The Cleveland Browns, playing their last home preseason game of 2007, fell flat on their face for the first three quarters in a
23-20 loss to the lowly Detroit Lions on Saturday night.
For the first three quarters everything that could have gone wrong for the Browns went in that direction. Once again, neither quarterback rose above the other as they both made one boneheaded mistake after another. Lions quarterback John Kitna picked apart the Browns defense like he was playing flag football. Once both team’s starters were done playing by halftime, the Browns were trailing 16-0 and were getting boo’ed as they walked into the tunnels to their locker room.
Of course, that has all but been
mostly forgotten due to the successful debut of Browns rookie quarterback Brady Quinn. Could this have been a counter move by Quinn to offset the buzz generated by fellow American metrosexual heart throb deuche Zac Efron’s
Rolling Stone cover this week? Let’s all hope this is
not the case, but
weirder things have seemed to happen in the wide world of Brady this year.
With the Browns trailing 23-7 early in the fourth quarter, Quinn finally arrived to a standing ovation from the home crowd. Brady didn’t disappoint as he directed two drives that resulted in touchdown passes to both Jerome Harrison and Efrem Hill. Granted, this performance was against Detroit’s 3rd and 4th team defenses that were, well…for the most part, seemed to be attempting their best impression of a defense from Air Force or Michigan State. Clearly, this was a tactic that Brady seemed quite prepared to handle.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to rain on the Brady Quinn parade at all. I am just asking everyone to take a deep breath and keep some perspective. Quinn showed he can pick apart a “prevent” defense to the point that it would make even Kelly Holcomb proud. Brady also even displayed an underrated ability to read a defense and check down to the open receiver when under pressure, something a certain other couple of quarterbacks on the roster seem to be having a hard time with.
The final stat line for Quinn: 13 completions in 20 attempts (4 attempts were clock stopping spikes), 155 yards, two touchdown passes in as many drives, and most importantly ZERO TURNOVERS. If Brady Quinn can continue to put similar numbers versus stronger defenses in the future then head coach Romeo Crennel will have no choice but to consider playing the rookie earlier in the regular season then originally planned. Until then, I wouldn’t scream for Brady to start opening week against the Steelers just yet. Let’s let him earn it first.
In salute to
Afroman…a couple game “highs”:
- Braylon Edwards looked pretty good. Sure he has no idea which quarterback is throwing to him on a given play, but judging by his ability to separate from defenders, it appears Braylon is now fully recovered from his ligament injury he suffered his rookie year 2 years ago.
- Antwan Peek has a re-Peek performance. Back-to-back solid efforts from Willie McGinest’s injury replacement has to have both fans and coaches feeling good so far. The team's depth at linebacker is going to be a big strength this year.
In salute to
Ookie…a couple game “lows”:
- Will the real winner of the Browns QB race please stand up? In one corner we have Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson in the other. Both threw an interception, but even worse both players ran the offense as if they had been tailgating more than the fans in the muni-lot prior to the start of the game. Good Lord, I’m not sure either of these guys could start for Bowling Green much less any other NFL team.
- Schaeffer haters unite! Probably the non-quarterback with the worst night on the field was the Browns right tackle Kevin Schaeffer. On the Browns opening play of the first quarter, Schaeffer was burned by Lions end Jared DeVries in a play which resulted in a strip of Derek Anderson. The ball was recovered by Detroit and Schaeffer’s night just didn’t seem to recover.
Read the complete post at http://kidcleveland.blogspot.com/2007/08/mighty-quinn-has-cometh.html