Monday, July 31, 2006

Time to move on

So Bentley is gone for the year. I personally identify with Gary Baxter:

"To a certain extent, I do believe in a jinx or curse. I'd never been hurt and then I come here and get hurt. Then LeCharles [Bentley] goes down. But I'm a superstitious guy."

After the kind of luck we've had, you'd be crazy not to think of jinx. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Savage and Crennel and the rest of the team aren't going around flailing their arms in the air. They are taking the attitude that this is business is usual, and its time to get things done, and thats what they should be doing to keep this from being a lost season. But since we're just fans, we have the luxury of not being mature about it.

However, I thought I would come up with a list of blessings to count:
  1. Savage came in to build this team through the draft. We all know that he still has a lot more work to do, so it was great to see him find us a guy in free agency to speed up the process a bit. But having or not having LeCharles Bentley for this season will have little, if any impact, on the fortunes of this team in the medium term and in the long term.
  2. Its all about the Defense. I'm hoping that Frye, Winslow, Edwards, Droughns, et al give us a fun show to watch, but this team's success is going to be dependent on the extent that the defense comes together. New linemen getting more work, Linebackers learning the system, safties getting up to speed. And last I saw, Bentley didn't line up on defense.
  3. Maybe we should interpret this sign as one last reminder by the football gods, before we finally start winning, that we are the Cleveland Browns. Our final piece or bad luck.
  4. Say that we would've gone 9-7 with Bentley. His absence might cost us a win or two. So we'll have a higher draft pick, with just as much potential coming back next season.
  5. Who really was expecting a Super Bowl this year? We still have one more season of growing before we should realistically hope for our Super Bowl push. Sure, it'd be more fun to see the team growing WITH Bentley on the field, but they'll still be able to grow on their own. And then, after they go 9-7 this year, imagine what a great position we'll be in for next year with Bentley coming back at full strength to make us even better.
  6. Cincinatti looks like they're getting worse and worse. They're challenging Baltimore as the NFL team with the most criminals. And it looks like its catching up with them. According to PFT, Odell Thurman could be missing more than just 4 games this season.
  7. Pittsburgh isn't content to let Cincinatti claim the classless-act title on their own, so they grab up Santonia Holmes and his multiple arrests since the draft. Holmes was pretty good for OSU, but without their discipline to keep him on track, it looks like his bad nature is coming out. It looks like he'll make a good pairing with Face-Plant Rothlisberger
  8. Baltimore has invested another first round pick in Defense, while they plow a ton of money into a dinosaur of a QB. They better hope that they win it this year, because that team is gonna blow up pretty soon. No offense, aging, expensive primadonnas on defense, and a coach who can't handle anything other than covering his butt.
  9. At least it was a proven player who got hurt. We know what to expect when he gets back. What has really hurt about the Winslow, Edwards, and Courtney Brown injuries was that not only were the guys off the field, but we didn't even know what we could expect of them once they finally returned. I'd rather lose Bentley and know that we can count on him for next year, than lose Wimbley and be in the position of not drafting another pass-rusher next year in the HOPE that Wimbley is the answer.
  10. Why do we need a center? We have Babatunde!!

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