NFL Week 7: Paul Ryan sets Big XII electorate aflame, jeopardizes TX, OK votes

[CountDeMoney]

It's been quite a week for the Cleveland Browns franchise. New Owner Jimmy Haslam was approved at the league meetings, current team president Mike Holmgren is on his way out as a former Philadelphia Eagles executive is on his way in, and a team that's been unexciting in the extreme over the last decade (for the most part) has received an unprecedented number of news blasts as a result.

On Wednesday, the Browns got even more media attention when Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited practice as the team was preparing for its Sunday showdown against the Indianapolis Colts.

Rice, a longtime Browns fan who counts the great Jim Brown as one of her sports heroes, had no trouble identifying everybody on the field. Ryan, who's from Wisconsin, had a few issues when trying to discern the difference between quarterbacks Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy.

Ryan talked about how he remembered Weeden playing well for Oklahoma State last year ... but he was pointing to McCoy, who attended Texas, at the time.

"You always had your helmet on," he said to Weeden, in an attempt to explain himself.

Well, sir, that's why they have numbers on their jerseys.

To be fair, Ryan has had a few more important things on his mind lately, with the election and all. Bill Haslam, the new team owner's brother, is the governor of Tennessee, and a supporter of the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan ticket. We're assuming Ryan got a free pass on that mistake.

Meanwhile, Seattle looks like a lock to at least cover the dog tonight if the Niners keep not showing up, NE and Green Bay should cover easy, that Houston spread could be dangerous, and go Bengals.

Thursday
10/18 8:25 ET    At San Francisco -7    Seattle

Sunday
10/21 1:00 ET    At Buffalo -3    Tennessee
10/21 1:00 ET    At Minnesota -6    Arizona
10/21 1:00 ET    At Indianapolis -2.5    Cleveland
10/21 1:00 ET    At Houston -6.5    Baltimore
10/21 1:00 ET    Green Bay -5.5    At St. Louis
10/21 1:00 ET    Dallas -2    At Carolina
10/21 1:00 ET    At NY Giants -5.5    Washington
10/21 1:00 ET    New Orleans -3    At Tampa Bay
10/21 4:25 ET    At New England -10.5    NY Jets
10/21 4:25 ET    At Oakland -4    Jacksonville
10/21 8:30 ET    Pittsburgh    -1.5    At Cincinnati

Monday Night Football
10/22 8:40 ET    At Chicago -6    Detroit

[CountDeMoney]

Hey Neil, in Ravens news: 

Suggs has been approved to practice this week though he's still a few weeks away;
Ray Lewis was placed on the NFL's new IR system, allowing him to come back after 6 weeks in the event of a medical miracle;
Ed Reed, in responding to questions about his shitty tackling this season, confessed to the press yesterday to a torn labrum, which may be in violation of league injury reporting rules, even though he said he's going to play through it anyway.  Oops.

[CountDeMoney]

Well, well, well.

Despite returning to practice only Wednesday from a torn Achilles in April, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs is targeting and expecting to play Sunday versus the Houston Texans, according to league sources.

Sources said that even Suggs' family and friends have plans to travel to Houston in anticipation of watching him stage one of the quickest returns from this type of significant injury that any athlete ever has.

"Yes, that's still the plan," one source texted Thursday.

Baltimore still wants to make sure there are no setbacks this week, especially Thursday when Suggs returns to the training facility after his first day of practice since last season. Plus, Suggs appears to have added weight during his layoff that he may try to shed in coming weeks.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh continually has declined to put a timetable on Suggs' return and many have believed it would be mid November.

Before this season, Suggs had played in all 16 games in eight of his nine NFL seasons, missing three games in 2009 with a knee injury. If he was able to return Sunday it would be a big boost to a Ravens defense that lost its inspirational leader, linebacker Ray Lewis, to a torn triceps and top cornerback, Lardarius Webb, to a knee injury last week.

Harbaugh, however, cautioned Wednesday that the team wasn't expecting too much from Suggs, who was named the 2011 Defensive Player of the Year after a 14-sack season, too soon.

"To what extent, to what he's able to do, I think we should temper our expectations a little bit," Harbaugh said. "He's coming off a very serious injury. I think he's worked really hard. He's done a great job with the rehab, he's followed protocol. He had no setbacks throughout the course of the whole deal."

But more and more it's looking like there's a real chance, maybe a better than real chance, that Suggs will make his season debut Sunday against the Texans.

I dunno, I think it's a bad idea to try to rush this thing.  It's still a fucking Achilles injury.

[derspiess]

It's been ages since the Bengals beat the Ravens or Steelers.  Whatever the hell happens this season, I'll be happy for now if they can just beat the vulnerable Steelers.

[derspiess]

BTW I'd like to see Obama try & name some Bears players.  He did so well with his White Sox a while ago...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcvbql_obama-can-t-name-any-chisox-players_sport

[CountDeMoney]

Your partisanship knows no bounds, does it?  Have to carry the fight everywhere.  Gotta retaliate.

[Ed Anger]

Condi for NFL commish!

[derspiess]

Your partisanship knows no bounds, does it?  Have to carry the fight everywhere.  Gotta retaliate.

Just defending my widow-peaked Irish homie.

[Neil]

Suggs can talk, but there's no way he's on the field on Sunday.  He can target it all he wants, but Harbaugh isn't crazy.

I think that part of the new IR is keeping Ray around to keep the team focused.  I mean, you know he'd be doing that on game day anyways, but this way he'll probably still be in the defensive meetings and preparing the team to go.

Yeah, the labrum thing makes perfect sense.  He's missed a number of tackles this year because he's keeping his arms in and hitting with his shoulder.  I mean, I know the guy loves to deliver big hits, but normally he's a little more tactical about it.  The more I think about it, the more I think that this is probably his last year.  I guess it's up to Ray if he wants them both to go into the HOF in the same year, or if he wants to try and come back one more time.

[MadImmortalMan]

I dunno, I think it's a bad idea to try to rush this thing.  It's still a fucking Achilles injury.

Yeah those are nasty. I had mine hurt and it took two years to get back to full strength.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, the labrum thing makes perfect sense.  He's missed a number of tackles this year because he's keeping his arms in and hitting with his shoulder.  I mean, I know the guy loves to deliver big hits, but normally he's a little more tactical about it.  The more I think about it, the more I think that this is probably his last year.  I guess it's up to Ray if he wants them both to go into the HOF in the same year, or if he wants to try and come back one more time.

Ed's always been a bit of a weird bird;  he's competitive as all hell, but he's got a Barry Sanders streak in him a mile wide.  He has other interests in life, and being able to walk upright when he's 50 happens to be one of them.  This is also the last year of his contract, IIRC.

Ray's not going anywhere, though.  He'll do the rehab, and it'll be a pain in the ass, but as far as he's concerned, "it's just a tricep".  If it were something more structural, like a knee or ankle or shoulder, that's one thing;  but he thinks he can still play if he's at in 100% physical shape, and a tricep doesn't count.

Besides, the kind of athlete he is, there's no way he's letting something like a tricep be the reason to hang up the spikes.  He'll be back next year.

[Neil]

You know, I saw an interesting graph of how much money the Ravens were spending at the FS and MLB positions compared to other teams in the league, and it was really eye-popping.  I wonder where the money is going to end up going?  I wonder who will step up?  Funny how deep they were at safety last year, and now once you get past Ed and Pollard (who has really stepped up.  As far as I'm concerned, he's the #3 guy on the D right now behind Ed and Ngata) there's nobody.  I guess Nakamura wasn't going to be the answer though, as Carolina seems to be underwhelmed with him.

Lewis doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would want to go out on his shield either, but it's going to be a tough off-season.  Not only is he going to have a grueling rehab, but he's also going to have to put back on some of their weight he lost.  The whole Lewis Lite experiment hasn't really seemed to be much of a success, although I guess it's hard to say.  Even 8 years ago when they were playing the Chiefs I remember Ray having a hard time when the guards were allowed to come right at him and maul him.  Mind you, that was Will Shields, but it's hard to say how much of the problem is a smaller, less powerful Lewis and how much is just bad line play.

[CountDeMoney]

Lewis doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would want to go out on his shield either, but it's going to be a tough off-season.  Not only is he going to have a grueling rehab, but he's also going to have to put back on some of their weight he lost.  The whole Lewis Lite experiment hasn't really seemed to be much of a success, although I guess it's hard to say.  Even 8 years ago when they were playing the Chiefs I remember Ray having a hard time when the guards were allowed to come right at him and maul him.  Mind you, that was Will Shields, but it's hard to say how much of the problem is a smaller, less powerful Lewis and how much is just bad line play.

He explained his philosophy on his weight loss going into the off-season last year;  said with the rules being the way they are, the league's become a passing league to the detriment of playing traditional defense, and he figured he might as well adapt to it;  as much as he loves stuffing the run, being able to drop back into coverage was becoming more important.

I partially blame the slide of his running game defense on the wholly underwhelming performance of the big moosies up front, similar to the Ravens' problems the year before they drafted Ngata.  As good as Ngata looked when he showed up 15 pounds slimmer last year, he wound up gaining 30 this year.  Pernell McPhee was going to be my new bust-out Raven this season, has done nothing.  Mount Cody can't crack the starting line up consistently, and Arthur Jones is nothing to write home about.

Ray is a gap technician when it comes to defending the run;  when he tackles you, you're done.  But the running back has to be funneled to him directly, he can't fight off a fullback or pulling guard to get to him.  That's the moosies' job, and they've been failing miserably this season.

[Valmy]

Do I really want a situation where all that separates a guy who does not know Colt McCoy from the Presidency is one life?!  NO SIR!

[Valmy]

BTW I'd like to see Obama try & name some Bears players.  He did so well with his White Sox a while ago...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcvbql_obama-can-t-name-any-chisox-players_sport

Dude nobody gives a crap about the White Sox.  Not even people in Chicago give a crap about the White Sox.  This is different this is COLT MCCOY.