Sometimes, this really is a simple game. Sometimes, this really is a simple game to write about.
Today is one of the latter.
Derek Anderson single-handedly, singularly, all-by-himself, lost this game for the Browns. In not so many words, he defecated all over the Sealy Posturepedic.
In another sport that the Browns' QB loves, on another broadcast network, Johnny Miller would have had a field day with the way Anderson Van de Velde'd the Browns out of control over their own playoff destiny.
It can be glossed over, explained away, reasoned, whatever. But, when all of the justifications are fileted and bared to the bone, what's left is a QB who spit the bit in the biggest Browns game in five years.
He choked. He gagged. He Kobe Tai'd.
Those crucial picks--each inexplicably more heinous than the previous--were not the result of tremendous plays on the part of the Bengals.
They weren't the result of a receiver slipping and giving the defense a gift, ala Leigh Bodden's that gave DA the tenth of his nine lives. They weren't the result of the wild & crazy bounces oft-times associated with an oblong object being thrown great distances.
No, these four picks were brain farts. They were "Bad DA" exponentially personified.
They were the reasons the Browns bet the farm on Brady Quinn this last April. The very same reasons why DA could not beat out Charlie Frye--CHARLIE FRYE!!!--when the starting job was his to win in training camp.
Whether this should be the tipping point for keeping/re-signing DA is debatable. What's not up for discussion is this game was a huge data point in the decision-making process for the folks in Berea.
Well, at least it should be.