Browns lose to Colts, 10-6
November 30th, 2008 at 11:35 pm by Displaced Cleveland Fan
Meet your new starting quarterback, Browns fans.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at anything this year. Derek Anderson, despite playing badly, started the first 8 games of the season. Then Romeo Crennel finally gives Brady Quinn the starting job. Quinn starts 3 games before having his season ended by a broken finger. Back comes Anderson. Then this week, in a game that should not have been this close, he has a chance to lead a game winning drive in the final 2 minutes. But he goes down. Welcome Ken Dorsey.
Though not certain yet, Anderson will likely be done for the year. Crennel did announce that Dorsey will start next week.
You never want to see guys get hurt. I was to the point that I hoped the Browns would get rid of D.A. in the off season. But even then, I hated to see him go down. It looked bad when he got knocked down, even before you saw him try to get up. For better or worse, it’s possible we’ve seen the last of Derek Anderson in a Browns uniform.
Assuming this injury does end his season, there is somewhat of a bright side as we look toward next year. (At 4-8, you have to look toward next year.) With Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson both out, Ken Dorsey will be the starter. It’s going to be good to see him get some playing time. It’s possible that next year he’ll be the backup to Quinn (unless the Browns bring in another QB). So extra playing time now for him will certainly help.
For now, I wonder if the Browns are going to have to find someone to fill in at backup QB for the rest of the season. Right now, I think the only one left on the roster that can play the position is Josh Cribbs, who hasn’t played at QB since he was in school. Not sure who is available, but you’d think the team would have to find someone.
Then again, every time I see Cribbs play, I’m impressed. He plays hard every play and does the absolute best he can to help the team win. I almost wish he’d play every down. Seeing him play, I’d be surprised if he didn’t like that idea.
The big story of this game against the Colts was obviously the implications of Anderson’s injury. But one other major point is how well the defense played. Despite an off year for them, the Colts have a very effective offense. Peyton Manning, no matter how critical people have been of him lately, is still one of the best QB’s in the league. And the Browns defense held the Colts offense to just 3 points. I kept waiting for the Colts to blow it open, but they never did. The defense did more than enough to keep us in the game. That’s really all you can ask.
The difference of course was the Derek Anderson fumble that was returned for a touchdown. The Browns were winning 6-3 at that point. This ended up being the deciding play, making the score 10-6 Indy. As critical as I’ve been of Anderson, I can’t really blame him too much for this play. Things like this are going to happen to any quarterback. The problem was not this play, but that the offense couldn’t do more than score 2 field goals all game.
When the game was finally over, I was really not disappointed at the result. I fully expected the Colts to win. In fact, I figured they’d win by about 3 touchdowns. Towards the end of the 2nd quarter I sent a text message to a friend who is a Colts fan that said, “When will the colts stop toying with the browns and just put this game away?” No matter how close the score was, you knew what the final outcome would be. With the exception of the Cincinnati game on the 21st, I think we know what’s going to happen with the rest of the games too.
Tags: Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, football, Indianapolis Colts, Josh Cribbs, Ken Dorsey, Romeo Crennel, scores
