Injuries, inconsistency plague Browns once again

Football Betting Lines

12/20/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns lost another game this past Sunday. That should have come as no surprise, considering they were facing a very good Baltimore Ravens squad on the road.

Romeo Crennel's troops displayed grit, fighting back from an early 14-point deficit to even the score with a pair of Derek Anderson touchdown passes, and executed reasonably well in a number of phases. In the end, however, Baltimore's talent and ability to take advantage of Cleveland's injury-riddled defense propelled the playoff-bound Ravens to a hard-fought 27-17 victory.

The Browns played with four regulars - end Orpheus Roye, linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, cornerback Gary Baxter and free safety Brian Russell - out for the season on the defensive side of the ball. And while the playing field was leveled somewhat when Ravens quarterback Steve McNair was forced to leave early on with an injured hand, Cleveland's shorthanded state of a unit that wasn't deep to begin with helped make Kyle Boller, the much-maligned former No. 1 pick, temporarily look like the star somebody in the Baltimore organization wrongfully envisioned.

For a brief moment, the Browns actually looked like the team steamrolling its way into the playoffs instead of the Ravens. Anderson, the relatively unknown backup pressed into service three weeks ago, brilliantly orchestrated an eight-play, 84-yard drive against one of the NFL's most feared defenses midway through the third quarter. And when he delivered a 14-yard scoring strike to Braylon Edwards to cap the series, Cleveland suddenly was dead even with the AFC North champs.

Unfortunately, the Browns played like a 4-10 team headed nowhere the rest of the way. Less than a minute after Edwards' score, Ravens' rookie receiver Demetrius Williams blew past two defenders and hauled in Boller's deep pass for a 77-yard touchdown. Three plays later, Anderson was intercepted by Chris McAllister, and failed to move the offense over the remainder of the day.

"There are usually a couple of key plays in a game that determine whether you win or lose," said Browns linebacker Kamerion Wimbley. "When those plays came up, they made the plays and we couldn't get it done."

Wimbley's remarks were referring to Sunday's game, but they could just as easily be attributed to a host of others over the course of this season. The Browns also failed to seal the deal against the Ravens back in September, blowing an 11-point lead heading into the fourth quarter and losing 15-14 on a last-second Matt Stover field goal. Cleveland also failed to maintain a sizeable late margin during a four-point defeat to hated Pittsburgh last month.

If the Browns manage to win those games, we'd be discussing a .500 team apparently headed in the right direction instead of a franchise seemingly stuck in neutral.

SOMETHING TO PROVE

Anderson was selected by Baltimore in the sixth round of the 2005, and began last season as the Ravens' No. 3 quarterback before being cut loose by the organization in September. The 23-year-old certainly did some good things in his second career start, accumulating 223 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 23-of-32 passing and completing 13 straight throws at one point. He also threw two costly interceptions, however, one of which was turned into a short Jamal Lewis touchdown run in the first quarter.

"He played decent, but in his effort to try to make some plays there are some things he could do better," said Crennel. "But I thought he was calm. He wasn't overly excited about the possibility of going back and playing his old team."

Anderson's play has begun to stir talk of a quarterback controversy in Cleveland, where injured starter Charlie Frye has been underwhelming at times but is still regarded by the organization as its long-term answer. Anderson has produced a solid quarterback rating of 85.0 in his three appearances, compared to a 72.0 for Frye, who has also thrown 16 interceptions in his 12 starts this year.

It looks like Anderson may get another opportunity to state his case, as Frye is still hampered by an injured right wrist and may not be available again for this Sunday's game with Tampa Bay.

JACKSON LATEST CASUALTY

Jackson is the most recent Cleveland defensive starter to be placed on injured reserve, as the rookie linebacker decided to undergo toe surgery after hurting himself in the team's Week 14 loss at Pittsburgh. The second-round draft choice had started each of the Browns' first 13 games and ranks second on the team with 93 tackles.

Leon Williams, who was picked two rounds behind Jackson in last April's draft, made his first career start on Sunday. The former Miami star was in on 11 stops and also forced a fumble.

"I thought he came in and a nice job," said Crennel of Williams. "He made plays and made tackles. He didn't have mental errors."

SHUT OUT

Cleveland failed to win any of its games against fellow AFC North foes this season, marking the first time since the Browns entered the NFL in 1950 that the franchise has not won an intradivisional matchup. Cleveland didn't fare much better against its rivals during last year's 6-10 campaign, going 1-5 in division play. The lone victory came against the Ravens.

BAY OF PIGS

The Browns play their final home game of the season this Sunday against the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that hasn't won on the road yet in 2006. The Bucs came close last Sunday, however, taking NFC power Chicago into overtime before suffering a gut-wrenching 34-31 loss.

Cleveland has been quite successful in its limited meetings with Tampa Bay, having won five of the six previous encounters. The Browns have also taken both games with the Buccaneers as the host team.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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