Posted on Monday 11 September 2006 by Kenny Roda @ 12:57 pm
Kenny Roda from WKNR SportsTalk 850 will be writing a weekly blog on Cleveland Scores covering the sports world both locally and nationally. Check back often for his updates!
Buckeyes roll
Ohio State proved to everyone in the nation that they are indeed the #1 team in the country with their 24-7 thrashing of the Longhorns in Texas, and it really wasn’t that close. Did they play a perfect game? No, but they did dominate from the opening tailgate party outside the stadium to the moment the final gun sounded inside it.
Call them the “Fun Bunch”, the “Three Amigos”, the “Cleveland Connection”. Hell, call them whatever you want, but Troy Smith, Ted Ginn Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez gave the defending national champions fits on Saturday night.
When you add their totals together they accounted for over 500 yards of offense and two touchdowns. Smith was in complete control, using his arm, legs and brain to shred the Texas secondary for 269 yards and two TD passes. Gonzo caught one of those scores to go along with his 143 receiving yards. And the “Magnificent 7″ grabbed five passes for 96 yards and the back-breaking touchdown right before halftime. Of course, as Smith pointed out numerous times after the game, none of that would have been possible if not for the great work of the offensive line.
Defensively, the “Baby Buckeyes”, led by linebacker James Laurinaitis, forced two HUGE turnovers and held the Horns to just 7 points. Number 33 was credited with 13 tackles, 10 solo, to go along with a forced fumble and an interception. If he’s not the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Week, then that award should never be given out again. Jim Tressel played a lot of kids on the defensive side of the ball to keep everyone fresh in the 90-degree heat and that coaching strategy seemed to work to the Buckeyes advantage. Granted, for the second game in a row, they didn’t stop the run between the 20’s as they gave up 174 yards on 31 carries and missed a lot of tackles. But for the second game in a row, they only gave up one touchdown. They are still a work in progress, but that’s exactly what they’ve made since training camp started…progress. And they will continue to do so with more experience.
Browns frustrate, as usual
Now on to the Browns. I felt like Michael J. Fox came and picked me up in his time machine today and took me back to 1999. Sitting in the press box at Browns stadium Sunday, I couldn’t wait until halftime because I knew I was leaving to go coach my son’s baseball game. But the first half was all I needed to see to know that the Browns are a bad football team.
The game started with Charlie Frye hooking up with Braylon Edwards for a 74-yard touchdown pass, only to have that called back because of a holding call on new, high-priced left tackle Kevin Shaffer. Where’s L.J. Shelton when you need him? Then Rueben Droughns ran for zero yards on 1st and 20. Charlie Frye was then sacked on second and third down and the Borwns were forced to punt. That’s right, four plays into the game the Browns had a touchdown called back because of a penalty followed by a run for no yards and two sacks. If that doesn’t get the fans excited for the 2006 season I don’t know what will. It took the Browns about 28 minutes to pick up a first down. And just when it looked like they would get back in the game right before halftime, they fumbled the ball away deep in New Orleans territory. They did all this against the lowely Saints, who won three less games than the Browns did last season. (Saints 3-13…Browns 6-10)
The Browns did make a game of it eventually at 16-14 in the second half, thanks in part to the fact that they were playing the awful Saints. But in the end, more mistakes and turnovers led to New Orleans picking up their first win with Reggie Bush as their featured offensive weapon, defeating the mistake-prone Browns 19-14.
So summing up this weekend, I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
“In Tress We Trust”…Go Buckeyes! With the Browns, we hope and pray that someday things will turn around and Randy Lerner’s football team will be better than his soccer team!
Also listed under: Kenny Roda
*** i’m reposting this message from another post, but i’m still really pissed ***
this game was a total and utter embarrassment. this was as bad as the loss to the steelers at the end of last season. as bad as the loss to the steelers in their first game back in 99.
everyone working for this organization should forfeit their paychecks this week and send a refund to anyone who has a ticket stub.
i seriously cannot think of anything horrible enough for anyone working for this franchise to have to suffer through right now.
for godsakes this was the saints. in our house.
i’m pretty sure we may as well NOT have an offensive line, just line up everyone as a receiver or something. because the o-line DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING today. no holes for the running backs, no protection for the quarterback. and what the hell kind of running plays is carthon calling? and the receivers we’re no better either. penalties. dropped passes. poor play calling. poor execution. the OFFENSE gets a D- today. and the offensive coordinator gets an F-.
the defense was ALMOST average today, but remember people this is the saints we were playing. reggie bush or no, they are not that good. just watch and see as the season progresses. additionally, reggie bush wasn’t even doing anything today to stand out. he was no difference maker.
and yet another punter kicking punts under 20 yards??? WTF???
on offense it seemed the only people who were playing were FRYE and WINSLOW. ps - nice dropped pass edwards to end the game. who else dropped a pass today, northcut? cribbs? who had penalties to negate the few positive yardage plays we had???
and more of the O.I.C. – the one catch jurevicious makes, gets called back because of a penalty and he breaks a rib - out 6 weeks.
and lastly, the coimplaints from last year are still legit – FIRE MAURICE CARTHON NOW.
what is this crap – trying to run FULLBACK ROOKIE VICKERS on 3rd and 1’s??? ARE YOU F’N SERIOUS? HOW COULD CRENNEL LET CARTHON MAKE THOSE PLAY CALLS??? HOW?? why are we having a fullback run the ball at all. DROUGHNS and HARRISON. DROUGHNS and HARRISON. DROUGHNS and HARRISON. even if the line can’t block at least they are tailbacks and have a chance of making something happen.
any slight hopes had for this season have TOTALLY BEEN FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET TODAY.
i originally thought we could vbe 8-8 this year. I’LL NOW GO ON RECORD TELLING YOU 3-13.
next week in cinci is going to be veeeeeery pleasant.
P.S. – how about some AKRON ZIPS stories? GO ZIPS! and GO BUCKEYES!
Kenny,
This thing with the Browns is really kind of sad. I mean, the Browns WERE Cleveland for so many years and the people here love them so much. It just hurts to see what we’ve seen here going all the way back to the move in 1995. For me, I’ve just cared a little less each horrible year we’ve had to watch either no football or bad football. It’s to the point now where I’d ready to start using Sundays in the fall on something other than watching football. I don’t want to waste my time watching an endless string of 5-11 or 6-10 seasons. Somehow we’ve gone from being the Yankees of football in the 1950’s to being the Arizona Cardinals. Depressing!!
Hey Kenny -
Absolutely depressing and pitiful. You should think about playing the T.J “Houzyourmomma” sound byte plenty of times as a source of comic relief and as a way of temporarily brightening our spirits. Know of anywhere I could go online to access that hilarious clip? Keep up the good work!
- John
an one more thing…
i heard a clip from the press conference where crennel was responding to the plays where rookie fullback vickers was given the ball on a toss.
he said he looked like a fool because it didn’t work, but had it worked he would look like a genius.
well - WRONG - had it worked he would have looked LUCKY for making a foolish decision and it working out. a fullback rookie from late in the draft does not have the ability of droughns.
ridiculous B.S.
i agree with kessler, the only thing that play would of shown if it worked it he was lucky and cauthon sill would of looked like an idiot for calling it. what was that part of the deal that the head coach and the offensive (that is a good word when describing cauthon -offensive) co -ordinator both had to be minorities?
Gentlemen,
How about I bring you some good news. As bad as the Browns were on Sunday and they were BAD! They looked like the Super Bowl Champs compared to the Oakland Raiders. Did anyone watch Oakland at home against S.D. last nite?
They were horrible. Aaron Brooks looked like he never played QB before in his life and the Raiders offensive line made the Browns O-Line look like 5 All Pro’s. At least the Browns aren’t the worst offense in the league.
Now there, doesn’t that make you feel better going into Cincinatti this weekend?
It won’t help aganst Cincy, but at least we get to play the Raiders
I think it is interesting that everyone thinks the Browns are so much better than the Saints. We won six games & they won three last year. The browns are sad!
You would think by the 7th year of existence we would be respectable. We don’t have any playmakers. All these “playmakers” haven’t proved a thing yet. Our big WR playmaker fumbled the ball away on the last possesion. It was amazing that we still had a chance to win the game on the last drive. Good one, Braylon!
do you really think by the time they play the raiders they wil have it figured out? i don’t , as long as that idiot is the offensive co ordinator this year , they won’ t match last years win total.
Kenny, you live and work in CLEVELAND, not COLUMBUS. Cleveland is a pro town, not a college town. Everytime I turn into your show, you’re talking about the Buckeyes? I know you’re a big Buckeye fan, but your focus should be Cleveland. By the earlier posts, most people are talking about the Browns. I know it’s easy to be a Buckeye fan because they win all of the time. They get the best of the best recruits and play a soft schedule, so they should win. It’s the Cleveland Browns, not the Cleveland Buckeyes.
JDee
So ohio state plays a soft schedule - thats interesting…
Kenny - love the coverage of the buckeyes as they are the only bright spot in the state. We will all go into deep depression if we continue to talk about the browns and the indians. Please kenny talk about ohio state!!!!
Don’t listen to jDee - Cleveland is in OHIO! Cleveland is part of Buckeye country, and we want to hear about the Buckeyes.
JDee must be a depressed Michigan fan.
WKNR is your Home for Ohio State Football in Northeast Ohio and we will continue to cover it like nobody else. “G” is correct, Cleveland is Ohio and part of Buckeye Country! JDee, do you know where the 2 best players from the Buckeyes are from? I’ll give you a hint…there names are Troy Smith & Ted Ginn Jr. and they’re both considered Heisman Trophy Candidates and they are from Glenville High School which the last time I check is pretty close to Cleveland. So another reason to cover the Buckeyes…the local flavor on the team! JDee you can ignore the Nation’s Number #1 team if you want and enjoy another 4-12, 5-11 maybe
6 -10 season with the Browns, while the rest of us enjoy the ride to maybe
Jim Tressel’s (another local boy) 2nd National Championship in 6 years at
Ohio State! Don’t get me wrong we will talk Browns football, and alot of it, but we will not ignore the best thing this state has going for them in the Buckeyes.
I must admit I am a domer, and I would love nothing more than a rematch in Tempe this year. Kenny, I was gald to hear you are on our side this weekend. I was unable to see the Buckeyes this weekend becuase I was headed back from South Bend, but was thoroughly impressed with the result. The Big 11 is down this year, so things certainly look good for the Bucks, and you know they are going to keep getting better as the season goes on. I just hope my Irish can keep playing well to set up the rematch.
I was also at the Browns game Sunday, and was sitting behind the Browns bench. The o-line was awful, the D was average, and the playcalling was suspect. There’s not a team in the league that doesn’t have those problems at some point. The thing that disappointed and surprised me the most was the utter lack of organization going on the whole game. Plays not getting in on time, defensive subs coming in late, the indecision to go for it on 4th down, and a timeout needed for the punt team after a penalty. To me, those are the things that are inexcusable and I hope are rectified quickly. A good performance this weekend will help erase the memory of the opener, but if the disorganization and sloppiness continue, it’s going to be a long season.