Tonight is last audition for Quinn and Anderson

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Brady Quinn knows he can’t dodge this blitz, that the questions won’t stop hitting him until the answer is finally revealed.

That, presumably, will happen sometime in this millennium. Then again, maybe not given the way the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback competition has dragged on.

Who will start?

Quinn wasn’t sure, but he was certain of this. The questions are just a little repetitive.

“We’re hoping for some creativity right now,” he said.

A decision would probably be welcome, too, but the Browns weren’t offering any clues heading into the final preseason game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field tonight.

Quinn said he didn’t know. So did Derek Anderson.

The same goes for coach Eric Mangini, who said this week he wasn’t sure who will get the call when the Browns open the season against Minnesota on Sept. 13 and did not reveal his rotation for the Chicago game. The only thing he did say is that he won’t rotate starters week to week once the season starts.

So the saga continues.

“He hasn’t said one thing to us about what’s going on, so we’ll be ready to play as much or as little as he tells us,” Anderson said.

Quarterback competitions can tear apart a team when they’re not handled properly, but at least this isn’t new territory for Mangini. He waited out one between Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens before his first year coaching the Jets and then watched as Pennington led a New York team coming off a four-win season to a surprising 10-6 record and wild-card berth.

The Browns hope a similar scenario unfolds in Mangini’s first season with them after the team stumbled to 4-12 a year ago.

Quinn, who started the first and third games, is 21 for 31 with 225 yards. Anderson, who started the second preseason game, is 15 of 26 with 207 yards.

In last week’s 23-17 win over Tennessee, Quinn played four series compared to Anderson’s two and went 11 of 15 for 128 yards against one of the NFL’s top defenses. That included a 20-yard touchdown to Braylon Edwards, Cleveland’s lone TD pass this preseason.

Anderson was 7 of 11 with 77 yards, but made two questionable throws and got taken down on a sack that killed a drive.

Overall, it hasn’t been a bad preseason for him, but whether it’s enough to win this competition remains to be seen. If there was a platoon, Anderson said he and Quinn could handle it, but he insisted he didn’t know which way Mangini was leaning.

The same goes for Quinn.

“When he tells us, he’ll tell us,” Quinn said.