Displaced Cleveland Fan

I was out for a few hours this afternoon and this evening. I left right after this game started. When I got home and saw the score, I thought to myself, “it’s probably good that I wasn’t home following this game.”

Last week the Browns lost to the Vikings by 14 points. The Vikings are a good team on both sides of the ball. On the other side, you have the Broncos beating the Cincinnati Bengals last week on a fluke play in the final seconds. This game should have been close. It wasn’t.
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So begins the Brady Quinn era.

Honestly, I didn’t expect much today. Still, after last night’s loss by Ohio State, I was hoping the Browns could pull this one off. It just wasn’t to be.

Cleveland was leading at halftime, thanks to a punt return TD by Josh Cribbs. They were up 13-10 at the half. While a lead at the half was nice, there was one disconcerting thing about it - no offensive touchdowns. This is what the Browns could not produce the last 6 games of the previous season. Now they were in danger of extending that streak.

In the second half, the defense gave up 24 unanswered points, putting the game well out of reach. After the Vikings’ last score, I turned the TV off. I’d seen enough.
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The competition is over. Brady Quinn is the starting QB for the Cleveland Browns. He will start Sunday’s game against the Vikings.

This decision was supposed to be kept a secret. But Terrell Owens, of all people, “leaked” this information on Twitter.

OK, I don’t really think he let this slip. I think he was just looking to make news. His tweet congratulated Brady Quinn for winning the job. That doesn’t necessarily mean T.O. heard about Coach Mangini’s decision. Judging by the preseason, Quinn was likely going to be the starter. Owens made an “educated” guess (how ironic) and made it look like he was spilling the beans.

The T.O. tweet alone does not make this official, obviously. But Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot confirms that Quinn is the starter.
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Apparently, the list of things I wanted to see in the Browns’ final preseason game was vastly different than that of head coach Eric Mangini.

I wanted to see a clear starting QB emerge. Brett Ratliff got the start. Neither Brady Quinn nor Derek Anderson played.

I wanted to see a focused Braylon Edwards playing like a legitimate #1 WR. He too did not play.

I wanted to see a solid running game. The team’s leading rusher was Chris Jennings.

I wanted to see Shaun Rogers on the field. He wasn’t even in uniform.
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The Browns play their final preseason game tonight against Chicago. This will be the last game before the regular season kicks off against Minnesota on the 13th. So what would I like to see in this game?

One QB emerge as the clear starter. This QB battle has gone on way too long. Either Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson has to step up and prove they have the ability to lead this team. Right now, I believe Quinn is potentially the better QB. But he needs to remove all doubt and show everyone what he can do.
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The Cleveland Browns have signed second-round pick Brian Robiskie. For more information about it, you can read the story on Cleveland.com.

This is great news, not just because Robiskie should be a solid receiver for (hopefully) Brady Quinn to throw to, but he is the last of the Browns’ draft picks to be signed. That means all of the rookies the Browns picked will be there for the start of training camp. New GM Kokinis and Coach Mangini are at least off to a good start.

It’s nice to have news like this when the Indians are so rotten.

Day 1 of the NFL draft for the Browns was… interesting. I’ve seen a lot of chatter online about how awful these picks were. But I think this is mostly just hyped-up overreacting.

Here are the newest Cleveland Browns:

Alex Mack - C (California)

This seemed like a bizarre pick. First, the Browns traded out of the 5th spot where the Jets took Mark Sanchez. They then had the 17th pick. They traded down to the 19th. Then traded down again to the 21st where they drafted Mack.

Honestly, by this point, I was hoping they would take Chris Wells. Maybe not the best pick, but it’d be great to root for the Buckeye star in Cleveland. This really would have been unlikely. I expected them to add either a defensive lineman or a linebacker. Instead, they picked a center.
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