Monday, September 5, 2011

Ready for Some Browns Football?

Hello Browns and Sports fans! As most of you know, I am an avid (and frequently disappointed) Cleveland Sports fan. Thus, I spend many of my free hours (and sometimes not so free hours) consuming any information I can about the teams, and this time of year that’s the Browns, NFL, and the preseason. Also, I think I am perfect person to give an accurate view of the upcoming season as I am simultaneously an optimist, a realist, and a cynic. Thus, here are my thoughts on the team for this year.

Applauding Progress…I am excited about the new coaching staff. I like the new offensive system, and I like the quick progress that Colt McCoy has made picking it up. I like that Holgrem and Heckert are building through the draft. That is the strategy of most teams that are successful for long periods of time, like the Steelers and the Colts. Meanwhile, the teams that make big splashes in free agency, such as the Redskins, continue to have up-and-down, and mostly down, results.

…While Tempering the Excitement. That being said, Colt is still a second year QB. He has no proven receivers, and even the ones with talent have flaws and lack break-away speed. The defense has some good young pieces, but there are plenty of holes and almost no depth. ESPN scouts did a list of the top 200 NFL players right now based on a summation of the ratings. The good news: Joe Thomas was #9 overall. The bad news: the next Brown came in at 171, which was Alex Mack. Peyton Hillis snuck into the 190s. With 32 teams, each team should average about 6 players on that list, with 3 being in the top 100. You just don’t make up that type of talent gap overnight in the NFL, no matter how well coached and disciplined you are.

Top Ten Browns Players

1. Joe Thomas – No contest. So glad they locked him up for the foreseeable future.

2. Alex Mack – I’m torn. The offensive line is extremely important, and plenty of teams need help at these two very important positions. On the other hand, you’d like one of your top 2 guys to be a skill player of some sort.

3. Joe Haden – You could put so many guys in this spot, but I think Haden showed a lot his first year and will be a Pro Bowler either this season or next.

4. Peyton Hillis – Absolutely love the way he plays. He’s a totally blue-collar guy, which is what Clevelanders gravitate towards. Unfortunately, that style also scares the crap out of me for a RB, as it leads to increased fumbles and injuries.

5. Josh Cribbs – Best special teams player in the league. Holds the record for most career kickoff TD returns. Returns punts well, and is the first to the ball on most kick coverage teams. Runs the Wildcat effectively when they call it. Oh, and he catches the occasional ball at WR too!

6. T.J. Ward – Probably not the best cover safety by any stretch of the imagination, but boy will he knock the crap out of you in open space. He’ll pay out a few fines in his career for it, but fun to watch. Still has room to grow and develop too.

7. Scott Fujita – You got to have a solid veteran like him on your team, and he’s consummate pro.

8. Colt McCoy – I hope I’m right here, and that he deserves this spot. Has lots of developing to still do, but the kid just seems like a winner to me. He finds ways to make plans and do what he has to do for his team. Has to prove he can play in bad weather though, because…you know…it’s Cleveland!

9. Phil Dawson – So glad they held on to him. One of the most underrated and consistent kickers in the league, especially consider the stadium/weather he kicks in for half his games (more than half if you consider Pit/Cin stadiums)!

10. Phil Taylor – Hope I’m right here as well. I think this kid is stud, and I’m glad the Browns took him while getting MORE draft picks out of it.

Honorable Mentions: Ben Watson (Another key veteran), Evan Moore (great when healthy), D’Qwell Jackson (having a great camp), Greg Little (someone has to step up at WR)

Prediction. I’ll do better than a prediction, I’ll point to the games that they will win, lose, and a few that are toss-ups. On the bright side, they have a very manageable schedule, especially early on. The bad part, 4 of the last 5 games are against Baltimore and Pittsburgh, and as I mentioned, I don’t think they are quite there to compete for the playoffs just yet in this division. Also, I don’t think people realize how big the losses of Eric Steinbach and Reggie Hodges for the year are.

Wins: Cin, Mia, Ten, Sea, @SF, Jax

Losses: Bal, @Bal, Pit, @Pit, @Hou

Tossups: @Ind (Wk 2, if Manning plays, move to loss), @Oak, StL, @Cin, @Ari

So, if they win two of those tossups (my money is on @Cin and either Oak or Ari), that’s an 8-8 season. But I’m guessing they lose one of the one’s I have under wins and aren’t able to make it up from the losses column, so I’m going to put my official prediction at 7-9. Hope for better, but it’s a step in the right direction and another year of development for the young guys.

Monday, August 29, 2011

3 For Your Ears, 3 For Your Eyes


…Ok, your ears will be involved in watching the movies too, but you get the idea! Thought I would provide my reviews of 3 albums I recently got and liked, as well as 3 movies I’ve watched in the past week with mixed success. Maybe they will help you find something you like, avoid something you won’t, or just waste 10 minutes of your work day.

Music


1. Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful. When I first got this album, I thought it wasn’t as good as the past stuff by Owl City. But to be fair, that’s a tall order, and the number of semi-famous collaborators on this album (rapper Shawn Chrystopher, Matthew Thiessen from Relient K) lead me to believe he was forced in a slightly more commercial direction. But its grown on me as I’ve listened to it more, and there are still some really great tracks here. I particularly recommend “Deer In the Headlights”, “Dreams Don’t Turn to Dust”, and “Galaxies”.

2. Adele – 21. I try to avoid diving too far into Top 40 music, and I especially stay away from the latest female, bluesy flavor of the month (see past nominees Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse, may she rest in peace). Nonetheless, I took the plunge on this one, and it has been well worth it. Adele is supremely talented, and she didn’t have the popularity yet where she took herself too seriously on this album. In addition to “Rolling in the Deep”, which is what got her the attention in the first place, I really like “Rumor Has It” and “Set Fire to the Rain”. She also joins a long list of people to make a great cover of “Love Song”, although I still maintain that the 311 version is the best one!

3. O.A.R. – King. Great to see Of A Revolution getting back to their jam rock roots. I will make a quick shout out to the fact that I saw this Columbus, OH-based band back in my freshman year of college. I will also thank Melissa Lehman for pointing me to the fact that they had a new album coming out. The first single, “Heaven”, is not only a great song, but the lyrics are a perfect expression of my thoughts on the idea of heaven and people who want to say their worship-style is the only way to get there. “Gotta Be Wrong Sometimes” is another song that makes a great point, this time about settling arguments in a serious relationship. Also check out “Taking On the World Today” and “Are You Low?”. I also heard they play some song about poker...



















Movies


1. Limitless (3 out of 5 stars) – I’m still not sure how I felt about this movie. The concept was interesting. It had a fair amount of action and psychological components, which I enjoy. But I’m still not sure about Bradley Cooper’s ability to carry a movie, and the whole thing seemed to end abruptly. In short, worth watching, but temper your expectations.

2. Insidious (3 stars) – The only reason this climbs to 3 stars is because I like horror movies, and this had enough scares and turns to keep me interested (at least on a Sunday morning when I was unmotivated to do anything productive). If you’re into horror, particularly the dimensional/demon stuff, like Paranormal Activity minus the shaking cam, then give it a watch. Otherwise, it’s your typical, relatively predictable horror flick. Side Note: I rarely finish watching a horror movie saying “that was a legitimately great movie”, not just a fun, random horror one. The last time that happened was “A Haunting in Connecticut”. So check that one out if you haven’t!

3. Ink (4 stars) – This a pretty artsy flick, with a lot of great visual imagery and scene-matching, so if that’s not your thing, I wouldn’t recommend it. But I found there were a lot of great little things going on this movie, several interesting and intersecting storylines, an imagination world with cool creatures, and dimensional travelers who “flashbulb” pop when they come across (one of my favorite things about the movie). I watched it on Hulu (not sure if its Plus or regular), and I know I saw it on Netflix Instant as well,

so perhaps a recommendation you might not have otherwise come across.












Sometime this week/weekend, I plan to get up my Browns preview. It likely won’t be as optimistic as some of you may hope, but there are some positive signs for once.



Saturday, August 13, 2011

From OK to Great!

As many of you know, I was an avid blog writer for a while. I decided to break from it about a year and a half ago, for various reasons, and I know many, many of you were extremely disappointed. And if you weren’t, just let me know have this one. Well, new town, new life, and why not, new blog. Except by new, I mean The Barker, the same blog I used to write. So no promises this time on how often I will post, or on what, or if it will even be funny (it will be hilarious!), but I’ll do my best. I hope you enjoy!

I thought I would start by giving you the highlights of my 22+ hours driving, 1300+ miles, spread out over 3 days drive from Tulsa, OK to Myrtle Beach, SC. Life on the road can interesting, or at least you have to make it interesting to avoid going completely insane.

-Stopped the first night in Nashville to visit my friend Amanda, which was about a 10-hour drive. Got to see a little of the city, including the outside of the football stadium (I always like seeing where teams played). Seems like a nice place to live, especially if you like country music (which I didn’t used to, but do now). Also had an interesting first. While we were having dinner on the patio of a local brewery, a beggar hit me up for money during our meal! I’m very sympathetic to people who are having a rough time, and try to help out when I can. But seriously!? Wait until I come out the door, bothering me mid-bite is not going to help your case.

-Turns out you take I-40 for almost all of the drive from OK to the Carolinas. This makes for a simple, albeit boring drive. However, when you go from TN to NC on that highway, you go through this beautiful (although winding) stretch that is in the valley between the Appalachian Mountains. There are even some tunnels cut through the rock that go through. Despite the temporary loss of XM, it was the definite highlight of the driving portion.









-On the 2nd night, got to visit my good friends Greg and Xtina and hit up the Chapel Hill nightlife. We had a great time and sampled many a great brew (and a PBR or two). I had a lot of fun (despite my near comatose-ness from 18 hrs of driving), but I was left wondering why UNC people say Duke is so preppy. The places/people I saw there seemed pretty damn preppy to me! I guess that blind loyalty is what makes rivalries so awesome…Go Blue Devils!

-Greg and I walked most of the way back from the bar barefoot in the ra

in. Not as romantic as it sounds, but quite fun despite some minor injuries. I think we’ll both avoid the DL though.

-Quick music review (if you’re new to the blog, my thoughts on music are a common theme): I bought the new O.A.R. album, “King”, on iTunes before I left and absorbed it on the way. Overall, quite good, and sounds much more jam band and less poppy, so going back to their old “Crazy Game of Poker” roots. I highly recommend the first single “Heaven” (thanks Melissa for the tip), not only as a great tune, but as the lyrics describe my religious thoughts near perfectly. The other one I love (and I think is bound to be the 2nd single) is “Gotta Be Wrong Sometimes”. Download now, thank later.

-To my pleasant surprise, the weather was mostly great on the drive. Towards the end of the first day, I hit a small rainstorm, and it was honestly the first time I’d seen rain in about a month! Lesson for those of you not from OK: Tulsa is hot and dry in the summer! However, on the last morning, I drove through a pretty big rainstorm, which including several traffic jams because of people who had gotten into accidents and/or skidded of the road. The more important lesson here: Drive safely, particularly in inclement weather.

You won’t save that much time if you crash, and you sure as hell better not slow me up!

-This sign is from a different time I drove through SC, but it's still funny. "That's what she said."









-To help pass the time, I decided to see how many different state license plates I could find on cars (trucks don’t count, since they drive all over and often have out of state plates anyway). I was surprised to find that I reached 33, plus D.C. and Ontario. I got the whole South and most of the Midwest, as well as a few random surprises (New Mexico, Vermont, Wisconsin). It was a fun game, and I probably got more obsessed with it than I should have, but you should have seen by 4 pm on Friday or Saturday. It was the alternative to zombie.

-I left OK at 9am on Thursday, I got to Myrtle Beach apartment at 3pm on Saturday. I got my key and signed the lease in a short amount of time. I checked out the place (its nice, I’ll have pictures up soon), and walked outside to unpack my car (particularly my air mattress and sheets to take a much needed nap). And it starts pouring! I mean really pouring. So I ended up having to wait another hour and a half to unpack and get settled. But all and all, a great trip considering all the driving and I’m happy and excited to be in SC! I’m sure there will be much more to come on that subject…