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Kick 'em when they are down: Chargers/Browns Preview

Boltmaster Written by Boltmaster, Saturday December 05 2009
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It’s hard not feel a bit of compassion for the city of Cleveland and its sports fans. They are haunted by the prospect of LeBron James’ imminent departure to the Knicks, they had to watch their two former pitching aces (Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia) lead other teams to the World Series and the Browns…..we’ll they seem to be setting a new bar in terms of futility for an NFL franchise.

 

The cruel irony is that the sports teams of Cleveland have been successful at times but the good times have been fleeting and inevitably followed by greater disappointments. Careers have been made dashing the hopes and dreams of Cleveland sports fans. The images of Michael Jordan making “the shot” during the 1989 playoffs or John Elway leading “the drive” during the AFC championship game are just a few that come to mind. And more recently you had the Browns’ surprise 2007 season where they posted a very respectable 10-6 record and it looked like the franchise had finally turned the corner. They followed that up with a miserable 2008, Romeo Crennel was fired, Eric Mangini was brought on and things keep looking worse and worse. Right now they are looking at the very real possibility of a 1-win season, lifelong fans are organizing protests and the owner recently had to make a public apology for putting such a lousy product on the field. What I’m getting at is this – if anyone deserves a bone it’s those poor bastards in the dog pound. That’s why it pains me to say that the surging 8-3 Chargers are coming into town on Sunday to deliver a beatdown.

 

          I hate to take any opponent lightly, the NFL is a tough league and every game is a challenge. However this one should be a walk in the park for the Bolts. The Chargers offense is rolling after a shaky start to the season. I watched last week when they put 43 on the Chiefs. Prior to that game they scored 30 plus on both the Broncos and Eagles. LaDanian Tomlinson looks poised to break Jim Brown’s rushing record in the former’s home stadium. He needs a mere 56 yards to reach that milestone. Given the fact that LT has a grudge against Brown over those Adrian Peterson comments before the season, I’d say that record is going down on Sunday.  Furthermore, the Chargers defense is playing with aggression and Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera has been designing some great blitz packages. Brady Quinn is not going to have much time to throw the ball and even if he does get many passes off, there’s no way the Cleveland receivers are going to match up against the Chargers secondary. The only real hope that Cleveland has is on special teams. Josh Cribbs is a fantastic kick returner and the Chargers’ special teams play has been suspect at times this season. However it’s pretty unrealistic to think that kick returns alone can win football games. I think this game is going to get ugly early. The Chargers have yet to lose in December under Norv Turner and I don’t see that streak ending anytime soon.

 


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