Browns Earn "Respect", Except at ESPN

At the start of the season, fans made it clear that they would call for Romeo Crennel's head if the Browns did not win at least two of the three division games to kick off the season. Heading into Week 5, Crennel has his two division wins, along with a coach of the week nomination. If Crennel is receiving a shot at being honored solely because of a win over the Ravens, imagine what would happen if he defeated his former "boss", Bill Belichick.

Crennel isn't the only one getting respect. The Browns have actually cracked the top 20 in power rankings, seemingly for the first time since our playoff run. Here are a few excerpts:

Yahoo! Sports: Browns Ranked 15th & 17th: For the record, Yahoo has two people that do power rankings, thus the reason for two rankings.

FOX Sports: Browns Ranked 19th: "The Browns, long known as the whipping boys of the AFC North, won their second straight division game on Sunday, knocking off the heavily favored Ravens 27-13 in Cleveland. The Browns got off to an early 14-0 lead and used an efficient offense and a bend-but-don't-break defense to get a much-needed home win. Derek Anderson played well, Jamal Lewis got some revenge against his former mates and the offensive line protected the quarterback. It was the first time the Ravens failed to record a sack against the Browns since 2000. At 2-2, the Browns are right in the thick of things in the AFC."

We knew that ESPN still had to hate us.

ESPN: Browns Ranked 25th: "Last season, the Browns scored 24 or more points just three times. This season, they've already matched that total in the first month. Derek Anderson's QB rating (88.4) is better than those of Vince Young, Jay Cutler, Eli Manning and Philip Rivers."

On another topic regarding ESPN, specifically columnist John Clayton, I ran across this from the Orange and Brown Report forums, posted by a user:

Clayton at his finest. Don't you wish you could be paid for saying stuff like that?