By Lynn Saternow
Herald Sports Editor
MOST NFL TEAMS look forward to their “bye week.” The banged-up Pittsburgh Steelers can use one this weekend.
The Steelers showed their resolve when they defeated Minnesota last week, turning key turnovers into victory. While Pittsburgh appears to be the luckiest team in the league, returning a fumble and interception for touchdowns, a lot of it has to do with their great ability to take advantage of their opportunities.
It’s nice to be good, but it’s better to be good and lucky! Then again they got some help from the referees as well against Minnesota with a rare — and horrible — tripping call that negated a Packers TD and then resulted in a turnover for a score.
Pittsburgh is one of the teams getting a bye this week. The Chicago Bears also get a bye as they play the Cleveland Browns.
How low can any team sink? How long can Eric Morongini keep his coaching job?
While it appears the Browns made a serious mistake hiring Mangini, the real problem starts with the owner and general manager. Nobody can tell me that even Mangini thinks that Derek Anderson should still be the starting quarterback. Nobody could be that stupid.
That has to come from above because the Browns don’t want to pay Brady Quinn a bonus of $11 million if he takes 70 percent of the snaps.
You know that long-suffering Browns fans have finally had enough when even “Dawg Pound Mike,” one of the leaders of the “Dawg Pound,” is preaching a revolt from fans. He is asking all fans at the Monday Night game on Nov. 16 to stay away from their seats for the opening kickoff. That will make a great statement on the biggest TV night for the NFL. (Well it was the biggest TV night until they scheduled the Browns. There has to be some reruns of “I Love Lucy” that would be better.)
I plan on staying away from seats in Cleveland until they actually put a respectable team on the field. Hopefully that will come in my lifetime.
If the Browns are rocked today by Chicago — I predict 27-3 — maybe this will be a “bye-bye” week for Mangini.
Still, life outside football goes on for Browns fans and not everything is sour. Long-time Browns backer John Davidson of Sharon Regional Health System nailed a hole-in-one on No. 4 at Avalon at Buhl Park this past week with a 6-iron shot and took money off Steelers’ fan Frank Evans. Sometimes Browns fans do get some small victories in life.
Last week my predictions went 6-7 for a season mark of 53-50. Following are the rest of this week’s picks, betting line in parentheses just for fun:
Bye over Steelers
Green Bay (-31/2) over Minnesota
Detroit (no line) over St. Louis
NY Jets (-4) over Miami
Ravens (-3) over Denver
Houston (-31/2) over Buffalo
Indy (-10) over San Fran
Dallas (-91/2) over Seattle
San Diego (-161/2) over Oakland
Jacksonville (plus 3) over Tennessee
Arizona (-71/2) over Carolina
Philly (-3) over NY Giants
New Orleans (-81/2) over Atlanta
Sports
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