MY FAVORITES OF 2014

It's time to wash our hands of yet another playoff free year in Cleveland. I've had a lot of fun posting crazy jokes for everyone this season.  More fun than watching many of the games that these jokes were based on.  So to celebrate the new year I want to look back at some of my favorite jokes of the past year.

The year started with insanity.  The Browns fired the coach they had just hired.  There were a lot of questions about the front office.  Dysfunction seemed to be in order.  Nobody seemed to know their role, or who to answer too.  I would like to think this picture was single handedly responsible for the removal of Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi.

2014 was also mercifully the end of the Brandon Weeden era.  

Weeds was part of Jerry Jones master plan.

Meanwhile we still needed a coach...
Our search went everywhere... well almost everywhere.

And then we found one.

Thankfully the Indians started up because the NFL Draft narrative was getting old quick.  And I was ready for something to go right for at least one of our teams.  I've always liked this homage to the Super Mario Bros coin tone... but now that I look at it, it is already outdated.  The bullpen setup will be much different this year.  Awesome, can't wait for the trolls if I try to recycle this one this one next year.  

And finally the games started...

And thank goodness for Tom Hamilton, because the job didn't get any easier in the offseason.

 Then the Indians came out in April and just couldn't get any momentum.

I tried my best to help some guys out...

But in the end it wasn't an exciting beginning for the Indians, so draft talk took right back over...

Jimmy Haslam really took this draft seriously.  There was a great desire to address the Quarterback position, so they literally went down every alley possible in determining who they would draft.

And they decided to go with the hype.

Luckily the Indians began to turn things around.  Thanks from help from clutch hitting from "Good Guy" David Murphy...

...and "Old Man" Scott Atchison.

But the real gem of the 2014 baseball season was certainly Corey Kluber.  While I did tons of jokes about Kluber these here are among my favorties.

The Indians managed to keep themselves relevant for the better part of the season.  Which made many in the fan base very happy.

Guys who had early season struggles reconnected with the force as the season went on.

And even tried to be the answer to the QB controversy brewing in Berea.

And in the end the Indians fell a little short of their postseason goals.  But my prediction on the postseason awards didn't go exactly how I thought.  The MLB writers just gave Kluber the Cy Young Award, instead of changing the award in his honor.

The Indians struggles on defense was real however.  Case in point, a 2nd baseman playing left field made the defensive play of the year.

Meanwhile after another disappointing year the Cavs looked to make some waves this offseason, and waves they made.

And the hype lasted clear until the end of the first game when they got beat by the lowly Knicks.

So guess who was back in the forefront of the media's eyes.  Here is Johnny at the bar studying the playbook and drinking milk.

And Josh Gordon made news by pissing away his football career, for another in car sales.

And Kluber decided that maybe he should help out as well.

But suddenly the unexpected happened... the Browns won some games.

And a new hero was beginning to emerge.

Then the unthinkable happened... we kicked the Steelers asses.

We were on top of the world.

Browns fans for the most part were happy.  But the in typical Browns fashion, the wheels started to fall off.

Joe Thomas turned out to be an enemy to the environment. 

Ben Tate was thrown from the building.

And Brian Hoyer fell apart...

So it was time for the young man to take over...

...and in 7 quarters all but proved he was barely NFL caliber.  Then he admitted he didn't take the season very seriously, and lost nearly every fan that he had.

Josh Gordon didn't do himself any favors with the fans either.  

And with Justin Gilbert not endearing himself to the fans, coaches or teammates the year 2014 ended full circle.

Here's to a better 2015!

THE 2014 BROWNS MEMES AWARDS

 Welcome everyone to the 2nd annual Browns Memes Postseason Awards!

The Browns ended up 7-9 which on the surface sounds like improvement.  However the record seems a bit jaded when you factor in the fact this team was 6-3 and riding high in the division.  If you factor in the fact that the team went through a period that looked like something out of a scripted nightmare.  If you think about the fact we now have almost zero value at the QB position.  So much went wrong in a very short period of time.

So where can we find some positives?  Well we can't, but it is sports and we are playing for awards.  If we can't earn awards the traditional ways (winning, in case you have forgotten by now) then someone is going to have to make some awards up for them.  That someone is me.  So with no further delay I present the most prestigious awards a player can earn from a goofball Twitter account... The Browns Memes 2014 Postseason Awards!

First I would like to recognize Josh Gordon as the 2014 Idiot of the Year.  He is the only award winner from this year to have won his award before the season even started.  Despite tremendous efforts from Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel to pry this award from Gordon's hands they just couldn't.

I always thought Browns Twitter made severe fun of Indians Twitter due to the overuse of silly nicknames and slogans... then WRECK THIS LEAGUE became the rallying cry for the backup quarterback to enter the game and instantly become some weird hybrid of all the greatest qualities of Randall Cunningham and Joe Montana wrapped into a barely 6 foot tall fratboy.  WRECKED MY TEAM is more like it.

Last year a streaker in the preseason stole the Run of the Year from the entire stable of running backs.  This year a man in the Dawg Pound shed two blocks from Bengals fans and laid the first hit of the day on Jeremy Hill... one row deep in the stands.  Congratulations Rhett, you earned this one!

For a short period of time this year it looked like we finally scared the same old Browns away.  Isaiah Crowell helped with that.  This lightning run against the Falcons was one of the better runs I've seen from an actual running back in a good long time.

I'm glad that we are retaining our coaching staff.  Our defense did a lot of good things.  But offensively we were a bit of a joke.  Most of the dumb coaching blunders of the season seemed to come while we had the ball.  Take this gem early in season, where the Browns broke almost every written and unwritten rule in football.  And couldn't even get set to run the play...

This year I thought it would be fun to let the fans in on the voting as well here is the results for the fan polls for Biggest Letdown, Biggest Surprise and MVP of the season.

Congratulations to all of our esteemed winners.

THE HALFWAY POINT

The only thing I know for sure about the 2014 Cleveland Browns is that I know less about the team now than I did before the season began.  Never in all of my days of watching this team play have I seen more bizarrely unpredictable play.

But one thing I know for sure is that they are better than the old Browns teams.  But reading many people's narratives of this team you would never believe it.  To see the amount of people complaining about the QB situation and digging for negatives is crazy to me.  To have five wins at the halfway point of the year is an incredible feeling.  So lets go down memory lane, as I stack up games 1-8 head to head against last year's team and lets see if anyone would want to live through last season again instead.

Game One:

2014  Browns 27 - Steelers 30 - The season couldn't have started worse, the team bumbled to a 27-3 halftime deficit.  However the Browns came out in the second half like an entirely different team scoring 24 unanswered points to tie the game late in the 4th quarter.  However the team ran out of gas at the very end of the game giving up a game winning FG in the last seconds.

2013  Dolphins 23 - Browns 10 - The Browns finally mustered some offense just before half to take a 7-6 halftime lead.  That was their highlight as the Browns fell apart and Ryan Tannehill and the Dolphins cruised through the 2nd half outscoring the Browns 17-3 from that point on.

Advantage: 2014   

Game Two:

2014  Saints 24 - Browns 26 - In a game where most experts gave the Browns no chance to even be competitive in their home opener the Browns outplayed the Saints through most of the 1st half.  However the Browns missed some opportunities and gave up some late points and still led the game 16-10 at the half.  However this week the Saints managed the comeback and took a late lead in the game.  Then the unthinkable happened.  Brian Hoyer led a clutch drive setting up a Billy Cundiff game winning FG.

2013  Browns 6 - Ravens 14 - Once again the Browns wasted a good defensive effort, only managing 6 points at halftime. The Ravens quickly erased the deficit and added one more TD for good measure.  Brandon Weeden was injured in the 4th quarter and Jason Campbell didn't have a chance either.

Advantage: 2014

Game Three:

2014  Ravens 23 - Browns 21 - The Browns managed to hang tough with the Ravens, and heading into the 4th quarter held a fragile 21-17 lead.  Brian Hoyer hit Taylor Gabriel on 70 yard pass that looked like it was going to setup some insurance.  The Browns didn't do another thing right that game.  The entire offense and defense fell apart and the same old Browns reared it's ugly head.

2013  Browns 31 - Vikings 27 - After a shocking week Trent Richardson was traded and Brian Hoyer was named starting QB.  The next shocker was the fact we had offense for the first time in 2013.  In the first exciting game of 2013 the Browns hung tough, but found themselves down by 4 in the 4th quarter.  Then the unthinkable happened.  Brian Hoyer led a clutch drive finding Jordan Cameron for a game winning touchdown.

Advantage: 2013 

Game Four:

2014  Browns 29 - Titans 28 -  The Browns had another first half meltdown in this game, building a 25 point deficit in the 2nd quarter.  However the Browns scored 28 unanswered points to end the game completing the largest road comeback victory in NFL history.

2013 Bengals 6 - Browns 17 - In one of the most drama free games in a while the Browns managed to hold an early lead for the entire game.  The Browns put this game on ice in the 4th quarter with Hoyer's 2nd TD pass of the game.  The Bengals offense didn't have an answer.

Advantage: 2014

Game Five:

2014  Steelers 10 - Browns 31 - In the biggest win over the Steelers in decades, the Browns beat the Steelers from pillar to post.  The only negative in the entire game was the fact that Alex Mack would be lost for the season.

2013  Bills 24 - Browns 37 - Brian Hoyer's season ended during the Browns 2nd offensive series.  This opened the door for Brandon Weeden to reclaim his job at QB.  Weeden wasn't terrific, but Travis Benjamin was.  His punt returns set up several key touchdowns taking the Browns winning streak to three games... but now we have to go forward with Weeden.

Advantage: 2014

Game Six:

2014  Browns 6 - Jaguars 24 - In one of the biggest momentum killing losses in recent memory, the Browns didn't show up in any aspect of the game.  Jacksonville literally had a blowout handed to them in this game.

2013  Lions 31 - Browns 17 - In one of the biggest momentum killing losses in recent memory, the Browns took a 17-7 lead into halftime.  After the half the Browns self destructed as the Lions put up 24 unanswered points.  The game will probably be best remembered for Brandon Weeden's flipper pass interception in the 4th quarter to seal the game for the Lions.

Advantage: None, both of these games can burn in hell

Game Seven:

2014  Raiders 13 - Browns 23 - This certainly wasn't the prettiest game in the world.  But the Browns took advantage of the Raider's mistakes and handily won this game.

2013  Browns 13 - Packers 31 - The Browns traveled to Lambeau Field, and did exactly what everyone expected them to do... get blown out.  Weeden was horrible, and lost his job again after this game.

Advantage: 2014

Game Eight:

2014  Buccaneers 17 - Browns 22 - The Browns running game continued to struggle since the loss of Alex Mack, but the passing game picked them up.  Hoyer threw for over 300 yards for the first time this season, and the Browns hung tough and picked up a hard fought fifth win of the season.

2013  Browns 17 - Chiefs 23 - Jason Campbell became the 20th starting QB for the Browns since 1999 at Kansas City.  And after not being able to complete the comeback after a 20-3 Chiefs lead, became the 20th QB to take a loss.    

Advantage: 2014


So tell me again why people are so upset.  I have the 2014 season up 6-1-1 versus the 2013 team.  And the only time I picked that team was Hoyer's debut.  Let's not forget those 5 wins we have at the halfway point is more than the 2013 team mustered all season long.  They won their next game and never won again.

So calm down people, the most alarming things about this year's team is the offensive and defensive lines.  We have some work to do.  But sit back and enjoy it for a change.