Let's get caught upon weeks 4-7

Holey-Moley! (Yes, we might as well honor the mercurial Amedeo Avogadro since I am writing this on 10/23 a.k.a Mole Day) Nonetheless, it’s been a pretty crazy few weeks for the Cleveland Browns. Let’s briefly recap the games via bullet points:

• Way back on October 3, The Browns beat the Vikings in Minnesota 14-7, in a game that I thought would produce 75 total points. Oops. The defense carried the day, Baker looked terrible, and the local Minnesotans were angry (as angry as pseudo-Canadians can be) as they gathered around the water cooler at work and planned their weekend trip to the Spam Museum in Austin, MN.

• A week later was a trip to Los Angeles to play the San Diego Chargers. Honestly, pretty much all of Southern California is the same thing, not sure there’s much of a need to differentiate between San Diego, Los Angeles, or San Bernardino. This game was scintillating and the Browns ran roughshod over the Chargers for most of the game, running up 531 yards and 42 points. However, the defense wilted like petunias in August and allowed 26 points in the fourth quarter and the Browns became the first team to lose with that much offense and no turnovers. To be fair, the Chargers are a very good team, their QB Justin Herbert is a superstar, and Cleveland is historically bad on the West Coast in all sports somehow.

• In week 6, the Browns then returned to the golden shores of Lake Erie to take on a red-hot Cardinals team. Cleveland should have just stayed in the locker room and played pinochle. (Can’t believe that word is spelled that way) The Browns were never in this game, it was 20-0 after about 20 minutes, and even though it was a nine point game at halftime, it was never even that close. Baker was even worse than in the Vikings game, and turned the ball over 3 times. Nick Chubb didn’t play, the offensive line continued to deteriorate like a cardboard boat in a lake. Once again one of the superstars of the NFL torched the Browns defense throwing for 4 touchdowns like it was playing against the Kenmore High School JV team.

• Four days later, the Browns hosted a Thursday night game against the Denver Broncos. Case Keenum got the start, and managed the Browns to a 14-7 win over a very listless Broncos team. With no Chubb or Kareem Hunt, D’Ernest Johnson made the most of his opportunity and went for 168 yards and a score. This moved the Browns to 4-3 and third place in the AFC North, two games behind the Ravens. The Browns and their fans all took a collective breath and got ready for a nice 10 day break before the Steeler game.

Turns out there is a mechanical reason contributing to Baker’s poor play. In addition to the torn labrum in his left shoulder, he has a tuberosity fracture in his humerus as well. (That’s a real word “tuberosity”, and has nothing to do with potatoes with holes in them) I get that Baker thinks himself a “tough guy” (although he loses credibility with the headband thing) but this is a serious injury for sure. All of the sudden, everybody is an armchair orthopedic surgeon, and Baker’s shoulder has dominated sports radio in Cleveland over the past two weeks. Apparently it pops in and out of the joint occasionally (yikes) and generally limits the range of motion with his non-passing arm. The big debate had been whether to shut him down now, fix it surgically, and light a candle for Case Keenum. However, he is announced as the starter against Pittsburgh, so it appears the front office is willing to gamble on the health of their (possible) franchise quarterback. We’ll know if that was a smart decision sometime around 7:30 EST on Halloween. Despite the injuries (I didn’t even mention Landry, Conklin, or Wills) and the adversity, the Browns are still in a position to run off some wins and make a playoff push. I’m optimistic we can get to 8-4 before the bye week in December. But of course almost all of that depends on Baker and his creaky left shoulder. Look for a Browns-Steelers preview shortly.

Go Browns.