Okay, first things first: I think that Kellen Winslow was forced out of bounds on the final play, and that the call should have been for a touchdown.

But I'm not too upset about it. For one thing, this game featured a number of fluky, unusual, or otherwise non-symptomatic plays that could have altered the final outcome. Leigh Bodden's boneheaded "punt of frustration", for example, gave the Cardinals a new set of downs which eventually led to a touchdown. Do I think the 2007 Browns have a "committing stupid penalties out of frustration" problem? Not really—at least not more than your average NFL team. But it happened, and just like the non-call on the last play of the game, it may well have made a winner out of Arizona.

I don't mean to suggest that all of the Browns' mistakes were like this. Derek Anderson's two interceptions, for example, did have me a little worried, because, while he has done a great job cutting down on those mistakes in recent weeks, he had a previous habit of forcing the ball into bad spots.

On the whole, though, I thought the Browns played very well. The defense enjoyed one of its better games, and the offense moved the ball very efficiently when it wasn't turning the ball over. Moving on...

Play of the Week

Alex says: Braylon Edwards's 67-yard touchdown just about came out of nowhere. The Browns hadn't tried much down-field passing so far. Arizona had just scored to go up by eleven. The game looked to be a big stumbling block on the way for some pancakes. We all know what happened next. Since everyone was so busy cheering and chanting following the touchdown, I wasn't able to hear sage Dan Dierdorf's commentary on the play. My own personal conclusion was that the TD should've stood. That's why I was shocked to see David Lewin write, in this week's Audibles at the Line on Football Outsiders, "Braylon Edwards was indisputably down by contact on that touchdown. I am at a complete loss as to why the ref declined to overturn the play." That's not the way I saw it. Although I'm biased, I don't think Edwards was forced down nor was he touched by a Cardinal while he was down. Ipso facto, that's a touchdown!

Corey says: I'm going with the two-point conversion, which was probably the Browns' trickiest trick play of the season, and which worked beautifully. With Cribbs in the backfield, Anderson drifted to the left and pretended to be communicating an audible to Braylon Edwards. Then, surprising nobody, the ball was direct-snapped to Cribbs. He half-assedly faked a pass, then started to sprint up the middle. But wait! It was a pass after all! Josh had about three different ways he could've scored from there, the easiest of which was to toss to a wide open Winslow over the middle. I love when the Browns use Cribbs creatively on offense (as I'm sure you do) but the one thing that sometimes bothers me is: the guy was a QB in college—let him throw it every once in a while!

Player of the Week

Alex says: With the Cardinals' secondary depleted thanks to Adrian Wilson's injury, the Browns made no bones about trying to put the ball in Braylon Edwards's hands; a third of Derek Anderson's passes were directed to Edwards. He only pulled in seven of fourteen passes, though I believe most of the incompletions can be explained away by Arizona's various double- and triple-teaming schemes. Just think back to Anderson's second, and more boneheaded, interception. Edwards was sandwiched by three defensive backs, and had no hope of making the reception. That said, Braylon managed to accumulate plenty of yardage, including five first downs. He still needs to work on those drops, though.

Corey says: No one really stood out for me, so I'm falling back on Born & Raised bylaw #257: when in doubt, the Player of the Week is Joe Thomas. Joe played another extremely solid game, wouldn't you say? Congrats, Joe!

Quote of the Week

Alex says:

"Somebody said somebody head-butted [Simon Fraser] and he head-butted somebody else. [The officials] always see the second head-butt. That's not disciplined enough. That's not smart football." —Romeo Crennel

Seriously, I want to know. What the heck happened on the Browns' last kick return of the game? The Cardinals kicked it short, Jason Wright muffed the catch, Josh Cribbs recovered it, and made something out of nothing, taking the ball to the 33-yard line. Simon Fraser was called for unsportsmanlike conduct and the Browns lost fifteen precious yards of field position. Now, I'm sure Fraser did something warranting a flag, but can I get an explanation from someone about what exactly happened? C.B.S. declined to show any replays; no news reports mention what happened; only Romeo Crennel in his press conference hazards a guess about the situation. Someone, please help.

Corey says:

"We need to focus on starting fast. We put a lot of emphasis on finishing and a lot of times you forget to start. We do things down the stretch that are implications of the team we are and want to be but we always start out flat." —Braylon Edwards

Oh, right. The Browns always start out flat. Except when they start off amazing and finish flat, like they did against the Pittsburgh and Baltimore. It seems to me the Browns need to focus on not being flat, period. That would really be great.

Ryan Pontbriand Honorary Special Teams Moment of the Week

Alex says: In the third quarter, the D-Zast-er sent a parabolic punt to the fifteen-yard line, where it was fielded by Steve Breaston. Breaston, after a lot of pointless flinching and movement, was brought down by gunner extraordinaire Mike Adams for a return of only one yard. Week after week, Adams and Cribbs are separating themselves as the stars of the specialest of teams. Cribbs, obviously, gets much more attention that Adams, though Adams has been consistently impressive since Week 1.

Corey says: In my game preview, I noted that Arizona has been good at kicking off this year, not because of their coverage, but because of Neil Rackers' ability to get touchbacks. For this reason, I speculated that the Cardinals might be less likely than other teams to employ the "don't kick it to Cribbs" strategy. As it turned out, however, they chose to ignore Rackers' touchback ability, putting it in Darnell Dinkins' or Jason Gomillion Wright's hands. Did it pay off for Arizona? Perhaps—after all, they successfully ensured there would be no Cribbs returns for touchdowns. However, the Browns had excellent field position (and would have had even excellent-er field position if it weren't for a couple of penalties—thanks, Lee-on). It's a tough call, obviously. If I were an average team, I'd keep it away from Cribbs. But if I were Arizona, I probably would have tried for the touchback.

Hurvin McCormack Memorial Obscure Brown of the Week

Alex says: How about Matt Stewart? Yes, he is still officially a Brown. Right now, he's on the injured reserve with a torn labrum, as he's been since training camp. I was under the impression that Stewart was on the injured reserve for all of last season too, but apparently, he wasn't! I've learned that he played in all sixteen games last year and made fourteen tackles—incredible. You can add Matt to Gary Baxter, Ted Washington, Cosey Coleman, Joe Andruzzi, LeCharles Bentley, Willie McGinest as yet another Savage era free agent who's been wildly disappointing (for various reasons)!

Corey says: A major wrong was righted this week, as the Browns filled a hole: the lack of a token Corey on the roster. (As we've discussed in the past, it is an unwritten rule that each NFL team must carry a token Corey.) Granted, running back Kory Chapman spells his name completely incorrectly, and sure, he was only added to the practice squad this week, but give the guy some credit: Kory isn't even his real first name (it's his middle name; his real first name is Robrielle). It is that kind of dedication to the unwritten rules that makes him a winner in my book.

Fashion Item of the Week

Corey says: Last week, I pointed out a certain crime against humanity; namely, that a certain Brown—let's once again call him Grellen Grinslow—wore his normal all-brown socks during the one game a year when the rest of the team was proudly sporting their glorious striped socks. This week, the Browns went back to the all-browns; however, one courageous gentleman—let's call him Shraylon Shredwards—made a bold statement in solidarity for the striped socks: he chose to go completely sockless on the Browns' first offensive possession. That's right; college style! Needless to say, I proudly support this bold statement of disgust for the all-brown socks! Of course, by the second Browns possession, Shredwards had been forced to get with the program, but by that time, the message had been sent.

Alex says: For the first time this season, I actually had material for the Fashion Item of the Week. And then Corey goes and calls dibs on it! I guess I'll just have to go to my B material. Thankfully, my B material is still pretty good and it also involves Braylon Edwards, who I haven't written enough about already. For most of the first half, Edwards was actually wearing white shoes—big fashion no-no! Some N.F.L. Overlord, or perhaps Head Equipment Manager Brad Melland, convinced Braylon to change into some black cleats. For the doubtful, unfortunately, the only photographs I could find of him during the game came post-switch, so feel free to think I made all this up.

Idiot of the Week

Alex says: In a nod to this category's former name, I think Kurt Warner is gaining an unfair and unlawful advantage with his robo-arm. While this mechanical limb isn't his throwing arm, Warner could all sorts of other things with it. Like... stiff-arming or raising the roof or who knows what else? A lot! Anyway, after the game, Romeo Crennel should've asked the refs to peel the flesh off of Warner's robo-arm, revealing blinking lights and other metallic, futuristic thingies.

Corey says: This feels too easy, but how about the ref whose incorrect definition of "forced out" cost the Browns a touchdown? Of course, the refs also screwed Arizona when they somehow determined that Braylon Edwards was untouched before hitting the ground midway through his 67-yard sprint to the endzone. But at least on that play, they made their decision based on what they saw on film.

Number of the Week

Alex says: 63.4%, or the Browns' current odds of making the post-season according to Football Outsiders. Coming into the game, their odds were something around 75%. (I'm not really sure. I neglected to write down this information and Football Outsiders doesn't archive their odds.) Soon after the game, Terry Pluto warned that the Browns shouldn't expect to be playing past Week 17 just yet. The objectivity of F.O.'s statistics show that Pluto's fear-mongering isn't justified just yet. The Browns still have a very favorable remaining schedule—second-easiest in the A.F.C., behind Cincinnati, according to you-know-who. This week's loss was disappointing and I still don't want to talk about it, but the Browns remain a good bet for the pancakes.

Corey says: One of the benefits of being so late in publishing Born and Raised is that by now, Football Outsiders has updated its stats pages with Week 13 data. So let's go with 7.1%, the Browns' overall team DVOA (which ranks them 11th in the NFL). Unless I'm mistaken, this is the highest the Browns' team DVOA has ever been (DVOA only goes back to 1996). I think we all already agreed that this was the best New Browns team we'd ever seen, but it just feels nice to see someone put a number on it, you know?

This Week on Josh's Cribbs

Corey says: Episode 12 of Josh's Cribbs brings Josh to a set of tryouts for Cleveland's brand new, soon-to-be-named Arena Football League team. And no, silly, Josh wasn't going to try out (as if they would require him to). He was there to support three of his "boys": older brother Harold Cribbs, Jr., high school and college teammate Darrell Dowery, and former Browns teammate Kendrick Mosley. We learn a bit about Josh's history with each of these fellows (in high school, Josh and his brother played against each other, etc.). Josh talks at length about how Dowery (who, from the Kent State highlight reel they showed, you'd think was Randy Moss) got robbed in his attempts to make it to the NFL, because of...well, I already forgot the excuse. Anyway, all three gentlemen are invited back for a second tryout. Personally, I'm pretty excited to attend a football game at Quicken Loans Arena. And if Josh Cribbs' brother and homies are on the team, even better (especially if one of them is a former Brown)!

Pythagorean Moral Standings

The Browns, comfortably the most morally superior team in the NFL, eke out their closest moral victory of the season so far. Meanwhile, the Steelers make up for a moral implosion last Monday night against the Dolphins by sending Cincinnati to defeat, both morally and actually. The Ravens suffer another crushing moral shutout, as they fail to lose to the Patriots by a margin of less than three points.

            PMW   PML   pct
Cleveland   9.9   2.1  .825
Cincinnati  6.0   6.0  .500
Pittsburgh  5.5   6.5  .458
Baltimore   0.0  13.0  .000

Next week: The Browns travel to New York to hang out with Alex, eat some Grimaldi's pizza, and catch a matinee of Iphigénie en Tauride. Oh yeah, they'll also destroy the Jets, blindfolded. Join us, will you not, for yet another edition of Born and Raised on the Cleveland Browns!