The Cleveland Browns headed to Oakland on Sunday with many of their fans and the rest of the NFL questioning whether or not they have what it takes to actually finish a game when given the opportunity.
With 9:31 left in the game and holding a three-point lead, the Browns huddled on their own six-yard line with opportunity – and the Raiders defense – staring them in the face.
Quarterback Brandon Weeden shrug off what had been, up to that point, a rather unspectacular day to drive the Browns 94 yards in 14 plays, leading the Browns to a touchdown drive and effectively sealing the win.
I just spent the worst week of deer gun hunting season of my life. Weather was fine, property was fine, the people I was with were more than fine, but there were simply very few animals moving around. When you sit in a tree for a week and don’t even bring the gun to your shoulder it gets tiring, frustrating and physically and emotionally painful. That said, even the worst week of deer hunting beats a good week of work…. Or watching the Cavs and Browns play and the Indians ‘build’ toward their 2013 season.
The first public week of picking via the new ranking system went sufficiently, giving birth to an 8.5-4.5 record (the Atlanta-Tampa game was halved). But, like John Henry, my machine was outdone by a human, in this case BT, who managed his best week of the year at 9.5-3.5. DJC, after taking a convincing lead, sputtered a bit at 6.5-6.5.
Fresh off their win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cleveland Browns head west to take on the Oakland Raiders.
There has been an outpouring of hundreds - nay, tens - of requests to begin posting the weekly results of my NFL ranking system, HERO (Hutchison Enigmatic Ranking Output), and it would be a fool thing for me to disoblige. So, here they are.