Quinn steps up in Browns QB duel

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Even as he took the lead in the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback competition Saturday night, Brady Quinn learned the enormity of what winning the duel with Derek Anderson might bring.

Not only must Quinn minimize his own mistakes, but he also must encourage his teammates to shake off their own maddening miscues.

Getting the start against the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field, the 2007 first-round pick from Notre Dame could have produced 10 points.

But a dropped touchdown pass by receiver Braylon Edwards and a holding penalty on center Hank Fraley during Phil Dawson’s successful 31-yard field goal cost Quinn and the Browns in a 17-0 preseason-opening loss.

Quinn completed 7-of-11 passes for 68 yards with an interception, while Anderson was 0-for-2 with an interception, getting in for five plays to Quinn’s 17.

The Browns stretched their string of games without an offensive touchdown to seven, which snuffed any chance that new coach Eric Mangini had seen enough to make a decision on his quarterback.

“No, I’m going to wait and see where we are as we keep going,” Mangini said.

“I thought Brady did a nice job with the two drives he had. But the ultimate objective is to score points.”

Mangini did back off his stated plan of starting the second-stringer in Game 1 at home against the Detroit Lions in Game 2 Saturday, but he could have just been playing it coy.

“I’m going to look at how many reps they both ended up getting and see how the week goes,” Mangini said.

Quinn would have looked better had Edwards hung onto his scoring pass with 25 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

“We were working on that throw in practice. It’s called the crossbar throw,” said Edwards, who led the league in dropped passes last season. “The quarterback’s taught to throw that ball high. It was a situation where I beat the guy right out, Brady made a nice throw and I’m used to jumping. I jumped when I didn’t have to and the rest is history.”

Quinn didn’t know what happened, but said, “I can always give him a better ball.”

On the next play, Quinn’s throw was behind Edwards and picked off in the end zone by safety Anthony Smith (Hubbard High).

“It was a poor decision on my part,” Quinn said. “Especially in that situation, you should come away with at least some points. I put that on myself and I apologized to my teammates.”

On the interception, Edwards said Quinn told him “he was getting hit or his arm was getting drug, his leg was getting grabbed as he released it.”

“As a wideout, it’s still your job to protect the quarterback, even get a penalty if necessary to [prevent] the interception. Next time we’ll do a better job of that,” Edwards said.

Those two plays and Fraley’s penalty, which was followed by a Dawson miss from 41 yards, changed Quinn’s perception of the night.

“I felt confident out there,” Quinn said. “But the biggest thing for us is capitalizing in the red zone and we didn’t do that. You’re not going to win games when that kind of thing happens.”

Anderson was also under pressure on his interception. His right knee was hit from behind as he threw for receiver Joshua Cribbs, with cornerback Tramon Williams nabbing the underthrown ball.

“I got hit and couldn’t throw it like I wanted and the ball kind of fluttered in the air,” Anderson said.

Anderson said he had been excited to start that series at the 50.

“I was thinking, ’Wow, this is awesome.’ It didn’t work out that way,” he said.

Mangini said he started Quinn because Anderson got the call during an Aug. 9 scrimmage at Cleveland Browns Stadium. But Mangini’s rotation of the quarterbacks could have disrupted Quinn’s rhythm. Mangini went with Quinn for one possession, Anderson for two, then back to Quinn.