Cleveland Browns Victory Highlighted by Two Ejections, One Bad QB Outing

There’s nothing like three victories in a row to soften the reality that the Browns quarterback situation still isn’t getting any better.

With Brady Quinn out for the year, Derek Anderson stepped in to lead the team to a 23-9 victory. It wasn’t always pretty; the game seemed to take about 12 hours to complete...but a win is a win is a win.

While entertaining, the constant unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, especially toward the end of the second quarter, slowed the game to a crawl. The only real disappointment is that the two Raider ejections weren’t handled with more theatrics.

The Browns offense was uneven at best, and for some reason Jerome Harrison disappeared for almost a quarter, but he still had 39 carries for 148 yards and one touchdown.

The best thing offensive coordinator Brian Daboll could have done was to keep Anderson from throwing the ball too much, which he did.

Anderson’s touch on his passes was so bad, and the throws so errant, even the defenders couldn’t catch them.

There were about five throws that should have been intercepted; two were dropped and the others were thrown to a different stadium.

Some of Anderson’s passes in the second half weren’t even close to where the routes were developing.

This isn’t to nitpick a win, but rather to point out the legions of people wanting to jump on Quinn for his accuracy problems might want to look at the coaching staff.

It appears implementing competent offensive schemes isn’t the only issue Daboll is trying to overcome this year.

Thankfully, Head Coach Eric Mangini must have said something, because the Browns, after two bad drives resulting in negative yards, abandoned any attempt at a passing game and ran the ball 45 times vs. just 17 passing attempts.

Charlie Frye threw for more than 300 yards but threw three interceptions in the process. His first interception was at the beginning of the game and resulted in Harrison’s touchdown a few plays later.

While the turnovers certainly helped Cleveland’s cause, the meltdown of the Raiders defense, including multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, kept the Raiders from winning.

While the Browns showed great class under the glare of a new head of football operations, the Raiders continued to show why they’re not much better than the Browns, with Stanford Routt being ejected just before halftime for a headbutt.

Tony Stewart was soon ejected in the third quarter for making “unnecessary contact” with the referee.

All told, the Raiders racked up 13 penalties for 126 yards. That kind of chaotic play will not win you very many football games.

However, Anderson’s 8-for-17 day for 121 yards won’t do much to win games either. His sole touchdown pass came after the multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on the Raiders put the Browns in scoring position.

Not scoring at the end of that sequence should have brought Brett Ratliff off the bench; that’s how easy the Raiders made it.

Turning to the topic on everyone’s mind, Mangini once again chose not to dress second-round pick David Veikune, which, despite the win, is one of the reasons his future in Cleveland is in doubt.

Harrison has done nothing but break records and turn heads since Jamal Lewis got injured, yet Mangini refused to put the ball in Harrison’s hands while Lewis prowled the sidelines.

Three victories in a row at the end of a losing season may mean the team has turned a corner, but idle second-round picks and favoring aging, slowed veterans over young, fast, hungry backs don’t bode well for job security.

Where would Harrison be right now if Lewis hadn’t gotten injured? It’s a scary question.

Rob Ryan’s defense once again looked better than their bottom-of-the-barrel ranking, allowing only 88 rushing yards and keeping the Raiders out of the end zone.

Linebacker David Bowens had a great day with the first-quarter interception and half a sack.

Waiver-wire pickup Matt Roth also had a great day with 1.5 sacks and five tackles. He also seemed to be involved in just about every play that came near him.

One more week to go and Mike Holmgren is watching.