Browns seek to go 5-3 with win over Seattle

Cleveland may see old quarterback Charlie Frye today.

GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BEREA — The Browns are alive and kicking off at 4:05 p.m. today. The late start means the lights will be on for a team emerging from the dark ages.

Wideout Joe Jurevicius knows about Browns fans, having grown up among them.

“More time for the beer to flow,” he said.

The first magical season he remembers is 1986, when the Browns got hot after a 5-3 first half. Beating Seattle today gets them to 5-3 again. The expansion era has never seen a first half better than 4-4.

“It’s not that we’ve done anything yet,” Jurevicius said, “but we’re definitely on our way.”

The Browns almost always kick off at 1 p.m. locally, but winning could change their routine. Flex scheduling kicks in two weeks, meaning hot teams can be switched to a Sunday night national TV game. For now, Chicago at Seattle is the Nov. 18 game. A Browns win today could change that to Cleveland at Baltimore.

The Seahawks can punch anybody’s prime-time lights out.

“They were in the Super Bowl two years ago,” linebacker Chaun Thompson said. “A lot of those guys are still there.”

A lot aren’t.

Half of Seattle’s starters who played in a recent 21-0 loss at Pittsburgh weren’t on the team for a 21-10 Super Bowl loss to the Steelers on Feb. 5, 2006.

Partly because elite guard Steve Hutchinson left, partly because running back Shaun Alexander has slipped since he was league MVP in ’05, partly because quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was hurt last year, Seattle is a modest 13-10 since the start of 2006.

Yet, coach Mike Holmgren fosters a winning mind set. He has led the Seahawks to the best record in the NFC (45-26) since 2003.

For the Browns, beating Seattle would register in the psyche and the standings. The only AFC teams well ahead of the Browns are the Patriots (8-0) and Colts (7-0). Pittsburgh, Jacksonville and Tennessee are in the next tier at 5-2. Cleveland can catch at least one today because Jacksonville plays at Tennessee. The Browns need Baltimore to beat Pittsburgh Monday night to share first place in the AFC North.

Cleveland has scored 51, 27 and 41 points during a three-game home winning streak.

Quarterback Derek Anderson, 24, has better 2007 stats than Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck, 32, but Browns coach Romeo Crennel cautions, “There are lots of instances where he still looks like a kid.”

Anderson looked shaky enough in August that Charlie Frye opened the season under center. Traded to the Seahawks after one game, Frye could play today if anything happens to Hasselbeck.