Random Note: This is the first time I’ve attached a poll to a post in about a month. I have no idea why I’ve neglected polls during that stretch…I am certainly going to get back into the habit of having them.

Interesting article. Your point about the fate of the team being tied to the quarterback is well taken.

I think the only objection I would raise is about having faith in DA. Last year, I remember having a feeling that we had executed our offense against bad teams and I kept waiting to see it on the road, against a good team. Then the Arizona and Cincy games happened, not good teams to say the least. I remember, at that point, feeling like Anderson had been exposed and it was unlikely he’d be a long-term success. What happened in between then and this past August? Just like everyone else, I got crazy excited for the Browns season and threw rational thinking out the window.

 The truth is up until the moment they resigned him in February, I was all for trading him. I thought then his ship was sailing. But during the offseason and through training camp, you forget about all the bad and make a series of “if” statements that betray reality.

…if Derek Anderson can raise his completion % to 60-65%,

…if the offensive line can stay healthy for another full year,

…if Travis Wilson, I mean Josh Cribbs, I mean Donte Stallworth, I mean Syndric Steptoe, I mean Steve Sanders, can develop into a complimentary threat,

…if Braylon can improve on his catching,

…if the young cornerbacks can shock the world,

…if Sean Jones can have a breakout year,

…if we can get pressure on the QB,

then we’ll go 11-5 and win the division.

Three games in, we haven’t done any of the things listed. In fact, we haven’t really done anything well. Our offense has averaged 8.33 points per game. Savage, Crennel, Chud, DA, Braylon, K2, Donte, the OL, all deserve part of the blame for where the offense is.

Right now, this is a team that can’t produce offensively. It’s been true three weeks in a row, I have no reason to believe that it will change. I don’t have any faith in DA and I’m looking forward to Brady playing the second half on Sunday. I’m also hopeful Chud can draw up some better running plays and better utilize our tight ends and running backs in the passing game.

The difference between all 3, of course, is that we have an accomplished history to rely on for Manning and to a lesser extent Bulger. If we had Manning, then I’d be sitting here like, well c’mon, its Peyton frickin Manning, he’s fine. Anderson’s peak was say 5-6 good games against the likes of the Bengals, Rams and Dolphins last year. There is a very strong case that Anderson had a hot hand for a few games against some bad opponents while throwing to talented targets. His performance has been unacceptable going back to late last season and his play against the Bengals last year when it mattered most, indicates that he might not be the guy we had hoped we had.

Chris, love the new headline. Especially because the margin on the poll is so slight. In Anderson we Trust, until 2:25 PM EDT Sunday Sept. 28.

I still have faith in Anderson. I never really had “faith” that he was as good as Peyton or Tom B. I do have faith that he is better than a 43.5 rating. I doubt he has the intelligence or the “it” to be in the HOF. He is certainly good enough to beat the Ravens and the Bengals and everyone up to about the Seattle-level of team. That would be enough to get us in the playoffs 3/4 years, and I am happy with that. I believe that with improvement he could win a ring and beat the “great” NFL teams about 50% of the time.

Regardless of how good Anderson is, though, we need to know which QB should be the one at the helm. Even if Anderson gets back up to playing at the level he did last year, we still have a very, very powerful thing in the back of everyone’s mind. That thing is the tension of the unknown. Quinn. No one knows how good he really is. No one will ever know unless we test him out. Maybe DA is bad, but BQ is WORSE. Maybe he is better. A lot better. No one will know until he gets some game time action. How do we handle this situation so what we get a look at BQ and resolve the tension of the unknown? You can’t know that X is better than Y without having a value for each of them. Right now we are judging if X is > or < 43.5.

I would have loved to see Quinn come in for that last series vs. Baltimore. Maybe it would have hurt DA’s confidence, (I am sure that throwing a pick on his first throw that drive didn’t do positive things for Anderson’s confidence.) but RAC could have at least justified it by saying he didn’t want the starter to get hurt in a blowout. He already has a track record for saying “die” (FG against Dallas), so why not again?

Regardless of the long-term future, I think everyone agrees that if we start 0-4, Quinn starts after the bye.

I was really hoping to see Anderson keep it together a bit longer. I figured Quinn was going to need more time, especially with the coaches deciding to work on his grip. But I can’t say that I have confidence in Anderson overall. His reaction to pressure is to go from trying to force passes to REALLY trying to force passes. Now that he’s been told flat out that his job is on the line, I (sadly) expect him to do even worse, so I hope Quinn has his new mechanics worked out. And I hope Chud has finally realized that he has to call they plays that they can run, not the ones he wants to.