Published October 12, 2008 01:59 am - BEREA — It’s huge. It’s elegant. It’s the Madden Cruiser without the cheesy ads tattooed to its broad-as-a-barn sides.
Search for orange October
Browns still believe heading into Monday nighter against Giants
STEVE DOERSCHUK
Canton Repository
BEREA — It’s huge. It’s elegant. It’s the Madden Cruiser without the cheesy ads tattooed to its broad-as-a-barn sides.
It’s the Monday Night Football bus, and it’s parked at the Browns front door Saturday, spilling its crew onto the Browns offices and practice fields.
It’s one of those vehicles that cost more than the gross national product of Guatemala.
It looks a lot better than the Browns have looked in going 1-3.
From the sound of things in the locker room, though, the Browns are ready to shine in the bright lights.
However implausible, given the danger of getting their helmets handed to them by the Giants, the season of dreams lives between their earholes.
“We expect to be a good football team,” Pro Bowler Joshua Cribbs said. “We expect to be in the thick of things come time for postseason.
“We expect to be one of the teams looked at for more Monday night games next year. More publicity ... more everything.”
Center Hank Fraley, an offensive captain, is likewise optimistic about the search for orange October, or whatever the Browns’ quest can be called.
“Just because things don’t start out the way you envision doesn’t mean you abandon anything,” Fraley said. “Our expectations are still to win this division, so we just have to start one game at a time.”
Linebacker Willie McGinest, a defensive captain from the Parcells-Belichick school, declined to talk about his expectations for the season.
What about Monday night?
“We expect to play good, sound, disciplined football,” he said. “We expect to play a physical game for 60 minutes.”
Shaun Rogers, who has become the Browns’ best defensive player, is a little jaded as to expectations. He was on Detroit teams that went 2-14, 3-13, 5-11, 6-10, 5-11, 3-13 and 7-9.
Maybe it says something that the Lions are 0-4 without him.