Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Playing Against Perfection

The title of this post exemplifies the team's attitude going into the game. The Browns felt as though they were playing against perfection - by believing it, they made it true. Are the Patriots an amazing team? Yes, they are about as amazing as a snow day when your 10. They are, however, are not perfect.

On our first running play of the game our new all-star running back (Jamal Lewis) hurt his foot - so typical for the Browns. The team finally does something right [signing him] and they still can't catch a break. Somehow we still managed to drive down the field and get into the Red Zone…the Heinz Red Zone. The thunder clouds roared (not really) and good DA swapped out for bad, bad, bad DA. He threw an interception in the end zone that signified not only a point swing, but a tremendous momentum shift. The Patriots didn't even have to do anything to us - they just stood there like a bully barking at us for lunch money...and we coughed it right up out of fear.

I didn't have to look past the first running play to know what was going to happen with the game. When I heard Jamal was out I had the same feeling in my stomach that I did when we had to re-kick the field goal against Oakland; its that feeling you got when you completely bombed that history exam and had to tell your parents or its that feeling when you got your first ticket for going "just a little to fast". Still though, I continued to watch, hoping that something tremendous would happen - it didn't. That's just the thing: the Patriot's didn't do anything tremendous; we just collapsed upon ourselves based on what people were saying about them rather than what they were doing on the field. My outlook on the game was, "when we beat the Patriots, the nation will respect us again". The way the Browns were acting, I was inclined to think their outlook was, "We are going to lose this game, I am going to just try not to get hurt". The funny thing is - some of them still did get hurt.

Does this mean I am losing faith in our players? No, good God no. We have a lot of talent, but we just need to walk away from this losing attitude and realize something: there is a lot of season left and we can do something. This Patriots team was not perfect, but they sure as heck were closer to it than the Browns were. Maybe, just maybe we will see them again this year.

No comments: