Will The Browns be Ready for Primetime Next Week?

The Cleveland Browns will begin preparing for their Monday Night Football match-up with the New York Giants. The Browns come into the game at 1-3 while the Giants look sharp at 4-0 and are coming off 44-6 thumping of the Seattle Seahawks yesterday. It begs the question, are the Browns ready for primetime or are we in store for a Browns embarrassment?

I'm predicting a Browns win. The bye week came at the perfect time for the team and the Giants will probably come in feeling like world beaters which leads to overconfidence. The AFC North hasn't looked that bad with the Cincinnati Bengals playing the Dallas Cowboys competitively yesterday, the Steelers with an impressive road win at Jacksonville, and the Ravens within a minute of a 3-1 start before their defense let them down against Tennessee yesterday.

The Browns will likely have a solid third receiving option when Donte' Stallworth comes back from an injured calf on Monday. Remember, the Browns offense of 2007? The things that it seems to missing is someone that makes it impossible to key on Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards. Edwards and Winslow have been swamped with coverages that have essentially limited Derek Anderson and the offense all season long. In theory, Stallworth changes that. The addition of Nicco isn't the only thing that Browns fans should be optimistic about. Anderson seemed to have found something rhythm that he had been missing all season long in the third and fourth quarter in the win against the Bengals before the bye.

Everybody in town seems to be talking about the negatives on the Browns at this time. What people don't seem to realize is that the team currently are in the top 10 in defense. In the NFL, defense wins the bulk of games and with just a little bit of help from offensive side of the ball could provide a world of difference.

By no means am I discounting the defending Super Bowl champion Giants. The team is playing like a well oiled machine with Eli Manning picking teams apart with Brandon Jacobs providing a solid rushing attack for the squad. The Browns, however, have had an extra week to prepare and rest while the team with undoubtedly be fueled by a ferocious crowd on the shore of Lake Erie.

The Browns season is on the brink. With a loss, the season is over. With a win, the teams lives to see another week and hope that the Pittsburgh Steelers start to lose. I'm not ready to count Romeo Crennel's squad out just yet.