Mangini still supports Quinn

BY STEVE DOERSCHUK

CANTON REPOSITORY

Safety Brian Dawkins, maybe a future Hall of Famer, has studied NFL quarterbacks since Brady Quinn was in junior high.

Dawkins and the Broncos took Quinn to school Sunday. The first time Quinn tried to give Joshua Cribbs a short-catch, long-run chance, for example, Dawkins was all over a quick slant that fell incomplete.

Dawkins was a key to shutting down Cleveland’s tight ends, who had seven catches in the opener, but just one at Denver.

Dawkins was wary about analyzing Quinn for an Ohio writer.

“I can’t tell you that ... we might play them again,” he said — based on how the Browns have played so far, allowing for a playoff meeting is covering all the bases to the extreme.

Dawkins, though, let down his guard enough to say: “Quinn did do a good job staying in there. He didn’t get flustered and flush out of the pocket every time. He stayed in there.

“He took some hits, obviously, but he stayed in there and continued to look downfield.”

Quinn will stay in there, making his third straight start Sunday at Baltimore, coach Eric Mangini said.

That there was even a question wasn’t part of the plan. Quinn had been so hopeful about breaking through in Denver, rather getting to the middle of the fourth quarter trailing by three touchdowns a second straight week.

Going in, he said the end of the quarterback derby and the start of not splitting reps in practice would produce “a huge benefit on your timing.”

His timing with Mike Furrey had been very good in camp. In as big a moment as any in Sunday’s game, the timing was off.

The Browns were lucky to trail just 13-6 in the final seconds of the fourth quarter after the Broncos missed a second straight field goal try inside 40 yards. Quinn completed two throws to Braylon Edwards to advance the ball to Denver’s 44-yard line. It got to third-and-10, but there was Furrey, wide open over the middle with a chance to get inside the 20 and maybe further.

Quinn gunned it high. Furrey leaped but barely got his fingertips on the ball as it sailed by.

Coming off the opener against Minnesota, Quinn said, “I always feel the onus is on me. I didn’t do well enough for us to win.”

He said almost exactly the same thing after the Denver game, using “onus” again. Given the key pass to Furrey, the onus really was on him.

Instead of a chance to tie the game at 13-all, the Browns punted and gave up a touchdown drive that changed everything.

Mangini alluded to times Quinn “made some really good decisions,” citing a sideline pass to Braylon Edwards that negated a corner blitz, a sharp throw on an in-cut, and “some other nice balls.”

Mangini played the not-all-the QB’s-fault card, hinting that a receiver wasn’t where he was supposed to be on one audible, that a blown blocking assignment forced Quinn to step into a sack, and that one throw was “way off” because a receiver failed to make the correct adjustment.