Cleveland Browns vs. New England Patriots: Colt McCoy Is the Key To Victory

The Cleveland Browns game against the New England Patriots has two big wild cards that could swing the game either way: starting quarterback Colt McCoy and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.

The "teacher vs. student" matchup most of the mainstream is touting is a lot of smoke and mirrors because these guys already have faced each other six times, and head coach Eric Mangini has only won two of those contests.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is known for taking opposing offenses apart when things are riding high, and things definitely aren't riding high for the Browns offensively. Although if you compare McCoy's starts against the rest of the quarterbacks who've started in the Mangini era, the offense looks pretty good.

However, one thing Belichick will key in on in his tape dissection is the quarterback and what the coaches have that quarterback doing. With only two games with McCoy behind center and only using a limited amount of the playbook, how much does Belichick really have to work with?.

It's one thing to take a quarterback like Brett Favre and completely destroy his offense after looking at a mountain of film. McCoy has a few clips compared to the Favre library, so that's a point in the Browns favor.

McCoy's record in college obviously speaks for itself, and the poise and confidence he's shown so far against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints does as well.

McCoy will do fine against the Patriots, whose defense, while still nothing to take lightly, isn't as overwhelming as in years past.

The real wild-card in this scenario is Daboll.

Daboll has gained favor with a lot of big names around the NFL and even Cleveland football. Both Favre and Bernie Kosar have spoken highly of Daboll, and anecdotes have popped up here and there about how smart he is in the film room and how good he is on the practice field.

That's all well and good, but it brings us all back to the cold, hard fact that the Buffalo Bills have a better offense than the Cleveland Browns, and the Bills are awful. The Bills rank higher than the Browns in every major offensive category, according to the stats provided on NFL.com.

Admittedly, it is easy to point the blame for the offensive woes at Daboll, and to cut to the chase, he is responsible for how his unit performs, but being a good offensive coordinator goes beyond being a champ in the film room.

It is up to the players to play, and the Browns offense has had a severe talent shortage, especially at quarterback the past few years. Brady Quinn never lived up to his potential, and we'll leave that argument there or we'll be here all day.

Moving on, Jake Delhomme is past his prime and now injured, Seneca Wallace is a career backup and Derek Anderson is best left in Arizona.

McCoy represents the best option at quarterback for the Browns in quite a long time, and his potential gives the offense more options. His "unknowns" give the Browns room to move and experiment, keeping Belichick and the Patriots off-guard.

McCoy looks like he can handle the pressure and make the plays he's given the opportunity to make.

But that doesn't change the fact that the offense doesn't adjust well in-game and tends to get worse as the game progresses as the other team adjusts to the Browns scheme.

That's on the coaches, and that's a fact a small minority of Daboll apologists refuse to accept, instead turning the argument to other factors.

Yes, the Browns offensive woes go well beyond Daboll's performance on the field, but how much of a chance do any of the players have to succeed if Belichick figures Daboll's plans out by the second quarter and Daboll once again responds by shutting everything down and going into a "coaching not to lose" mode?

This is where Mangini can prove he's the coach for the future of the team. Mangini has the option of overriding Daboll's call, and if he hears a "Metcalf Up the Middle" call with Mike Bell on third-and-nine, it is Mangini's responsibility to not just change the call, but tell Daboll to get his head out of the sand and remember there's a difference between coaching not to lose and coaching to win.

The Browns can win this game, Mangini has proved he can beat Belichick with a limited amount of talent before, so it's on the players to execute the plays given, and it's on the coaches to adjust.

As for the defense and Rob Ryan, if the defense he used against New Orleans worked against Drew Brees, don't automatically think it'll work against Tom Brady, but as long as they don't leave Eric Wright exposed in the blitz packages, the defense should be fine.

Browns 24, Patriots 20