It's been said many times, "Winning is a great deodorant", that could be no truer then for the Cleveland Browns and their fans after Sunday's 20-13 victory over the New York Jets. A week of turmoil ended with the very best result possible, a win.

Sure it was against the New York Jets, a team that has over achieved in the minds of many, but they were 4-3 coming into the game none the less. The Jets had gone on the road and beaten the Buffalo Bills. They had played down to the wire and to-to toe with the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, just coming up short. This was a New York Jets team that had a lot of confidence coming into Cleveland and rightfully so. The Jets were ranked 7th in the league in scoring offense, but only mustered 6 offensive points. QB Chad Pennington threw for a mere 108 yards, 2 interceptions and a QB rating of 21.1.

The offensive play calling, which had been much maligned under former offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon, looked exceptional through 2 1/2 quarters Sunday. The Browns took a 20-3 lead and it looked like they would win going a way. Of course this is the Browns and that did not happen. Nope, instead the offensive play calling under new offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson got very conservative and the Jets were able to claw back into the game.

Some are asking the question, did the Browns get conservative because of all the 4th quarter mistakes QB Charlie Frye has made? It really is a legitimate question. Frye leads the league in 4th quarter interceptions in 2006 and several of those INT's prevented the Browns from winning a game. Just think about it, the Browns would be sitting at 3-4 right now, 1 game out of 1st place in the AFC North had Frye not throw a late INT in the end-zone against the Ravens. My how the look of this season would be changed! It appears the Davidson and head coach Romeo Crennel were not going to put the game in Frye's hands. Ruben Droughns had run the ball better then at any time all year and the defense was playing lights out. It turns out that was a very wise decision by the Browns and the results don't lie.

The offensive line saw their position coach, Jeff Davidson, get promoted to offensive coordinator and then went out and played their best game of 2006. The team ran for 147 yards, the most they have gotten all year and paved the way for Droughns to get his 2nd rushing TD of the year. Coincidently they did their best work of the season with 2 new comers in Lennie Friedman and Kelly Butler. The line was also helped out by implementing a lot of 3 tight end sets throughout the game.

The Browns defense continues to show improvement week in and week out. They have a 5 game streak where they have allowed 15, 14, 13, 17 and 6 points. The team finds itself now 10th in the league in scoring defense and rising and 5th in the league in passing defense. The team held the Jets to only 88 yards rushing, over 25 yards fewer then they have averaged in 2006.

Head coach Romeo Crennel was encouraged with the teams effort Sunday in his Monday press conference. He also acknowledged that turnovers and his team winning the turnover battle Sunday was a key to winning. Crennel also noted the mistakes the team was making and did not try to dismiss them. The fact the special teams coverage unit was not typical, hence the 100 yard return for a TD. KR/PR Joshua Cribbs has also been spoken to about ball security. The past couple of games Cribbs has looked very bad on punt returns, luckily it looks as if PR Dennis Northcutt may be back this week.

Crennel said the defense got use to the Jets tempo after yielding an 8 minute and 30 second opening drive and 3 points. The Jets had the ball for only 16:19 the rest of the game and scored only 3 more points on offense. The team clearly was aided by the return of starting cornerback Leigh Bodden and the improved play of cornerbacks Daven Holley and Ralph Brown. With their improved play the team is allowed to do more things with their secondary, like blitzing more.

Crennel also agreed with the officials call of Jets TE Chris Baker being out of bounds on a 4th and 4 play that could have tied the game late in the 4th quarter. The officials ruled Baker out of bounds and that is reviewable, but they did not rule he was forced out and that is not reviewable. Know one can say for sure that Baker would have come down in bounds and apparently the officials felt his momentum was carrying him out of bounds.

Crennel was also very please with the play of both Butler and Friedman and feels very fortunate that he has them on the team. It looks as if the two will get a lot more playing time with the illness of Ryan Tucker and the injury sustained by Joe Andruzzi on Sunday.

The Browns will now look to try and get their first back-to-back wins since the 2003 season. It won't be easy as they travel west to play perennial playoff and possible Super Bowl contenders in the San Diego Chargers.

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