Browns drop the ball

The game, and for that matter the season, was literally in the Browns grasp.

Up 14 in the third quarter, the Browns had the Ravens in the shadow of their end zone with a third and long. Flacco escaped the rush, completed a 20-yard pass and the Ravens began their march down the field. The Ravens rallied to tie the game but the Browns still had victory in their grasp. Derek Anderson threw a perfect strike down the middle of the field to a wide open Braylon Edwards but somehow Edwards dropped the ball. The game was still tied at that point but all confidence (both Anderson's and the crowd's) was lost.

The end isn't worth talking about and I have no new real ground to cover. Anderson is not the answer. He is inconsistent and maddening to watch. I really question Chud's play calling all game but especially on the interception that sealed the game. Third and eight at the 46 down three and you call a screen pass?

Two Browns really stood up. Joshua Cribbs was electric. He gave the Browns a chance to win and helped mask Anderson's incompetence. And I think there is no question that Shaun Rogers is the best Browns defensive player since their return. Rogers was a one-man wrecking crew, it is too bad he doesn't have more help.

After the game, we wandered over the Bruce Springsteen/Obama gathering. It was a little surreal but I am not sure there was 80,000 people there. Listened to Bruce sing and the start of Obama's stump speech, left just in time before the rain started. It was an interesting mix of angry drunken Browns fans trying to wade through people hoping to hear a message of change and hope.

Alas for the Browns, hope for this season is lost. Here is hoping that change in on the way sooner rather than later. Anderson is not the answer. Crennel doesn't seem to be the answer. And after the last few weeks, I am losing faith in Phil Savage as well.

It's not good.