1-15, here we come

Brady Quinn had by far his best day as a pro in yesterday's game against the Lions, and when he completed his fourth touchdown pass of the day to Michael Gaines, it looked good for the Browns to get their second win of the season. A Jamal Lewis run for a 2-point conversion gave the Browns a 37-31 lead with 5:44 to play. But ...

Phil Dawson's kickoff went out of bounds, giving Matthew Stafford and the Lions the ball at the 40. Fortunately, the drive ended with a Brodney Pool interception at the goal line with 3:40 left on the clock, giving Quinn and the Browns' offense the chance to put it away. The Browns managed to get one first down, taking the ball as far as their own 42 before they had to punt -- forcing the Lions to use the rest of their timeouts in the process.

Browns punter Reggie Hodges is no Dave Zastudil, but he sure did his job on this one, punting it 47 yards to the Lions' 11, where former Brown Dennis Northcutt fielded it and returned it one yard to the 12. So with 1:46 to go, the Lions had to go 88 yards with no timeouts. ... And the Browns employed what we all know to be the worst defensive scheme in the world, the prevent. It's intended to prevent big gains by allowing smaller ones. And in Eric Mangini and Rob Ryan's defense (no pun intended), it almost worked. The Lions did manage a few 11- to 17-yard gains, but their receivers were unable to get out of bounds to stop the clock, so at least in theory, the time off the clock was worth the yardage for the Browns.

When the clock got to 0:08 with the Lions having the ball at the Browns' 32, things were looking pretty good. They had one shot, maybe two, at the end zone. They might have been able to complete a quick pass to the sideline to get a little closer, but that's a risky proposition because the Browns were covering the sidelines pretty well. So they took one shot at a touchdown. The Browns put on a three-man rush and dropped everybody back to cover the end zone. It worked like a charm, as Pool intercepted Stafford's hail mary.

But Hank Poteat pulled the boner of the year, tackling a receiver who probably wouldn't have had a shot at the ball anyway. A defensive pass interference call in the end zone gives the offense the ball at the 1, and because the game can't end on a defensive penalty, the Lions got one more chance even though there was no time left on the clock. But Stafford got hurt on the previous play, meaning the Lions had to send out a completely un-warmed-up Daunte Culpepper to run the play. The Lions had no timeouts left, so there was nothing to be done about it. Presumably, Culpepper would just hand the ball off, since you can't expect a cold quarterback to throw the ball, or even run it himself.

And that's when Mangini pulled the coaching boner of the year, calling a timeout that gave the Lions a chance to evaluate Stafford and decide he had one more play in him. I understand that Mangini wanted to take a minute and make sure he had his defense set up properly, but it seems he totally failed to take into account the benefit the Lions would derive from a timeout. As we all know, Stafford came in and threw a touchdown pass that tied the game, and Jason Hanson's extra point ended it.

Hank Poteat feels awful for causing that penalty, and while it was a stupid thing for him to do, it was done in the heat of battle. Mangini has no excuse for calling that timeout.

The Browns have six games left. The schedule goes like this: Cincinnati (currently 7-3), San Diego (7-3), Pittsburgh (6-4), Kansas City (3-7), Oakland (3-7), and Jacksonville (6-4). The Raiders have looked terrible at times, but they managed to beat the Bengals yesterday behind backup quarterback Bruce Gradkowski. If he plays, the Browns will lose that game. Kansas City has had a bad year too, but they beat the Steelers yesterday. I have a hard time imagining the Browns managing to get another win this year. Yesterday's game was their best shot, and they blew a 21-point lead against one of the NFL's worst teams. This team is cruising for 1-15, which would make them the worst team in Browns' history -- even worse than Tim Couch's 2-14 expansion team in '99.