and the defense is holding its own too.

We won't see playoffs here in 2010. But the way this team is playing right now, I have hope that we'll see it in 2011. And that's enough for me right now.

Where have the Browns been hiding it?

As we all know, the Browns went into their game two weeks ago against New Orleans with a 1-5 record. They were competitive in those games, even leading in the fourth quarter of all but one, but there was little reason to believe they could hang with the likes of the world champion Saints. And if you peeked ahead on their schedule, you'd see New England on Nov. 7 and the Jets on Nov. 14. You'd have been forgiven for assuming the Browns would go into their Nov. 21 game against Jacksonville with a 1-8 record.

But a funny thing happened on the way there. The Browns have now, in their last two games, upset two of the NFL's elite teams. And in convincing fashion, too -- yesterday's game against the Patriots was never in doubt. The Patriots came in with the league's best record, having lost just once. And the Browns beat them by 20.

How did they do it? Creativity and mistake-free football on both sides of the ball. And when I say creativity, I'm not just talking about the trick play that led to the Browns' second touchdown -- genius though it was. I've always loved gadget plays, and this one was a classic. I don't think I've ever seen one quite like it. Quarterback Colt McCoy walked away from the line of scrimmage while the linemen stood straight up, acting like the play was not going to start any time soon. Josh Cribbs sneaked up to the line of scrimmage and took the snap, then stuck the ball in Chansi Stuckey's ribs nonchalantly as he appeared to wander as aimlessly as McCoy. Stuckey went off-tackle to the left as the linemen suddenly snapped to life and started blocking, and ran it in for an 11-yard touchdown. It was a thing of beauty.

But the Browns did a lot of good things on offense, starting with Peyton Hillis, who rushed for a career-high 184 yards and two touchdowns. Hillis was an animal out there. My dad told me he reminds him of Ron Dayne when he was at Wisconsin -- not an overly fast runner, but a guy who has good moves and can run over a defender every now and then. I think that's a pretty apt comparison.

McCoy didn't produce any eye-popping numbers in his third NFL start, but he didn't have to. Considering he only had to throw the ball 19 times, thanks to Hillis and the running game, he acquitted himself quite well. He completed 14 of those passes for 174 yards, and most importantly, he didn't throw any interceptions. He didn't pass for any touchdowns, but he did run for one, after dropping back to pass and not finding anyone open. Young quarterbacks are sometimes too quick to scramble, but that was certainly not the case here. McCoy saw an opening and took it. And perhaps the strongest compliment to McCoy is to simply look at the Browns' record with each quarterback starting: Delhomme, 0-1; Wallace, 1-4; McCoy, 2-1.

On the defensive side, the Browns kept Tom Brady and the Patriots offense off-balance all game long. To hold a Tom Brady-led offense to 14 points is a real accomplishment. He threw for 224 yards, but because they were behind all day, had to throw the ball 39 times to get there. The Pats only gained 283 total yards on the day, compared to the Browns' 404. This wasn't the usual type of game in which a 2-5 team upsets a 6-1 squad, in which the winning team gets a few breaks but really didn't outplay the losing team. The Browns genuinely outplayed these Patriots.

Are the Browns suddenly one of the league's best teams? Do we have a real shot at the playoffs this season? I don't know the answer to either question, but I can hardly wait to see how we do next week against the Jets.