The Most Important Game of the Browns' Season...

... wasn't played last night.

That sounds pretty obvious, but you might have thought otherwise if you read yesterday's Plain Dealer (where Tony Grossi wrote about "a dark and heavy cloud" hanging over the Browns) or Akron Beacon-Journal (where Pat McManamon wrote about how the Browns are "staggering into their first preseason game."). Apparently, the trauma of the Browns' training camp has been too much for the local media, which has managed to get in full drama queen mode about a team that won't play a game that counts for another month.

Did the Browns look good? Certainly not on offense. They did show some signs of life on defense. That's good news because, with the challenges their offense is facing, the Browns' best hope for bettering last year's record is improvement on the defensive side of the ball. Wimbley played well and Oshinowo got a sack, but the buzz this morning is about second-year linebacker David McMillan, who showed everybody why the Browns have been high on him this preseason. If you want more info on McMillan, here's an article that appeared on KUSports.com when the Browns selected him in the 2005 draft.

Still, you can't tell much from the first preseason game. The most important thing about last night's game was that--pending definitive word on Gary Baxter's shoulder-- the Browns managed to get out of The City of Brotherly Love without any serious injuries.

If you want to see what the local media had to say about last night's game, you can find Patrick McManamon's story here, Tony Grossi's here, Terry Pluto's here, Steve Doerschuk's here, and Jeff Schudel's here.