Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl

Last night the family and I sat down and watched N.D. Wilson’s movie, “Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl,” which is based on his excellent book. Both the book and the film boldly tackle huge issues of philosophy and life in a simple and poetic fashion. He paints a picture of life as the outworking of God as an artist, and that we should go through life with the knowledge that we are participating in His masterpiece.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book, as well as the movie.

“In this story, the sun moves. In this story, every night meets a dawn and burns away in the bright joy of the morning. In this story, Winter can never hold back the Spring.”

“I will be washed away.  I will be battered and picked at.  I will stoop and sag.  My skin will be stretched and folded and eventually pounded into sand.  Decay will catch me.  But for now, until the day I lose, I will win.  I will pack my body’s walls with strength it cannot keep.  I will eat and drink.  And when the tide is out, rocking back, I will close my eyes and rest my bones.”

Last night the family and I sat down and watched N.D. Wilson’s movie, “Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl,” which is based on his excellent book. Both the book and the film boldly tackle huge issues of philosophy and life in a simple and poetic fashion. He paints a picture of life as the outworking of God as an artist, and that we should go through life with the knowledge that we are participating in His masterpiece.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book, as well as the movie.

“In this story, the sun moves. In this story, every night meets a dawn and burns away in the bright joy of the morning. In this story, Winter can never hold back the Spring.”

“I will be washed away.  I will be battered and picked at.  I will stoop and sag.  My skin will be stretched and folded and eventually pounded into sand.  Decay will catch me.  But for now, until the day I lose, I will win.  I will pack my body’s walls with strength it cannot keep.  I will eat and drink.  And when the tide is out, rocking back, I will close my eyes and rest my bones.”

“True atheism is nonsense. If there is such a thing as beautiful, such a thing as good, or even such a thing as bad, then there is a transcendent standard which determines which is which. An atheist can say that a society prefers mothers to murderers, but he cannot say that this is as it should be. Tell us what is, by all means. But without God, you cannot tell us what ought to be.”

“The Infinite speaks us. We are in the frame, playing our role alongside the ants and moss and Orion. We fell away, and our world fell with us. He stoops for us, and in the end our running and our suiciding will only picture the depth of His love, His humility. It magnifies His ultimate triumph.”

 

Adam Donald Shorey is the creator, writer, and utility infielder for BasementAthlete.com.

Did You Feel the Earth Tremble?

| learned two things after feeling my first earthquake this afternoon.

First, I need to decide whether to laugh at or be annoyed by those who use Facebook during a notable event to criticize those who use Facebook during a notable event. i.e: “So I guess EVERYONE is going to mention the EARTHQUAKE in their status now?!?!?!” I love irony.

Second, jokes about minor earthquakes are just too easy. You need do nothing more than mention your favorite overweight celebrity falling over and you have your joke. People are so into the event itself that you might even get a laugh.

So with the jokes flowing freely how could I choose just one? Simply put…I couldn’t.

Possible earthquake related jokes:

- Did John Goodman, Kirstie Ally, post-Pittsburgh Barry Bonds, Chumley, a Williamsport crowd, Larry Fitzgerald’s new contract, or A-Rod’s poker bankroll just fall over? Zing.

- We finally discovered something that will stop congress from talking for 20 minutes!

- The earth itself moved more than the Red Sox offense did last night! Okay…I can admit that was a stretch.

- That was more earth-shaking than the Council of Trent! How are these Protestant Reformation jokes working for you? Nothing? Fair enough.

- Upon feeling the Oval Office shake, President Obama hurriedly informed anyone who would listen that he “inherited this earthquake.”

There you have it. Take whichever cheesy earthquake joke tickles your fancy and attribute it to me.

Bazinga.

Adam Donald Shorey is the creator, writer, and water boy at BasementAthlete.com.

From the Ashes

My personal memory lane is littered with countless highlights of the heroics of Big Papi. A mere mention of the calendar month of  ”October” — in any context — can bring flashing images of 2004 to my mind’s eye. His three walk-off hits in that World Series run are branded on the consciousness of any Bostonian who had lived long enough to know the pain of being a Red Sox fan and have the life-investment finally come to happy fruition.

So it was simply excruciating to watch his miserable struggles at the
beginning of last season bring him to the brink of losing his spot on the
team.

We had our first hints of a newly bipolar quality to Big Papi’s performance
back in 2009. After a painfully slow start, Big Papi recovered enough to be
respectable that year, but not enough to foster optimism among Sox fans for
2010.

Entering May of 2010, Ortiz (joining countless others newly-marred by
steroid accusations) stood at .143 with one home run. Yes, thats ONE, four,
three. He was visibly late on most pitches. Feeble popups became the
expectation, on the very offerings through which he used to explode. His
potent, high-finish home run swing was missing in action. No Sox fan wanted
to utter the reality that we all knew. Papi was done. We were simply
clinging to an empty uniform of the man who had once brought us and our team
the euphoric glory we longed for.

Rumor had it that the protagonist in our favorite story was about to exit
stage-right.

Terry Francona warded off an endless barrage of questions about the future
of Ortiz and whether a roster change was needed. While relentlessly
deflecting these inquiries through April, Tito finally gave in during the
first week of May.

Francona confessed, “It’s not going the way we’d like it to. If that’s a
distraction, than we need to figure out a way for it not to be.”

It seemed only a matter of time. There were no other options.

Unless…

Like a phoenix from the ashes, (or some less-cliched symbol of resurrection)
Ortiz abruptly lit the month of May on fire, hitting at a .362 clip while
clubbing 10 home runs with 27 RBI’s.

While glorious to watch, I remained stubbornly skeptical. Surely the
severity of slump in which he had been mired couldn’t be solved by a simple
adjustment that would restore David Ortiz 2010 to David Ortiz, circa 2004.

Wrong again, Adam. Ortiz put up all-star numbers through the rest of the
season allowing him to finish with a .270 average with 32 home runs and 102
RBI’s. Unthinkably beyond the highest expectations of the most passionate
optimist in New England.

Cynic that I am, spring training 2011 rolled around and I had
mildly-optimistic, significantly-reserved expectations for Mr. Ortiz. Surely
2010 was the last gasp of our beloved hero. It’s almost too bad that he
can’t quit while he’s ahead, I thought to myself. Surely he’ll stumble out
of the gate again, and this time he might not recover.

Well, it’s May 10th, 2011. Just over a year ago Ortiz was under .150 and
staring down an involuntary retirement. Today the only question about Ortiz
is whether the bat flip on the first of his two long home runs against the
Yankees this week was disrespectful.

Entering tonight’s contest Ortiz was hitting .324 with 14 home runs and 32
RBI’s.

That this story-line was unfathomable a year ago is an understatement. The
contrast from this time last year is as stark as it is a joy to watch.

I don’t know what to make of it or whether it will last. I do know, however,
that this is one more example of David Ortiz being one of the most
entertaining players in my life time. And I’m fully enjoying the ride.

Buckner, Boone, Bums…and a Baby.

Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Baxter Photography

Can I really complain? I have lived through one of the most successful eras for any city in the history of American sports.

Good grief, my grandfather waited eighty-one years before he saw the Red Sox win once. Qualms should be absent from this area of my life.

Many would inform me that six championships in a decade “ain’t that bad Jack.” (I would clarify that my name isn’t Jack. They would inform me it was just a figure of speech. Then I would understand and move on.) Despite this prosperity of success – what would a sports fan do if he couldn’t complain once in a while – I’ve experienced some pretty painful losses with my teams as well.

I’m still in disbelief that Desmond Howard returned that kick-off for a touchdown in the 1997 Super Bowl – just as the Patriots were getting traction. Chuck Knoblauch did not tag José Offerman in the 1999 ALCS.  Don’t tell me otherwise.  The stench of watching Aaron Boone’s 2003 game 7 home-run soar softly into a raucous, Bronx crowd was only diminished by the sheer glory of the next year – not, however, by the approximately sixty-eight freeze pops I ate attempting to drown my sorrow that night.  Don’t judge me. Was the Patriot’s 2008 perfect season really foiled by a circus catch from a guy who was cut by the same team the next year? Really? I refuse to believe that.

Where does last Sunday’s loss to the noxious New York Jets rank among these travesties? How am I coping? Hear me out on this but…I’m okay.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I don’t have a visceral distaste for the Jets (always have, always will). I also don’t mean that Rex Ryan isn’t a vulgar, buffoon who talks a whole lot for someone who, last I checked, has ten empty fingers. Do I think the Jets constantly faking injuries to slow down the Patriot’s hurry-up offense was a classy strategy? Funny you should ask.

So, here’s the revolutionary thing – I’m fine. Really.

You see, when your team wins the big game the response is straightforward. You are gleeful, celebratory, glowing like all this stuff is really, really important. Dramatic losses on the other hand…

Losses are living organisms. They’re like snowflakes – each different than the other. It’s impossible to predict what your full reaction will be until the clock hits zero and your team is emptying their lockers.

In the worst cases, you get a rotten feeling in your stomach, as you watch the other team celebrate. The nausea and numbness lingers into the next morning as you replay in your mind the alternative outcomes to each play and how your team could have (and clearly should have) won. Then the martyrdom sets in. All the time I spent watching them this season, all the fun conversations I had with friends and family, how could it end like that? Why do bad things happen to good people? Clearly God doesn’t care about sports if Rex won. Even years later any mention of “that game” will tighten your jaw and force you to “politely” step out of otherwise good conversations.

For my generation this was Aaron Boone, for my father’s it was Magic’s skyhook and Buckner’s blunder, and his father’s generation still doesn’t know why Johnny Pesky held on to the ball in the 1946 World Series.

Then there are other times when the loss is disappointing but it rolls off me like water off an aquatic bird whose feathers were created to have water roll off their backs.

Now headed into Sunday’s clash with the Jets I had it pegged as an inescapable specimen of the former of these two options. How could it not be, right? Given Rex Ryan, given the trash talk and the insults and the threats from the Jets players, and given the Patriot’s being picked to win by everyone and their mother and their mother’s cribbage partner Gina, it seemed as sure as the outcome of flipping a two-headed coin that a loss would have me gorging on freeze pops and wearing sweatpants for a week.

Don’t get me wrong. I am bitter about it. I do not really want to talk about it and I hope the Jets are dismantled next week.

Yet, wonder of wonders, as Jets players did triple back flips on the Pat’s home turf and the CBS scoreboard informed us that 28-21 was indeed the indisputable final score – there was no wailing. No gnashing of teeth. No cursing the heavens.

But there was a baby.

A grinning, cooing three-month old boy who seemed deeply satisfied just because I was holding him. His world was unshaken by Tom Brady’s ineffectiveness against an unexpected zone defense.

It’s much easier to remember that your team’s loss is not actually that important when you are surrounded by everything you care most about. We all use the word “devastating” far too readily.

The little guy growing up with me as his dad is bound to be passionate about sports and have a few games that wrench his gut. I’m fine with that.

For now, though, he’s simply a happy reminder of what matters.

Thanks Charlie. It’s just one more thing you’ve made much better.

A Quick Clarification

For anyone wondering about the sudden inundation of posts on the blog, these articles are the result of the journalism class I took this semester. We were assigned to post them on a blog, so here they are for you to ignore or enjoy at you own will.

Legend Coaches on at DCCC

Photo courtesy of Brian Bayliss

On Nov. 7, 2010, Joe Paterno was carried off the field at Beaver Stadium after his team rallied from a 21-0 deficit to give Paterno his 400^th win as the football coach at Penn State University.

The coach, in his 45^th year, waved to the raucous crowd as they gleefully chanted “JoePa,” and all the television experts weighed in on Paterno’s place in the history of the greatest coaches of all time.

This past May another seasoned Pennsylvania coach left the field after a big win. However, Delaware County Community College baseball coach Paul Motta didn’t leave with the fanfare of Paterno.

No bright lights, no multi-million dollar contracts, no ESPN montages, and no analysts debating whether he was the greatest coach of all time.

Motta, 74, hopped in his car and drove home, as he has done after every DCCC Phantom’s baseball game for the last 39 years.

This was the quiet reality despite the fact that DCCC’s final win had improved their record to 16-0 and completed the first undefeated season in the 43 year history of the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference.

This victory also gave Motta his ninth EPCC championship since his tenure began.

Motta was coaching football in 1970 when one of his former players approached him asking if he would consider starting a baseball program at DCCC.

“I was a little wary,”  Motta said. “But after a couple good conversations with the dean, Bob Cutlier, I figured ‘why not?’”

Beyond nine league championships, Motta’s baseball program has enabled countless players to play baseball at four-year schools and even at the professional level.

“From our small program we’ve sent 15 kids into the minor leagues,” Motta said. “Fourteen of them were pitchers and one of them, Todd Rizzo, made it all the way to the Major Leagues, where he pitched for the Chicago White Sox. For a small program, that’s really pretty good!”

Motta made it clear that success doesn’t always come easy when you are working within the uncertain framework of community college athletics.

“It’s hard,” Motta said. “You have to put out an almost entirely new team every year. People come and go so quickly in the community college atmosphere….You don’t deal with that in high school, and you don’t deal with that at four-year colleges. It’s a unique challenge.”

Motta expressed how getting the money needed to support a baseball team hasn’t always been a simple process either. “From the schools perspective, a baseball team isn’t exactly priority number one when it comes to receiving funding,” explained Motta.

All of that is changing this year, however.

“The school just built new dugouts for us,” Motta said. “They also re-sodded the field. They spent thousands of dollars in doing it, and it should be ready for this coming season… It took 40 years to get funding, but it’s certainly better late than never.”

Motta explained how some of these difficulties are what make him so passionate about his job.

“It’s not like big colleges, or even high school,” Motta said. “Most of these kids have jobs. They play baseball, but they also have to go to classes, pay their own way through school, and still manage to be able to take their girlfriends out once in a while.”

Motta said he wishes that his players efforts would be recognized more through people from the school coming out to watch the team play.

“I feel bad for the kids sometimes,” he said. “It’s hard when you see them work their tails off all week only to end up playing in front of a handful of people.”

Motta has received offers to coach at more prominent schools, but turned them down because of his passion for the community college setting.

“That’s what I love about doing this,” Motta explained. “I love being able to work with and continue teaching the game to these hard working community college students.”

Even in light of his success with the school, Motta said that coaching was never his main priority. Motta taught business at Upper Darby High School before retiring in 1998.

“The coaching title was always a funny one for me,” Motta said. “Because I always viewed myself as a teacher instead of a coach, I always thought of it as another opportunity to teach…It’s all about these kids.”

This sentiment was certainly expressed by his players.

“Coach Motta is an amazing person,” said Travis Wrambel, who played on last year’s championship team before transferring to a four-year school. “He didn’t just help me become a better baseball player, but also a better man, student, and a more well rounded person…He loves spending time with his players, and cares very much about them.”

This coming spring will mark the beginning of Motta’s 40^th season, but it is by no means the end of the road.

“[I will coach] as long as my health holds up,” Motta chuckled. “I work out a lot. I have to because I’m always hanging out with kids. As long as my health is there and they want me back, I’ll keep coaching. I love these kids.”

Happy, Hazy Memories of an NFL Star

Photo courtesy of Northwestern University

Dick Alban, 81, sits at his home in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania sipping on a cup of coffee at his dining room table and reminisces about his eight year NFL career. With reminders from his wife, Mary, Alban tells story after story in varied detail.

Alban tells of his rookie season with the Washington Redskins in which he housed with Hall of Fame quarterback, Sammy Bough, for his first week of training camp.

“He really took me under his wing.,” Alban Said.

Alban, a defensive back, also talks about his 30 career interceptions, and how he went to the Pro Bowl in 1954.

Dick Alban is a man who has lived a life filled with interesting stories, and excitement. Unfortunately, Alban can’t remember as much of it as he would like.

Alban is one of thousands of athletes and former athletes who suffer from the effects of concussions incurred during their playing careers.

WebMd.com describes a concussion as “a brain injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the head or to the body. The blow shakes the brain inside the skull, which temporarily prevents the brain from working normally.” They also note that concussions are the most common form of traumatic brain injury.

The severity of concussions varies, yet henryfordhealth.org lists some of the symptoms of a concussion as dizziness, headaches that are often severe, vomiting, loss of balance, and in many cases loss of consciousness.

With a study done by Vanderbilt University showing that sports trail only automobile accidents as the leading cause of concussions, much has been done in an attempt to protect athletes.

According to NFL.com, the NFL instituted new, stricter policies regarding concussions, including players who are suffering from concussion like symptoms not being allowed to return to action until cleared by a doctor.

Alban says that this was not the case when he played.

“There was no testing or anything like that,” Alban continued. “It didn’t matter how hard you got nailed, if you were semi-conscious then you were going to play. That’s just how it was.”

Alban says that he doesn’t know how many concussions he sustained during his football career.

“My best estimate is three or four,” said Alban. “But that doesn’t include the few I had in college and high school.”

Despite inability to count his concussions, Alban missed only one quarter of game time in his eight-year career.

“I once spent a night in the hospital after one of my worse concussions,” Alban said. “The next weeks game was in New York, and the coach wanted me to come along even though I wouldn’t play. Yet I get there and my uniform is in my locker, and they tell me to dress just to be part of the team. Early in the game another player got hurt and the coach came over and asked how I was feeling. I said “okay”, and he said ‘then get in there.’”

“Idiocy,” Alban’s wife chimes in. “Now he has a hard time remembering much of anything, he repeats himself…the damage was already done.”

Alban said that he believes this lack of carefulness regarding head may very well be why modern science is revealing the full extent of the damage incurred by former players playing with multiple concussions.

Julian Bailes, a neurosurgeon at West Virginia University’s School of Medicine, along with researchers from the University of North Carolina did a study that involved 2,488 retired NFL players. The study showed that players who had two or more concussions were more than double as likely to suffer from clinical depression.

The study also showed that depression is far from the only long-term effect of this traumatic injury.

Players with multiple concussions also had a higher reported rate of memory loss, numbness in limbs, and difficulty sleeping. This on top of the fact that a study done by Health Force Partners shows that the average life expectancy of NFL players who played at least three seasons is only 55 years, compared to the 77 year expectancy of the average male.

Despite the dangers involved, football continues to increase in popularity, with the International Sports Federation estimating that over three million people play organized football annually.  This in spite of the fact that according to the Henry Ford Health System football accounts for the largest portion of the 300,000 sports related concussions each year.

Alban retired on a high note after the 1959 season, in which he recorded the second most interceptions of any season except his 1954 Pro Bowl season. After his playing career was over he then went on to manage a successful sporting goods manufacturing company in Wisconsin.

His athleticism never left him as he became a successful amateur tennis player and an excellent golfer.

“Sports are all the same,” said Alban. “Whether you’re playing in front a 50,000 people in a stadium, or you are playing golf by yourself or quietly playing tennis with a friend, it doesn’t matter. When you make the big interception, or you hit the exact golf shot you wanted to, the same smile comes to your face.”

Along with many other former players, when he dies Alban will be donating his brain for the purpose of further research on the effects of concussions.

“It’s a good idea,” explained Alban. “There’s no such thing as a minor concussion. If donating my brain will help someone be able to avoid the problems that concussions can cause, than I am happy to do it.

Given all the factors, and the knowledge about concussions that science has revealed, does Alban think it was worth it? “I would absolutely do it all again,” said Alban. “I don’t remember much of it anymore, but it was an exciting time of life.”

Technology Run Amuck

Photo courtesy of Cartoonstock.com

Technology in sports has run amuck. This past summer at the World Championships of swimming Olympic hero, Michael Phelps, threatened to boycott all international competition, until the full-body, polyurethane swimsuit worn by German rival Paul Biedermann is banned from competition.

Is there anything more basic than swimming? Can you get from here to there in the water faster than the next guy?

Today we have square heads on golf clubs that resemble toasters. And the little dimpled balls they – and we – hit were not in our grandfather’s bag.

Don’t even get me started on baseball. A culture of illegal drugs, maple bats, and juiced balls make broken-bat home runs seem reasonable.

I would think that swimming would be an unlikely candidate for being fundamentally altered by technological advancements. I would be wrong.

The super-suit that Biedermann was wearing shaves an average of .75 seconds per one hundred meters. In a sport where .01 seconds won a gold medal in the last Olympics, this seems significant.

In the two hundred meter race in question, Biedermann gained 1.5 seconds because of his outfit. Phelps lost by 1.23 seconds. Why didn’t the guy just strap an outboard motor to his back?

Some sports have turned into an arm’s race more than an athletic competition.

The effect? These sports have no history. Each is an entirely different sport than the sport of the same name in the previous generation. Equipment nearly as incomparable as a space shuttle and the Wright brothers’ plane completely dissolves all sense of heritage and legacy in sports.

Comparing generations in any sport is a challenge, even when equipment isn’t a factor. What boxing fan wouldn’t love to see the outcome of a battle between Joe Lewis and Muhammad Ali?

Tiger Woods is constantly declared the greatest golfer of all time. He may be. His game is mind-boggling. On the other hand, Tom Watson – just months short of 60 years old and coming off a hip replacement – with new equipment can come one 12 foot putt from winning a British Open where Tiger misses the cut. It makes you wonder.

Sixty years old makes you the Dick Clark of sports. What would dinosaurs like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, or even Ben Hogan have done with modern equipment in their physical prime? Were their skills as good or better than Tiger? We will never know.

What’s the greater accomplishment? Jimmie Foxx leading the league with 35 home runs in 1939, or Mark McGwire hitting 70 in 1998? Your guess is as good as mine.

I won’t hold my breath, but it would sure be fascinating to see sports like these standardize key equipment.

Would it be outrageous for the MLB to say that bats are going to be made out of one kind of wood? Why has swimming equipment changed at all?

Don’t leave out sponsors, just make it so that all suits have to be made out of one material and cover a set portion of the body. Please don’t interpret this as an endorsement of skimpy, European men’s speedos. The image alone makes me want to shake the Etch-a-Sketch of my mind.

Sports are about what you as an athlete can do with your body. They should not in any sense be about what your equipment can do.

Sports, at their essence, nearly define the concept of fairness. Cliches like “an equal playing field” or “playing by the rules” arose because true sport can only exist within defined parameters.

Whether it’s game 7 of the World Series or Wiffle Ball with friends it comes down to beating your opponent within a defined set of agreed upon rules and common equipment. No excuses.

If you miss the fastball, can’t drain the jumper at the buzzer, or if you lip out that four footer, thats it. You have nothing to say.

Unfortunately, it seems that we are past the point of no return. Yet here’s one guy who’s hoping someone can find a way to restore sanity.

Patriots stay hot in the cold, crush Bears

Photo courtesy of AP Photos

Dec. 14, 2010 delivered driving snow and 40 mile per hour winds to Soldier Field in Chicago but couldn’t keep Tom Brady and the New England Patriots (11-2) from clinching their eighth playoff berth in ten years, with a 36-7 win over the Chicago Bears (9-4).

It marked the fifth straight win for the Patriots, and their second straight rout of a top opponent, following the 45-3 crushing of the New York Jets the previous week. The win all but locked up the number one seed in the AFC for the Patriots, as the win put them a game clear of the Pittsburgh Steelers, over whom they also hold a tiebreaker, with just three games to play.

The Patriots, however, said that they aren’t satisfied with their success so far.

“There’s a long way to go,” said Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, in a press release. “I don’t think anything has been accomplished.”

Brady continued his recent dominance over the competition throwing for 369 yards and two touchdowns. He also completed his eighth consecutive game without throwing an interception.

Patriot’s wide receivers Wes Welker and Deion Branch combined for 16 receptions and 266 yards to lead New England’s receiving corp.

The emphatic beat-down left the Bears expressing feelings of defeat, but not of brokenness.

“The reality is we got our butts kicked,” said Bears Pro Bowl linebacker, Brian Urlacher. “They came in here, our field, our weather and pounded us … but we’re still in first place in the NFC North, and that’s where we wanted to be when the season began…”

Unlike Brady, Bears quarterback, Jay Cutler, struggled throughout. Cutler went 12 of 26 with no touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble. His quarterback rating was a dismal 32.9.

The Bears explained that they need to get past this game, and want to quickly shift their focus to their Dec. 20^th matchup with the Minnesota Vikings.

“We’ve got to get ready to play Minnesota,” Cutler said in a press release. “We’ve got to get to playing good football again.”

The Patriots also expressed their desire to move on to their next game.

“It doesn’t stop here,” explained Patriots defensive lineman, Vince Wilfork. “Good teams find a way to win in December.”

Browns shock Patriots, cruise to victory.

As the New England Patriots flew to Cleveland for their date with the Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium, most fans and experts expected the Patriots to coast to an easy victory. This was not the case, however.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

To the surprise of nearly everyone, the Nov. 7 matchup resulted in the Browns (3-5) downing the previously NFL best Patriots (6-2) by a comfortable 34-14 margin.

The Patriots’ defense was exposed by relatively unknown running back, Peyton Hillis. Hillis pounded through the Patriots defense for a career high 184 yards, along with two touchdowns..

“Coming in we felt pretty good about our run defense” said Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo in a postgame press release, “and (Hillis) just came out with their offensive line and did a great job and ran the ball hard.”

Rookie tight end, Rob Gronkowski had two costly fumbles for the Patriots, including coughing it up at the Browns’ one yard line at the end of the first half.

“I fumbled it.” Gronkowski said in a press release. “It shouldn’t be happening, because I should have two hands on the ball.”

Rookie quarterback, Colt McCoy, showed Cleveland fans a bit of why the Browns put so much stock in the young QB. McCoy went 14 for 19  for 174 yards and no interceptions,with a quarterback rating of 101.7.

McCoy received praise from Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, in a press release after the game. “He is getting the ball to the right guys and making accurate throws,” Said Brady. He did a good job.”

As for the much talked about icy relationship between Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, and his former apprentice, now Browns coach, Eric Mangini, the two shared a brief but courteous handshake at midfield after the game. Mangini later told reporters that he had simply told Belichick “Good game,” before joking that the two were “…making plans for the summer.”

The win was the second in a row for Cleveland. The Browns trounced the defending champion, New Orleans Saints, two weeks before heading into their bye week.

The game started with the Browns driving 42-yards over six plays, capped off by a 38-yard field goal by Phil Dawson.  The ensuing kickoff brought the first big break of the game as Gronkowski gave up his first of two fumbles.

The Browns capitalized two plays later when Hillis punched it into the end zone from two yards out.

Later, the Patriots cut the lead to 10-7 when they ended an impressive 11 play, 79-yard drive with a two-yard pass to Aaron Hernandez for his first career touchdown.

As the first half winded down, Browns running back, Chansi Stuckey, ran in an 11-yard touchdown to extend Cleveland’s lead to 17-7 as the teams went into their locker rooms for halftime.

McCoy had a dramatic 16-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter to make the score 24-7 and put the game out of reach for New England.

Hillis put an exclamation point on the Browns big victory with a 35-yard touchdown run with just over two minutes left in the game.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Brady in a post game press release.  “If we played the way we played today, we’re not going to beat anybody.”