Bird and Maxx Head Into The Lion's Den

Tomorrow, Bird and I will head to Gillette Stadium for the Browns v. Pats game! We're both stoked. Living in the northeast, it's not that often we get the chance to see the Browns play in person. Of course we're both wearing our Jersey's. Mine's a Quinn jersey and Bird will be wearing his Greg Pruitt jersey, I think. He was deciding between Bob Golic, Pruitt, Andra Davis or nothing...We're both interested to see the reaction we get with our Browns jersey's. Even my wife will be wearing her Jeff Garcia jersey (it was on sale for $5, and it was my number in high school...so I bought two! I'm sorry.) Most of all though I'm excited about being in the mix. I'm excited to see the Browns live so I can remember the smell, sound, and feel of the game when you're there. I've been watching the Browns in bars for as long as I can remember, often with no sound cause it's usually not the "popular game" at the bar. (whatever that means.) I'm ready for the jeers that are sure to come with a opposing teams jersey. Mostly, I'm just excited to be around the excitement of an NFL game. Even though I have the Browns to win in every pool I play (which is way against my best judgement) I've made peace with the fact that we're going to lose. I do hope we keep it close though. A 10 point loss, would be a moral victory for this team I think. And if we can score some points, I think we have a chance.....

Full Circle

When looking for some interesting/funny photos of Romeo Crennel on the intanet (I spelled it that way purposely) I came across an interesting short little article about Crennel taking the reins of the browns. It's interesting to me for two reasons. One, it reminded me that Butch Davis was signed long enough to be our coach THIS SEASON! Wow! So happy he's at North Carolina. And two it amazed me at how nice Crennel is. His quotes in this article are said with the same degree of sincerity and friendliness of his interviews today. Anyone who checks out the press conferences on http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/ knows this quote: "Hi, how's everybody doing today? I'm doing pretty good, pretty good!" That's how Romeo starts press conferences with a press core that routinely questions him and wonders how long he'll be coaching the Browns. So either Crennel is just resigned to the fact that this is a fickle business and he might be out the door tomorrow, or he agrees with the press cores assessment. Anyway, check out the article. You can't help but root for the guy. I kind of wish he was my Dad...

Crennel in charge of Browns Romeo Crennel, who helped New England win a third Super Bowl in four years as defensive coordinator, is the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Crennel has signed a five-year contract worth up to $2m in its first season.
The 57-year-old becomes the NFL's sixth black coach.
The others are Lovie Smith (Chicago), Herman Edwards (NY Jets) Tony Dungy (Indianapolis), Dennis Green (Arizona) and Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati).
"The last couple days have been really good for me," said Crennel.
"Along with winning the Super Bowl, being named head coach of the Cleveland Browns is a special accomplishment."
He takes over a Browns team that went just 4-12 last season to fall to 30-66 since rejoining the league in 1999.
Butch Davis, who had been signed through 2007, resigned in November and was replaced by offensive co-ordinator Terry Robiskie for the remaining five games of the season.
"I've been in this league for a little while and worked long and hard to try and get some things done," said Crennel, who stressed fundamentals and teamwork in his address to the media.
"I've been somewhat successful as a position coach. Now I'm able to take the reins of a team and try to run a whole programme.
"It's going to be a big challenge, but I'm looking forward to it."

MUTM Week 5 Picks

So we're 1-1 against our friends over at Steel Skins, and here are our picks for Week 5. We admit that our win last week over the Steel Skins was sort of budget, due to the fact that they lost cause they didn't have enough guys picking...but as Woody Allen said "80% of success is showing up." So we won't dwell on it. This week though should be interesting after the "upsets" from last week. Enough babbling...here are our picks:

Maxx's Picks:

Houston over Miami
Jacksonville over KC
New York Giants over New York Jets
Carolina over New Orleans
Cleveland over New England
Washington over Detroit
Tennessee over Atlanta
Arizona over St. Louis
Pittsburgh over Seattle
Indianapolis over Tampa Bay
Baltimore over San Francisco
Denver over San Diego
Green Bay over Chicago
Dallas over Buffalo

Top Dawg's Picks:

Tennessee over Atlanta
Houston over Miami
Jacksonville over KC
Arizona over St. Louis
Cleveland over New England
New Orleans over Carolina
New York Giants over New York Jets
Pittsburgh over Seattle
Washington over Detroit
Indianapolis over Tampa Bay
San Diego over Denver
Baltimore over San Francisco
Chicago over Green Bay
Dallas over Buffalo

Bird's Picks:

New England over Cleveland (ah, what?)

St. Louis over Arizona

Baltimore over San Francisco

Green Bay over Chicago

Houston over Miami

Indianapolis over Tampa Bay

New Orleans over Carolina

New York Giants over New York Jets

Pittsburgh over Seattle

Tennessee over Atlanta

Washington over Detriot

Dallas over Buffalo

San Diego over Denver

Jacksonville over KC

What's Festering in Troy's Hair?

MUTM Posts article on Steel Skins after winning weekly Pick'em, we've also posted it here:

I am fulfilling my right of writing anything I want on this website after an impressive pick’em victory by Metcalfupthemiddle. While I know that this site is dedicated to both the Redskins and the Steelers, it is the latter that I will choose to discuss today. Last Sunday we got our second division win (your welcome) over the Ravens, whom we all can agree are the medical equivalent of an ingrown hair. Brian Billick brings out rage in me that has not been seen since Michael J. Fox was fighting for the loose ball in Teen Wolf. Anyways, the Browns are getting there act together after our game one beating, and I have a few reasons why I think the Browns will beat the Steelers when we play again Sunday, November 11th in lovely Hines Field.

-- Odds are there will be a terrible team wide outbreak of some disease due to the varieties of parasites living in the combination of Ben Rothlesberger's beard and Troy Polamalu's hair.

-- Mike Tomlin makes the mistake of betting on the game with Romeo Crennel. The prize, a pizza. Romeo's not losing that bet.

-- After some long negotiations Bill Cower returns to the Browns coaching staff as Special Teams Coach under Marty Shottenheimer who is hired as Head Coach again after Romeo Crennel dies of a heart attack after a 5th straight win leading into the Steelers game. There first order of business is to hire Bernie Kosar as QB Coach and Bob Golic gives up his acting career to coach to defense. Oh yeah, and we resign Eric Metcalf for punt returns only.

-- We have Kellen Winslow.

-- Ben Rothlesberger has a 14-37 day with 3 picks as he can't concentrate because he is blinded by the beauty of our backup QB, Brady Quinn.

-- We no longer have Tim Couch, or Ty Detmer, or Spergon Wynn, or Doug Peterson, or Jeff Garcia, or Trent Dilfer, or Kelly Holcomb (actually he had a pretty good game against you guys in Hines field in 2002), or Charlie Frye.

--We have Braylon Edwards.

Good Luck, well see you in November!

Go Skins!

-Bird

Derek Anderson is Do'in it!

DA is running this offense pretty damn well folks, and we here at MUTM are loving it! We're actually scoring. Last year the Browns ranked 30th in the NFL with 14.9 pts/game. This year, through 4 games the Browns rank 6th in the league in pts/game with 27.2. And don't forget that that includes the 34 - 7 drubbing by the Steelers in week 1. So needless to say, Anderson, Chud, Braylon, K2, J Lew, and JJ are doing something right. It's nice to see. Like most Browns fans though, I'm waiting to wake from this dream.

Speaking of dreams...the return of Ryan Tucker is fantastic. Just the added depth he brings is invaluable, and we're going to need it after this weekend when we face the Patriots.

Speaking of the Patriots, Bird and I will be heading out to Foxboro, (I mean Gillette) for the Browns - Patriots game this Sunday. I'll be wearing my Quinn jersey and I can guaran-damn-tee you that Bird will be wearing his as well. It should be interesting to see the reactions. I also have this slight feeling that we might surprise the Pats on Sunday. Having beaten the bag out of everyone they've faced so far this year, and coming off of a short week, maybe the Pats will underestimate the Browns and also be touch tired. Sounds like the makings of an upset. That's what the little voice deep inside me says anyway. Most of the stuff that voice says can't be written here to begin with, so I'm not really sure where that puts me...but I'm going with it!

Inneresting Week for Picks in the NFL

Wow, what a weekend. Although at this point in the season it's hard to call anything an upset, I was really amazed how many games didn't go the way most people expected. Accordingly our picks for the week were abysmal! Bird was the Norv Turner of weekly predictors this week, but I have faith that after some up-and-close time with the Brownies this weekend at Gillette Stadium, he'll get his swagger back! But as luck would have it, the Steel Skins weren't able to rouse their third member, and three always beats two. (except when that hot chick from Hero's turns into her nasty evil alter-ego.) Anyway here are our results for the week and for the season so far.

Maxx
Week 4: 7-7
Overall Record: 17-13

Top Dawg
Week 4: 6-8
Overall Record: 14-16

Bird
Week 4: 5-9
Overall Record: 13-17

TEAM MUTM: 44-46