Indy to face deflated Browns

Cleveland has little to play for against a Colts team seeking the playoffs.

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 today’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.

Last week, Quinn 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.

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.

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.

“There aren’t many times that a play call comes in that I’m [not expecting it],” Manning said. “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.