Football

A few thoughts:

The Bears: That wasn't a game, that was more like a birthday party for the Giants, and the Bears QB was the pinata... And by Bears QB... I mean Cutler, Collins, AND Hainey.  Was the offensive line even there or did they just put out a welcome mat for the Giants? 

I'm in a fantasy football league with one of my brothers, a couple of my nephews, and a few of their friends.  My QBs on my fantasy team are Carson Palmer and Derek Anderson.  As a vote of confidence for my favorite team, the Cleveland Browns, I benched Palmer and played Anderson.  BAD decision.  Even though my Browns came through and beat the Bengals (23-20).  Palmer at least showed up for his game.  I don't know what happened to Anderson but a 41-10 loss did not help my fantasy team that much.  Luckily I had/have some other players who came through for me and as of last night my fantasy team was defeating my opponent for this week.  I haven't checked to see how MNF might change the score just yet.

Last Sunday the Browns lost to the Ravens, but running back Peyton Hillis (the off-season "present" the Browns got in their "gift exchange" with Denver for Brady Quinn-- thus far it appears the Browns got the better end of that deal) burned the Ravens for 144 rushing yards.  I checked and noticed no one in my league had picked up Hillis, so I snagged him... He came through for me yesterday-- 104 rushing yards against the Bengals!  The Browns may be 1-3 this season but their 3 losses have been much closer than their losses last season.  They're playing better and more competitive.  They are "re-building" but they've been re-building since 1999 when they came back into the league...  I'm hoping that with Mike Holmgren being the "architect" of the "new" Browns that some of this re-building finally takes.  The only QB the Browns have had since they came back into the league in '99 who has inpired any confidence in me was Kelly Holcomb.  I think one of the biggest mistakes the Browns have made was letting Holcomb go when they brought in Jeff Garcia.  Holcomb gave the team some semblance of consistency.  He wasn't a great QB, but he was more consistent than Tim Couch had been and in hindsight he was more consistent than Garcia, Dilfer, Frye, Anderson, or Quinn ended up being.  I also think Tim Couch could have been a much better QB had he been given a chance to develop.  When Ty Detmer turned out to be a bust in '99 Couch was rushed into the starting position before he was ready to be a starter.  I think rushing him into the role did him a tremendous disservice.  The Browns could have recovered from that mistake with Holcomb but then they made the aforementioned 2nd mistake of trading away Holcomb and perpetuating the revolving door of QBs.