Doug Martin deserves a pat on the back today with the way his Flashes went on the road to a Big 12 school and came away with a victory.

The quarterback, Julian Edelman, engineered several scoring drives, and running back Eugene Jarvis had more than 100 yards and a touchdown.

I know it was Iowa State and not Texas, but it is tough for your first game to be on the road at any BCS school.

The Flashes didn't even play their best game, with three bad turnovers in the red zone, but they controlled the ball late to win 23-14.

Next week, is another tough trip, this time to an SEC school, Kentucky.

From the way the program has played the past few seasons, don't be surprised to see the Flashes standing at 2-0 after that one.

Marty Burns of SI.com grades the offseasons for teams in the NBA's Central Division. The Cavaliers got a C.

Charlie Frye or Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn or Joe Thomas? What about one of the guys on defense, Eric Wright or Kamerion Wimbley?

Who is the most important to the Browns?

What about Jamal Lewis? To me, there is no doubt.

With him healthy, he is the key to the Browns being an 8-8 team or better.

If he goes down, the backups are weak and, in turn, put too much pressure back on the quarterback.

With Lewis and a bend-don't-break defense, the QB can throw 15 times or so, and the Browns could win.

If it is not Lewis, the QB goes into throwing 22 times or more, and I think that is trouble, not only for the Browns, but most teams in the league.

Remember, that is how the Steelers brought along Ben Roethlisberger and how the Chargers brought along Phillip Rivers.

With a healthy and productive Lewis, that is the only way the Browns can have a winning season.

Are the Indians playing better? Are the Tigers just that bad?

Whatever the answer, the facts are that the Indians are in first place and that they have a 2.5-game lead.

I also think if you have to pick between good pitching and spotty hitting or spotty pitching and good hitting. Always take the pitching. Just ask the Tigers.

More proof? Jake Westbrook gave the Indians a chance to win today, and they did.

Brady Quinn plays two meaningless series against a prevent defense and now everyone wants him to start against the Steelers in Week 1.

I just don't see it. Most, if not all, of his passes were to guys who had little or no coverage.

He needs a lot of work in my opinion and with coach Romeo Crennel's job on the line, I think he needs to take a longer look at Frye and Anderson this week. Who is going to start this season? Who is going to give him the best chance to keep his job?

The last quarterback to get thrown into a bad situation and then grow into a top QB … Peyton Manning and before him Troy Aikman. That is two quarterbacks in the past 20 some years. Quinn is no Manning, and he is no Aikman.

So, unless the Browns want another Tim Couch or David Carr, Quinn needs to sit most of this season.

On the job training behind a leaky line is not the way to develop a long-term answer to a football team's most important question (Who is the QB?).

Sorry for the break in posts this week. With high school football getting ready to kick off, the office has been busy. Also with the news that Terry Pluto is leaving, that delayed some other things for us.

But no excuses, things are looking good for the Beacon and Ohio.com.

Patrick McManamon should bring a fresh perspective to the columnist role and an edge that I think the readers will like. Marla Ridenour has plenty of experience with pro football and should continue our fine coverage of the Browns.

We hope to make a few more announcements in the coming weeks in our sports section.

Wednesday will bring the high school football preview section and Thursday the high school section Ready, Set, Play starts a new season.

Let us know what you folks think.

Has the work GM Mark Shapiro put into the Indians turned out to not be the right combination of players?

The question is worth asking because the GM has sort of put himself into a corner with the contracts that have been signed.

He doesn't have a lot of angles to take other than dealing some folks whom he just signed.

It should make for an interesting offseason if the Indians don't make the playoffs.

The Big Ten Network has a legitimate beef with the cable industry.

The network does belong on the same tier as ESPN, ESPN2, etc. BTN will have games on its network that normally would have been on ABC or ESPN.

That is something the NFL Network can't say. The eight to 10 lives games on NFLN are just games that normally would have been played on Sundays and would not have been seen nationally. Say the Browns are on NFLN, the network is required by the NFL to put the game on a local over-the-air channel, too. So I can see NFLN being put on a sports tier only because it truly is a network for the diehard NFL fan.

Right now OSU will have, at least, two games on BTN, and if you don't have DirecTV, you aren't going to see the games. Same with the Buckeyes basketball team.

In the end, Time Warner and its brethren need to get a deal done for the fans of college sports.

The Indians and Tigers start a two-game series tonight at Jacobs Field.

Is it a big deal or is it two teams struggling to see straight?

Both of these teams looked like sure playoff teams in May, now they are both lucky that the rule requires a team from the Central Division to take part in the playoffs.

Isn't it time to take Kenny Lofton and put him in the leadoff spot and drop Sizemore to the three slot? Sizemore gets on base, I know, but he also strikes out too much. Manager Eric Wedge needs to do something to shake up this offensive offense.

Things to watch this weekend:

– How bad is Travis Hafner's knee and is this the time when the Tribe breaks away from the pack by handling the Yankees?

– Does John Daly make a move and return to the center stage in golf or is it only Tiger's world at the PGA Championship?

– Anyone want to play quarterback? UA and the Browns are looking but so far haven't found what they are looking for.

– Can Dale Earnhardt Jr. break from his Anna Kournikova drought — lots of endorsements, no wins and maybe no Chase for the Cup?