Team MUTM Spanks Steel Skins Again!

MUTM wins week 3 of the Pick'em competition vs. Steel Skins, racking up our second win in a row! The final scores were:

MUTM : 33 - 9

Steel Skins: 31 -11

Our individual scores:

Maxx: 11-3

Overall Record: 28-16

Bird: 11-3

Overall Record: 24-20

Top Dawg: 11-3

Overall Record: 25-19

Team MUTM: 77-55

Look for another article on Steel Skins soon!

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

Beating a Dead Horse

For three weeks in a row I've heard Romeo Crennel say in press conferences something to the effect of: "some people weren't' where they needed to be on defence, and that's something we need to work on in practice this week." What? I appreciate that each week you see an offensive scheme that is slightly different, but I'm still wondering why, in the 3rd year of this 3-4 with better talent, we're still having so much trouble. Tell me it's in-experience or injuries, but don't tell me they don't know where to line up. If that's still a problem 3 years into a system, there's a problem with one of two things: 1. The coaches don't do a good job teaching the system. 2. The players we've drafted aren't smart enough to learn the system. Maybe it's a combination of both, but I have a feeling it's a lot more of reason #1 than #2. Let's see if practice helped this week, cause we're going to need to stop Baltimore and keep them out of the endzone, because you know we're going to have trouble getting points on the board this week. I'm still taking Cleveland though, 17-16.

Week 4 Picks v. SteelSkins

Well, we were slightly humbled last week by the Steel Skins 28 wins to 26. So we decided to switch strategies this week. No more dart boards and blindfolds involved. This week it's for real. So while we're still awaiting the Steel Skins article they get to post, here are our picks for this week. GO BROWNS!

Top Dawg's Picks
Cleveland over Baltimore
Minnesota over Green Bay
Houston over Atlanta
New York Jets over Buffalo
Dallas over St. Louis
Chicago over Detroit
Miami over Oakland
Seattle over San Francisco
Tampa Bay over Carolina
Pittsburgh over Arizona
San Diego over KC
Indianapolis over Denver
Philadelphia over New York Giants
New England over Cincinnati

Overall Record: 8-8

Bird's Picks
New York Jets over Buffalo
Dallas over St. Louis
Chicago over Detroit
Miami over Oakland
Houston over Atlanta
Minnesota over Green Bay
Cleveland over Baltimore
Seattle over San Francisco
Carolina over Tampa Bay
Indianapolis over Denver
San Diego over Kansas City
Pittsburgh over Arizona
Philadelphia over New York Giants
New England over Cincinnati

Overall Record: 8-8

Maxx's Picks
Houston over Atlanta
New York Jets over Buffalo
Cleveland over Baltimore
Dallas over St. Louis
Chicago over Detroit
Miami over Oakland
Green Bay over Minnesota
Tampa Bay over Carolina
Seattle over San Francisco
Pittsburgh over Arizona
Indianapolis over Denver
San Diego over Kansas City
Philadelphia over New York Giants
New England over Cincinnati

Overall Record: 10-6

Steel Skins Wins First Weekly Pick'em

We're sad to say that MUTM lost the first weekly pick'em competition against the Steel Skins. It was extremely close though. (The Browns killed us!) Look for an article penned by the Steel Skins to be posted on MUTM this week. And next week we won't let our wives make our picks! Check out the scores below.

Team MUTM
Maxx - 10-6
Top Dawg - 8-8
Bird - 8-8
TOTAL - 26-22

Team Steal Skins
Aaron - 12-4
Sean - 10-6
Boss Hog - 6-10
TOTAL - 28-20

Oh Boy...

I tried to write something positive and clever, but this just sucks. A blocked field goal? Are you f'ing kidding me? Dawson nails that 99 times out of 100. Just f'ing block. Just block. Please...just...block...

Time to go to bed and build up my optimism for next weekend...

It's On!

We at MUTM were happy to accept a challenge from another blog called Steel Skins for a weekly Pick'em competition. We're going to post our picks for each game, each week before the first game of the week, add up our wins and losses, and then the blog with the best record wins for that week.

There is one major rule: picks must be made completely independently, so that you can't rig it to cover each game (for instance, if all three guys want to pick the Giants over Skins, you can't collude and decide that one guy should pick the Skins, to cover yourself.)

The winner then gets to post an article on the others blog about whatever they please. If you've visited Steel Skins, you'd see that it's a pretty big Steelers site, so we're excited about the possibility of some good ol'smack talkin. Our picks for the week are coming soon, and we apologize for the formatting, but the monkey that puts this site together can't seem to figure out how to post them any better. No food for him this week.

Week 3 Picks from Team MUTM

We've gladly accepted the challenge from Steel Skins for a weekly Pick'em competition. How could we not, half their bloggers are from Pittsburgh, so this should be easy. In addition, when we win we get to post an article on their blog about anything we want. So we at MUTM see this as a great opportunity to spread the good word about the Browns, and all things Cleveland! Peep our Week 3 picks below.

Maxx's Picks for Week 3

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

Top Dawg's Picks for Week 3

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

Bird's Picks for Week 3

Cleveland over Oakland
Indianapolis over Houston
New England over Buffalo
New York Jets over Miami
Detroit over Philadelphia
Pittsburgh over San Francisco
St. Louis over Tamp Bay
San Diego over Green Bay
Baltimore over Arizona
Minnesota over Kansas City
Cincinnati over Seattle
Denver over Jacksonville
Carolina over Atlanta
New York Giants over Washington
Chicago over Dallas
Tennessee over New Orleans

IT'S MORNING IN CLEVELAND

While we here at MUTM normally stick to the greatest sport in the land, circumstances sometimes call for us to branch out and comment on the general Cleveland sports scene. So here goes...

Two words, Cleveland....ENJOY THIS!

We've all been conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to our teams. This has been ingrained in us through numerous heartbreaks, so it is not surprising. Last week, when the Browns were only able to muster a field goal to go up 51-38, how many of you had the first thought "uh oh. i see a 52-51 loss coming?" The answer, if you grew up in Cleveland or spent any amount of time following Cleveland teams, is all of you did. Of course you did. We've come to expect not just losing, but agony and heartbreak in ways that sound too ridiculous to believe. I don't need to recount them here, as I'm sure all of those wonderful moments will be played ad nauseam during the upcoming Tribe playoff run.

The point is...look around you. We are in the midst of Cleveland sports utopia. The Cavs reached the finals and the best player on the court during our playoff series was actually on OUR team. Not only that, but he is from just down the road! Now, rooting extra hard for Joe Jurevicius because he's a local kid done good is one thing, but when you have the local guy who is also the supreme talent in the game? Well you put in a bottle and you got something sweeter than Yoohoo.

And how about the Tribe? In case you haven't noticed, and judging by the attendance, you haven't, the Tribe has managed to win a couple here and there...OK, the attendance has actually gotten better. This team is playing inspired baseball right now. They are an absolute pleasure to watch and genuinely seem to enjoy each other (the pie in the face thing is a little cheesy, but the fact that they play Nintendo RBI baseball in the locker room before games is outstanding). They've taken care of Detroit, and now as we look forward to the playoffs, we are the proverbial "team no one wants to play." Is there an easy out in our lineup? Is there a better 1-2 starting combination than CC and Fausto? Does anyone have better set-up men than "The Dueling Rafaels?" What's my record for most consecutive rhetorical questions asked?

Even our beloved Brownies, after starting out the season in typical fashion, came back last week and showed us what this team could be. MUTM has been in the Braylon Edwards camp from the beginning and last week he showed the talent and determination to be a top 10 receiver in the league. K2 is a stud, as well. Most importantly, the offensive line looked not good, but great. The holes were there, the QB stayed clean. Pencil Thomas and Steinbach into the left side of our O-Line for the next five years at least. The defense has a little work to do, and I expect them to look much better this weekend.

The point is, there's lots to be happy about. Heck, even my fantasy team looks strong. So enjoy it Cleveland. Get over your ingrained assumption that something bad is going to happen. John Elway is not walking through that door, Michael Jordan is not walking through that door, Jose Mesa is playing in the Mexican League with Jake Taylor, I think.

Check Out "O Romeo, Romeo!"

On the left hand side of this blog, check out our new section, "O Romeo, Romeo!" Here we'll post great qoutes from Cleveland Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennel!

WOW! BROWNS WIN 51 - 45!

WOW! That's all I can say! Jamal is legit! Kellen doesn't drop the ball, and man, DA can throw! More later...

Here We Go!

Well at least now I know what to expect, which is nothing. Boy, for a minute there I had some hope for this season, and it took all of 20 minutes for the Browns to stab that hope to death with a butter knife. Well it's good and dead now!

I wrote about 8-8 being our Super Bowl last week, and now I'm not sure if that's even realistic. .500 and this Browns team my pass like two strangers in the night.

The only think I'm excited about tomorrow is to see how badly we are prepared for this game. How many asinine coaching decisions Romeo will make. I can't get over the fact that the talent has improved, but we are continually useless on the field. On Cleveland.com they were predicting the Browns losing to the Bengals (they must be clairvoyant!). But my problem is that they were also thinking the Browns were going to score...now that's just plain crazy talk. We'll score 10 points or less this week, Quinn will start next week, and we'll be on our way to ruining another QB! Joy! Well at least we've got the guy who LOST the QB competition starting for us!

But the Browns fan in me, is secretly hoping this phrase is true: "You're never quite as bad as you look, and you're never quite as good as you look." Let's just hope the Browns aren't as bad as they looked last week...

Belichick Still Screwing the Browns

Were you surprised? I was.

As much as Bill Belichick stunk as the coach of the Browns, as much as he had ripped out the heart of the franchise by cutting Bernie Kosar when the backup plan was Todd Philcox (Gesundheit), I had come to begrudgingly respect the coaching abilities of this man. He was, without question, an evil genius and the best coach in the NFL. Furthermore, at least the damage he did to Cleveland was already done. Like Ike Turner in prison, he couldn't hurt us anymore (other than the occasional times when the Patriots played our squad). We were safe from him forever.

But now he has been exposed as a cheater. Despite the non-apology (apologizing for a "mis-interpretation of the rule" is the same as saying "if anyone was offended, I apologize", which basically means "I think you are an idiot, but my agent made me say this"), this story is likely to have legs. Who knows how long this has been going on? Rumors that he employed the same tactics while coach of the Browns are pretty funny. We're apparently not even good at cheating. But it is not too big of a leap to see that Belichick, from all the way on the East Coast, is still screwing the Browns. Follow my logic here. If the Patriots have been stealing defensive signals, it is not too much of a leap to conclude that they were stealing offensive signals from the other team as well. This led to three (now tainted) Super Bowl titles and a dominating defense, which in turn led to the hot candidacy of a certain "jolly" defensive coordinator. Thus, we got a coach who, after a full off-season of workouts, OTAs and Training Camp practices, flipped a coin to decide the starter at quarterback for the first pre-season game, and then TOLD THE MEDIA ABOUT IT! Being stupid is one thing. Letting everyone else know that you are stupid is entirely another. And we sink further into the abyss...

So you see, once again, the world is aligned against the Browns and the Dr. Evil of the NFL has continued to pull the strings which continue to keep the franchise down. Can I prove any of this? Of course not, but can you disprove it?

One other interesting tidbit from today. The Forbes annual survey of franchise value came out. The last paragraph notes that "The Cleveland Browns were the only franchise whose value decreased. They rank ninth at $969 million, down from $970 million." Sounds about right...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/nfl/09/13/franchise.values.ap/index.html

You Can't Say we Dont Care

On the day the Browns shipped Charlie Frye to Seattle, an unprecedented number of users were on the message boards bitching, ranting, raving (about Brady Quinn only), and poking fun at an ailing franchise. You can say what you want about Browns fans, (trash, dreamers, circus freaks, losers, etc.) but you can't say we don't care about our team. At some point in the evening, there were close to 2000 users in the water cooler of berniesinsiders.com. There was some memorable chatter including next years head coach, Romeo's IQ and weight, suicide notes, etc. The funniest of the bunch was a list of movie quotes with Browns anecdotes filled in. Here are some of the good ones:

"Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this pathetic, losing Cleveland Browns team. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm fan emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest season since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny ******* Kaye. And when Romeo Crennel squeezes his fat ass down that CBS corridor next Sunday afternoon, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse. "

"I think you're all f***ed in the head. We're 6 days from the fing Bengals game and you want to bail out. Well I'll tell you something. This is no longer just being a fan. It's a quest. It's a quest for wins. I'm gonna win and you're gonna win. We're all gonna have so many fing wins we'll need plastic surgery to remove our goddamn smiles. You'll be whistling 'Cleveland Rocks' out of you're a-holes! Ahh. ha. ha. ha. I gotta be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see an elf. Praise the Brownie elf! Holy Sh*t!"

"Charlie, you're nothing to me now. You're not a quarterback, you're not a clipboard holder. I don't want to know you or what you do. I don't want to see you at the stadium, I don't want you near my practice facility. When you see our coach, I want to know a day in advance, so I won't be there. You understand?"

"Worse, How the hell can it get any worse. Look around you, We're at the threshold of hell."

"Caddyshack"
Cower: Whats your Record? (What did you shoot?-Smails)
Romeo: I don't coach for wins (I don't keep score-Tie Webb)
Cower: How do you measure yourself against other coaches?(How do you measure yourself against other golfers?-smails)
Romeo: By Weight(By Height-Tie Webb)"

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue."Airplane

God I Love Browns Fans

Hmm...

Vs.