Browns Have Mustaches Packed For Business Trip In San Francisco
October 29, 2011Braxton Miller: The Night A Star Was Born
October 30, 2011While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
OSU beats #15 Wisconsin: “This may not be the greatest team to ever take the field for Ohio State, but you have to admit this: they give you a lot to talk about after a win. Only two weeks removed from an epic “Puntageddon”, where OSU completed only 1 of 4 passsing attempts in a win at Illinois, the Buckeyes roared back from near-death to a claim a resounding victory over the visiting Wisconsin Badgers in a rare Saturday night game in the Horseshoe.
In a play reminiscent of Troy Smith’s famous Heisman-showcase touchdown pass against Penn State, Braxton Miller hit fellow freshman Devin Smith with a 40-yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds remaining in the game to give OSU a 33-29 lead. Andrew Sweat deflected a last second desperation pass by Russell Wilson from midfield to seal the win.
Ohio State’s defense held Wisconsin to only 104 yards rushing, almost half of that on one run by Montee Ball in the 4th quarter. Ball finished with 90 yards on 18 carries for the night, but he was generally held in check by OSU’s swarming tacklers. Forced to throw often, Wisconsin’s Russell Wilson completed 20 of 33 passes for 253 yards and 3 TD’s with no INT’s. Wilson’s heroics almost allowed the Badgers to escape with a win, but Miller was having none of it.” [Joe Beale / Eleven Warriors]
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Browns / Niners prediction: “On recent Sundays, Peyton Hillis played Madden while Colt McCoy was channeling his inner Charlie Frye. But I’m not buying the Alex Smith resurgence. Pat Shurmur has more fun shaking hands than Jim Harbaugh. Browns 19, 49ers 17.” [BT / Whazgonnahappen]
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Reasonable goal for Browns here: “For a team that is – once again – going through a rebuilding process, the goals must be kept simple. The Cleveland Browns, who are at .500 for the first time since 2007, travel west to play San Francisco 49ers at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday. The Browns need achieve a simple goal Sunday. Score a touchdown.
Rumor has it the Browns have done this previously during the 2011 season. In fact, the last time it happened there was 1 minute, 6 seconds remaining in the game against Oakland on Oct. 16. Quarterback Colt McCoy found Mohamed Massaquoi for a 12-yard touchdown pass. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news.
The Browns lost the game against Oakland 24-17. The following week, the Browns beat Seattle 6-3, thanks to two 50-plus-yard field goals from Phil Dawson. Cleveland finished that game without its best running back (Peyton Hillis-hamstring), its best tight end (Ben Watson-concussion) and arguably its best wide receiver (Massaquoi). A little luck and a little grit gave the Browns the victory, as they are one-game out of first place in the AFC North behind Pittsburgh (5-2), Baltimore (4-2) and Cincinnati (4-2).” [Don Delco / OBR]
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Shelley Duncan talks about the Jim Thome effect: “Six home runs. 21 runs batted in. Those were Shelley Duncan’s numbers during the month of September. And more importantly during Thome’s latest stint here in Cleveland. Duncan didn’t waste any time picking the brain of a future Hall-of-Famer. And also helped his cause to play a major role next season for the Tribe. Duncan was a guest on TheDugoutSportsShow.com‘s “30 Minutes With Pure Rage” Chris Perez and talked about how much Thome helped him became a better hitter during the last month of the season.” [The Dugout Sports Show / Audio]
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More Browns’ predictions: “This is where I sound crazy. Bye week teams are 3-9 this season, and while the 49ers are an efficient offense, they typically aren’t a team that is going to jump out to a big lead. I think that plays to the strengths of Cleveland’s defense, and I really think Cleveland’s offense was a couple of steps away last week from putting a lot more points on the board (more passes to the running backs, among other things). I’ll use my “reach” card this week and pick the Browns in a tight one. FINAL PREDICTION: Cleveland Browns 17, San Francisco 49ers 16.” [Chris Pokorny / Dawgs By Nature]
