CLEVELAND (AP) -The losses are piling up, the coach and general manager are under intense scrutiny, the future quarterback is finished for the season and the loyal fans are revolting.
These are dreary days for the Cleveland Browns.
“I wish we could start over,” tight end Kellen Winslow said. “I play a lot of video games and I wish there was a reset button.”
If it were only that easy.
With five games left in a season that could go down in team annals among the most disappointing, the Browns (4-7) head into Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts (7-4) searching for something positive. Earlier this week, quarterback Brady Quinn was lost to a season-ending finger injury that could require surgery and could complicate Cleveland’s plans heading into what figures to be another offseason of upheaval.
The setback will also give deposed starter Derek Anderson a chance to redeem himself after the 2007 Pro Bowler was benched in favor of Quinn.
uinn played against Houston despite a broken right finger tip and damaged tendon. It was just his third career start, but he became Cleveland’s sixth quarterback to face the Texans since 2002, a startling statistic that perhaps best underscores the Browns’ instability and helps explain their 54-102 record since 1999.
Browns owner Randy Lerner has grown tired of Cleveland’s perpetually spinning quarterback carousel. Earlier this week, the camera-conscious Lerner said he firmly believes a team’s success is directly tied to the man under center. He wishes his team’s personnel decision makers would just settle on a QB and let him go.
“I have said just that,” Lerner said.
If the Browns need further evidence how well the one-quarterback theory works, all they have to do is look across the line of scrimmage Sunday.
The Colts embody it. Turn that horseshoe on their helmet sideways and it would form a “C” for consistency.
Since 1998, Indianapolis has had one quarterback, the standard bearer of consistency: Peyton Manning.
In the last 10 seasons with Manning leading them, the Colts have gone a league-best 109-46, made the playoffs eight times and won a Super Bowl title. Manning, too, has benefited from working with one offensive coordinator, Tom Moore, during his 11 seasons as Indy’s starter. They’ve been together so long, they know each other’s thoughts.
lay call comes in that I’m (not expecting it),” Manning said earlier this season. “I can kind of cut him off halfway because I know what it’s going to be, and there aren’t many times when I change a play or audible or call my own play that Tom doesn’t have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to be.”
After a sluggish start this season, Manning and the Colts are back in sync. They’ve won four straight to stay within striking distance of first-place Tennessee in the AFC South, and with a soft schedule – at Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit at home – in the next three weeks, the Colts are poised for their seventh consecutive season of at least 10 wins.
The Browns, on the other hand, have only hit double digits once since ’99. They went 10-6 last season, a mark they won’t challenge this year.
Manning underwent offseason knee surgery, which led to some uncharacteristic forced throws and interceptions in the Colts’ first seven games. But he as thrown just one pick in his last four games and will be facing a Cleveland secondary that made Houston’s Sage Rosenfels look like, well, Peyton Manning last week.
More than anything, Manning’s unflappable presence has calmed the Colts. If they need a big play, he makes it. If they need reassurance, he provides it. If they need leadership, he shows the way.
ngy has never taken for granted. He knows what Manning means every Sunday, and every season.
“I played in Pittsburgh and we had Terry Bradshaw for a decade and that makes a big difference,” Dungy said. “When you know the type of offense that you’re going to have, the type of attack, the quarterback just learns it. The same guy plays and he grows and the system grows around him. That’s obviously a big help, but teams have done it the other way. Tampa has had a lot of quarterbacks the last five or six years and they’ve been a playoff contender”
“I guess you can do it both ways, but having that guy that you can pencil in and he starts week in and week out is certainly a benefit to you.”
Anderson hasn’t played since Nov. 2, and now that it’s his turn again, he’s hoping to make up for a season he started and may now get to finish for the Browns. It’s unlikely that both he and Quinn will be here next season, so the next five weeks could be an audition for teams seeking a QB with at least a moderate track record of success.
“I’m not worried about next year,” he said. “Whenever that time comes, if I’m here, I’m here. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. If I’m somewhere else, I’m somewhere else.”
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