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Guard's pitcher Daniel Espino gets the hook after giving up 3 in the 1st. Guard's pitchers scatter two hits and one walk over the next 8 as Cleveland wins 5-3

White Sox fall to the Tigers 11-8

Good Guys up by a full game in the Central.

Just like Burrow/Chase!

When you a have a dysfunctional QB coming to a dysfunctional organization like the Browns
What did you expect ? DeShaun Watson and the Browns
Have set a new precedent when it comes to dysfunction with NFL teams.
The league is laughing at the Browns franchise. But what Haslam care ?
Hes got a fan base that will buy anything he sells . Darn he makes Steve Balmer look
Competent.

The Jacksonville Jaguars began pulling multiple defensive starters by the middle of the third quarter during their dominant 34-10 Week 1 victory over the Cleveland Browns.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jaguars-defense-sets-tone-2026-201157473.html

But hey, at least that CB was a starter.

Tip the cap moment.

Well written and informative.

[color:#FFFFCC]bone\pit...Montaric Brown is a starting CB[color and he had decent coverage on Boston.

Watson threw a near perfect pass...

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/htCST_fVFKE[/video]

If you're having a problem finding an example out of the list, here's a new one from just today...........

Trump says he is banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage, and threatened that more such media prohibitions could be coming — offering his administration’s latest test of constitutional First Amendment protections guaranteeing the freedom of the press.

Trump has long bristled at news coverage he maintains casts him in a negative light, and has a history of filing lawsuits against news organizations, while lashing out at individual reporters in person or over social media.

The move follows the president’s decision, in February 2025, to keep Associated Press journalists out of the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events too small for a full press corps, in retaliation for the news outlet’s decision not to follow his lead in changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name.

The AP filed suit and the case is ongoing. Since returning to office, however, Trump has pursued other legal action against a variety of different outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC.

Trump seeking to block White House access for CNN is especially notably, however, as it could upend the traditional five-network television pool that travels with the president and tracks his every move — meant to provide independent coverage of his actions and interactions for the Americans who elected him and the world.

Trump wrote on his social media site that effective immediately, “I am banning” CNN, MSNOW and Politico “from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

https://apnews.com/article/trump-cnn-msnow-politico-media-bans-bb675679fb10738a51bef90bde6c525a

Is this yet another example of what you compare to someone blowing their nose?

Amen to that.

I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've read LeCharles. Great content and great writing!

I call total BS on this statement. In no way do the two statements in the second half of this sentence have a connotation that the winning side of things be done the wrong way to achieve it. When you hear, winning is the only thing that matters and you do what ever it takes to win, THEN you could make that bold statement. In no way does winning is everything take on the meaning of "at all cost". That's a YOU issue.

It's almost as if Eotab inspired him to write this from the afterlife. When the chips were down and nobody believe in anything Browns, tab always brought every ounce of positivity he could find to the board. I certainly didn't agree with a lot of it but at least having a glimpse of the flip side of the coin helped balance the board. I sure do miss him being here. We could use a dose of positivity about now.

Sometimes game film of a players propensities helps you arrive at a much more informed decision. Practice and preseason gives you no idea how a player performs when the bullets start flying. Game film does.

I thought this was an excellent write up from LeCharles and wanted to share it. There were a bit of positives from this last game, you just have to know or see what to look for. I’ll paste the whole write up to make it easier for you all.





The Browns conversation will continue to be, “Deshaun Watson sucks.”

That may be true, but the constant noise surrounding Watson doesn’t leave much room for a conversation about what might actually be going right within the organization.

I get it.

Browns fans have every right to be impatient. But before I point out a few positives from an otherwise embarrassing performance, I need to make two things clear.

First, I’m not a Watson defender. Truthfully, I don’t care who starts at quarterback because I don’t believe the Browns’ quarterback of the future is currently on the roster. At this point, you’re debating which blue is more blue, navy blue or dark blue.

However, I do have deeply personal feelings about how Watson became the quarterback of the Cleveland Browns, because Cleveland will always be a part of who I am and what I represent. So, to me, this warrants a much larger question that Browns fans should be asking whether than if Watson can still play football.

What does it say about how ownership views you that it believed this was the person best suited to represent your city?

I’m framing the question this way because, people often reveal what they believe you’ll accept by what they feel comfortable placing in front of you.

Here’s an example.

If someone feels comfortable speaking negatively about a person I’m close to, directly to me, eventually I have to ask why. What have I communicated that made this person believe I would be receptive to that conversation? That doesn’t make me responsible for what was said, but it does tell me that the person made an assessment about what I would accept.

That’s how I view the Browns’ decision.

Browns fans didn’t make the decision, but ownership made an assessment about what you would ultimately accept. They didn’t just evaluate Watson as a quarterback, they evaluated Cleveland.

That should bother you more than any interception he throws.

And I don’t care how much his “teammates love him.” An NFL locker room isn’t exactly a beacon of moral judgment. Hell, there were guys I played with whom I wouldn’t have allowed in my home, but on the field, I would’ve put you in the hospital before I let you disrespect them.

That’s what teammates do. Locker-room loyalty is not a character reference, and it doesn’t answer the larger question fans should be asking themselves.

Second, I’ve worked in Cleveland sports media.

There are some really good people covering this city. There are also people who are keenly aware that negativity creates revenue. The frustration drives engagement and Browns fans have provided a dependable supply for decades.

Some people in the media are also rightfully jaded. It’s difficult to work closely with an organization for years, repeatedly expect something different and continually be disappointed. A lot of what gets presented as analysis is really the projection of individual frustration.

Then there is a much smaller group that simply cannot be trusted because it decided access was more important than credibility. But I get it. These people have families to support, and all of us eventually have to decide what compromises we’re willing to make to remain employed.

My point is simple, don’t allow anyone in the media to dictate your emotions, always start the conversation at the TOP.

You’re allowed to be frustrated. In fact, you should be. Just make sure the frustration actually belongs to you and is being directed at the right people. Deshaun Watson may not be the answer, but neither you nor the local media decided to give him a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract. Ownership made that decision despite plenty of evidence outside of football that should have given it reason to reconsider.

Watson may be responsible for what happens on the field, but the people at the top are responsible for why he is on it.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, there were a few encouraging developments buried inside an otherwise ugly Sunday. Most of them were along the offensive line.

When evaluating an offensive line, especially one starting two rookies, we have to look beyond the final score. We can’t ignore it, but we have to understand what happened underneath it.

Let’s start with Austin Barber.

For a rookie making his first NFL start at a new position, the biggest win can be the simple one, he didn’t look out of place.

That may not sound exciting, but it matters more than some people appreciate. Barber didn’t look like a player surviving every snap. He wasn’t overwhelmed by the speed of the game or the weight of the moment, and there weren’t repeated signs of panic, confusion or technical immaturity.

He looked like he belonged. At minimum, Barber showed he can be a viable backup offensive lineman in the NFL.

Why am I not calling him a starter yet?

Because being an NFL starter is broader than where your name appears on the depth chart. It’s a mentality. It’s the ability to withstand the weekly physical and mental strain of being an NFL player.

Some guys can play well when called upon for a moment. Fewer are built to prepare, perform, recover and do it again every week while the injuries, criticism and expectations continue to accumulate. We don’t know whether Barber is that guy yet.

That isn’t criticism, it’s simply the next question he has to answer.

His next challenge will be showing who he becomes once defenses have enough film to study him. That’s the cat-and-mouse game of the NFL. You can play well on Sunday while leaving evidence on film that helps an opponent make the following Sunday miserable.

Maybe your hands widen when you’re expecting power. Maybe your set angle changes on third down. Maybe you consistently overset against a certain alignment, but the defender the week before failed to take advantage of it. Good defenders find those details and attack them until you prove you have an answer.

Barber passed the first test. He looked like an NFL offensive lineman. Now the league gets to study him, and the game will stress-test what his NFL future can become.

Now, Spencer Fano.

I don’t care what his PFF score is, and neither should you.

I’m not going to turn this into my PFF rant because we’d be here all day, and I’m trying to grow as a person (I’m on an enlightenment journey, and it’s a lot of traffic on this road). But there is enough evidence on film to support the fact that Spencer Fano played really well.

Here’s what fans have to understand, a scoring system grades the moment, although sometimes not remotely close to accurately. It looks at the snapshot, assigns responsibility and produces a number.

Player evaluation studies the process.

Moment to moment, there is evidence of what a player can become regardless of the outcome of the play. It could be his feet, balance, awareness or how he processes a defender’s movement. Not all mistakes, wins or losses are created equal.

A block can fail while the player shows you something encouraging within the process.

A block can also succeed while the player leaves evidence that should concern you.

That’s what grades and quick-hit X posts often miss. Nuance doesn’t feed the machine. The story has to be that a rookie is a “generational talent” or that he sucks. Those are apparently the only two sides of the football aisle now.

But with Fano, the film showed a rookie who belongs. He played with balance, awareness and enough physical confidence to suggest this wasn’t some accidental good performance. There is a process underneath the result, and that process matters more than whatever number gets posted next to his name.

Lastly, Elgton Jenkins.

Elgton Jenkins may not “grade” particularly high this season, but he is the Browns’ most valuable offensive player right now, and it’s not remotely close.

Jenkins is older and not the same player he was at his physical peak. That happens. Father Time has a perfect record. (so does Death, but that sounded a little too morbid). The Browns don’t need him to recreate Elgton Jenkins from 5 years ago.

However, it his knowledge and experience that’s exactly what this offense needs while starting two rookies on the offensive line.

When people discuss veteran centers, the conversation usually focuses on identifying the front, changing protections and communicating with the quarterback. All of that matters, but the number-one asset Jenkins brings is something we don’t see on Sunday, he can teach these young players how to prepare throughout the week.

My rookie year, I played next to a 13-year veteran. It was a masterclass in football development. There were answers I could only learn in real time by playing. No veteran can take those snaps for you, prevent every mistake or fully explain what NFL football feels like until you’re standing in the middle of it.

But veteran leadership is like having an answer key. They may not give you the exact answer, but they can turn a multiple-choice test into true or false. That is invaluable when a young player has to consolidate a massive amount of information in a short period of time.

A veteran can show a rookie what actually matters in the game plan. He can reveal which defensive tendencies are real, which tells can be trusted and how to study an opponent without filling your head with so much information that you forget to play football.

He can also teach a young player how to handle the week after playing well. That might be the biggest asset of all.

Young players often believe success means they’ve arrived. Veterans understand that success means somebody is already studying how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Success in the NFL is on loan from week to week. You don’t own it, you have to keep earning it.

Jenkins can help Barber and Fano anticipate the league’s response to their performances. He can’t play their positions for them, but he can shorten the distance between what they’ve experienced and what they understand.

That makes him the most important offensive player on the Browns right now, not because he’s their most physically dominant player, but because he can help two rookies become dependable NFL starters faster than they would on their own.

Now, with all that said, the truth remains.

The Browns lost 34–10. They got smoked, and it was a new type of bad. There is no way to dress that up with a moral victory, a participation trophy or some “if you take away the turnovers, penalties and all the points the other team scored, it was actually pretty close” foolishness.

They didn’t look like a serious NFL team.

But there were still positives on Sunday worth highlighting. That may not mean much to some fans, and that’s okay. This post is for the people who were born Browns fans and will die Browns fans. The ones who don’t get to select a new team just because the one they inherited keeps making their Sundays miserable.

I’m learning that being a fan is a lot like life. When things are bad, refusing to acknowledge anything good doesn’t make you more honest. It only makes the bad harder to live with. The life we have is the only one we get, just as the Browns we have are the only Browns we’ve got (See, the enlightenment [censored] works).

Finding the positive doesn’t mean lowering the standard, accepting losing or pretending 34–10 wasn’t embarrassing. It means being honest enough to recognize progress when it appears, even when it’s surrounded by something ugly.

Austin Barber didn’t look out of place, Spencer Fano looked like a player who belongs, and Elgton Jenkins gives both of them a veteran capable of accelerating their development.

Sunday didn’t give Browns fans much to feel good about… But it gave you that.

Sometimes, that has to be enough to get you to next Sunday.

I think we all have opinions on the situation so I'll just add mine.

Looking at this on a non bias basis, it seems Halsam has forgiven Berry for the watson debacle. Of course none of us know who really made the huge push to sign watson to begin with. If it was Haslam that may help explain it although we'll never know for sure if that was the case. But at least to me if Berry were going to be held accountable for the watson deal he would have been shown the door when Stefanski was fired. Yet he remains.

Now I have seen so many people say, "But look at the last two drafts!" And that's all fine and well but Stefanski was fired before this last draft and Berry only had one of those drafts under his belt at the time. There's a funny thing about NFL drafts. A lot of the time they look good on paper. Sometimes even their rookie seasons give you cause to be optimistic. But as we all know, when you buy a car the first 10k miles tells you nothing about how that car will perform or how dependable it will be for the long haul and so it also goes with draft picks.

IMO Haslam knows this team has no QB. I believe for him this season is a write off. That no matter how bad it turns out to be Berry will still be at the helm next season. As a matter of fact I believe there's a very strong possibility Haslam may see the worse record possible as the best case scenario to land a franchise QB. That would be in his best interest for the future success of this franchise. A new "QB of the future" going into a new dome stadium paints what I think would be the best picture moving forward for him he could have dreamed of at this juncture given the current circumstances.

If Haslam ends up desperate for a scapegoat it will once again be the HC and Monken will be one and done and it will be blamed on the fact he didn't get enough out of the roster he was given. That remains to be seen. It would be a repeat of what we saw last off season. But one thing I think it would be impossible to deny is that if this season continues down the path it is currently on, you either believe the actual problem is with this FO and not the coaching.

Unless you think this FO is incapable of finding an actual NFL HC. Which would still be the fault of this FO. That's where this all begins and ends.

As it pertains to how the media perceives this team, that's irrelevant. It's a two way street that allows for the possibility that traffic can flow in either direction. Either a team can crumble under the pressures of social media and the talking heads, which would indicate they are very weak people, or they can use it as ammunition to rally around each other and use it as a motivator.

I do not believe there is some underlying hidden plan.

Monken decides who plays. He did not want SS to start two road games.

He made the decision to have DW start. After going through an entire off season and training Camp and then announcing the starter.

You don't pull the guy after one game.

After Sunday depending upon the results. Monken has another decision to make.

IMO no matter when it comes DW will play his way out of being the starter.

SS will get his chance. He is better off right now watching and learning because this is young team with a new offense. Only natural that there will be mistakes and growing pains.

I am in total "let it all happen mode."

I suppose when your eyes and ears fail you there's always word games.

You can pretty much bet we'll be playing Carolina with an 0-2 record. I don't see us beating Tampa and I don't think we'll come close to covering. As always, I hope I'm wrong and we win but I just don't see it. Maybe this has been the FO's plan all along.

This was a fun exercise once I did all the digging.

What I learned:

I learned that you have to do a lot of reading and open a lot of different hyperlinks from the original article to attempt to get to the bottom of what they're actually tracking. But you never get to the bottom, you only scratch the surface. They never tell you how they track "democracy".

They throw in a lot of Trump stuff, but they mostly base it on somebody's (who knows whose) opinion. Democracy sucks in the USA because Trump is "wielding power for personal goals", I really don't know what that means, but ahem, they're the experts.

Definitions were so vague, I found it entertaining to reread the article and just replace the word "democracy" with other words. When I did it with "the force" and just acted like democracy was similar to the power that controls things in Star Wars, it was very entertaining. I did it with the word "coffee" as well. Almost as entertaining.

By the third or fourth page I opened, I got a clue as to what they are tracking...


The GSoD 2026 Report ranks countries in four major categories of democratic performance rather than one overall classification. These four categories are:

Representation—such as credible elections and effective parliamentary oversight. (Nothing to question with our elections, right?)

Rule of Law—such as judicial independence and the degree to which people are free from political violence. (I'd say we're free from political violence, their own graph below supports that.)

Rights—such as freedom of expression, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly. (We've got all the rights. A smorgasbord of rights we probably don't even deserve.)

Participation—such as how involved citizens are in democratic expression during and between elections. (There are still peaceful "No Kings" rallies, right?)



Then we see the map that matters. This shows people that have to fight, fight, fight for their cup of democracy...

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)
https://www.uu.se/en/department/peace-and-conflict-research/research/ucdp/





USA! USA! USA! Hardly any violence!


Then we have the democracy ratings page:
https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/gsod-indices

They don't tell us how they measure, they just say that they "Measure Democracy and Track Progress". And they update it monthly! Screw someone over on their human rights one month, your democracy is going straight down, buddy.

This was particularly enlightening...

Our democracy is .7
Canada .8 (everyone probably happy because the maple syrup is soooo good)
Not happy with your .55 democracy in Paraguay? Cross the border into Bolivia with for a marked improvement .64 (which seems strange with all the pollical killing, gender-based violence, race-based violence, civil unrest, one of the highest homicide rates, etc, etc... But watch out, their democracy is right on our tail!)
Russia, Russia, Russia? Not good, democracy at only .27 By comparison though, go a little south and you see a bunch of 0.0.
And yes, as I mentioned before, democracy is surging in Australia because they're fighting harder against racism. They're at an unprecedented .83 (GREAT democracy, but about 1000 species of harmful wildlife and a metric $#%$ ton of serial killers; guess it all depends on your priorities)


Overall, I learned a lot about something. I'm just not quite sure what. Thanks for posting!

The entire media buildup to the Bucs game has turned into a debate about who was right and who was wrong.

Deshaun vs. Baker.
The Browns vs.Baker.
Deshaun vs. the fans and the media.
Deshaun vs. everything and nothing.

Right now, most of the local, national and the social media are portraying the Browns as incompetent idiots.

Watson’s attack on the media briefly shifted the focus. Ask yourselves whether that helped or hurt the Browns’ chances of winning both the media battle and the actual game?

“Browns gonna Brown” has been making the rounds among commentators all over the place.

The Browns are sitting proudly at top of the McAfee Shajt Division, and everyone is laughing themselves to tears. The discussion is no longer whether the Browns are bad. It’s whether they’re terrible, worse, or the absolute worst. That’s the landscape right now.

Watson opening his mouth and speaking freely was a gift from heaven. Talk about removing any remaining doubts.

If I were Andrew Berry, I’d keep my head down, stay in the shadows, and keep sending Watson out on new adventures.
What could possibly go wrong?

If Tampa hammers another nail into the coffin the “shajt” conversation will continue.
Who do you want in front of the cameras. Monken, Berry or Watson?
I know who I prefer.

Maybe Berry is a little bit smarter then we think…

Now if the Browns can just get every team to play backups against watson things migtht be fine.

Post game press conferences are standard operating procedure across the league. Just stop it already. What watson said isn't an Andrew Berry issue. It's a DW issue. I'm not a fan of Berry. But I'm not just going to make crap up to attack him.

The game was over before the half.

In the fourth quarter the dogs were called off. Garbage time.

The last offensive series, Watson did not quit...throwing a great 46yd TD pass to Boston.

That showed me that Watson is "capable and a threat" to stretch the field.

Hopefully that play will help Watson's confidence.

Also, Watson can't improve if he's sitting on the bench..Monken has to play him even if the Browns are losing..jmo

It goes against every fiber of being a fan.

"I want to lose this game and look really bad doing it."

But nothing about the entire DW saga has been normal. He is one of the most disliked players. It is not just about playing bad football. He created the animosity.

The Browns are not going to win many games this year. We are obviously not a playoff team. If you win seven games or three. What does it matter?

So yes, I hope this is DW's last game. Go out there and continue to play the way you have played. Then find your spot on the bench and when the season ends. Leave.

Yes, failure is a part of life...

...but failure can be a great motivator if those who fail strive to overcome it.

Learn from your mistakes and turn a negative into a positive.

Anyone else actively rooting against him? Petty, I know. But I admit part me hopes he sucks eggs Sunday and makes the decision easy for the team. I just want to be done with him and his whining once and for all.

I don’t think salvation lies with any other qb on this team but I so want is to wash our hands of this debacle and move the F on. So to that end, I hate to say it but I’m actually sorta hoping for a faceplant. A couple early ints and Monken practically has to yank. I think if he plays half way ok Monken might potentially hang on for a few more weeks. Might be part of a tank strategy, I don’t know.