by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Cleveland Browns (3-3) have been okay this year that’s saying something good about the Browns because they always find a way to mess things up. They had a decent run this year, they really have a strong offensive line. They added running back Ben Tate from free agency he’s been a pretty strong running back. The Browns have tight end Jordan Cameron whose been dinged up a bit the real surprise has been quarterback the starter Brian Hoyer a former Ohio State quarterback a local guy.

Fans really love to see Hoyer do well as he’s a former Ohio Buckeye and he’s starting for the Browns. Hoyer has been surprsingly good, he’s not a guy whose going to go to the Pro Bowl but this is a guy whose not getting the minimum salary per year but he’s one of the lowest paid quarterbacks in the NFL.

He’s been pretty successful because he doesn’t have much of a track record and the guy everyone thought Hoyer would be throwing to is the best receiver in football Josh Gordon whose been suspended all year. Gordon hasn’t been on the field yet and he won’t be back until mid November. The Browns have a serviceable offense and they have some pretty good guys on defense.

There still the Cleveland Browns there’s always somnething going on, they seemed to look good for a couple weeks and then they take two steps forward and then they take one step back, then they take one step forward and take two steps back. They find a way to disappoint everyone in Cleveland which as far as Cleveland sports teams go this is par for the course.

This is a team that the Oakland Raiders (0-6) are capable of beating, the Browns aren’t so good that they could just assume their going to win. The Raiders as we’ve seen in the last few weeks have been making these games competitive and staying in these games late. You saw it a couple of weeks ago against the Chargers they took San Diego right to the limit.

The Chargers won only on a field goal, with Arizona they had a little bit of an easier time and the Raiders were only one score behind at the beginning of the fourth quarter they were hanging in there. The problem is the Raiders are always going to have is they just don’t have the talent. So it’s really about working hard avoiding mistakes, avoiding penalties and if they can do that they can hang in some of these games.

Cleveland isn’t so talented that their going to blow the Raiders off the field so that helps, the Raiders will have to play a really, really good game this Sunday and on the road and a place to win like Cleveland that’s always going to be difficult. They can pull it off and they have to avoid any mistakes and they have to have really good games with their skill guys.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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