Posted on Monday 6 November 2006 by Kenny Roda @ 5:17 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!
Cavs
What a great win for LeBron and the gang at San Antonio on Friday night, ending a 16-game losing streak in the Alamo city. James was fabulous, finishing with 35 points and 10 rebounds and one spectacular, high flying jam over Tim Duncan in the first quarter. That is how you posterize someone. If Nike or the Cavaliers don’t do something with that dunk in the very near future, they’re both stupid. It was legendary, just like Dr. J’s windmill over Michael Cooper or M.J.’s baseline throwdown over Patrick Ewing.
But as great as the win was at San Antonio, the loss at Charlotte was just as horrible. If the Cavs expect to be considered with the elite teams in this league, they can’t lose games like they did Saturday night against the Bobcats, 92-88. It was a back-to-back for both teams and the Cavs jumped out early with a big lead and thought they could just coast to a victory. You have to put teams like that away to be considered one of the best. And I was a little surprised that LeBron didn’t take over a game like that. Are you kidding me, three field goal attempts in the 4th quarter? Michael Jordan would never have let the Bulls lose a game like that. LeBron needed to be more of a leader and take charge in that game. Let’s hope he and the Cavs learn something from that loss.
Browns
Cleveland played a better game than I thought they would in the 32-25 loss at San Diego. I thought for sure they would get blown out. In the end, had they been able to score a touchdown or two instead of kicking 6 field goals, they actually might have been able to pull off the upset. Instead they’re where a lot of us thought they would be at this point with a record of 2-6. But they did manage to score 25 points, and that makes two games in a row they have scored at least 20 points under new offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson. So some progress is being made.
Charlie Frye is still a huge question mark for me. It’s tough to judge his performance because of the horrendous offensive line he’s playing behind. There are times where I say to myself, “that was a heck of a play and if he only had more time, he could be a very good QB in this league.” Then there are times when I’m thinking out loud, “What the hell was he trying to do there? Throw the damn ball away or don’t force it!” The announcers made some good points yesterday based on what San Diego players had told them, Frye does have a case of Kelly Holcomb-iduss. He locks onto his receivers from the get go and allows the defensive backs to break quicker on the ball to break up the pass or pick it off. Frye was lucky he had only one interception on Sunday as the Chargers dropped at least three of his passes.
Kamerion Wimbley is the best #1 draft pick the Browns have made since they returned in 1999. Learning a new position and doing so at the NFL level in your rookie season and registering 4 sacks already and numerous other pressures and tackles for losses makes him a future stud in my eyes.
Ohio State
They won on the road at Illlinois, but by a lot closer score then most of us predicted, 17-10. It almost looked like after they jumped out to a 17-0 halftime lead Jim Tressel went into the prevent offense. He just wanted to run the ball, chew up clock and count on his defense to pitch another shutout. It almost backfired. Did they use any 5 wide receiver sets at all? Nobody can stop that. When you up by 17, put your foot on their throat and don’t let them breath. Go for the jugular and put them out of their misery. Don’t let them hang around and think they still have a shot. But as they say, a win is a win and the Buckeyes are still undefeated and ranked #1 in all the polls. But they’re going to have to play better next week at Northwestern to make sure they’re 11-0 going into the November 18th game against Michigan in Columbus.
Did Troy Smith hurt his Heisman chances with a 13-23 day for 108 yards, 1 interception and no touchdowns? A little, but even with Brady Quinn putting up huge numbers at Notre Dame against high school teams, it’s still Smith’s award to win. Play well next week at Northwestern and then put the finishing touches on a perfect regular season against Michigan, and the hardware is his!
Surprised or not that the Ohio State offense struggled without Alex Boone in the lineup? The starting left tackle sat out the game at Illinois on Saturday due to a knee injury and procedure. He protects the blind side for Smith and often opens up huge holes for Antonio Pittman on the left side. Without the 6′8″, 325 pound sophomore on the field Saturday, Smith was sacked 3 times and Pittman ran for only 58 yards on 32 carries. Here’s hoping Boone is 100 percent for the Michigan game in 2 weeks!
Also listed under: Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, OSU Football, LeBron James
Cavs
I don’t put too much into the lost with Charlotte because San Antonio fans can say the same thing about us beating them. What would a 21 year old Michael do if double teamed at mid court most of the game like Charlotte did him. HE SHOULD give it to his teammates and hope his fellow millionaires can do something-espicially the 12 mill goofy slow center. It’s 82 games-Lebron’s has these “clunkers” eventhough his stat line wasn’t that bad.
Browns,
Same stuff-different day. We scored 20 points at home against the worst defense and 25 against San Deigo without Merriman and their 2nd team. The Browns look exactly the same. Don’t believe me-redzone 6 times-5 field goals. Still don’t trust Charlie to not throw an INT in the Endzone and scared of getting him a capable backup because Charlie may lose his job. Sam ol-different day.
OSU,
Will win it all and Smith will get the Heisman. I know this like I know 2+2 equalling 4.
Roadman,
I’d like to get your thoughts on MacLeod and Williams. For me these guys have no chemistry or timing. Also against the Spurs, the CAVS had a 13 point lead, and “MacClod” went to the break saying “Can the Cavs hang on”.
Reghi would have never said that but he didn’t come from Detroit either. Makes me wonder how he’ll call the game when we beat the Pistons. Will he say “the Pistons had an off-night”, or “the Cavaliers squeaked out a victory tonight”.
Bottom line, I miss the “Lovin Levitation” and the enthusiasm that Reghi had for the Cavs. MacClod needs to get with the program or get on a bus.
As for the Browns, when will they allow Charlie to be in moving pocket. He does focus too much on the lead receiver, but with a moving pocket he could have more time to see the field and use his play making abilities. That throw to Jureviscius was a tough throw made to look easy. Charlie threw it without stopping to plant and put good distance and touch on the pass. If Charlie goes down so does the Browns hopes and the season.
Your thoughts?
Kenny,
First I blame the Cav’s loss on not only the players but even more aggrivating are the schedule makers. How in the world do you have back to back games, one on the west coast and the next on the east coast, especially when the first is on the west coast and you lose 3 hours on the flight home. Jetlag must be factored into the players lackluster performance.
The Browns moved the ball in the air and we are complaining. The play calling seems to be progressing gradually. There were many time that they ran into the line after a big pass play and that was agrivating. Did anyone else KNOW that they would NOT score after Northcutt’s great runback other than me. Once he was tackled I said “here comes another field goal”.
OSU’s second half was unacceptable by the players and the coaches. Tressel played too conservative in 2002 and allmost got beaten MANY times. Is he just too stubborn to change his ways. He is my favorite college coach, but it is his one achiles heel. I agree with you, after the interception, go for the jugular. Even a field goal puts the game out of reach at that point, very little time left. Watch Illinois pitch play, if the rushing lineman had kept his head up and watched the ball, he would have tackled the ball carrier for a loss and there would be no TD and we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Does UM add some option plays now? If I were Carr, I would.
Kenny,
I watched a replay of the OSU/ILL game last night on ESPNU (great channel by the way) and in the second half it looked like Tressel was not so much as being conservative but wanting to teach this team a lesson. Think about it. Our defense is young but not once this season (except maybe Penn State) did we have to rely on our defense and special teams to win a game. While they did not necessaruly do that to ILL I think it was a good lesson for them, especially with UM around the corner. If it comes down to the final minutes, we know the offense can get the job done, but what about our young defense and special teams. To me it was a great move by Tressel and his coaching staff, even as frustrating as it was to watch.
Even in the Minnesota game, you could sort of sense that, even though we scored 44 points, the reigns were taken off the offense for part of the game. Of course, if we come out and lay an egg at Northwestern this weekend then everything I just wrote means nothing, but I do not think that is going to happen in the slightest.
On to the Browns. While I agree it is to early to tell on Frye, he does share some of the blame. My biggest thing with the passing game is it is hard to find an open man when the recievers are only running 5-6 yard routes. Part of that is because Frye does not have the time in the pocket for his recievers to run 10-20 yard routes. The only time seems to be when he is scramblnig and then who knows that can happen. They either need to run more shotgun or QB rollouts to give him more time to make solid throws and not while he is running for his life.
Hey, Kenny R,
We need your show, Keep up the great work on the AM 850 dial. Your truth
digging in C-Town sports is the Anderson-360 of AM Radio.
Our little sissy, although she is 310 pounds, we still love her (C-Town Sports).
She never learns, that
Quality Management
Quality Pitching, Both Starting and Bully
Quality Decision Making
Will one day give us a World Title but she keeps taking dietary shortcuts
and dietary FUBRs to end up………………………… still losing after all of these
years………………………………OH well, I still love my little 310 pound sissy
Bertha (C-Town Sports).
She never reads, never finds out about other winning organizations, but I still
love her, …………She ain’t heavy ……………..She’s my cute little sissy Bertha,
…………….Wake Up Cleveland , Fire the Dolans…………………..GET THOSE
CHEAP A@# , LAWYERS, AND MONEY SPEADSHEET, A%^, THE HELL OUT
OF TOWN…………………..SELL THE TEAM TO YOUR RICH BABY BROTHER,
HEY, CHUCKY DOLAN , DOES IT STILL HEART THAT HE IS WORTH ABOUT 5 BILLION?????…………………..WAY MORE THAN YOU ARE WORTH……………
FIRE THE DOLANS………FIRE THE DOLANS…………………………..
Kenny,
I hear a bunch of the negative Clevelander’s saying same ole Browns. Well if your thought process is Progress = Wins then I quess you would make the statement same ole Browns. However, that is not how I look at it. My view is that Frakenbutch put this team so far behing that when progress is made it does not equate into wins. We have same excellent talent (ie Winslow, Wimbley, Bodden, Bentley, Jones) tell me that these players do not have pro bowl potential. However, in this list excludes, QB’s, Lineman (O and D), Rb’s. So lets be real until we raise the overall talent level up, wins will be sparse. It has only been 1 1/2 years for the Phil and Romeo Regime lets see what they do. Do I dare say this to Clevelanders PATIENCE.
As for Charlie……..well I think these next 8 games will dictate the direction the front office will go regarding a QB. Charlie eyes down his receivers..either he stops or we need to eliminate all 7 step drop passes. Right now Charlie Frye leads the league in turnovers among all starting QB’s. I have not made a desciion on Charlie, but if don’t see progression in these next 8 games….well lets hope Troy Smith is around after we draft our first round offensive lineman.
Kenny,
I agree with David on the Browns. Sometimes I think Cleveland fans need to wake up and smell the coffee. What the hell did people think before the season, that this team was going to the super bowl? I know people are frustrated, but you have to realize that when Savage and Crennell took over, this was basically an expansion situation. Other than Winslow and Sean Jones, who were totally unproven at the time, who on that team was even an average NFL player? What players went to other teams and became good elsewhere? (And please don’t say Denver’s defensive line. They are riding other players’ coattails.) I know you harp on the fact that their offensive line sucks, but when they started this thing they had NO PLAYERS at ANY POSITION. It’s going to take time to raise the overall talent level, and you have to be opportunistic in the draft. You have to take the best players that are available to you. You can’t say, “We need offensive lineman, so we’ll take the best lineman available at our pick even if there are 15 guys better than him at other positions.” That is a recipe for disaster.