Hitting the Monday links

It's Cleveland. Got that? It's a one-game season, all right. And that game is Cleveland.

Any questions?

* What a bunch of happy Brownies. There's a television-station report that a defensive lineman smacked Brady Quinn in his made-for-modeling kisser? Niiice.

* Five games, 20 quarters, 34 days. That much time has elapsed since the Browns last scored an offensive touchdown. But who's counting? Cleveland Plain-Dealer columnist Terry Pluto, that's who. A sign he spotted in the stands: All I want for Xmas is a TD. (By the way, this is how bad it is: The Bungles were missing a half-dozen defensive starters Sunday, and still shut out Tommy Dorsey's band. . . er, Ken Dorsey's offense.)

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Bum Phillips must be rolling over. The road to the Super Bowl goes through. . . Nashville, Tenn.?

* Wow, never before heard an NFL coach blame the local newspaper. But that's where Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said his unit got much of its MOE-tivation for Sunday: "A lot of that came from The Tennessean,'' Schwartz said. "We have a pretty good defense here and when the guys woke up today and saw the headline, 'The greatest defense ever,' and a bunch of pictures of the Pittsburgh Steelers. . . ."

* Titans safety Chris Hope, formerly Troy Polamalu's running mate, wasn't particularly fond of the reception he and the Tennessee Tuxedos got at the start of the game. . . but Hope came to grips with it: "We came out of the locker room and got booed to a certain degree. I was on the side of that most of my career, and now I understand what it feels like to be on the other side."