Peyton Hillis

Cleveland is a working class town where people show up for their job every day and take pride in working through even the worst of illness.

When our best playmaker Josh Cribbs a few years back struggled to get a new contract, he endeared himself further to Cleveland fans thanks to his workmanlike attitude. He showed up every Sunday, played hurt and contributed, in spite of Cleveland management at the time, trying to use time to grind him down.

Peyton Hillis finds himself in the same situation this season. What did he do? He refused to play a game he could have easily played, alienating his teammates. Later in the season, Hillis blew off a charitable function for Cleveland area kids that he had committed to.

Hillis does not fit into Cleveland, in short he is a jerk. I hope he never stains the field of play for Cleveland again.

Peyton Hillis' agent takes the blame

Sounds like a lame excuse Peyton Hillis' agent takes responsibility for advising not to play sick

Learning to live with fumbles

Knowing how much Coach Mangini hates turnovers on offense, it must be damn hard for him to digest that it is not possible to coach emerging star fullback Peyton Hillis out of his fumbling. I've read that each week Hillis does special drills designed to get him to hang onto the ball and no matter the effort, every week Hillis coughs up a ball. I've often compared Colt McCoy to Brian Sipe, in the case of Hillis there is another reference point in Browns history that is very similar. Mike Pruitt ran like a linebacker but he also had smallish hands and often fumbled. Forrest Gregg hated Pruitt's fumbling so much that he sat him for the better part of two years. When Sam Rutigliano arrived, he decided to put this force of nature into motion and Mike Pruitt was a key part of the Browns resurgence.

It's the same story with Hillis. 250 pound players with speed and agility are rare. Keep giving him the ball, his one fumble per game is more than offset by the damage to opponents that he does on the ground on all the other plays in which he doesn't fumble.

BL predicts: Week Three vs Baltimore

The Brown Log have two predictions this week:

- First prediction is that if the Browns arrive to 0-4, Holmgren will fire Mangini and replace him with Rob Ryan

- Second prediction is relative to this Sunday's matchup at Baltimore. Ryan's defense is coming together as a group. TJ Ward gets better every week and Ryan always has a variation up his sleeve that forces opponents to make adjustments.

On the other side of the ball however, our offense will have to face the Ravens who have yet to give up a touchdown all season. Seneca Wallace will likely once again take the reigns but the Browns simply don't have any playmakers that can step up and help Wallace move the ball. Frustratingly, Mangini puts Josh Cribbs on the field with the offense about 5 plays per game while our regular wideouts simply are unable to get open. It's hard to imagine fumble prone Peyton Hillis doing much, while Jerome Harrison is fighting an injury.

I think both teams will struggle to score, but the Ravens in the end, should get past the Browns. The bad news with a loss would be a horrible 0-3 start, the good news would be that we would be one step closer to ending the Mangini era in Cleveland.

In any case, here's hoping Rob Ryan's crew dominate the Ravens and our Browns sneak out of Baltimore with a W.

BL Predicts

Ravens 19
Browns 13

One game into the season and the Browns are in crisis

Bottom line is that we would have won the game if Jake Delhomme doesn't make one incredibly stupid pass at the end of the first half. Delhomme didn't play like a veteran when the pressure was on.

That said, other hall of shame moments include

- Mangini's bad decision not to call time late in the 4th quarter on 4th and 3, which led to confusion and a penalty.
- Peyton Hillis fumbling in the red zone
- Mangini leaving an obviously injured Delhomme in the game in the 2nd half
- The right side of the Browns line couldn't handle Gerald McCoy

No reason to be 0-1, but 0-1 we are.......................