23 and 15. That is how many years it has been since the Browns have beaten the Giants and have won a Monday Night game respectively. There are many Browns stats just like this one – you have to go back to the legendary years to find a great Browns win.
My Monday morning started just like any other – got up, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast as I read the paper. There was one major difference between this morning and other Mondays…instead of reading about how the Browns did the previous day I was reading about the analysis for the game yet to come.
Everyone, well just about everyone, was counting the Browns out. All the PD writers predicted that the Browns would lose. To their defense – they all wanted to be wrong…they are journalists first and fans second (that is why I can’t go into journalism – I will always be a fan first).
Over my lunch hour at work I spent some time reading the pre-game analysis. Just like the local journalists, the great majority of them were picking the Giants, and picking them big. Honestly, based on how the Browns were playing, I couldn’t blame them. Reading all of the national coverage’s love fest for the Giants did get me excited about the game – I was pumped and ready to see an upset.
All this talk of how great the Giants were also worked perfectly with the new sign Emily and I came up with: The front side still said ‘This Year’, but the back now read ‘Against All Odds’. The Browns definitely were against them last night – even with home field advantage they were seven and a half point underdogs.
After work Emily and I grabbed some dinner and headed down to the stadium. We got there a modest hour before the game – nothing like the guys who showed up at 5…AM. As we walked towards the stadium the sign got a lot of reactions. Giants’ fans would yell a familiar phrase, “This year what?”. I would expect that from the Steelers or from the Cowboys…that makes sense – hearing that from a Giants didn’t make sense at all. It was about this time last year that everyone was counting them out. They managed to turn it around and win a super bowl. So for all you Giants fans who asked me that question last night, here is your answer: This year – we beat you.
The Browns won the toss and elected to receive first. This was unusual – they typically like to kick off first when they win. It wasn’t to long before I got concerned – Cribbs missed the catch and it traveled out the back of the end zone. The Browns got the ball on the twenty…here we go again. After a couple plays DA dropped back and made a pass to Edwards – he broke a tackle and was off…he got about 50 yards before anyone caught him.
The Browns from last year were back and BETTER! For the entire game the offense moved the ball methodically over long drives. With the help of my favorite current player, Heiden, they converted third downs consistently. It was amazing – everyone was getting involved. They had direct snaps to Cribbs, reverses to Harrison, smash mouth running from Jamal, and the receivers were catching just about everything thrown in their direction. DA did not get hit to the ground once and he never once had to the throw the ball away. Every throw he made actually was intended for someone – the offensive line really stepped it up.
The defense really came through this game as well. They did let the Giants run the ball well, but the secondary was having their way with Eli’s throws and the Giants receivers. They managed to pick off three passes, the one by Wright late in the fourth, came right as the Giants were threatening to pull it within six – the pick sealed the game.
We stuck around after the game to cheer in front of the post game crew – I apparently got on TV, which was awesome…hopefully my sign was on there as well.
The world of sports today is so consumed with statistics. The statement, “The last time…” comes up a lot. As I said before, it is painful when the Browns have to dig so far into their history to find the last time something good happened. It is really cool to be able to ask, “When was the last time the Browns beat the Giants?” or “When was the last time the Browns won a MNF game?” or “When was the last time the Browns had three interceptions in a game?” and be able to answer with a straight face: “Yesterday.”
