Raise your hand if you saw this one coming...

The Browns much-maligned rush defense went into the Georgia Dome and shut down Michael Vick, Warrick Dunn, and the Falcons. 17-13. While certainly not a blow-out, and while our offense looked stalled for most of the second half, the Browns managed to get a lead early and hold onto it.

Our rock-headed quarterback was much less rock-headed (first game with no INTs, coupled with a nice slant TD pass to Edwards, a beatiful pump-fake/deep ball to Winslow, and then a throw in the fourth quarter on which Winslow made one of the nicest catches I've ever seen). We couldn't run all that much, but the game plan called for us to go after their banged up and 31st ranked pass defense. Frye's line: 16-22, 165 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs. Rating: 101.9

This is what we need from Chuck Frye. He doesn't have to have eye-popping numbers. The strength of this team will be its defense. So far, the one huge difference that I've seen of the Jeff Davidson offensive era is that he goes into each game with a plan. The plan three games ago: the Jets suck at stopping the run... so let's run it on them. The plan yesterday: the Falcons suck at stopping the pass... let's move the ball passing.

Some observations:

• Sean Jones is the real deal at strong safety. Another INT yesterday, plus one more he could have had. I'm trying to think how good this kid might be right now if he hadn't torn his ACL in the summer camps before his rookie year. He deserves definite Pro Bowl consideration if he keeps it up, though I'm sure he'll lose out to Troy Polamalu (sp?) and Ed Reed.


• Keeping with the theme of the 2004 draft of Butch Davis, Kellen Winslow Jr. is a fucking beast. As much as I don't like the guy as a person, he can fucking play. That catch he made in the fourth quarter was downright sick. I still don't know what the Falcons were thinking when they matched a cornerback up with him. The fake he and Frye orchestrated in the first quarter to set up a 40 yard completion (which then also set up a touchdown) was a thing of beauty. If only he'd just shut his mouth...


• Whence came this rushing defense? Now, granted, 147 yards is not normally considered "good" rushing defense, but they held Dunn to 73 yards. All of Vick's rushing is hard to call "rushing" because it's really just pass protections breaking down most of the time. I honestly thought going in that the Browns would give up over 225 yards rushing. They held the Falcons to more than 50 yards under their season average.


• Speaking of the defense, I don't know if Crennel or Grantham gets more of the credit, but I don't know how they keep playing such good pass defense with their top 3 cornerbacks out. A lot of it is that Sean Jones and Brian Russell have been consistent, and that Pool has played well. But still... let us not also forget that Crennel had that last year in New England where they won the Super Bowl with several guys playing in the secondary that had been signed off the street/practice squad and with a normally starting wide receiver playing nickelback. An all around superb effort getting these guys up to speed. Davin Holly might have earned himself a spot as the #1 nickelback next year, assuming McCutcheon and Bodden are both healthy enough.


• Kamerion Wimbley. Each week, this guy does something else to impress me. This week, it was: a) sacking Michael Vick, and b) running Warrick Dunn down from behind. The more that he plays, the more you can see he's picking up the defense and the role of the 3-4 outside linebacker. He might not be the defensive rookie of the year, but he should at least be in the discussion. If he can stay healthy and continue to progress, he's going to be a beast for years to come.


• Braylon Edwards needs to keep doing more and more each week, but it was nice to see him get TDs in back to back games. Most people think he's going to be a bust. I still hold out hope, given my Michigan man-crush on him.

I still don't see the Browns winning more than 5 or 6 games total this season, but these last two weeks they've showed me something (and I think they've showed themselves something, too). Both games were games I thought the other teams would just roll over the Browns. Both games were a lot closer than most thought they would be. And both times, the Browns at least had a legitimate shot to win at some point.

If they can just keep building, there might be cause for hope. Until they all get tuberculosis and turf toe, which then ruins everyone's careers.