Week 1: Dallas at Cleveland

Fun. It’s the first thing everyone thinks of when they hear the word, “Cleveland.” Well, after “postindustrial blight.” And, sadly, Drew Carey. And the fact that large parts of the city look, in the words of a Browns-fan friend, “like exteriors from Robocop.” And maybe also Bone Thugs N Harmony. But after last year’s surprising showing, the Browns have managed to put the word “fun” back in the mix with all those other distinctively Cleveland attributes.

Of course, all the best parties end in headaches, and Cleveland spent much of the preseason applying icepacks and prescription painkillers to the aching bodies of its top offensive players. While QB Derek Anderson (concussion), WR Braylon Edwards (heel laceration) and RB Jamal Lewis (hamstring) are reportedly all good to go in Week 1, there are still a lot of injured players on the already dodgy defense.

Which pretty much catches us up to last year, when the Browns’ insanely explosive offense tried wildly to keep up with an even more flammable defense. It was a tough task, but the Browns managed to get to 10 wins by beating the teams they were supposed to beat and scoring a lot of touchdowns. Anderson makes mistakes, still, but seems to be something like the real deal, and has a ton of top-tier targets in TE Kellen Winslow, Edwards and new second receiver Donte Stallworth. Lewis may find it tough sledding against a talented Dallas defensive front, but he takes a toll on defenders even if he’s not rolling up big yardage tallies.

The most important thing for the Browns will be a big game from their talented young offensive line, which is tasked here with keeping Dallas’ ace pass rushers out of Derek Anderson’s personal space for at least a few plays per series.  Assuming that the offensive line manages that — which is perhaps wishful thinking after a dreadful preseason — the Browns should be able to put up some points even against a very good Dallas defense, and presumably in weeks to come. Whether they’ll be able to do so faster than the Cowboys is a different and more difficult question.

The Cowboys didn’t change their roster much on either side of the ball, but leaving aside the team’s late-season flameout in 2007, there wasn’t much reason to tweak. Dallas had the best offense in the NFL this side of New England last year, and should be better with hard-driving RB Marion Barber getting more touches. Against a Cleveland defense that gave up over 230 passing yards per game in ’07 and still lacks a stopper in the secondary, Barber may be more of a counterpoint to the Cowboys’ creative passing attack. Anyway, the operative part of that word is “point.” As in, Dallas should be able to score a lot of them.

We’re inclined to say that they’ll score enough to win, but watching these two shoot it out should at least be fun. And what could be more quintessentially Cleveland than that?

COWBOYS BY 3