On the Browns, QBs and Pittsburgh
With it becoming more and more likely that Colt McCoy will make his NFL debut Sunday in Pittsburgh, the hysteria is starting to ramp up.
There is a growing consensus that something unspeakable is going to happen – that the Steelers are going to go through the Browns like Caesar through Gaul and McCoy will be playing the role of Vercingetorix. In other words, it will be a “disaster:”
“If McCoy is viewed as the future of the Browns, they must be very careful about the long-term impact of this decision,” ESPN’s James Walker writes. “Throwing McCoy out there at Heinz Field against Dick LeBeau’s defense is a recipe for disaster. In fact, it’s the last defense I would pick a rookie quarterback to face in his first NFL start, especially against a hungry Steelers’ defense coming off a bye week.”
Thankfully, coach Eric Mangini offered some much-needed perspective to the situation, telling The Plain Dealer:
“If you didn’t have that guy, then you drafted the wrong guy,” Mangini told the paper. “If he’s sitting at home at night curled up in a blanket hoping he doesn’t get the start, you’ve got the wrong guy. You look for that competitiveness, you want the young guys to always be pushing the guy in front of them, saying, ‘come on, move out of the way, give me my chance to do it.'”
We believe McCoy can survive playing an NFL game against Pittsburgh, other quarterbacks have done it. Just look at this partial list of Browns quarterbacks who have beaten the Steelers over the years:
- Tim Couch (three times)
- Gary Danielson
- Paul McDonald
- David Mays
- Mike Phipps
- Brady Quinn (we’ll get back to him in a minute)
Not exactly a roster of Hall of Famers.
Seriously, what’s the worse thing that is going to happen? The Browns lose? All the “experts” would still pick them to lose if Jake Delhomme or Seneca Wallace were starting at quarterback. It’s not as if the Steelers are going to barbecue and eat McCoy on the 50-yard-line.
Is it really going to be worse than Charlie Frye in 2005 or 2007?
The worse part are the hoople heads who think that, if McCoy starts on Sunday and does poorly his career is over, or that by starting him the Browns are breaking some kind of oath that they took not to play him this year.
The plan – and it is a sound one – called for McCoy to sit the entire year as long as nothing happened to Delhomme or Wallace. Well, guess what? Delhomme and Wallace are hurt, so McCoy needs to play. This isn’t Chris Palmer pulling Ty Detmer at halftime of the season opener and putting in Tim Couch. McCoy can play two games and, win or lose, go back to being the team’s No. 3 quarterback after the bye week.
And that’s exactly what the Browns should do – let McCoy play the next two games before the bye to give Delhomme and Wallace as much time to heal as possible. It will be the right move for all three of them.
The thing is, the Browns don’t need the second-coming of Otto Graham to beat the Steelers. They already know what they have to do. The Steelers are bullies, and like all bullies they don’t like it when you hit back.
Last December the Browns finally hit back and beat Pittsburgh with Brady Quinn at quarterback completing six passes for 90 yards. The Browns did it by running the ball for 171 yards and hitting the Steelers until they quit.
That would be easier with a healthy Peyton Hillis running the ball, but the Browns got the job done last year with Chris Jennings at running back, so anything is possible.
There’s just no reason to give up the ship just yet,
Red Right 88 