No joke, this is one big rivalry

I’m not a meteorologist, I’ve never played one on TV, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I think I have the technical phrase for this weekend’s weather.

Crappy.

For the fans of one of the professional tackle football teams in the region, that feeling is going to hang over through Monday.

Maybe all week.

It’s that kind of rivalry.

Trash talking begins in the tailgate lots

Browns-Steelers (or Steelers-Browns, depending on your point of view) are the first two games that fans circle on their calendar the moment the schedule is announced.

It’s a game where tailgating is considered a contact sport.

And let the trash-talking begin:

A Browns fan, a Cowboys fan, a 49ers fan and a Steelers fan were standing on top of mountain.

Suddenly the San Francisco fan yelled “This is for the 49ers!” and leaped off the side of the mountain.

Inspired, the Dallas fan yelled “This is for the Cowboys!” and hurled himself off the edge.

The Cleveland fan, similarly inspired, yells “This is for the Browns!” and pushes the Pittsburgh fan off the mountain.

First score will mean a lot in outcome

The Steelers have dominated the series of late, winning nine straight, 15 of 16 and 22 of 25.

And after the results of Week 1 it would seem likely those streaks will continue.

Pittsburgh dominated the Houston Texans with a dominating defense and a punishing running game.

The Browns were embarrassed by the Dallas Cowboys, who exposed Cleveland’s injury-plagued and suspect defense.

The Browns’ performance was so bad, general manager Phil Savage proclaimed tonight’s game a “must win.”

Granted, in a 16-game season just about every game is must win, especially a home game against a division rival you expect to be competing against for the title.

But Savage isn’t a fool — he saw, like the rest of us, how poorly his team played last Sunday.

Browns can’t afford to start 0-2

Another performance like that one, against the franchise’s most bitter rival, could send the Browns on a downward spiral from which they won’t recover.

The Steelers, meanwhile, come into tonight’s game bursting with confidence.

There’s last week’s dominating win and their can’t lose attitude against the Browns.

Recent games in the series have usually seen the Steelers jump out to big leads early.

The Browns must change that scenario if they are to have any chance at winning.

Quarterback Derek Anderson is most effective when the Browns can run the ball with Jamal Lewis. If Anderson needs to start slinging the ball all over the field in comeback mode, well, the Steelers’ defense is just too strong.

Similarly, if Willie Parker gets close to or over 100 yards on the ground, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will be that much more effective.

As noted, the Browns’ secondary is pretty bad right now, but they have enough of a pass rush to make life miserable for Big Ben if he’s forced to abandon the running game.

A Steelers fan liked to amuse himself by scaring every Browns fan he saw by driving his van right at them then swerving back just missing them. One day while driving along, he saw a priest. He thought he would do a good deed, so he pulled over and gave him a lift. Suddenly, the driver saw a Browns fan walking down the road, and he instinctively swerved as if to hit him. But, as usual, he swerved back onto the road just in time. He then remembered the priest and said, “I’m sorry Father, I almost hit that Browns fan.” “That’s OK,” replied the priest. “I got him with the door.”

Enjoy the game. (Oh yeah, Steelers 28-17.)

XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write to him at todor@vindy.com.