Mangini promises to name Browns’ QB today

By MARY KAY CABOT

BEREA — Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is faced with the same daunting dilemma this week that Vikings coach Brad Childress had for the opener: Who to prepare for — Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson?

As expected, Browns coach Eric Mangini will try to keep folks guessing on his starter, at least for one more day.

“I’ll make that decision and let you guys know [today],” he said.

So who to go with? The guy who’s started 0-3, turned the ball over five times and can’t a convert a third down? Or the guy who replaced him and threw three interceptions in Sunday’s 34-3 loss to the Ravens?

“What I’m looking at it is who I think gives us the best chance to win the next game,” said Mangini. “That’s the most important thing, and I think both guys did some things on Sunday that were positive, but when you have turnovers, it’s hard.”

Mangini was vague when asked what would go into the decision-making process.

“We’ll go back and look at the game, but I’ll look at some other things,” he said. “I’ll look at the operation when both guys are in, and I’m going to look at who gives us the best chance to move the ball.”

He also danced around the suggestion that with the season apparently going nowhere, should he let Quinn keep playing to see what he has in him for the future?

“They’ve both made cases for themselves,” said Mangini. “I appreciate the way these guys have worked and competed, and I’ve like the competitiveness they’ve shown.”

So does Anderson get a pass on those three interceptions in Baltimore because he came in after halftime with the Browns trailing, 20-0, and the Ravens’ ears were pinned back?

“It is a tough situation when you come in down the way that we were down, and he made some really nice plays to move the ball,” said Mangini. “Especially the third-and-16 play [a 22-yard completion to Mike Furrey] I thought was a really nice play. But that being said, there are some other plays where you’ve just got to throw it away and not give the opponent field position that’s usually going to result in points.”

He said Quinn has shown some progress since the opener, but hinted it might not be enough.

“He did have a high completion rate [6-of-8], but it’ll still come down to moving the team consistently and being able to make good decisions with the football,” said Mangini.

Mangini despises turnovers, but he might hate the inability to sustain a drive even more, because it’s killing his defense. Say what you will about Anderson’s three picks but at least he kept the team on the field for 13 plays and more than 71‚Ñ2 minutes on his third-quarter field-goal drive.

Quinn, on the other hand, had five possessions in Baltimore, the longest of which lasted six plays.

The culprit is the inability to convert on third down, which is tied to a lackluster running game. Quinn has converted 6-of-30 third downs for 20 percent. Anderson converted 3-of-4 third downs on the field goal drive.

“A lot of that comes back to what we do on first and second down,” said Mangini. “This was actually better in terms of the amount of third downs we had of less than 10. But we have to do a better job of converting.”