Not good: There wasn't much about Saturday's game that Eric

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The bad news is their names are Martinez, Lee, DeRosa ...
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Tracy Boulian, The Plain DealerThe Browns' Eric Steinbach, right, blocks Corey Williams during a practice session earlier this month in Berea.1. At Eric Mangini's news conference on Thursday, I asked several questions about the Browns' offensive line. I'm anxious about it, not sure what to make of John St. Clair and Floyd "Porkchop" Womack on the right and wishing Alex Mack was making an impact at center. I'm glad that Mangini seemed pleased with Eric Steinbach at left guard, despite the Browns wishing he could add a few more pounds. Many of the good runs in the first half of the Detroit game were to the left side, behind tackle Joe Thomas and Steinbach. Jamal Lewis scored his TD from 4 yards out running to the left. James Davis had a 14-yard run to the left in the second quarter. 2. I asked Mangini how Mack compared at this stage of training camp to Nick Mangold, the rookie center drafted by Mangini when he was with the Jets. Mangini might have been wondering the same thing, because he said he recently checked his notes from four years ago -- and at this stage of camp, Mangold had days when he was snapping the ball too early, days when he ran a lot of laps for mistakes. The same has been true of Mack. Hope Mack progresses as Mangold did, as he is one of the best centers in the game. As a rookie in 2006, Mangold had only three penalties and was credited with allowing only 0.5 sacks. 3. It's difficult to make a definite judgment about the Browns' running game so far. Jamal Lewis just turned 30, and he has looked sort of slow. Is it because he's 30, or because it's training camp? Fans are concerned about him because Lewis struggled last season, despite his 1,002 rushing yards on a quarterback-challenged team.
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This is his fifth season. He also has a history of three concussions, and another one would be a reason for concern. Veteran Mike Adams is the backup. They also have Nick Sorensen, but he's best on special teams. Undrafted rookie Bret Lockett from UCLA has drawn some attention from the coaches, but it's hard to imagine him being ready to contribute this season. 6. It's a shame Syndric Steptoe seriously injured his shoulder, but for his agent to blame it on practicing in the rain is silly. Teams have to practice in the rain because they play in the rain, especially a team in Cleveland competing in the AFC North. About the Indians ... Lynn Ischay/The Plain DealerAlthough the Indians keep talking about Carlos Santana needing one more minor-league season in 2010, a suddenly problematic situation at catcher may force their hand, says Terry Pluto.1. Who will be the Indians' starting catcher next season? That's something I never thought I'd be writing at the start of 2009, when Victor Martinez was healthy and Kelly Shoppach was coming off a 21-homer season. But Martinez was traded to Boston, Shoppach is in a .221 funk heading into the weekend, striking out 74 times in 195 at-bats. Even for a team like the Indians that doesn't worry a lot about strikeouts or batting average, this is alarming. He has been nearly helpless (.190) against right-handed pitchers. For Shoppach's career, he's.226 against righties, .301 against lefties. 2. Shoppach is on a one-year, $2 million deal. He can't be a free agent, but he is eligible for arbitration -- good luck with that if Shoppach goes that route. His stats indicate he may be a platoon catcher. After throwing out 36 percent of attempted steals in 2006-07, he's at 21 percent the past two seasons. Martinez was at 15 percent with the Indians in 2009. 3. So who is the catcher? Chris Gimenez is viewed as a utility man who can catch. But he has not hit much (.181) since coming up from Class AAA Columbus, where he was batting only .235. It seems the Indians have viewed Wyatt Toregas more as a possible backup catcher. They picked up Lou Marson in the Cliff Lee deal with the Phillies, but he has little power (one homer, 15 doubles in 281 Class AAA at-bats). Marson is a .298 hitter in the International League this season. He has thrown out 25 percent of attempted steals -- acceptable in the minors, where pitchers do a poor job of keeping runners close. But he's not billed as a starter, either. 4. The obvious answer is Carlos Santana, who is having a huge year at Class AA Akron where he's hitting .294 (.961 OPS) with 20 home runs, 84 RBI and 74 walks compared to 69 strikeouts. He's a switch-hitter, and batting .336 since July 1 with nine homers in 125 at-bats. He's thrown out 31 percent of steal attempts.
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if you just push this field goal one yard more, that's the difference between tying the game and not tying the game.' Often times, it comes down to that small of a detail.The best way to teach off of it is seeing how everybody responds with the clock running, with the crowd there, with the intensity. Granted, this wasn't the intensity we would have in a normal game, but a heightened intensity from what we have at practice."With practice today, one of the things I said to the team is, yesterday we didn't have practice, we had night meetings, 'We need to be able to break our routine and come back that next practice and be just as sharp as where we were.' One night I gave them off meetings, I thought the practice the next day wasn't as sharp.We had this experience, and I said, 'Look fellas, you want to reinforce good behavior. If you like having meetings off or breaking routine this way, you need to reinforce that decision making.' I would anticipate a much better practice this evening. I'm counting on it."(On if the scrimmage Sunday would have gone into overtime) - "Yes, we ended up going to overtime the day before on Saturday. We were ready to. I thought we were."(On if anyone stood out to him on the scrimmage film) - "I thought that Mohamed (Massaqoui) made some really nice catches in the scrimmage. There was one on the sideline that I thought showed, not only really good hands, but excellent awareness of where he was in relationship to the sideline.I thought Coye Francies did some nice things, not just on special teams, but also as a cornerback. He got some extended action, so I was pleased to see that. Poor Fred (Weary) gets here and plays quite a few plays. I thought he did a great job for getting thrust in there. There were a lot of things I liked from different guys and a lot of things that were clarified, in terms of areas we need to focus on to continue to improve."(On if the Browns will use the no huddle this season) - "I like to have the ability to go in and out of it at any point in a game. If you want to start off a half with it, you want to change the tempo with it, if you're getting a team that maybe is going to disguise a lot, you want to take that away.We've used it for all those different reasons. Coaching against it, as a defensive coordinator and a defensive backs coach, it does add some pressure to the defense. It forces you to think through tendencies quicker. Now it's second-and-seven, instead of being able to look down at your sheet, get a reminder, you have your calls, you have your things you're thinking of.They're getting to the line of scrimmage.