Cleveland Browns/Denver Broncos: Quitting Already

That game just sucked all the life out of the season for me.

                                                CUE ORCHESTRA

A man sits on his porch, enjoying a beautiful late summer day. The sun is shining, birds are singing and the man sits back with a comfortable sigh. Then some clouds roll in and a bird poops on his head.

Yep, that’s about how the day felt for me.

It was no surprise to me, given the way the offense played in the first half, that the defense would once again be physically exhausted by the end of the third quarter. What I didn’t expect was to see the team just flat out quit in the fourth quarter.

The Browns had no life on either side of the ball during the last quarter and, frankly, I’m a little upset about it. The 27-6 loss hurt.

Let’s start with the offense, which was putrid. I don’t know why, but Brady Quinn has played the first two games like someone just waiting to be benched. It seems to me that Quinn is afraid to make any mistakes, fearful that he’ll be benched immediately.

I know this can’t be coming from head coach Eric Mangini because, when asked, Mangini gave a flat denial that he even thought about inserting Derek Anderson. I speak a little Mangini, and flat denials translate pretty evenly into English.

Also, if you paid any kind of attention to the game, which, unfortunately, I did, you would’ve noticed the frequent camera cuts to Anderson every time Quinn ran off the field after a three-and-out.

Where was Anderson? Was he by the coaches, headset on, involving himself in the game?

Nope, Anderson was over in the corner doing his best “Nobody Loves Me!!” routine.

Besides, if you think Anderson is the answer to the problems on offense, please refrain from commenting. In fact, I don’t even want to know what the color of the sky is in your world.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll’s game plans so far this year have brought to mind two words: Boring and inept. I’m just not sure which way it’s leaning from week-to-week.

Quinn’s performance not withstanding, it would be nice to see Daboll call a play that actually moves the chains on third down. Better yet, how about throwing a pass into the end zone when you’re on the goal line?

All other things being equal, if I were the Browns owner, I would be bringing Daboll into my office this week and officially putting him on notice. The play calling wasn’t just bad, it hardly qualified as professional.

That’s also on Mangini. I said last week this is Mangini’s first real test as a head coach. Romeo Crennel refused to move on from offensive coordinator Maurice Cauthon, even though Cauthon was clearly in over his head. Mangini must not make the same mistake.

While it’s only two weeks in, Daboll has done nothing to dissuade me from my opinion that he may be in over his head.

The Browns did manage to get 11 first downs, but Denver got 25. That’s unacceptable. That goes beyond poor player performance. Garnering only 11 first downs is damning evidence that your offensive philosophy DOES NOT WORK.

Third down efficiency was laughable with the Browns going 3-14. Quinn hung in the pocket for more plays in an effort to silence the critics (including myself) who say he checks down too quickly.

However, Quinn then appeared to become paralyzed by indecision, something he showed no evidence of in his three games last year, and the offense shuffled off the field with nothing more than two field goals on the day.

I’m now concerned about Quinn, but again, Anderson was given far more chances to fail, so I see no reason to call for Quinn’s head yet. Quinn can throw downfield, but on the rare occasions he did, his accuracy was suspect.

Jamal Lewis fooled all of us real good last week by showing us some flashes of speed. But the real, 30-year-old Lewis landed in Denver on Sunday and proceeded to stutter step his way into collapsed holes and not make any substantial gains.

On the odd play when Lewis did gain more than a yard or two, I couldn’t help but look at the replay and say, “A faster running back would’ve gotten more yards than that.”

Braylon Edwards had a good game. Bravo, sir. If Edwards remembers what made everything work this game for the rest of the season, the Browns will be a better team for it.

Once again, it’s only been two weeks, but the right side of that offensive line is a sieve and I no longer see any reason why John St. Clair should be on this team. St. Clair has turned the false start into an art form.

The defense continued to show they are old and slow with Shaun Rogers being the only threat on the field. However, that defense looked like it just didn’t care anymore in the fourth quarter.

My feelings on St. Clair also extend to Hank Poteat. Just awful.

The Broncos gained a total of 449 yards on offense, and I’m surprised it wasn’t more. The defense was exposed on all its blitzes as not having the right personnel to get the job done as Kyle Orton was able to avoid the rush most of the time and complete his passes to the wide open receivers.

I do credit defensive coordinator Rob Ryan for at least trying, something I can’t say for Daboll.

Special teams played well and was the only area of the game the Browns beat the Broncos.

Draft Watch

I noted to anyone who would listen in April that passing on Rey Maualaga three times was a mistake.

On Sunday, one of our second round draft picks, Brian Robiskie, was not injured yet was put on the inactive list. Mangini obviously did this to send a message.

Meanwhile, Maualaga spent the day being a menace to the Green Bay Packers.

I’ll stop before I really get angry.