NY Jets = overrated

Ravens 10, Jets 9

Monday night's NFL game at the new Meadowlands Stadium was billed as an AFC Championship game between two teams expected to have strong seasons and ready to break into the New England-Indy-Pittsburgh stranglehold on the AFC.

The Baltimore Ravens look ready to join that group. However, someone forgot to tell the NY Jets.

The Jets have made headlines all summer.

• Big-name acquisitions like LaDainian Tomlinson, Jason Taylor, Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie
• HBO and NFL Films featured the Jets for the TV show "Hard Knocks"
• The head coach Rex Ryan making Super Bowl guarantees and feuding with fans and media, including former coach Tony Dungy, for excessive use of expletives.
• Now the NFL is investigating the Jets for inappropriate actions when visited by a female reporter during practice last Saturday.
• Opening of a new stadium and playing their first regular-season game on Monday night.

All of this makes the Jets a sexy pick for the Super Bowl – not any more.

The Jets' offense was shockingly bad: 6 first downs, 1-11 on third down, 60 yards passing - against the Ravens defense missing two starters in the secondary. The Jets almost had more penalty yards than total yards on offense.

Cleveland Browns fans will see Jake Delhomme's struggles at QB and wish they had Mark Sanchez. Let's look at the Jets QB: he has a pro-bowl left tackle (D’Brickashaw Ferguson), pro-bowl center (Nick Mangold), pro-bowl receiver (Braylon Edwards), and a hall of fame running back (Tomlinson). It's time Sanchez starts getting it done.

The Jets are good at drawing people's attention. Now let's see how they play football with a target on their chest.

Cleveland Browns and NFL reactions

Bucs 17, Browns 14
The Browns let one get away yesterday. They played horrible and lost to a bad team with a 2nd year quarterback who has a broken thumb. I'm sure this season Cleveland will win a game that it has no business winning but the Tampa Bay game stings a bit.

I wonder how bad Jake Delhomme was injured. Looks like his ankle or foot was hurting him on his throws. His decision-making was still very questionable.

Given that the Browns should have ran the ball more often. I know Peyton Hillis fumbled twice but given the rain, the Delhomme injury, and Tampa couldn't stop it, Cleveland should have been running the ball.

I'm happy with the defense overall, both Tampa TDs came on a short field. However, the lack of pass rush is still alarming. Yes, the Browns recorded three sacks but it seemed the only way Cleveland could pressure Bucs QB Josh Freeman is by blitzing. They got caught in a blitz on the game winning TD. Hopefully when Shaun Rogers is on the field more often, the pocket will collapse more often. Let's hope.

Steelers 15, Falcons 9 - big win for Pittsburgh. Today's game shows that it's Troy Polamalu who is the team MVP and not Ben Roethlisberger. Just a total lost weekend for Atlanta. They catch a break with the schedule when Big Ben sits in their game but will be available when Pittsburgh plays New Orleans. The Falcons don't have to play Minnesota. Instead the Saints win and the Falcons lost to the Steelers minus Roethlisberger. Not to mention this is a big confidence boost for Dennis Dixon.

Bears 19, Lions 14 - the officials made the wrong call on Calvin Johnson's touchdown catch in the final minute of the Bears-Lions game. Once again, a lack of common sense ruins the end of the game.

Patriots 38, Bengals 24 - I'm curious to see in the coming weeks whether New England is going to be very good or Cincinnati is very over-rated. Chad Ochocinco had a huge day - I'll have to check out his reality show to see if he's a hit with the ladies now. Neither Ochocinco or Terrell Owens were on the field for a Hail Mary attempt at the end of the first half because they had left early for the locker room - OOPS.

Texans 34, Colts 24 - hard to believe it's the first win for Houston against Indianapolis. How long have they been in the league?

Golf take: Congratulations to Myrtle Beach's Dustin Johnson for winning this week's BMW tournament at Cog Hill. After blowing up in the final at the US Open and taking a tough penalty at PGA to miss the play-off, the golf gods needed to make good with Johnson. He may have a shot to win the Fed Ex Cup next week.

Cleveland Browns: so far so good

I usually don't watch pre-season game because it's mostly garbage football (Hall of Fame game comes to mind). However, I was pleasantly surprised with the Browns and Green Bay Packers - a good game to watch for 60 minutes. I was unable to watch the game live so I DVR'd it and then watched it later. I know who records NFL preseason games?

Props to Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace for strong games. I think we're going to like Brian Robiskie and Ben Watson. The passing game has to be better in 2009. It can't be any worse. For the first time in a couple of years, the Browns looked like an offense and more importantly an NFL-competent offense. I was especially impressed with Wallace's arm – looks better than Delhomme's who I hope is recovered from surgery.

Green Bay has a great offense but I'm still concerned about the defense. Packers didn't attempt to run the ball and the secondary got carved up. It was almost too easy for QB Aaron Rodgers. I like the fact that Joe Haden and TJ Ward both played a lot and made some nice plays and some bad plays.

Unsung heroes we take for granted: Phil Dawson and Blake Constanzo. The Browns special teams have been very solid these last few years.