Cleveland Browns-Detroit Lions: Offense Returns from the Dead in Tough Loss

Brady Quinn took all the critics of his arm to the woodshed, but it didn’t matter as the defense collapsed in a tough 38-37 loss to the Lions.

First of all, I was dead wrong in my prediction column about how the game was going to play out. That’s a good thing considering I didn’t want to be right.

That being said, our defense has given up far fewer points to far better teams, so why they chose this week to look like the last-ranked defense in the league is frustrating.

While the Browns have been the last-ranked defense in the league for most of the season, they’ve rarely actually looked the part. This performance just proves that bad teams find ways to lose.

But let’s talk about the offense, because, for one quarter, it was really fun being a Browns fan again. Quinn was 21-33 with four touchdowns, no fumbles or interceptions with a passer rating of 133.1. Quinn threw three of his touchdowns in the first quarter.

That. Was. Awesome.

While I don’t want to pour water on any of this, it has to be noted the Browns were playing the Lions, also bringing a 1-8 record into the game. However, it seems offensive coordinator Brian Daboll finally had something click in his head, or Quinn just started calling his own plays.

Either way, it was great to see Quinn stretch the defense, which opened up the running game and allowed the Browns to move down the field and score some points. Running an offense isn’t as hard as Daboll seemed to make it, and hopefully this game has showed everyone on the team they can do it.

Just knowing you can score points goes a long way to being actually able to score points. Even though the team still lost, the offensive unit is going to be walking around this week with a new spring in their step.

Now onto the last drive by the Lions.

Mistakes by the Browns, namely not scoring a touchdown and settling for a field goal and then being unable to convert on third down, set up the horrible last play.

The pass interference call on Hank Poteat was about a bad a call as you’re ever going to see because that’s the first time I can ever remember the refs throwing a flag on a last second Hail Mary play.

It’s just not done.

Also, Kellen Winslow was knocked out of bounds on a last second play within the last few years and the refs not only didn’t pull the flag, they pretty much told the Browns that they never even thought of throwing the flag in that situation.

How is Kellen Winslow being pushed out of bounds any different than Hank Poteat pushing Calvin Johnson to the ground?

It isn’t, and the refs should be taken to task for their actions.

As for head coach Eric Mangini calling the timeout that allowed Stafford to come back in, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but that’s assuming Daunte Culpepper wasn’t going to make that play.

Considering how awful the defense was on Sunday, you can’t make that assumption.

The Browns now own the tiebreaker for the number one overall pick in the 2010 draft. Having that number one pick is a blessing and a curse.

Make the best of it.