Colt McCoy Debut Scarred by Helmet-to-Helmet Hits by James Harrison, Fines Loom

The Cleveland Browns went into Pittsburgh to face their AFC North rivals, the Steelers and were looking to use Pro Bowler Josh Cribbs in the Wildcat often, to lessen the pressure on rookie quarterback Colt McCoy's first NFL start.

Sadly, Cribbs was not playing in the game for long after he took a Wildcat snap and rolled out looking like he would throw.

With no receivers open, Cribbs tucked the ball and ran with it.

He barely got past the line of scrimmage when Steelers linebacker James Harrison dove at Cribbs for the tackle, hitting his helmet into Cribbs' helmet.

Cribbs fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Cleveland, but he lay on the ground motionless.

When the CBS cameras zoomed in for a close-up, you could see Cribbs was out and his hand was twitching.

Harrison, a former Kent State teammate of Cribbs, led with his helmet but the referees did not flag him for the hit.

Cribbs was able to get up on his own and on the sidelines any viewer could see that Cribbs was trying to get back into the game even though he looked visibly "out of it."

He was led to the locker room with a concussion and never came back into the game, which completely changed the Browns offensive game plan.

McCoy played well despite not having Cribbs on the field, but later on, McCoy found starting wide receivers Mohammed Massaquoi on a short pass and once again Harrison hit Massaquoi helmet-to-helmet.

Massaquoi was knocked silly, falling back down to the ground after he tried to stand up immediately after the hit.

He too did not return to the game due to a "head injury."

The Browns were down two offensive weapons and yet again Harrison was not flagged for the Massaquoi hit either.

Is this a direct result of the Steelers' home-field advantage?

That is an unknown, but the NFL needs to look at both hits and either double-fine Harrison, one for each hit, or suspend him for at least one game for his helmet collisions.

Also, the refs should be fined for not throwing a single flag on either play.

Where's the protection of a player's head?

Obviously this was not the case on either hit, but replays clearly showed helmets making contact with each other.

Hopefully, the NFL will take action in this matter and hopefully they will make an example of Harrison's terrible hitting on both plays.

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(Also posted on Dawg Scooper: THE Cleveland Browns Blog)