Like Everybody Else, Crennel Is Worried That Steelers Will Crush Browns Sunday

Romeo Crennel continues his march to unemployment, in all likelihood, three days from now. But in the meantime, he's going through the motions, preparing the Browns for their final game of 2008.

Unfortunately (historically, anyway) Cleveland faces Pittsburgh, a team Crennel has yet to beat in seven previous tries. Given that the wheels have fallen off the Browns season and the Steelers are gearing up for a playoff run, there's not much reason to think Cleveland has a chance Sunday. And this worries Crennel. Well, as much as a meaningless game that precedes the inevitable firing can worry somebody.

"I haven't been able to beat Pittsburgh and that's discouraging to everybody, myself included," Crennel said this week. "It seems like we play them close one game and get killed the next game. That's one of my fears going down this time, [that] we played them a close game this year."

So Crennel is predicting a beatdown, basically. For what it's worth, Vegas opened with Cleveland getting 10 points, but that was before Bruce Gradkowski was announced as the starting quarterback. He'll be the fourth Browns QB to start a game this year, which on most other teams, works out to approximately an 11th- or 12th-teamer. Adjust your lines accordingly.

Prior to the first get-together in September, general manager Phil Savage called it "the biggest game we've had," which, given how the season spiraled out of control shortly thereafter, he was probably onto something. The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi writes that "the bottom line of the Savage-Crennel regime is that the Browns appear no closer today to toppling their rivals than they were four years ago." Somehow, Crennel kept a straight face long enough to disagree.

"Going into this season there was some talk that we might be able to beat Pittsburgh and I don't think there has been that kind of talk around before. This year we ended up taking a step back, but going forward, as we build, I think we will have a chance to be much more competitive against them."

Yes, that should help Browns fans forget about the 2008 season. Back in August, some people thought that they might be able to beat Pittsburgh.