Maddux Sports Blog

Wow, Cleveland is bad. So, so, so bad. Brady Quinn isn’t the answer. Is there an answer?

It was interesting watching the debut of John Wall in Kentucky tonight. It was pretty obvious why people are so excited about him – there is a lot of talent there. He turned it over too much, and he and fellow super-frosh Eric Bledsoe are going to have to learn to share the back court better, but he played well, and he scored the winning basket at the end of the game. He’s going to be a good one. That being said, that was one scary game from Kentucky. Miami of Ohio is a decent team with a very nice incoming freshman class, but they clearly aren’t of the caliber of Kentucky, and they were 17.5 point underdogs. Despite that, they were the better team for much of the game, and could very easily have pulled it out. Miami led for more of the game, and for much of the game they seemed to want it more. Kentucky simply needs to be much, much better to play with the big boys. They have a few easy game to work out the kinks, but a deadly four day stretch at the beginning of December in which they play UNC and UConn looms. They need to be much better than they were tonight if they want to survive that duo of potential disaster.

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Just when you thought that the Browns couldn’t get any more ridiculous…

It was obvious to anyone with a brain, including owner Randy Lerner, that the team was hopelessly screwed up thanks to the not-so-brilliant Eric Mangini . It’s their bye week now, so it was a good time to do something. The good news is that Lerner did do something about it. The bad news, at least for Browns’ fans, is that what he did is hopelessly stupid and almost entirely without a chance of success.

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Yesterday I touched on how uneven and uninspiring so many teams have been in the NFL has been this year. It’s really striking how large the gap is between the good teams and the not-so-good ones – bigger than usual, I think. As I was thinking about that earlier I was particularly struck by the sad state of quarterbacking in the league. There are always some QB problems, but I’m not sure that there is also this many teams in such a hopeless situation. Here’s a look at the worst offenders:

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Every week the Browns’ story just keeps getting crazier and crazier. This is better than fiction. Two more twists in this twisted tale. First, linebacker D’Qwell Jackson has been placed on the IR. He’s one of the few highlights on this team defensively. He leads the team in tacklesths year, and topped the whole league in that category last year. The Browns’ defense was already nothing to write home about, and this certainly won’t help. The other news is that Cleveland has been overrun with a flu bug, and it has affected six starters so far, including nose tackle Shaun Rogers, one of the other few defensive highlights. The players – 12 in total – missed practice on Wednesday, and could miss more – especially if it turns out to be H1N1. This puts a serious kink in the team’s preparations for Sunday’s game against the Giants. Given that they were already in deep in that game this is bad news for them – and entertaining for us.

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I never thought that the Lions, as bad as they were, would be able to pull off the 0-16 miracle last year, but they did. I don’t think that another team will be that bad this year, but if a few teams get just a little bit too unlucky then anything can happen. Here are the five teams that seem most likely to flirt with the disaster:

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There are 32 teams in the NFL and about 33% have new coaches! Head coaches tend to be tough guys to figure out—part disciplinarian, part guru, part psychologist and part military general—successful coaches can be contradictory enigmas. Although last season was all about the quarterback shift as rookie and vet signal callers changed the fates of various teams, this season is about massive shake ups is in the coaching ranks. Of course, it’s almost a cliché to say that an owner can’t fire an entire team so they simply fire the coach, creating a scapegoat. That being said, in this two-part blog I’ll take a look at each of the new coaches. First, I’ll start with the five who have the best shot at getting their team into the playoffs in their first at the helm season.

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Okay, 2009 is feeling kind of strange and I’ve got some questions about what’s going on.  There have been some weird deals, odd decisions and bizarre behavior.

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Apparently the Browns are committed to continuing their impressive legacy of losing. Eric Mangini?!? Really?!? Why in the world would you rush to be the first team to hire a new coach when he’s the one you are going to hire? You could have had an equally crappy coach weeks from now, and you could have held out hope in the mean time that a real coach would be available and interested. Terrible choice.

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Wow, is this ever a terrible Monday night game. If someone paid me to come up with something nice to say about these teams or this game I would have to give the money back. With one exception – Steve Slaton has had a very good game, and that’s becoming a trend for him. The biggest problem is that we are getting exactly the same game that it looked like we would get. I just wish the league would do something about these terrible Monday night matchups – like cancel them.

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As I write this I am watching Monday Night Football. It is early in the third quarter, and the Browns are up 20-14. This is why I love sports betting so much. On paper there is absolutely no way that Cleveland should be competitive in this one. They have been inept all year, their hottest offensive threat is in the hospital, their QB has been terrible, and they are facing the hottest team in the league. If you hadn’t been following the season, though, and you sat down to watch this game you would guess that the Browns are the juggernauts and the Giants are the ones who are struggling. The Cleveland offense is crisp and creative. Their defense is forcing Eli Manning to make bad mistakes and get out of rhythm. I still think the Giants will likely pull out the win, though probably not the cover. Still, this is the kind of game that keeps things so interesting – you would have had to have been psychic to have seen this one coming.

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