Brian Russell was placed on the Injured Reserve list with a staph infection in his elbow.  He is scheduled to be a free-agent and might not be asked back by the Browns.  Alot of that will depend on Brodney Pool who will be replacing Russell for the rest of this season.  Pool has alot of talent, so we’ll see if he steps up.

Brian Russell has played in 12 games this season and has made 51 tackles and an interception.  Brodney Pool has appeared in 13 games this season and has 56 tackles, a sack and 1 interception.

Dennis Northcutt (shoulder) is expected to be listed as doubtful against the Baltimore Ravens this week.  Rookie Travis Wilson and Joshua Cribbs should get more snaps this week.  The place that Northcutt will be most missed is as the punt returner.  Northcutt is one of the best in the league and Joshua Cribbs has problems fielding punts.

Coach Crennel doesn’t seem to be able to get his team up for big games and he’s lost control on how some of his younger players have been acting.  Crennel often looks like a deer in headlights on the sideline as other coaches make better in-game adjustments than he does.  The Browns really need to evaluate whether they think Crennel is head-coach material.  Everyone knows he’s a great defensive co-ordinator, but can he handle a whole team?  The early results are negative as he now owns a 10-19 record as coach of the Browns. 

The pathetic thing about Crennel is how bad he is in the division.  Sure, Brian Billick, Bill Cowher and Marvin Lewis are all great head-coaches, but Crennel’s resume was more impressive before getting a head-coaching job than all of those guys.  The Browns are now 1-10 against the AFC North since Romeo took over, and that’s pathetic!  He is 0-4 against both the Steelers and Bengals, and he may pay for that with his job.

The Browns never had a chance last night as the Steelers were ballhogs.  The Steelers held the football for 38:47 of the football game and ran up 528 total yards against the Browns.  Willie Parker ran the ball 32 times for 223 yards (7.0 ypc) and a TD!  The Steelers as a team carried the ball 52 times for 303 yards rushing (5.8 ypc).  The Steelers also completed 11 of 21 passes for 225 net yards passing.

The Browns never really had a chance on offense, as they only had the ball for 21:13 of the football game.  The Browns were pathetic running the football, as they carried the ball 11 times for 18 yards (1.6 ypc).  Derek Anderson played pretty decent in his first NFL start as he completed 21 of 37 passes for 276 yards with a TD and an INT.  Joe Jurevicius played another real good game (that’s two in a row) and caught 7 passes for 111 yards.  Braylon Edwards caught 4 passes for 86 yards and a TD.

This was a pathetic performance.  I’m pretty sure that the NFL Network won’t want the Browns on their channel for a long time.

Since the Browns have returned to the NFL in 1999, they have had big problems with their first round draft picks.  The early returns on Kamerion Wimbley are looking like the Browns may have finally hit a homerun!  Wimbley is as fast as a safety and tackles just can’t block him when he’s blitzing.  Wimbley has played in all 12 games and has 42 tackles and 7.5 sacks.  He will be one of the top contenders for Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The Browns got a huge win last week at home beating Kansas City 31-28 in OT.  The Steelers have won 3 of their last four games.

It looks as if Derek Anderson will start for the Browns after leading them to a rousing 4th quarter comeback and win in OT.  Anderson has a much stronger arm than Charlie Frye does, but he also helped win that game with his legs as he carried the ball 2 times for 44 yards.  With Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark both out for this game, the Browns should be able to attack the Steelers deep and over the middle to Kellen Winslow on the shorter stuff.  The Browns will still attempt to run the football with Reuben Droughns (had his best game of the season last week) and young Jason Wright.  The Steelers are only giving up 3.6 yards per carry, so it won’t be easy. 

Look for the Steelers to feed the ball to Willie Parker (976 yards rushing) against a Browns run defense that is allowing 131.8 yards rushing per game.  The Browns did bottle Parker up the first time they played.  The Browns will probably blitz alot more than usual to rattle Roethlisberger’s confidence, as he frequently throws balls up for grabs when he feels the heat.  The Steelers would be smart to use Heath Miller more than they usually do, because Tony Gonzalez had a huge game last week against the Browns safeties.  The Steelers are without Hines Ward and Cedrick Wilson for this game, so it will mandatory that Nate Washington and Santonio Holmes step up their play against the Browns.

The Steelers got real lucky to win the first game between these teams.  I think this game could go either way, because it seems as if the Steelers don’t have much heart this season.  The Browns players are trying to save Romeo’s Crennel’s job, and last week was a good start.

Things were not looking good for the Browns with 12:35 seconds left in the game. Charlie Frye was out with an injured wrist, and Derek Anderson led the team to tie the game up and win it in OT.  Anderson had never thrown an NFL pass in the regular season until today, but you would never have known that from watching him.  Anderson completed 12 of 21 passes for 171 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT.  Anderson also carried the ball twice for 44 yards (22.0 ypc) and one of those runs set up the GW FG.  Charlie Frye also played well completing 11 of 13 passes for 122 yards and a TD.  Reuben Droughns carried the ball 14 times for 70 yards (5.0 ypc) and a TD.  Droughns also caught 5 passes for 48 yards.  Jason Wright carried the ball 11 times for 25 yards (2.3 ypc) and caught 2 passes for 70 yards.  Joe Jurevicius had an outstanding game with 6 catches for 75 yards.  Braylon Edwards added 3 catches for 36 yards and a TD.  Steve Heiden caught 5 passes for 27 yards and 2 TDs (both in the 4th quarter).

Andra Davis (12 tackles), Willie McGinest (9 tackles, fumble recovery) and D’Qwell Jackson (13 tackles) led the Browns defense.  The Browns allowed the Chiefs to rush for 124 yards on 32 carries (3.9 ypc).  The Chiefs were torching the Browns secondary as they completed 24 of 32 passes for 293 net yards passing.

This was a huge win for the Cleveland Browns.

The Chiefs are on a roll as they’ve won 5 of their last 6 football games, including 2 in a row.  The Browns have lost two in a row, including a 30-0 beating at the hands of the Bengals last week.

The Chiefs will probably be pretty basic on offense and just feed the ball to Larry Johnson (1,202 yards rushing) alot against a Browns defense that is allowing 133.5 yards rushing and 4.5 yards per carry.  The Chiefs also will probably try to get the ball to Tony Gonzalez a bit to shut Kellen Winslow up.

The Browns will come out running the ball with Jason Wright and Reuben Droughns against a Chiefs defense that is allowing 108.6 yards rushing per game.  Charlie Frye could have a decent game if the Browns Line gives him protection, because the Chiefs DBs are a little on the old side.  Kellen Winslow should have a good game and be motivated to try to show up Tony Gonzalez.

The Chiefs need this game and should get it as Larry Johnson could have a huge game.