2008 Regular Season
In our first preseason game, Arsenault runs for 99 yards in limited duty, and Bobby Silver stays in most of the way – and looks pretty good. Glover looks sharp in clean-up duty – we’ll get a better look later in the preseason. Silvers goes 7 of 8 in his second game – with one pick. Glover is looking pretty solid, too, but I’m getting the feeling that Silvers can still play. We mop up Minnesota, and both QBs look extremely sharp – this is very tough. But – Tyrone Glover comes down with an elbow injury, which settles the opening day starter “controversy.” We’ll go into the season once again with Bobby Silvers listed as our #1 signal caller.
Steven Davis and Marvin Fox battle for the backup job for now – I decide that Davis is probably better suited for it right away, and he will be our reserve for the first few weeks while Glover recovers.
We also start the season with new TE Arnie Whiting on the sideline with a broken collar bone. So, two of our “big three” new faces are taking a seat as we get things started. Arsenault, though, is ready to go.
Game one – we’re in upheaval again. QB Bobby Silvers blows out his knee, sidelining him for the season, and probably ending his football career. My “insurance policy” was certainly a good move – but even he is on the sideline now. We’ll start Glover even though he is hurt – and he’ll have to be our trigger man through the season.
In game two, Glover goes out, and we have Steven Davis in there for most of the game, until even he gets hurt. Glover finished up, but both are on the injured list for the coming week. MLB Cedric Goodwin, our defensive anchor, is also out for a while. This is starting to look like a M*A*S*H unit.
Behind Glover and Arsenault, and a staunch defense, we get our first win of the season, at home over Oakland. The next week, Arsenault tops 100 for the first time with us, despite a close loss to Tennessee. We’re settling down, at least.
Roderick Arsenault, after posting his second straight 100-yard game, is injured – and will miss three weeks. Our injury-related adjustments continue, it seems. He misses the chance to play against his old Houston team, who are undefeated this year without him, oddly enough. They shut us down, winning only 7-0, but our offense is awful.
We get a surprise dominating win over Baltimore in week 7, winning 41-16. Glover was good, and is starting to build some buzz with now-healthy TE Whiting (6-95 and a TD). Rookie LB Ricky DiGiacomo has 9 tackles to lead the team – and is playing pretty well after being thrown right into the fire. (Everybody around him has been hurt, so we really needed him anyway) And when we eke out a 10-7 win over Jacksonville, we make it too or halfway point at a remarkable 4-4.
Glover has a QB rating of 68.6 – not exactly the kind of efficiency we were looking for from him. Arsenault, who should return for our next game, has 430 yards rushing in 5 games – not too bad. And WR Randall Sanders may be on his way to a 1,000-yard season, which would be a first for this franchise.
Down the stretch, we are 7-6, and in a three-way tie for the division lead. For the first time, we are talking about a possible playoff run. Hosting Pittsburgh, also 7-6, is a huge game at this point. We get DE Huffman back after his second injury this season, and hope that the DL can get more pressure. We clobber the Steelers 27-6, behind more than 200 yards on the ground – 132 from Asrsenault. Suddenly, we are in a serious position.
Bobby Silvers is rehabbing, but still a few weeks away from getting back. He simply won’t be a factor this year, I’m pretty sure, and we’ll have to test him out after his recovery – he may lose another couple of notches, which would render him pretty useless, I fear.
A big win over Dallas, behind 4 TD passes from Glover and again over 200 yards rushing, puts us to 9-6, and in command in the division. We are now a lock to take the division title, and will make our first postseason appearance.
Roderick Arsenault is over 1,000 yards now, despite only playing in 11 games – he is averaging 4.4 yards per carry, which is better than anyone else has been able to do on this team. WR Randall Sanders needs 87 yards to top 1,000 on the season. We drop the last game, and Sanders falls just short of the mark – but it’s a pretty good season nonetheless.
Code:
Front Office Football 2004
2008 Summary for Cleveland Browns
Record: 9-7
Winning Pct.: .562
Cleveland Browns Team Rank
Rushes 409 22
Rushing Yards 1768 14
Yards Per Carry 4.32 7
Pass Attempts 601 2 (T)
Completions 342 6
Passing Yards 3609 18
Yards Per Attempt 6.00 26 (T)
3rd Down Conversions 38.6 26
Points Per Game 21.3 9 (T)
Turnovers 24 14 (T)
Turnover Margin +8 6 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 442 15
Rushing Yards 1574 7
Yards Per Carry 3.56 1 (T)
Pass Attempts 578 30
Completions 316 18
Passing Yards 3661 21
Yards Per Attempt 6.33 7
3rd Down Conversions 41.2 15
Points Per Game 15.6 4
Turnovers 32 5 (T)
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 10 CIN 19
2 13 at WAS 20
3 23 OAK 9
4 20 TEN 23
5 27 at JAX 20
6 0 at HOU 7
7 41 BAL 16
8 10 IND 7
9 13 at PIT 30
11 21 at CIN 14
12 13 at PHI 24
13 28 at NED 7
14 36 NYG 14
15 27 PIT 6
16 35 DAL 7
17 24 at BAL 27
$$WC TEN
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
2 Glover QB 534 307 3323 6.22 21 14
14 Davis QB 36 19 167 4.63 0 1
**Team --- 601 342 3609 6.00 21 17
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
33 Arsenault RB 246 1068 4.34 5
28 Adams RB 78 346 4.43 3
2 Glover QB 36 181 5.02 2
32 Ramsey RB 32 117 3.65 0
**Team --- 409 1768 4.32 12
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
83 Sanders WR 147 77 983 12.7 128 5
84 Whiting TE 98 66 724 10.9 226 4
85 Aceves WR 105 57 590 10.3 75 4
82 Metzger TE 56 34 298 8.7 62 1
89 Rose WR 62 29 295 10.1 17 3
88 O'Rourke WR 49 25 289 11.5 39 0
36 Woodson FB 23 16 91 5.6 37 1
**Team --- 600 342 3609 10.5 718 21
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
90 Casey ILB 83 18 0.0 0 2 14
41 Jacobs S 81 22 2.0 0 5 8
99 Tyler OLB 66 27 5.5 11 3 10
23 Mace CB 64 7 2.0 1 4 11
91 DiGiacomo OLB 58 24 2.0 3 0 10
72 Cascadden DT 53 25 4.0 13 0 0
92 Goodwin ILB 51 27 1.0 0 1 3
37 Dunn CB 49 14 2.0 0 3 11
27 Gomez CB 43 7 1.0 0 2 4
46 Ellery S 42 27 0.0 0 0 3
98 Fisk OLB 37 14 1.0 3 1 1
95 Gibson DT 32 15 1.5 2 0 0
78 Huffman DE 29 7 0.5 18 0 0
79 Wayne DT 28 18 1.5 4 0 1
42 Wickliff CB 25 7 1.0 0 1 6
93 Fox DE 21 10 6.5 5 0 1
**Team --- 844 292 35.0 70 24 89
Overall, this is the sort of defense I love to see. We were #1 in yards allowed per carry, #7 in yards allowed per pass, and #4 in scoring allowed. Great results.
Looking over the stats – note that TE Arnie Whiting posted some pretty staggering numbers for a tight end, and that was only starting 10 games (playing in 13). If he ends up averaging 6 catches a game next season, he can be a very powerful weapon in our offense.
We also got our money’s worth out of LB Rick Casey, who we grabbed as a cheap free agent because he’s of the same general mold as our starting MLB, Cedric Goodwin. When Goodwin went down for most of this season, Casey Started at MLB, and we didn’t lose too much when our best defensive player went down – Casey stepped in very well for us.
Incidentally, Bobby Silvers is probably done as a professional football player. Two serious leg injuries have rendered him a shell of his former self, and our biggest decision is whether to retain him for next year with his significant salary.