Derek & Goliath

It has been quite a while since the Browns hosted a regular season Monday Night Football game.  However, the anticipation for Monday's clash with the Giants, is perhaps overshadowed by how badly the Browns have played thus far.  One part of the meltdown  is certainly Derek Anderson (among many others), and my guess is Derek will not sleep great tonight.

The rise and fall of Derek Anderson has been well-documented and the story of his season in Cleveland (and perhaps his career) could come down to his first regular season Monday Night start.  Not only does Derek face the league's second-ranked passing defense (despite retirement and injury to their super bowl winning defensive line) but he also faces a city of fans who are an errant pass away from the relentless requests for "Bra-dy, Bra-dy".

What Derek Must Do For the Browns to Win:  First and foremost, limit the turnovers. It is going to be hard to win with no turnovers, but if he is responsible for more than one, game over.  Second, make SMART decisions.  Go through a read or two, maybe even three (offensive line permitting), and make a good throw.  If nothing is there, get rid of it or check down, quickly.  Third, be the leader.  Anderson's teammates voted him a captain for a reason, and in times like these, his presence in the huddle is a must.  Derek needs to look his guys in the eyes and demand more of them.  If he can do this effectively, anything can happen.  Fourth (although not entirely in DA's hands) offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski needs to call good plays.  Chud needs to call quick 3-step drops, and some easy out routes to give Derek some confidence, then let him stretch the field (the return of Stallworth could be huge).

What the Giants Will Try to Do to Beat Us:  The Giants will be themselves.  Tom Coughlin teams do such a good job of playing the same way, no matter who is on the other side of the field, or who is on the field for them.  The success of the Giants defense is the consistent pressure they can generate with four down lineman.  This allows the linebackers to be aggressively fly to the ball and theirs DBs to play a lot of man, with a high level of press coverage. 

Three Giant Defenders to Watch (and Derek should be!):  DT - Fred Robbins.  While most of the attention goes to names like Tuck, Kiwanuka, and Umenyiora, Robbins is a beast in the middle of the line.  He should always be accounted for and can get in the backfield quickly.  Leading the team with 4 sacks, he will give Eric Steinbach everything he can handle.  LB - Antonio Pierce.  Pierce is the heart and soul of the defense and seems to be in on every tackle.  The silver-lining here is that Pierce did not practice for much of the week, and is questionable for the game with a quadricep injury.  CB - Aaron Ross.  Ross is the leading tackler on this defense, which says a lot about his skills.  But this ex-Texas Longhorn is hardnosed, gritty, and FAST.  Look for him to shadown Braylon Edwards for much of the night.  That will be a fun match-up to watch.

Let us all hope that Derek can beat Goliath and his Giant teammates tomorrow!  I will be at the game - so I'll follow up with how these things turn out!

As always, we keep the faith - GO BROWNS!