Brady Bumbles, Bengals Rumble

It's hard not to wonder if Brady Quinn's remarkable inaccuracy didn't cost the Browns an upset win yesterday in Cincinnati.  It's hard to execute any game plan with a quarterback who's as far off-target as Quinn was yesterday, especially when the quarterback whose specialty is supposed to be the short quick passes so routinely misfires on those very passes.

Yesterday's performance leaves us questioning Quinn's ability to consistently prepare for game day.  While the pocket wasn't as comfortable as it was against Detroit, Quinn had time to throw.  He was sacked only once, on a corner blitz that looked like something he should have been able to exploit with a hot read (one of at least two hot reads Quinn looked to have missed).  They say it takes just as much time to throw an accurate pass as it does to throw a bad one; that it's just a matter of focus. 

But Quinn's receivers were routinely coming open on the short routes, and Quinn routinely misfired.  Three different passes to an open Chansi Stuckey in the second quarter essentially killed three different drives.  A misplaced throw to Cribbs on 3rd and 6 almost killed another in the third.  And there were at least three occasions in the second half where the ball wasn't thrown within 15 yards of an apparently-targeted Mohamed Massaquoi, one of these coming on a key 3rd and 3 in the fourth quarter.*  It was brutal to watch, as noted several times by CBS color-man Rich Gannon.

It was encouraging to see the receivers coming open, not as freely as they did in Detroit, but definitely much more so than in the previous weeks.  The insertion of Stuckey and tight ends Greg Estandia and Michael Gaines into the game plan seems to have a lot to do with this. 

The "where is Brian Robiskie" question is easily answered by the fact that Robiskie, at least at this early stage in his career, is simply no Chansi Stuckey.  No doubt that Mangini would love to get the second round pick in the game, but the improvement in the Browns ability to move the ball with Stuckey having replaced Robiskie in the game plan is apparent. 

In Quinn's defense, the CBS crew counted seven dropped passes by the end of the fourth quarter, but while Stuckey and Estandia were clear culprits at least once each, most of the drops seemed to result from Quinn's inaccuracy in the short passing game where it's harder for the receivers to adjust.

The worst call of the day by the Browns?  On 4th and six inches on the first play in the fourth quarter, the Browns went to a spread formation.  The Bengals didn't buy it, and went even tighter with their defensive formation.  In any event, it's hard to understand why you'd take the running backs away on a play like that.  The Browns were lucky to get the first there.

Others have called the second series of the 4th quarter into question, a series consisting of three consecutive failed short passes to Josh Cribbs.  The Browns were buried on their own ten yard line there, with a Joe Thomas penalty complicating things further.  Buried like that, with Quinn's having established his inability to accomplish anything himself, it doesn't seem like such a crazy plan to run screen passes to safely get the ball in the hands of the team's supposedly most-explosive player. 

The biggest problem there might be that Cribbs' head didn't at all seem to be in the game.  He almost cost the Browns dearly on the opening kickoff by forgetting to down the ball in the end zone, and while the Bengals were kicking away from him, there was at least one playable punt that Cribbs passed on (the one we're thinking of might even have been the one that buried the Browns on the aforementioned drive).  Cribbs' lackluster effort on the field was corroborated by his demeanor off of it, as he was repeatedly caught scowling on the sidelines by the CBS cameras.  It's likely that frustration over his contract and the rebuilding year is getting to him, but that doesn't change the fact that he looked like a loser yesterday, and only called into further question the wisdom of forking over significant money to a special teams ace.  If his game day attitude is so easily affected, what happens once he gets paid?  In a game where one big play would have made all the difference for the Browns, this all comes off even worse.  

As for the defense, we're not sure it was such a bad show.  We hear about the team being gashed by the Bengals' rushing attack, but that attack's been established as one of the best in the league.  Short of the horse-collar penalty on Shaun Rogers, the Browns held Cincinnati to less than two touchdowns, which should have been enough to win.  And there's no question that Cincinnati's rushing attack was given a boost by the demoralizing Browns offense that punted on every one of its possessions but two (one of those two being on the Browns' last drive of the game).  With Rogers now lost for the year with a broken ankle, and Kenyon Coleman, Kamerion Wimbley, and Brodney Pool suffering injuries yesterday as well, it's not likely to be pretty with the Chargers and Steelers coming to town in consecutive weeks.  Of course, the injuries will at least let Mangini get a better look at some of what else he has on the roster, and it seems like that's what this season has been all about anyway.  

As for other better looks, the defense also reminds us that this team has enough holes that it doesn't seem necessary to draft a new quarterback with Quinn already signed up for next season, so we agree with McManamon that he'll get another year.  Performances like yesterday's next year though, and he probably won't get another.   

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*There was at least one key third down in the fourth quarter, so that's good. 

Thanks to Joshua Gunter and The Plain Dealer for the photo.