In like Quinn

By Os Davis  |   Sunday, August 19, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

Cleveland Browns
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The latest ammunition for my salvo against those who call the preseason meaningless? The Cleveland Browns' 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions on Saturday, a game that - Romeo Crennel's ham-handed decisionmaking notwithstanding - may well have determined the medium-term future of the franchise.

Through 20 attempts in the fourth quarter, Brady Quinn got the hype machine running on full steam and the fans behind him 110 percent. Surely, Quinn's the man in Cleveland now, isn't he?

Speaking personally, I'm a believer. I haven't done a 180 like this since Frank Gore broke his hand. I was all set to devote a season's worth of columns to the amusing pastime of Brady Quinn bashing. After all, the truth is the guy was hardly a big-game quarterback at Notre Dame. Plus, someone had to fill the void left in the wake of Peyton Manning's Super Bowl win.

The Browns are deserving of a little karmic reward from the football gods for showing excellent foresight in figuring Quinn would go as late as he did in the first round (it wasn't that difficult to guess, once you figured that the Miami Dolphins were going to go with Ted Ginn Jr. at No. 9 overall. Wisely, Cleveland nabbed bookend left tackle Joe Thomas with its first pick, No. 3 overall in the opening round.

Quinn could yet save Crennel's bacon this season, as well. If the Browns' brain trust deserves some smiling upon by the Guys Upstairs, Crennel has a big thumbs-down waiting for him. Seriously, what's up with a coin flip to decide your starter? Was this a media ploy? Was the supporting cast supposed to automatically get behind the guy who correctly called "tails"? In the Lions game, Browns backers booed both Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson in turn, and with good reason.

(The best clip from the game highlights: Check out the audio on Quinn's entrance into the game. A mixture of "yaay, I think" and "Whazzat? Why're you waking me up?")

And when Quinn got into the game with about 9:20 left to go, it should have served as a wakeup call to the nearly perpetually asleep Crennel.

Normally, I'd go to the stats at this point, but this time no need presents itself. Watching Quinn roll out right showed his mobility like it was the Notre Dame years again. Watching him take the snap from shotgun showed his leadership abilities could transfer to the pro game. To this observer, he simply looked like an NFL quarterback.

Now sure, the backup Lions defense wasn't all that dissimilar to the ones the Fighting Irish faced during Quinn's tenure.

Crennel still took the opportunity to issue a silly quote in this regard: "Their best guys weren't in there but our best guys weren't in there either," he said. "I'll look at the tape and we'll decide. He's still a young quarterback and he had a limited offense and I believe in time that he's going to be a good quarterback."

In time? By what, Week 5 when the Browns, led by whoever wins the next coin flip, have already dug themselves an 0-4 hole? When the $20 million left side has been proven incapable of holding the line for a minute and a half while Franderson chooses a target?

Though the best guys weren't available for Quinn's turn, it is amazing how much better the offensive line looked when he was in. It's incredible how Quinn found receivers for two TDs after the crippling Detroit defense had tormented Crennel's coin-flip duo.

Crennel's funniest quote on the whole thing was his insistence that "the reason [Quinn] didn't play more tonight was that he wasn't ready. I've said all along we'll see what the kid can do and when he gets a better grasp of the offense we'll ask him to do more."

Apparently, the offense that Quinn doesn't have fine enough grasp on includes fumbling the ball on the first play from scrimmage and chucking ducks designed for a second-generation Tampa 2 defense like Detroit's to simply wait for and intercept.

All jokes, kidding and Lion bashing aside, Quinn's gotta be the starter now, right? I mean, not even Crennel can be as thick-headed as to ignore the opportunity here.

Then again, maybe he should just consult the Magic 8-Ball...

Calling "heads" all year-round at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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