A couple of notes from today's Cleveland Plain Dealer, as well as some comments regarding them:
- Banged Up: Kick returner Joshua Cribbs suffered a bruised hip on his last punt return. Guess who did it? The same guy who killed us most of the game, Richard Marshall. Safety Brian Russell suffered a sprain early in the game on a punt return. Both players should be fine after some rest during the bye week. As for Dennis Northcutt, who sprained his ribs during the game, the Browns are awaiting on his MRI to see how serious his injury is. X-rays were negative for Northcutt.
- Special Players: Guess who Romeo Crennel cited as the players on our team who have played really well? Joshua Cribbs, Phil Dawson, and Dave Zastudil. That's a credit to our special teams, but unfortunately, two of those positions don't require too much physical skill, meaning we're basically getting shoved around offensively and defensively.
- Pool Impressive: Crennel was impressed with how Brodney Pool handled himself at the cornerback position. If Gary Baxter and Leigh Bodden are healthy after the bye week, Daven Holly and Pool are the likely candidates to be the nickel backs.
- 0-for-11: An aspect I forgot to mention in my game analyzation, the Browns held the Panthers to 0-for-11 on third-down conversions. Honestly, how do you lose a football game after that?
- Vickers a QB?: If you're wondering if fullback Lawrence Vickers ever had experience as a quarterback, he did. In high school, he threw the ball as a freshman and a sophomore, before becoming a running back. Basically, that means Vickers can probably throw the ball as good/bad as every other non-college quarterback on the Browns. I wonder when the Cribbs option pass will be used? Perhaps we're saving it for when we face the Steelers, our arch rivals. Who knows, when we face Pittsburgh, we may be fighting for the third seed in our division.
- Dolphins Make Move: After getting running back Sammy Morris back from the suspension list, the Dolphins waived running back Lee Suggs. Suggs served as starter Ronnie Brown's backup, but only touched the ball about four times to start the season.