Sunday's tilt at the Meadowlands may come down to a battle between Ducks and Beavers.
Quarterbacks Kellen Clemens and Derek Anderson will renew a rivalry that began during their high school days in Oregon. The two QBs played against each other in a state playoff semifinal game where Anderson (who's hometown of Scappoose sports a pop. of 5,000) and his squad bested Clemens (who hails from Burns; pop. 3,000) and his boys in 2000. They then split their two meetings as starters in college -- Clemens as an Oregon Duck and Anderson as an Oregon State Beaver.
Now they will go head-to-head as members of the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns.
And if stats mean anything, the two signal callers could play an important role in determining the outcome of this contest.
Anderson has been a revelation during this NFL season. The Browns picked up the sixth-round draft pick off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens in 2005. He started three games at the end of a throwaway season for Cleveland in 2006 and looked to be an afterthought after the Brownies drafted Brady Quinn this year. Then came a Week 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Anderson went 20 out of 33 for 328 yards and 5 TD passes as Cleveland outslugged Cincy 51-45. Overall, Anderson has put up these numbers: 3,062 yards passing, 24 TDs, 13 INTs and a 87.7 QB rating.
He also has a lot of weapons on offense. Wide receiver Braylon Edwards could be on his way to Hawaii (62 rec., 1043 yards and 12 TDs), tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. is healthy and living up to expectations (65 rec., 909 yards and 5 TDs) and running back Jamal Lewis is having a rebirth of sorts in Ohio (803 yards rushing, 8 TDs, 20 rec. 175 yards, 1 TD). Throw in a solid offensive line featuring first-round pick Joe Thomas at left tackle and free agent pickup Eric Steinbach at left guard and you have the fourth-highest scoring team in the league (averaging 28 points a game).
Kellen Clemens and the Jets don't own an offense as potent as Cleveland's, but they will be going up against one of the worst defensive units in the league. The Browns rank 28th in average rushing yards allowed per game (131.5), 30th in pass defense (258.4 yards a game) and dead last in points allowed a game (28.2). Gang Green will most likely be without the services of Jerricho Cotchery and Laveranues Coles is banged up, but Cleveland's spongy D could make stars out of the reserves.
Both teams also possess game-breakers on special teams. Joshua Cribbs is averaging 31.2 yards on kickoff returns and has brought back two for scores this season, including one for 100 yards. Leon Washington is the man for the Jets, averaging 30.6 yards on returns with three touchdowns.
The Browns are coming off a brutal 27-21 loss to the Cardinals in the desert last week. Cleveland didn't play well, but still had a chance to win the game at the end. Anderson hit Winslow on the final play for an apparent winning touchdown, but the big tight end was ruled out of bounds. It looked like Winslow got one foot down and was then "forced out of bounds" by Arizona defenders, but the officials didn't see it that way and Cleveland came away on the short end of the stick.
Interestingly enough, the same situation happened when the Jets and Browns got together
last season. The Green and White trailed 20-13 in the dying moments of the fourth quarter when Chad Pennington heaved a fourth down pass to tight end Chris Baker in the end zone. Baker made a spectacular one-handed grab and received a wallop from safety Brodney Poole that knocked him out of bounds. It looked like a catch, but the zebras ruled that Baker wasn't "forced out" and therefore failed to tap both feet inside the white line. The Gotham Green absorbed a bitter 20-13 loss.
I guess what goes around comes around.
Anyway, here's a Brownies' view on the upcoming game.
And finally, what the hell are head coach Eric Mangini and Mike Tannenbaum doing? Mangini added a new punter to the mix last week. Jeremy Kapinos from Penn State was added to the practice squad. Why? Who knows. Kapinos was with the Jets during the preseason, but Gang Green cut him before the season. Mangini is trying to spin the move by saying Kapinos was brought in to lessen the workload on the incumbent Ben Graham and place kicker Mike Nugent (supposedly Kapinos can also kick field goals, but that bit of information was news to him). Workload? They're kickers! They aren't hitting sleds or practicing in pads! Ben Graham hasn't had a great season, but the idea of bringing in a punter at this stage of the season (and with the Jets sitting at 3-9) seems absolutely ridiculous to me.
Speaking of ridiculous, the Jets allowed the cross-town Giants to snatch running back Danny Ware from their practice squad this week. Ware had a solid preseason and I was shocked that he wasn't named to the "big club" when the Jets broke camp in September. Why the Jets decided to keep Ware on the practice squad and have four tight ends on their roster is still a mystery to me. This is the second running back the Jets have lost out to their Big Blue rivals. The first was Derrick Ward -- who was having a nice little season for the Giants before being placed on IR this week. Ward wrapped up the 2007 season with 602 yards rushing (4.8 average) and three touchdowns.
I guess Tangini felt it was more important to have a surplus of tight ends and punters instead of running backs.
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