CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
I may have made a bad decision.
Following a day which involved a tremendous amount of food, football, and beer, I woke up unprompted at 5AM this morning, and decided that, if I were up, I might as well sit down to write the Massive Morning Missive. Now, a little over an hour later, that decision is looking questionable as the toll of yesterday's indulgences has mounted with every waking moment. Fortunately, I have coffee to rely on, so just assume everything you see from here on is entirely the coffee speaking.
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
Last night's game between the Bengals and Ravens went Joe Burrow's way, sending the Ratbird faithful home early. The 32-14 Bengals victory not only nuked a five-game Rat winning streak, but dropped the noxious stolen franchise to 6-6 for the year. The Bengals improved to 4-8, which, in the AFC North, is good enough to remain in the hunt for a playoff spot with five games to play. The Bengals' chances are remote, but not entirely gone. With the Steelers playing the Bills this weekend, the potential that they will drop to .500 is pretty good as well.
Wait a minute.
The Cleveland Browns are 3-8 right now, too, and about to play a San Francisco 49ers team that is on a short week of rest and traveling across the country to Huntington Bank Field. Not only that, the Browns seemingly have had the 49ers' number for a while - Jim Schwartz's defenses have a 9-1 record against Kyle Shanahan's offenses in their last ten games, including last October 2023, when the 49ers came into the game against the Cleveland Browns with the best record in the league.
Could the Cleveland Browns suddenly find themselves back in the AFC North race if they could somehow get past San Francisco? It's possible.
Darn unlikely, but possible.
Moreover, the Browns move on from the 49ers with a game against the struggling Tennessee Titans, meaning that a three-game win streak is possible if they can get past Brock Purdy and crew.
Again, it's a stretch, given that the Browns have struggled to win three games to date with an offense that can, at best, be described as "sub-optimal". But, this far into the season, the fact that it's even a remote possibility says a lot about my level of desperation for relevance, and, more importantly, exactly how badly the AFC North has fared in 2025.
Jim Brown
Jim Brown (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
WHERE'S THE DARN ASTERISK? Last night, during the Ravens-Bengals game, the night's second-most exciting match-up behind Me vs. Tryptophan, a graphic on NBC's broadcast showed Derrick Henry closing in on the immortal Jim Brown. Influenced by righteous anger and a non-trivial consumption of Guinness, I blared out my indignation about the comparison to all who would hear, which was mostly my brother-in-law: "JIM BROWN SHOULD NOT BE ON THAT LIST!"
Or, at the very least, the Emmitt Smiths and others on the list should have asterisks by their names.
Derrick Henry, a tremendous running back as he may be, does not compare to how Jim Brown dominated the league back in their day when there were 33% fewer games played each season. For comparison's sake, it appears that Jim Brown averaged 104.3 yards/game and 5.2 yards/carry. Derrick Henry, on the other hand, averages 81.7 yards per game and 4.7 yards per carry, 20% and 10% lower than Jim Brown, respectively.
The all-time leading rusher stats are corrupted by the increasingly long NFL regular season schedule. Emmitt Smith, the all-time leading rusher, averaged a yard per carry less over his career than Brown. A yard per carry less. The stats lie about who was the greatest running back of all time and should be first burned, and then launched into the Sun to burn some more.
I have spoken on this matter. I will not take questions.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Edge AI inside the human body: Cochlear's machine learning implant breakthrough - (artificialintelligence-news.com)
During Thanksgiving dinner, the conversation at one point turned to Artificial Intelligence, particularly the issues it raises for educators, among whom there were a few around the table. But, as I've been saying here for a while, AI is simply another tool that could be used for good or ill. Above is an interesting article about how AI is being used to help cochlear implants, a medical device that must last for decades in patients. But now, the implant can upgrade itself to the latest software vs. the old models, which were "frozen in time" at the point they were implanted. AI is helping people hear better. It's not all doom, gloom, and furrowed eyebrows. AI can be used for good.
WRAPPING UP
When not wobbling in a man cave, angrily declaring that Derrick Henry is a pretender, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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