Saturday, Aug. 29 (PM) – It was about the quarterbacks in the Browns’ 31-7 preseason win over the host Tampa Bay Buccaneers tonight.
It’s always about the quarterbacks.
Starter Josh McCown did not play like the experienced pro that he is purported to be. He played like a green, wet-behind-the-ears rookie, and it hurt him and the Browns – literally and figuratively.
Three times in the first half, McCown took off out of the pocket and got clobbered, putting himself at great risk of getting hurt. How he avoided injury is anyone’s guess.
Does he realize that he’s the only real quarterback the Browns have right now, and that backup Johnny Manziel is out with elbow soreness that may or mat not allow him to return in two weeks in time for the regular-season opener against the New York Jets? It was a stupid thing to do, for if he would have gotten hurt, the Browns would have been in deep, deep trouble.
But that wasn’t only the ignorant thing involving McCown. For whatever reason, just minutes into the second half, he took off on a run that was called from the sideline. Again, he got crunched.
What were the coaches thinking? That’s the last play they should have called, especially after those three scrambles in the first half.
Let’s hope that from here on out, McCown and the coaches use some common sense in their decisions. They certainly didn’t do so tonight. They got lucky in that they didn’t end up paying for it.
Now for another Browns quarterback – a former one, that is, Bernie Kosar. He was scheduled to analyze the first half at halftime of WEWS Channel 5’s telecast of the game. But late in the second quarter, play-by-play man Mike Patrick announced that Kosar would not be able to do it.
What happened? That question begs an answer given Kosar’s history of making blunt on-air comments, especially concerning quarterbacks, and also given his highly-publicized spat with the Browns following their removal of him from the telecasts last year.
Whatever the case, the situation is extremely embarrassing for everyone involved.
