Can Colt McCoy Save the Cleveland Browns and His Coaches' Seasons?

Colt McCoy gets the start today versus the Cincinnati Bengals, and Browns fans are hopeful they'll see the offense moving down the field and scoring touchdowns for a change.

The polarizing debate going on in Cleveland right now, in which McCoy becomes an unwitting linchpin, is who is to blame for the Browns' anemic offense.

Is it the players? Coaches? The Front Office?

The "Duh?!?!" answer to that is "all of the above," but I'm going to break that down even further.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll is either the dumbest person on the face of the Earth or the most misunderstood genius in history, depending on which side of the debate you're on. There are a few moderates, which I do place myself in, and I'll explain that as we go for those chuckling at this statement.

The Browns hired Eric Mangini to be the head coach, and when he came, he brought his guys with him. Since Mangini is a Bill Belichick guy, most of his coaches, including Daboll, also are Belichick guys.

With them, they brought the "Belichick Way Of Doing Things." Mangini has admitted in several interviews he spent the first few years trying to be Belichick, because the guy had won three Super Bowls. Who was he to do something different and second-guess that guy?

That type of thinking was wrong for several reasons, and Mangini also has admitted he has tried to start doing things his own way because what works for one guy doesn't necessarily work for the next person. That's just one of those weird truisms of the universe.

Mangini still is growing into his head coaching role, and I say that because while his improvement this year can be marked in giant leaps instead of inches, he still stubbornly is coaching "the system" sometimes rather than coaching to win. The only proof you need of that theory is the Jacksonville game and last week's Buffalo game.

Mangini and Daboll went in with their game plan and said, "We're coaching this way, and if everything works, we'll win." Obviously nothing worked, and they lost both games because they refused to adjust, coaching "the system," playing timid and not trying to mix things up.

The reason that "system" works is because it is designed by Bill Belichick and run by Tom Brady. Last time I checked, Tom Brady didn't play for the Cleveland Browns.

Fun fact: Bill Belichick's record without Tom Brady is less than .500, so even the genius has a hard time winning games when his quarterback isn't there.

While I'm not calling Belichick stupid, this does reveal the fatal flaw in Belichick's offense. If Tom Brady isn't there to be "Tom Brady," the offensive schemes run by Belichick and his coaching tree don't work as well.

Which bring us to Daboll.

Daboll, according to almost everyone asked about him, is a very bright guy, hard-working and is a champ in the film room and conference rooms when planning for a game.

But once the game starts, Daboll quickly becomes overwhelmed when the players don't execute his game plan or the other team adjusts. I'm not the only one to say that, and the results speak for themselves. While Daboll may be a smart football guy, he's not a good coordinator. To use a different metaphor: "I may not know a lot about art, but I know what I like."

Well, I don't like what I see when Daboll is play-calling. He calls plays his players can't execute and that's on him, not the players. Work with what you have, not what you wish you had. Tom Brady plays for the Patriots, not the Browns. Stop calling plays that only work for Tom Brady.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: When you get the ball five times off of turnovers and you only score three points, that's on the coaches. The players should have scored a touchdown by accident with that many opportunities, but timid coaching and poor play-calling, along with poor execution, doomed the Browns in the Jaguars game.

A note on the quarterback carousel: It's not Daboll's fault, but again, it comes down to adjustments, which he doesn't make. But this brings us to our next point.

How much is Mangini to blame?

For last year...almost everything. He had almost no talent in Derek Anderson's Arm of Doom and Brady Quinn's Checkdown Emporium, and no one is disputing that. But that doesn't excuse Mangini from not having either quarterback ready for the season. That little drama in preseason was one of the main factors for the early blowouts along with Daboll's tendency to rip pages out of the playbook at the first sign of trouble.

This year, all Mangini is culpable for is not benching Jake Delhomme last week and not pushing Daboll and his offense more.

It was the wrong decision to leave Delhomme in last week, and you have to believe it is the reason McCoy is starting this Sunday. McCoy is healthy enough and Seneca Wallace is either still injured or in Mangini's doghouse, depending on which report you believe.

Mangini also is responsible for not keeping Daboll on a shorter leash. Everything goes through Mangini, so if the offense is anemic, Mangini shares in that blame.

Mike Holmgren is responsible for foisting Delhomme on Mangini, and it's something few are willing to take him to task on, but it needs done. Holmgren took a chance on Delhomme, paid him a lot of money, and it blew up in his face.

Fortunately, McCoy is back now, and the Browns have a chance to win. As for the future of Mangini and Daboll, that's what the next three games will help determine.

For a look at who I think will win the game, plus all my other picks, check out my NFL Week 15 Picks.