Cleveland Browns Debate: Who's at Fault for Drops, Derek Anderson or Receivers?

The Cleveland Browns' offense has been less than stellar all season long, but in the last two games, there has been a media frenzy regarding all of the bad throws and dropped passes during games.

So who is to blame for the putrid passing game of late?

Most of the media outlets have been focusing on the wide receivers dropping too many passes, but are those drops their own fault, or are the actual passes being placed in not so catchable spots where the receiver cannot have the chance to really catch the ball.

Quarterback Derek Anderson has been known to throw a rocket of a pass on short yardage passes and everyone knows that he really doesn't have much touch on those short passes at all.

So is it really the fault of the receivers?

I would say yes when the ball hits them in both hands and it falls to the ground, but not when they are reaching down low to the ground to catch a pass, or barely getting one hand on the ball, or even having to trying to catch a ball that's behind them.

On Facebook, I posed the question of who is to blame for the problems with the passing game and several Browns fans had some interesting responses.

(Grammatical issues and spelling were not corrected to keep the integrity of the quote that was taken from each person's comment.)

Marcus Broome said, "I will have to say ball placement and rookie receivers some of the catches they could've made despite the placement but some DA could've put in a better spot so many were low or away when they didn't have to be."

S.M.M. said, "[It] doesn't matter who QB'S this team DA always gets a free pass by his fans and the media if that was QUINN in there there would be a QB controversy plain and simple gibe DA the same as QUINN got when Brady was the starter as long as DA is the starter and on the team he will never get blamed for anything that the team does poorly or when they lose."

J.R. Jr. said, "I have to say ball placement has a lot to do with it and DA has no concept of touch, everything he throws is 100mph no matter where the receiver is at. Some of the balls he threw should have been caught but the majority of the time the were in the wrong spot or thrown so hard the receiver had no chance to catch it. If you are throwing to a RB who is 5 yds or less in front of you, why do you throw the ball as hard as you can?"

Kevin Lyons said, "It's DA and his wreckless disregard to yak care of the football. That's how he played on the Beavers and he certainly has nothing to lose now. But it's not completely on him, the receivers need to make more of an effort to get to the ball and not give up on routes. I hate the excuse that DA throws too hard, if your in the league it's because you can catch, the guy isn't Nolan Ryan out there and if the boys were using the hell out of that ball launching machine that Mangini promised we'd be using all week it sure didn't look like it helped any. I don't see how you can continue starting a guy that you brought in doing worse than the guy you pulled week after week. I don't even want to hear about how we scored a passing TD today, that little 1 yarder proves nothing more than the drought is over, for now."

V.B. said, "Who cares. He had his chance. Give BQ more snaps and see what happens. If Mangini thinks BQ has less talent than the lowest rated QB in the NFL (DA). Then cut him or trade him. Otherwise play him and see what we got and build chemistry with the WRs. Im not sure, but I think we are out of SB contention at this point!"

Some very interesting points by Browns fans. What does Bleacher Report's community have to add to?